Psych 160 Exam 2

Emotion

Brief responses that are subjectively experienced as feelings, that have a physiological component, that can be expressed in behavior, and that prepare a person for action

Feelings

Physiological

Express behavior

and prepare action

Emotions 4 key components

Feelings

Physiology

Behavior

Action

Emotions don’t forget

emotions also involve appraisals - we need to interpret a stimulus to have an emotional response!

appraisal theory

Emotions are generated by appraisals, how people think shapes their emotions

Seeing a horror story might make someone feel fear while another person may get energized

Stimulus -> Appraisal -> Emotion

Reappraisal

Changing emotion by changing appraisal of situation or experience

Universal Facial Expressions

• Happiness

• Surprise

• Sadness

• Disgust

• Anger

• Fear

• Not any are 100%

Emotions last

Last only for seconds or minutes

Moods Last

can last for hours or days

Emotional disorders Last

Weeks, months, or years

evolutionary approach Emotion

Emotions as adaptive reactions to survival related threats and opportunities

Constructivist approach to emotions

Culture effects emotions

Charles Darwin: “The expression of the

emotions in man and animals” (1872)

Found that animals as humans show anger with display of teeth and furrowed brow

Bio: To warn adversaries or fight for food

Darwin three hypothesis (Not in test?)

1. humans use 30-40 same facial muscles so all humans must communicated and perceive emotions the same

2. since we evolved from mammals, many emotions should resemble other species

3. Blind people will still show the same emotions despite never seeing

Paul Eckman pictures

3k pictures

6 basic emotions

showed in countries like Japan, China, Brazil, Argentina US

across 5 cultures 70-90 accuracy rate

Paul Eckman Papua New Guinea

Went to Papua new guinea

native tribe, no western contact

Told to rate faces

68-92% rate of sucesss for aduts

children 81-98

Animal emotion resemblence

embarrassment we look down to forgive. Chimps down down to express low status to show subordination and forgiveness too

Blind people

racy and David Matsumoto (2008) analyzed the emotional expressions of sighted and blind Olympic athletes from 37 countries just after they had either won or lost a judo competition. Congenitally blind athletes, who made up part of the sample, had never received visual input from their culture about how to express emotions nonverbally. But sure enough, after victory, both sighted and blind athletes, including those blind from birth, expressed pride by smiling, tilting their heads back, expanding their chests, and raising their arms in the air.

Focal emotion

An emotion common to a culture

china culture

China has 113 words for shame while English has 25

affect valuation theory

emotions that promote cultural ideals play more of a role in the lives of people of that culture

Latin emotion culture

Latino cultures place greater value on simpatía, or promoting social interactions that are warm and affectionate (A. M. Acevedo et al., 2020). Does this difference translate to cultural differences in emotion? Indeed it does. Studies find, for example, that compared with East Asian American individuals, Mexican American individuals reported that they are more likely to express and experience gratitude with others, an emotion that creates warm social interactions

emotion regulation

people modify emotions to make themselves feel better or fit present

EX: Reappraise, Accept, Suppression

Reappraise

Changing emotion by changing appraisal of situation or experience

Accept

understand the emotions on that time and that they will fleet away

Suppression

Not show the emotion you are showing or ignore it

Social Function Theory

emotions coordinate social interactions that let people get social opportunities or challenges

emotions motivate us and signal commitemnet

Muybridge

Without emotions we lose connections with people. He got hit in frontal lobe area and lost emotions

did not care for wife or child more

emotional mimicry

the automatic, often unconscious imitation of others' nonverbal emotional expressions, such as facial expressions, vocalizations, or postures.

allows deeper bonds

broaden and build hypothesis

positive emotions help broaden thoughts and action

Happiness difernce

Americans see it as personal achievement

east asians with societal expectatins and fufilling futies

latinos simpatia

Components of happiness

Life stisfacttion

emotional well being

affective forecasting

predicting emotions like happiness

study on how people would feel if a breakup happened compare to when it did

leftover (broke up people) were sill as happy as luckies. Luckies thought they would be less happier than leftovers two months into a hypothetical breakup

Forcasting 2 issues

Immune neglect

Focalism

So why aren’t we good at figuring out what will make us happy?

Immune neglect

Focalism

immune neglect

Idea that people underestimate their resilience to life things

we underestimate our ability to find the silver lining, humor, or growth potential in bad situations

foacalism

we focus too much on a central part of an event that we miss the impact of external events

duration neglect

The relative unimportance of the length of an emotional experience, whether pleasurable or unpleasant, in retrospective assessments of the overall experience.

How to attain Happiness

friends, family, nature, awe, giving, gratitude practice

Jamieson et al Article main idea

Reappraising Stress Arousal Improves Performance and Reduces Evaluation Anxiety in Classroom Exam Situations

Jamieson et al hypothesis

Main hypothesis: Teaching students to reappraise stress (see it as helpful) will:

• ↑ Increase coping resource appraisals

• ↓ Decrease math evaluation anxiety

• ↑ Improve exam performance

Jamieson study proceure and design

93 community college students in developmental math courses

• Design:

  • Randomized double-blind field experiment

• Timeline:

  1. Exam 1 (baseline):

     • Measured anxiety + stress appraisals

     • Recorded performance

  2. Before Exam 2:

     • Random assignment:

       • Reappraisal condition

       • Placebo control

     • Intervention delivered (~5–8 min)

  3. Exam 2:

     • Measured anxiety + appraisals again

     • Recorded performance

  4. End of semester:

     • Final grades + retention recorded

Jamieson Independent Variable

Stress Reappraisal intervention

Jamieson Dependent Variables

• Stress appraisals

  • Resource appraisals (coping ability)

  • Demand appraisals (how hard/threatening task is)

• Math anxiety

  • Evaluation anxiety (test anxiety) ← most important

  • Learning anxiety

• Academic performance

  • Exam 1 vs Exam 2 scores

  • Final course grades

Jamieson Key Results

1. Stress Appraisals

• Reappraisal group:

  • ↑ Resource appraisals (felt more capable)

2. Math Anxiety

• ↓ Evaluation anxiety (test anxiety) in reappraisal group

• ❌ No effect on learning anxiety

👉 Important: Only anxiety during exams changed.

3.

• Reappraisal group:

  • Improved from Exam 1 → Exam 2

• Control group:

  • Performance slightly decreased

👉 Shows causal improvement due to intervention

4. Final Grades

• Reappraisal group had marginally higher final grades

👉 Suggests possible longer-term benefits

Biopsychosocial (BPS) Model of Challenge vs Threat

Individuals experience challenge when appraisals of coping resources exceed perceived situational demands ○ “I have to take a hard test, but I’ve been keeping up in class”

● Individuals experience threat when perceived demands exceed resources ○ “I have to take a hard test, but I’m really behind on studying”

Jamieson figure 1

Resource appraisal effects performance

reappraisal condition effects resource appraisal and performance

Jamieson limitations

No physiological measures of stress

• Improvement might not be due to “stress reappraisal” specifically.

• Could instead be:

  • ↑ confidence / self-efficacy

  • ↑ motivation

No long term study

Key components of happiness

Life satisfaction

Emotional well being

Eudaimonic happiness?

Eudaimonic happiness

the extent to which your life feels meaningful, purposeful, and aligned with your values

emotional well-being

the tendency to experience more positive emotions than negative emotions at any moment in time, or over a given length of time

life satisfaction

how well you think your life is generally going

Luckies versus Leftovers

study on how people would feel if a breakup happened compare to when it did

leftover (broke up people) were sill as happy as luckies. Luckies thought they would be less happier than leftovers two months into a hypothetical breakup

Does money make us happy?

Mixed findings on overall life satisfaction/well-being increasing above $75,000 [$93,00 today], (i.e., Killingsworth, 2021 in PNAS) ○ Moment-to-moment levels of pleasure increase with income. ■ Spend money on experiences rather than stuff ■ Spend money on others

Does gratitude make us happy?

Research found that writing about things you’re grateful for once a week led to boosts in life satisfaction and reduced reports of problematic health symptoms. ○ Grateful people are: ■ More helpful & empathic ■ More forgiving ■ Less materialistic ■ More energetic & hopeful ■ Less likely to experience depression, anxiety, & loneliness

Awe makes us happy?

being around inspiring people, or taking 10 minutes to get outdoors into natural beauty—can boost people’s happiness (Gordon et al., 2017; Rudd, Vohs, & Aaker, 2012). One reason for this boost is that awe leads to an expanded sense of time; experiences of awe make people feel less oppressed by the time crunch that is such a common element of today’s life

Hedonic happiness

a philosophical belief that pursuing pleasurable experiences, and avoiding painful ones will lead to happiness

Lecture: - Life satisfaction: “I am satisfied with my life.”

- Many positive, few negative emotions

Biological Accounts of emotions

1. Adaptive value

√

2. Continuity across species

√

3. Some universality across cultures

Culture values

East-Asian cultures value calm more (“low-arousal

positive emotion”) while European-American

cultures value excitement more (“high-arousal

positive emotion”) (Jeanne Tsai

Emotion functions

biological functions in ancestral environment

social functions in our lives now

Emotions on politics

Less negative emotions Leeds to less political action. Vice versa Mauss 2018

Jamieson result in stress

Mediated (explained) by improvements in

resource appraisals (NOT stress itself

hedonic treadmill

Getting used to what one has and wanting more

individuals adapt to changes in their circumstances, leading to a cycle of ever-increasing desires and temporary satisfaction, resulting in a continuous search for new sources of happiness without achieving lasting fulfillment.

like chasing a carrot on a stick on a treadmill

Set-point theory

proposes that individuals have a stable, baseline level of happiness—their "set point"—that they naturally return to after major positive or negative life events

Fredrickson, 2008

8-week “Loving Kindness Meditation”

exercises for members of organization

versus ‘wait-list lead to higher positive emotions

Sonja Lyubomirsk

:1 time a week write down

what you’re grateful for:

→ increased happiness, including 3 months later

Attitudes

An evaluation of an object in a positive, negative, or mixed fashion

Attitude process

Attitudes →Intent→Behavior

Do Attitudes Predict Behavior

• Went on a 10,000 mile, 2-year road trip with a

Chinese-American couple.

• 90% of participants said they were prejudiced against

Chinese-Americans.

• Yet, the couple was refused service only once

NOPE

LaPiere’s study (1934)

attitudes and behavior.

• Went on a 10,000 mile, 2-year road trip with a

Chinese-American couple.

• 90% of participants said they were prejudiced against

Chinese-Americans.

• Yet, the couple was refused service only once.

Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?

Attitudes

Intent

Behavior

Ted Haggard

church leader

- Former leader of the Evangelical Church “New

Life”

- Said that gay people are condemned to hell,

engaged in evil acts

- In 2006, he was found to have been having sex

with a men

What other things effect bahevior

Attitudes

Subjective norms

behavior control

Subjective norms

a person’s perception of social pressure from significant others (family, friends, peers) to perform or not perform a specific behavior.

Behavior control

the ability to regulate one's own actions, reactions, and impulses

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

analyzing reaction times: faster, accurate responses when pairing specific items (e.g., gay/bad) indicate a stronger implicit bias, while slower responses indicate a weaker one.

implicit attitudes

unconscious, automatic associations and evaluations—positive or negative—that people hold toward social groups, objects, or ideas, operating outside conscious awareness

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Inconsistency between a person’s thoughts, sentiments, & actions creates an aversive emotional state (dissonance) that leads to efforts to restore consistency.