Abstract
This article discusses the considerable overlap between my own (R. S. Lazarus) and Albert Ellis' cognitive view of emotions. In discussing Ellis' approach, the hallmarks of a cognitive theory of emotion are identified. My own theory concerning the role of cognitive appraisal and coping in emotions is discussed as well as the crucial metatheoretical concepts of transaction and process. It is stretching things to say that Albert Ellis has presented a fully elaborated theory of emotion. Rather, he has achieved the beginnings of a good theory especially as applied to the pathology of emotional life and how to correct it. Most lacking is how the emotion process works from encounter to encounter, moment to moment. Irrational beliefs as structural, static variables do not adequately account for emotional flux nor adequately explain the content and intensities of the full range of positive and negative emotions.
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The present article is a condensed and updated version of a previously published chapter: Lazarus, R. S. Cognition and emotion from the RET viewpoint. In M.E. Bernard & R. DiGiuseppe (Eds.),Inside rational-emotive therapy (pp. 47–68). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
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Lazarus, R.S. Cognition and emotion from the ret viewpoint. J Rational-Emot Cognitive-Behav Ther 13, 29–54 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02354556
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02354556