Lynette has made it to the final round of a tennis tournament. While watching a match between two other players, she attributes her racing heart and rapid breathing to excitement. The next night, just before her own match, she attributes her racing heart and rapid breathing to nervousness. Which theory of emotion best explains this situation?

The Schachter-Singer theory which is also called the Two-factor theory of emotion, explains that humans feel emotion after they appraise the changes in their body in reaction to a stimuli as this would then give them a better means to tell which emotion they are feeling.

Lynette in the first instance noticed she had a racing heart and rapid breathing in response to watching two other players and was then able to appraise this and attribute it to excitement.

When the same thing occurs again but under different circumstances, she is able to appraise it differently and attribute it to nervousness which shows that the Schachter-Singer theory is the relevant theory.