Perceptual a d Motor Skills, 1983, 57, 135-138. @ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1983 PERCEIVED BODILY CORRELATES OF EMOTION IN RELATION TO A TWO-DIMENSIONAL MODEL OF AFFECT SPACE CYNTHIA M. WHISSELL Lcrurentian University' Summary.-100 subjects provided ratings of the "degree to which they would show" 41 bodily reactions (such as "tears," "tense muscles," and "a feeling of coldness") in association with one of 20 emotions. Means of 5 subjects' ratings of each emotion were the dependent variables in 41 2 X 2 analyses of variance, with scaled Pleasantness (high or low) and scaled Arousal (high or low) as the independent variables. Significant main effects were associated with 24 reactions for Pleasantness and G reactions for Arousal. For 5 reactions, the Pleasantness X Arousal interaction was significant. A systematic (though not necessarily exclusive) relationship between affective dimensions and reported bodily reactions is inferred. Psychologists with physiological and cognitive orientations are often willing to admit the recipr~al contributions of cognition to the expression of emotion and physiology to the understanding of affect. In spite of this, a chicken-and-egg problem has crystallized post hoc from the theories of James and Cannon and is often put forward as a bone of contention between cognitive and physiological approaches to emotion (Leshner, 1978). It is unlikely that a clear decision will name physiology as a precedent to cognition ( a viewpoint attributed to James) or memory references as crucial to physiological expres- sions of emotion (one of Cannon's proposals). More likely to achieve favor is the interactive view exemplified in Schachter and Singer's classic (1962) article. The question of the relative contributions of physiology and cognition to emotion will probably remain valid and heuristic for some time to come because the human organism is extremely susceptible to the influences of learn- ing. Experiences matching both classical and operant paradigms are so fre- quently encountered by the new organism that by the time a child is verbally adept enough to describe his emotions, he has already been modified to a considerable extent to massive shaping and conditioning. The "native" roles of cognition and physiology are not directly available for study, and the present experiment does not attempt to identify any order of precedence for cognition and physiology in the understanding of emotion Rather, a correlational approach is used to investigate the correspondence, in the developed organism, of the dimensions of emotion as these have been previously described (Russell, 1978; Whissell, 1981) and certain common and noticeable physiological reac- tions. 'Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2CG. Canada.