The James-Lange theory proposes that our experience of emotion is a result of our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.
The James-Lange theory posits that emotional experiences arise from physiological arousal. This perspective suggests that we feel emotions after our body responds to a stimulus, not simultaneously.
William James and Carl Lange independently proposed the theory in the 1880s. Subsequent research, including Cannon-Bard and Schachter-Singer theories, has offered alternative models challenging the James-Lange sequence of emotion processing.