Emotion is Derived from Cognition

It's an error to try to achieve a particular emotion by concentrating on it, because it will only lead to "indicated" acting.  It's also an error to consider "cognition" narrowly.  We receive a stimulus from the environment or from a thought process, which then produces an emotion.  Never think of the "feeling," or, as some students have attempted:  To get into the "mood."

The Oxford English dictionary doesn't deviate from other sources when it defines "cognition" as "...the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, or the senses."  "A result of this; a perception, sensation, notion or intuition..."


Disparate examples that emotion is derived from cognition can be observed in the 2002 documentary,  Broken Silence,  compiled by Steven Spielberg.