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The theory of constructed emotion (formerly the conceptual act model of emotion [1]) is a theory in affective science proposed by Lisa Feldman Barrett to explain the experience and perception of emotion. [2] [3] The theory posits that instances of emotion are constructed predictively by the brain in the moment as needed.
Barrett was born in 1963 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to a working poor family and was the first member of her extended family to attend university. [8] After graduating from the University of Toronto with honors, she pursued a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Waterloo with the goal of becoming a therapist, [9] until a frustrating puzzle sidetracked her from a clinical career.
Contrary to the inductive notion that emotion categories are biologically distinct, Barrett proposed later the theory of constructed emotion, which is the account that a biological emotion category is constructed based on a conceptual category—the accumulation of instances sharing a goal.
Emotion classification, the means by which one may distinguish or contrast one emotion from another, is a contested issue in emotion research and in affective science. Researchers have approached the classification of emotions from one of two fundamental viewpoints: [citation needed] that emotions are discrete and fundamentally different constructs
Thus, emotional expressions are culturally-prescribed performances rather than internal mental events. Knowing a social script for a certain emotion allows one to enact the emotional behaviors that are appropriate for the cultural context. [26] Emotional expressions serve a social function and are essentially a way of reaching out to the world ...
Discrete emotion theory is the claim that there is a small number of core emotions. For example, Silvan Tomkins (1962, 1963) concluded that there are nine basic affects which correspond with what we come to know as emotions: interest , enjoyment , surprise , distress , fear , anger , shame , dissmell (reaction to bad smell) and disgust .
The theory of constructed emotion suggests that when humans have a positive experience that increases their arousal, such as a faster heartbeat and increased sweat production, they cognitively seek out a label for that feeling. They will land on amusement if that experience resembles other amusement experiences they have had.
Lisa Feldman Barrett highlights differences in emotions between different cultures, and says that emotions (such as anxiety) are socially constructed (see theory of constructed emotion). She says that they "are not triggered; you create them.