to allocate resources in an efficient and effective manner. As Clore (1994) puts it:
Emotional organisms are information-processing organisms. Emotions emerge from information processing and feed information back into the same system. Sources of emotions are the continual appraisals that take place...(p. 111).
Frijda (1988, 1993, 1994) has also discussed the functions of emotions. In this regard, Frijda states that emotions exist to: (1) demarcate events relevant to a person's concerns; and (2) motivate coping behavior for managing or handling the events.
Unfortunately, Frijda reports that there are also non-functional and dysfunctional emotional phenomena; this is said to be due to a variety of malfunctions in those processes (neurobiobehavioral) responsible for controlling emotions. These malfunctions are said to occur when circumstances are especially taxing, or when coping resources are limited or near depletion.
Levenson (1988, 1992) also discusses the functions of emotions. This model states that emotions serve adaptive interpersonal and intrapersonal functions; specifically, they allow for interpersonal and intrapersonal responses and reactions appropriate to the shifting demands of the environment. Another way of stating this is that emotions allow individuals to prioritize and organize their responses to the environment based on both subjective and objective or external perceptions.
Levenson's (1988, 1992) model is unique in that he includes a cultural component. Specifically, his model holds that the individual engages in a transaction between the internal and external that elicits an appraisal process. This process organizes and prioritizes a variety of possible responses in multiple systems (e.g., behavioral systems, physiological systems, etc.) which operate to produce a generalized coping response.
However, the emotionality associated with this response is influenced by one's particular cult...