Psychology 1st Exam

Emotion and Motivation (general)

How we make sense of the combination of information from the body and what the body is telling you about what’s in the world

Emotion (specific)

an immediate, specific, negative or positive response to external events or internal thoughts

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (from bottom to top)

Physiological, Safety, Belonging and Love, Esteem, Self-actualization

Physiological (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)

hunger, thirst, warmth, air, sleep

Safety (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)

security, protection, freedom from threats

Belonging and love (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)

acceptance, friendship

Esteem (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)

good self-opinion, accomplishments, reputation

Self-actualization (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)

living to full potential, achieving personal dreams and aspirations

3 main components of Emotion

1) Physiological (heart beating fast, sweating)

2) Behavioral (eyes and mouth widening)

3) Interpretation or feeling (e.g., “I’m terrified!”)

2 Dimensions of Emotion

Valence and Activation

Valence

How negative or positive emotion is

Negative ex.: fear

Positive ex.: Glee

Activation

How aroused the emotion is

High ex.: terror

Low ex.: sadness

Mood

Diffuse, long-lasting state without an identifiable triggering events

Primary emotions

Fear, Anger, Sadness, Happy, Disgust, Surprise

Secondary emotions

Pride, shame, embarrassment

Complex emotions

Like “happily surprised”, for example

Papua New Guinea study

Gave evidence of universality/biological-ness in emotion expression

Went to remote village in Papua New Guinea, asked how they’d react in certain situations, they had similar emotion expression to people from the West

Is emotion expression socially learned? EXPERIMENT

Experiment with 3 groups of athletes’ reactions to winning and losing —> seeing, blind at birth, blind later in life. All had similar expressions

Result: We don’t need to learn from others to have emotion expression

Is emotion expression just facial expression?

No, it can be body language as well. Any way to express emotion. Such as, pumping fist in air after winning

Emotional Display Rules

Cultural differences in how LIKELY people are to express their emotions

Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

Theory of how emotions arise

Outside stimulus —> bodily sensation —> label —> emotion

Misattribution

Cases in which physiological activation from one stimulus or situation can affect how you feel about another stimulus or situation. i.e., expectations

Insula

Makes sense of sensations from the body (hunger, heart rate, etc.). For example, active when you think about how hungry you are, etc.

Amygdala

“Burglar” alarm — Tells you quickly whether or not you need to act. Plays role in facial recognition, but emotional expressions

Damage to Amygdala

Compulsive desires, lack of fear in dangerous/fearful situations. Doesn’t recognize who might be “threatening” or “suspicious

What are the 5 characteristics of having damage to amygdala

1.) no physiological fear response

2.) No recognizing fear in others

3.) No developing fear responses to things associated w/ danger

4.) Still feel other emotions

5.) Still has normal intelligence

Logical thinking

Allows us to respond appropriately, but it takes more time and requires that we be consciously aware of the situation (people with damaged amygdala have to do this)

Amygdala and the four F’s

1.) Fighting

2.) Feeding

3.) Fleeing

4.) Sex

Thalamus’ trap door

sends information straight to the amygdala

Slow Path to amygdala

Sensory information —> thalamus —> primary sensory cortex for deeper processing —> amygdala

Fast Path to amygdala

Sensory information —> thalamus —> amygdala

Capgras Syndrome

Link between stimulus and feeling is broken

Recognizing who the person looks like, but lacking the associated feeling

Pseudobulbar Affect

Producing expressions without feeling emotion. Mainly laughing and crying

i.e., Laughing randomly without feeling happy

General steps of transduction

Stimulus → Receptors → Nerve → Brain

SEEING steps of transduction

Light waves/photons (stimulus) → rods and cones on the eye’s retina (receptors) → optic nerve (nerve) → thalamus, then Primary Visual Cortex (V1) in occipital lobe (brain)

HEARING steps of transduction

Sound wave (stimulus) → hairs on the ear’s cochlea (receptors) → auditory nerve (nerve) → Thalamus, then Primary Auditory Cortex in temporal lobe (brain)

Binaural fusion

The process through which the brain stitches together auditory information from the two ears

Localizing sounds in space

The timing and intensity of sound information can be used to pinpoint the source of the source of the sound in space

Organization of auditory cortex

tonotopic;  organized by frequency (pitch)

How many olfactory (smell) receptors in humans?

~400

How does olfactory input work?

bypasses thalamus → straight to amygdala (emotion) and hippocampus (memory)

Five basic tastes

1.) Sweet

2.) Salty

3.) Sour

4.) Bitter

5.) Umami (savory, rich, or meaty taste)

Somatosensation (touch)

Multiple specialized touch receptors (i.e., for pressure, vibration, temperature, pain)

Senses

Basic: vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch

Proprioception, Interoception

Proprioception

sense of the position and movement of your body in space

Interoception

sense of what’s going on inside your body (i.e., satiety, heart rate)

Sensory systems

translates information from the external world into signals your brain can process

Sensation

the detection and transmission of information about external stimuli to the brain

“Raw data” from external world

Perception

The interpretation of the raw data from the world.

“Analyzing” the raw data

Process from external world to internal world (w/ example)

1.) Stimulus (green traffic light emits physical properties)

2.) Sensation (sensory receptors detect the stimulus)

3.) Transduction (moves through brain)

4.) Perception (interprets this as a sign to continue driving)

Optic Nerve

takes information from eye and brings it to brain

Photoreceptors

specialized light-detecting cells on the retinas at the back of your eyes

When there are no photoreceptors, can light be processed?

NO LIGHT can be processed when this happens

Ganglion cells

Neurons in retina that process and transmit visual information from eye to the brain; connected to rods and cones and 126 photo receptors (6 are cones)

What do cones detect?

They detect color

What do rods detect?

They detect variation in brightness (grayscale)

Fovea

center of visual field. packed with cones (each connected to its own ganglion cell). Almost NO rods (so it’s hard to detect brightness)

Dorsal “where” stream

spatial location

Ventral “what” stream

recognition of objects

Sensory adaptation

Decrease in sensitivity to a constant level of stimulation

Binocular depth cues

Cues to depth that arise from the collaboration between two eyes

Convergence

When we view objects that are closer to us, the eye muscles turn our eyes inward more

Monocular depth cues

Cues to depth that are available to each eye alone

How many neurons in brain?

There are 86 billion of these

Nerve

It’s a collection/bundle of neurons that allow the brain and rest of the body to communicate

What causes Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Myelin damage causes this

Speed of nerve transmission

120 meters per second is the speed of this

Broca’s Aphasia

difficulty speaking (not difficulty understanding or thinking). caused by external damage or stroke

Cerebella Ataxia

A movement disorder associated with damage to the cerebellum (loss of muscle coordination, Difficulties with speech, swallowing)

Left hemisphere/ left side of brain

Language and ride side of body control comes from here

Ratchet Effect

Using what others have built to keep building

Norm of reciprocity

You do something for me, I do something for you

2 types of unfairness

Advantageous inequity and Disadvantageous inequity

What is Disadvantageous inequity

you getting less than someone else. develops around age 8

What is Advantageous inequity

you getting more than someone else. develops around age 4