Exam 1

objective of course part 1

explore answers to the question “what is emotion?” from several perspectives: historical, evolutionary, biological, cultural, and psychological

3 emotion families

* anxiety
* shame
* positive emotions

important functions of positive emotions

social function

essentialism beliefs

* hard wired
* essence/essential
* fixed traits
* biological determinism
* WHO you are

constructivism

* context matters
* dependent on experience
* construction/building
* learning and adaptation
* HOW you become

motivation defintion

energy that is directed toward achieving some goal

energy from motivation manifests into…

* activation (getting mobilized)
* persistance (how long you keep at it)

intrinsic motivation

motivation that springs naturally from internal forces

why are intrinsic motivations rewarding

they fulfill basic human psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness

why are we intrinsically motivated to do certain tasks

bc we enjoy them, they feel good, and/or bc they are inherently fulfilling or meaningful

extrinsic motivation

motivation that reflects external pressures

why are we extrinsically motivated

we do them because they have a downstream effect that we want, such as avoiding cavities or continuing to get paid

continuum of motivation

identified regulation (continuum)

motivation based on behavior feeling like its part of ones identity

integrated regulation (continuum)

motivation that began with rewards and punishments but is transitioning to a more internalized appreciation of this behavior

introjected regulation

motivation based on awareness of societal norms regarding this behavior and wish to avoid internal feelings of shame or embarassment that might arise if you didnt behave in concordance with these norms

regulatory focus theory

argues that in addition to understanding how human beings approach and avoid certain situations and outcomes, we would do well to also consider whether these motivations are focused on achieving gains or avoiding losses

the 3 psychological needs emphasizes in self-determination theory

* autonomy
* competence
* relatedness

self-determination theory

motivation theory suggesting that people can become self-determined when their needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy are fulfilled

autonomy (motivation)

ability to choose your own path and behaviors  

competence (motivation)

succeeding at existing tasks and mastering new skills  

relatedness (motivation)

connecting with social others 

promotion goals

work to reach (or promote) a desired end state

prevention goals

work to stop (or prevent) an undesired end state

James-Lange theory of emotion

emotional feelings are based on body’s instinctive reaction to certain kinds of situations. feedback from physical experiences produce emotions 

the bodily changes follow directly the perception of the the situation, and our feeling of the same changes as they occur IS the emotion

sensation from the muscles and/or the internal organs is necessary for the full experience of emotion

every “shade of emotion” might be associated with a unique profile of changes throughout the body

common sense view of emotion

event occurs, feeling occurs, resulting in behavior

e.g. you feel angry and therefore you attach

Plutchik’s defintion of emotion

an inferred complex sequence of reactions to a stimulus \[including\] cognitive evaluations, subjective changes, autonomic and neural arousal, impulses to action, and behavior designed to have an effect upon the stimulus that initiated the complex sequence

Plutchik’s 4 aspects of emotion

* congitive eval./appraisal of what the stimulus means for our goals/concerns/well-being
* feelings
* physiological changes
* behavior

Russell’s circumplex model 

emotional feelings form a circle defined by the dimensions of pleasantness and arousal 

core affect (Russel, circumplex)

the feeling aspect of emotion in terms of pleasantness and arousal

differences between emotion and mood

* time; emotions are short lived, whereas moods can linger over hours/days/etc
* cause; emotions are linked to an easily identified internal or external trigger while there may be multiple, diffuse reasons for moods
* action; emotions are tied to specific behaviors (at least in theory), moods are less obviously connected with specific actions

propositions of basic/discrete emotion theory

* each emotion is thought to serve a distinct adaptive function
* basic emotions serve to coordinate the individual aspects of emotion, producing a coherent package of responses that should help you respond effectively to the situation at hand
* some of the conceptual categories people have for their emotions reflect distinctions among real, naturally occurring categories of human psychological experience, at least to some extent

basic/discrete emotions def.

complex psychobiological reactions that evolved in response to prototypical threats and challenges in the environment of our early human ancestors (e.g. happiness, sadness, fear)

component process model

proposes that emotions are responses to events in the environment, that they reflect our evolutionary heritage, and that they include multiple aspects that tend to hang together in similar ways across cultures

explain how the structure of appraisal differs between basic/discrete emotion theory and the component process model

* basic/discrete = appraisal is needed for an emotional response to occur, and determines which emotion is activated, appraisals are thought to be categorical
* component process model = dimensional, with the same set of dimensions used to evaluate the significance of every event we experience

reliability

reflects the consistency or repeatability of its scores

validity

an assessment of whether scores on some measure represent what the researcher claims they represent

face validity

the content of the measure should match the intended construct in a reasonably obvious way

content validity

a measure is supposed to capture some construct, it needs to cover the whole of that construct without being influenced by a bunch of stuff beyond the intended construct

convergent validity

different measures of the same general thing should correlate positively with one another

predictive validity

scores on the measure should accurately predict some theoretically relevant outcome

ways to measure emotion

* self-reports
* biological measurements
* behaviors

self-reports

participants descriptions of their own feelings, thoughts, beliefs, goals, and other aspects of emotion and motivation

biological measurements

includes measures of heart rate, blood pressure, sweating, and other variables that fluctuate during emotional arousal, as well as brain activity and hormones

behaviors (measurements)

actions we can observe, such as facial and vocal expressions, speech, task performance, and real-world action

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) beliefs

* “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire.”
* emotions essential to virtue
* functionalist, trying to figure out the functions of emotion

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

* existentialist
* “"I doubt, therefore I think; I think, therefore I am" 
* our doubt propels us forward into our existence 
* mind body dualism

mind body dualism

* associated with Descartes
* the mind is the unknowable (psychology), the body is the earth and what is knowable (biology)

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

* published and wrote the expression of the emotions in man and animals (1872)
* believed in universal discrete emotions via facial expressions

main ideas of Darwin’s “the expression of the emotions in man and animals (1872)”

* sets of facial behaviors = expression, expressions can function to display information to others 
* emotions are automatic – emotions are habits/reflexes; occur without conscious intent 
* evolutionary link between humans and animals are emotions 

Darwin believed that emotions are evolutionary ____,__ we have them but do not neccasarily *them. they are* __

left-overs; need; vestigal

ID (Freud)

animalistic natured

super ego (Freud)

more rational and logical

combonation of the ID and the super ego create the…

EGO that is outer facing  and that outsiders see

Watson beliefs

* behaviorism
* pairing unconditioned stimuli with unconditioned responses is building block of habits we call emotions 

old ass views

* aristole
* darwin
* descartes
* watson

early 20th century views

* James-Lange
* Cannon-Bard

Cannon-Bard beliefs

components of emotion occur independently 

mid 20th century perspectives

Schachter-Singer two-factor theory

Schachter-Singer two-factor theory: 

* physiological arousal determines intensity but not specific emotional state 
* people use context and other cues to differentiate which emotional state they are experiencing 

emotion as a latent process

emotion CAUSES physio, expression, and cognition outputs

emotion as an emergent process

emotion EMERGES from the combination of physio, expression, and cognition

natural selection

process by which random genetic mutations that happen to be problematic are removed from the population (because they cause the individuals who have them to die or underproduce)

individuals that survive to reproduce will pass along their characteristics to their offspring 

evolution

any change in the heritable traits within a population across generations

adaptation

beneficial characteristics that spread as a result of natural selection 

mutation

when the gene-copying process goes awry, and the copy is off, just by chance

only a new mutation that happens to improve on the previous version will replace what’s already there, and even that will spread through the population very, very slowly in most cases

three criteria for calling a gene-based characteristic “functional” in the evolutionary sense

* the characteristic increases the probability that you will survive long enough to reproduce
* the characteristic increases the probability that you will have more offspring than your neighbor who lacks the characteristic, and these offspring survive and reproduce
* the characteristic increases the probability that your relatives will survive and have more offspring

environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA)

the ancestral environment to which a species is adapted

the time and place in the past when that characteristic spread throughout the population as a result of natural selection

“statistical composite of selection pressures that caused the genes underlying the design of an adaptation to increase in frequency until they became species-typical or stably persistent”

adaptive significance

the adaptiveness of a trait depends on how well it solves an evolutionary problem, or struggle

instinct theory

belief that instincts govern complex behaviors and drive the majority of our behavior

environmental cues trigger instincts which elicit emotions, which then pushes the organism toward a certain behavior

each emotion has a ____ function

evolutionary

major brain regions

critiques of instinct theory

circular and untestable (everything is listed as an instinct)

drive

an urgent basic need pressing for satisfaction, usually rooted in some physiological tension, deficiency, or imbalance impelling the organism to action

____ theory replaced (blank) theory

drive; instinct

homeostasis

process of detecting a biological deficiency and activating motivated behavior to re-establish a stable internal state

explain how drives relate to the concept of homeostasis

individuals are motivated to engage in behaviors that reduce or satisfy their biological needs (drives) to achieve a state of homeostasis

Freud’s theory of human motivation

argued that that drives such as hunger, aggression, and sex were constantly fluctuating between need and satiety

deficits in fulfilling these needs built up, they led to an uncomfortable excess of energy in the nervous system that was experienced by the individual as anxiety, or some other discomforting mental health symptom

desire to reduce anxiety then motivated the person to satiate the drive, thereby releasing the energy and bringing relief

Clark Hull’s drive theory of motivation

saw all bodily needs as summing to a sort of pooled energy, which he called drive, and which he thought related to the energy component of motivation

when needs were unfulfilled, the organism would become energized to satiate the need

Behavior = Drive x Habit 

Henry Murray’s theory

described psychological needs as “predispositions to act” in certain ways, given certain circumstances

the physiological needs described above as well as needs linked to intrinsic psychological experiences, such as independence, power, and ambition

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

argued that psychological needs are not equal in terms of importance and priority, but are organized in a hierarchical structure

more fundamental needs must be fulfilled before you can really be concerned about the ones further up the hierarchy

some needs take priority over others, and fulfilling these needs provides a foundation that can then support attention to “higher” needs

criticisms of Maslow’s theory

* may have been strongly influenced by his time working with indigenous people of the Blackfoot Nation
* Maslow’s hierarchy has not generated much in the way of empirical research

how did Kenrick expand on Maslow’s theory

revitalized the proposal for a hierarchy of human needs, however, based on a synthesis of contemporary behavioral science data and evolutionary theory

Kenrick’s pyramid

fulfilling basic physiological needs and protecting oneself from harm are at the bottom of the pyramid

the next two levels—affiliation and status—also correspond to levels of Maslow’s hierarchy and recognize the crucial role that relationships with groups and communities play in human life

self-determination theory

proposed by Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, argues that human beings possess innate psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness

adaptation process of emotions

individuals with emotions had more offspring than individuals without emotions, and/or took better care of their genetic relatives in such a way that their relatives had more offspring

bc of this process of natural selection, the genes supporting emotions spread through later generations to become typical of the human species

intrapersonal functions of emotions

directly benefits the individual experiencing the emotion

e.g. fear helps save the life of the frightened person, facilitating that person’s escape from a predator or some other physical threat

interpersonal function of emotion

support the committed, interdependent, and complex relationships among people that in turn, help us to survive and pass on our genes

e.g. love, humans feel strong emotions toward the people they depend on and who depend on them—families, romantic partners, children, and close friends

affect infusion model

modern theory of emotion stating that emotional feelings influence our judgments and decisions in a variety of important ways

e.g. happy mood tells us that we are safe, things are going well, and we should be on the lookout for opportunities

e.g. distressed mood tells us something has gone wrong; we need to slow down, find the problem that is making us feel bad, and either avoid it or take steps to correct it 

superordinate neural program

researchers define emotions as ____ activated in certain kinds of situations with serious implications for fitness

job of these is to activate any little programs (we’ll call them subroutines) that will help resolve the situation, and to inhibit any subroutines that would interfere with resolving the situation

emotional response coherence

the extent to which self-reports of emotion predict physiological changes and simple behaviors like facial expressions

phylogeny of emotions

description of relationships among different emotion in terms of shared evolutionary history and branching from a common ancestor

central nervous systems

the brain and the spinal cord 

limbic system

a set of neural structures originally proposed by Paul MacLean (1952) as the emotion network of the brain

triune brain model

divided the brain into three regions

* a central “reptilian” area
* a “mammalian” area
* neocortex

central “reptilian” area (TBM)

controlled sensory, survival, and reflex actions

a “mammalian” area (TBM)

also called the limbic system, surrounded the reptilian area and controlled emotion

neocortex (TBM)

surronding both reptile and mammalian areas, responsible for complex cognition and reasoning in humans and other primates

tools for investigating emotion and motivation at the level of the brain

* brain damage
* electroencephalography (EEG)
* functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
* neurochemistry techniques