APA Dictionary of Psychology

the view that emotional behavior adaptively serves the function of establishing, maintaining, or altering the relation between an organism and its environment. For example, a hiker’s startled reaction to losing footing on a rocky path is an affective response that helps to focus the hiker’s attention and efforts to reestablish footing in the environment. [proposed in 1984 by U.S. developmental psychologists Joseph J. Campos and Karen Caplovitz Barrett]