Autonomic Nervous System Differences among Emotions

Following decades of controversy and uncertainty, there is now sufficient empirical basis for asserting the existence of a limited set of autonomic differences among emotions. Findings of autonomic distinctions among emotions derived from the work of the author and his colleagues using two methods of emotion elicitation are reviewed. For five of these autonomic distinctions, convergent findings from the work of other investigators using the same and other elicitation methods are presented. The question of specificity, or whether different emotions are associated with different patterns of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, has long captivated emotion research, with the roots of the controversy tracing to James (1884), who argued for specificity, and Cannon (1927), who argued against. The state of affairs circa 1950 was captured in Woodworth and Schlosberg's (1954) experimental psychology textbook: Ever since psychologists started the study of bodily changes during emotion, there has been the hope that some patterns would turn up that would differentiate one emotion from another. There have been a number of hopeful leads, but they have not turned out very