Understanding our emotions and how the brain works can be a useful way to gain perspective and "leverage" on yourself to overcome compulsive overeating or binge eating. For a FREE binge eating breakthrough course and further resources, visit http://www.bingeeatingbreakthrough.com.

1. Overcoming Binge Eating:
Understanding Your
Emotions

2. What is
emotion?
A feeling?
Then what is
feeling?

3. These terms are difficult to define and even
more difficult to understand completely.
People have been attempting to understand
this phenomenon for thousands of years,
and will most likely debate for a thousand
more.

4. Here are 5 theories on
emotions with
examples.

5. 1 James-Lange Theory
The James-Lange theory of emotion argues that an event causes
physiological arousal first and then we interpret this arousal. Only
after our interpretation of the arousal can we experience emotion. If
the arousal is not noticed or is not given any thought, then we will
not experience any emotion based on this event.
EXAMPLE: You are walking down a dark alley late at night. You hear
footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart beats
faster, and your breathing deepens. You notice these physiological
changes and interpret them as your body's preparation for a fearful
situation. You then experience fear.
EVENT AROUSAL INTERPRETATION EMOTION

6. Cannon-Bard Theory
The Cannon-Bard theory argues that we experience physiological
arousal and emotional at the same time, but gives no attention
to the role of thoughts or outward behavior.
EXAMPLE: You are walking down a dark alley late at night. You
hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart
beats faster, and your breathing deepens. At the same time as
these physiological changes occur you also experience the
emotion of fear.
EVENT
AROUSAL
EMOTION
2

7. Schachter-Singer Theory
According to this theory, an event causes physiological arousal
first. You must then identify a reason for this arousal and then
you are able to experience and label the emotion.
EXAMPLE: You are walking down a dark alley late at night. You
hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart
beats faster, and your breathing deepens. Upon noticing this
arousal you realize that is comes from the fact that you are
walking down a dark alley by yourself. This behavior is
dangerous and therefore you feel the emotion of fear.
3
EVENT AROUSAL REASONING EMOTION

8. Lazarus Theory
Lazarus Theory states that a thought must come before any
emotion or physiological arousal. In other words, you must first
think about your situation before you can experience an
emotion.
EXAMPLE: You are walking down a dark alley late at night. You
hear footsteps behind you and you think it may be a mugger so
you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your
breathing deepens and at the same time experience fear.4
EVENT THOUGHT
EMOTION
AROUSAL

9. Facial Feedback Theory
According to the facial feedback theory, emotion is the experience of changes
in our facial muscles. In other words, when we smile, we then experience
pleasure, or happiness. When we frown, we then experience sadness. it is
the changes in our facial muscles that cue our brains and provide the basis of
our emotions. Just as there are an unlimited number of muscle
configurations in our face, so to are there a seemingly unlimited number of
emotions.
EXAMPLE: You are walking down a dark alley late at night. You hear
footsteps behind you and your eyes widen, your teeth clench and your brain
interprets these facial changes as the expression of fear. Therefore you
experience the emotion of fear.
5 EVENT FACIAL CHANGES EMOTION

10. Advances in
neuroscience suggest
how brains generate
emotions through a
combination of cognitive
appraisal and bodily
perception.

11. There are currently
two main scientific
ways of explaining
the nature of
emotions.

12. According to the
cognitive appraisal
theory, emotions are
judgments about the
extent that the
current situation
meets your goals.

13. For example, happiness is the evaluation that your
goals are being satisfied, as when winning the lottery
solves your financial problems and being asked out
holds the promise of satisfying your romantic needs.
Similarly, sadness is the evaluation that your goals
are not being satisfied, and anger is the judgment
aimed at whatever is blocking the accomplishment of
your goals.

14. Alternatively, William James and others
have argued that emotions are
perceptions of changes in your body
such as heart rate, breathing rate,
perspiration, and hormone levels.

15. On this view, happiness is a kind of
physiological perception, not a
judgment, and other emotions such as
sadness and anger are mental
reactions to different kinds of
physiological stages. The problem with
this account is that bodily states do not
seem to be nearly as finely tuned as
the many different kinds of emotional
states.

16. Understanding how the brain
works shows that these
theories of emotion -
cognitive appraisal and
physiological perception - can
be combined into a unified
account of emotions.

17. The brain is a parallel
processor, doing many things
at once. Visual and other
kinds of perception are the
result of both inputs from the
senses and top-down
interpretations based on past
knowledge.

18. Similarly, the brain can
perform emotions by
interactively combining both
high-level judgments about
goal satisfactions and low-
level perceptions of bodily
changes.

19. The judgments are performed by
the prefrontal cortex which
interacts with the amygdala and
insula that process information
about physiological states. Hence
happiness can be a brain process
that simultaneously makes
appraisals and perceives the
body.

20. Understanding how our brains
work and the nature of emotions
can be a useful way to gain
perspective on compulsions like
binge eating or compulsive
overeating.

21. When you feel powerless against
your urges, by understanding
what's happening in your mind
and emotions, you can learn how
to manage urges to overeat.

22. For a free binge eating breakthrough course
and further tips, visit
http://www.bingeeatingbreakthrough.com.

23. Thanks to AllPsych.com and PsychologyToday.com for the useful
information:
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/emotion.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201004/what-
are-emotions

24. QUESTIONS?

25. THANK YOU!