Emotion and Affective Processes

Russell’s Core Affect Theory !!!

Russell’s Core Affect Theory says that the foundation of all affective experience lies in a neurophysiological state that is consciously accessible as a simple, nonreflective feeling—what Russell terms core affect. It is structured along two bipolar dimensions: valence (pleasure–displeasure), which ranges from extremes like ecstasy to agony, and arousal (sleepy - activated), ranging from stages of deep sleep to alertness. At any given moment, the conscious experience (the raw feeling) is a single blend of these two dimensions. It can occur in both free-floating form or be attributed to an Object. Affective quality refers to the ability to cause a change in core affect. When someone appraisals an external event it can influence or be influenced by the core affect. For example, if someone is already in a positive core affective state, they may appraise an ambiguous object as more pleasant (mood-congruent priming). However, people can also misattribute a change in core affect to the wrong source (misattribution). For example, a study found that participants misattributed physiological arousal from a swaying bridge to romantic attraction toward a female experimenter.

Russell’s point on degree of correlation between emotion components

The traditional view on the degree of correlation between emotion components states that an event triggers an emotion, which then leads to a subjective feeling (e.g., fear), a nonverbal signal (e.g., a facial expression), physiological responses, and instrumental actions (e.g., flight/fleeing). These emotional outcomes should be highly correlated. In contrast, Russell argues that these emotion components are not fully dependent on one specific antecedent event, and each component is accounted for on its own. These components can be influenced by an antecedent, core affect, perception, and nonemotional processes. These components then become what we think of as a specific emotion. Because the components are separate and independent from one another, there is less correlation between emotion components compared to the traditional view of emotion. For example, For example, A person might smile during a tense meeting—not because they feel happy, but out of politeness or social pressure.

Display Rules !!!

Ekman describes display rules as socially and culturally determined norms of expressing facial and behavioral emotions. In other words, display rules establish the appropriateness (how, when, and to whom), within settings and groups, of displaying certain emotions. Sometimes these rules are established from younger ages, where adults may dictate what emotions are appropriate per the situation (e.g., being told not to cry in public or to smile politely even when anxious). Ekman conducted research across Japanese and American and showed that, when alone, Japanese and Americans displayed the same facial expressions in response to seeing films of surgery and accidents (e.g., disgust, sadness), but when a researcher sat with them as they watched the films, the Japanese masked negative expressions with a smile, moreso than Americans did.

Facial Expression of Emotion

The classic or common view of emotion proposes a limited set of 6 discrete emotions (sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust, and happiness) and they are each identified by distinct facial expressions that are understood and expressed worldwide. However, this perspective was criticized by Cowen, who proposed that emotional experiences are a high-dimensional space of at least 15 distinct emotional states and blends. He also proposed that emotions can be expressed by multiple modalities such as voice, touch, posture, head movement, and gaze. For example, some emotions—like awe—are more effectively communicated through vocal expressions than facial cues. Research reveals that individuals from different cultures use diverse words to label the same facial expressions and that emotional expression is far richer than just six prototypical facial-muscle patterns. For example, if a wrestler won a match, he may be feeling the emotion of pride. This pride may be communicated through various expressions beyond a smile, such as arm raises, fist clenching, or chest expansions, illustrating that facial movements are only one part of emotional expression. Overall, these findings challenge the classical notion of fixed, universal facial expressions for a small set of emotions and highlight the complexity and cultural variability of emotional expression.

Component Process Model (CPM) / "The Emotion Process: Event Appraisal and Component Differentiation" (NEW ARTICLE!!)

Scherer and Moors (2019) argue against the traditional view, like Ekman’s, of using labels to express emotions and instead promote a state that we should focus on understanding the process of appraisals to form emotions. They promote a Component Process Model (CPM), which focuses on how appraisals of stimuli/events/situations elicit emotional experiences.

Appraisal refers to the continuous cognitive evaluation of stimuli in terms of their significance for one's needs, goals, and values. This initial appraisal occurs during the elicitation phase and determines whether an emotion will be triggered, setting the stage for the emotional episode. There are five core appraisal criteria that guide this process” Novelty/Expectedness – Is this situation new or familiar, Valence (Goal Congruence) – Is the event beneficial or harmful to my goals, Agency – Who caused the event? Was it intentional?, Control/Power – Can I influence the outcome, Norm Compatibility (Fairness) – Does this event violate moral or social standards? The appraisal can lead to differentiated changes such as shifts in action tendencies (flight or fight), physiological responses (heart rate), and motor expressions (face, voice, posture).

These responses then produce a felt experience - which occurs in the representation phase. The felt experience leads to an optional final step of categorization and labeling, where the individual identifies the feeling using emotion words such as "sadness" or "fear." For example, if a presenter is speaking and they begin to have technical difficulties that they cannot fix, they may appraise the situation has having little control/power, and this may be expressed by their voice becoming lower in pitch, energy, and or have a slower rate.

High vs. low road

LeDoux described two parallel processes involved in emotional responses: the low road and the high road. The low road is the subcortical pathway from the thalamus to the amygdala for an instant emotional reaction or behavioral response. It is quick, automatic, reactive, and unconscious. The low road is a defense system to an emotional stimulus before we have the conscious opportunity to respond and before a visual or audial representation of the threat is fully made. The high road is from the thalamus to the sensory cortex to the amygdala, and is a slower, more cognitively demanding, and conscious process. It is meant to determine whether our immediate response to an emotional stimulus was appropriate, or not. For example, a woman walking alone feeling something brush up against her arm. Her ‘low road’ processing might lead her to feel immediate fear and turning to protect her handbag. Once she determines she walked by a large bush, her ‘high road’ processing overrides her ‘low road’ processing to determine it was not a thief stealing her belongings.

High road: visual stimulus → thalamus → sensory cortex → amygdala vs. Low road: visual stimulus → thalamus → amygdala

Confirmatory Bias in Basic Emotions

Researchers state that individuals tend to naturally want to confirm their own assumptions and hypotheses rather than disprove them. Confirmation biases also extend to attitudes, beliefs, and emotions, where people will respond in ways that reflect these. This can easily influence one’s behaviors, judgements, and decisions throughout life. Studies have also shown that people tend to utilize interviewing questions that would affirm the outcome they are expecting; for instance, if a clinician is seeking out whether a client has depression, they might have the tendency to only ask questions related to depression and seek affirmative responses while overlooking other diagnoses. Ekman further described that individuals are frequently driven by emotions and seek to confirm what they are feeling in order to respond. When individuals struggle to accept their emotions or ignore contradictory information, they might struggle more to manage emotional challenges. For example, someone with depression may seek out info that confirms their depression (i.e., pessimism) which perpetuates their emotions.  

Sadness and Loss

Ekman describes loss as a universal experience that may still significantly differ between individuals and cultures based on the event and importance of what was lost (e.g., loss of a religious artifact or loss of a family dog). Sadness and despair responses after loss signal to others that help or comfort might be needed, or lead others to experience anger towards those responsible for the sadness. Sadness emotions might help one process the meaning of loss and heal. While feelings of agony might result from particularly intense losses (e.g., death of a child). People may also experience fear of anticipating loss and subsequent relief when loss does not occur. Ekman further describes sadness as a more passive, resigned, and hopeless emotion.

Auto-appraisers !!!

Ekman suggests that cognitive evaluations occur quickly enough that one is unaware of an evaluation actually occurring. This suggests that there are automatic-appraising mechanisms within most bodily senses that continuously scan and send information so that an emotion can quickly follow. These mechanisms are sensitive and can be triggered by both universal events, which may be culturally determined, and individual-specific events. The universal events may involve possible evolutionary-based schemas or themes of fear (e.g., survival) and the individual-specific events involves learned events resulting from experiences with strong emotions like anger or sadness (e.g., loved one’s death). Auto-apprasiers explains how we immediately emotionally react to external stimuli in anxiety-provoking situations. For example, the sound of a gun being shot, is a sound that culturally determines the presence of a deadly weapon and a universal desire to seek safety. Ultimately, auto-appraisers quickly evaluate through the senses of the presence of danger, leading one to become quickly afraid or upset without conscious appraisal. 

Anger

Anger is an emotional state that motivates goal directed behavior or self-defense. Anger can quickly cycle and escalate. It often can be elicited in situations where there is interference or obstacles. Anger can vary in strength (annoyance to rage) and kind (sulking, revenge). People are motivated to control anger to continue relationships with others. Anger and fear can be used in the same situations, which can be helpful in reducing fear and providing energy to mobilize actions to deal with the threat at hand. Sensations of anger include feelings of pressure, tension, heat, increased HR/respirations, BP, face reddening, biting down, lips become thinner, impulse to move towards target of anger. 

Refractory period

The refractory period is when an individual provides slower responses when a second stimulus is quickly presented after the first stimulus. Researchers suggest that the refractory period occurs due to a central task bottle neck in which only one primary task can be perceived, decided upon, and executed at a time. The refractory period lessens when there is a greater amount of time between the presentation of the stimuli. Ekman extended the concept of the refractory period to emotional processing. He proposed that individuals have difficulty processing new information that is incongruent with their current emotions in order to focus attention on the immediate issue at hand. This can be useful in high emotional situations where a response is quickly needed. For example, if a car suddenly swerves into your lane, your immediate emotional response (fear and shock) triggers a refractory period. During this time, your brain prioritizes the immediate threat (e.g., braking or swerving) and filters out less relevant details (like music or nearby road signs). This focused response is adaptive because it helps you react quickly avoid an accident. However, if the refractory period lasts too long and the individual continues to close themselves off from new outside information (person stops driving all together), it can become maladaptive.

Refractory period —> Bottlenecked brain —> One lane!!!!

Adaptive Functions of emotions !!!!!

Emotions are considered adaptive because they evolved through natural selection to promote our survival and reproduction. Fredrickson describes that models of emotion imply that emotions are linked to action tendencies that serve adaptive functions. For example, fear is associated with urges to freeze, escape, or attack, along with physiological changes (e.g., increased heart rate), which prepare the body to respond to threats. However, Fredrickson argues that the same theoretical background has been weaker for positive emotions and their adaptive qualities. Fredrickson, describes how positive emotions may have their own respective urges and adaptive qualities that are both indirect and long-term. Positive emotions also indicate and allow for openness to focus on broader interests. For example, joyful emotions might urge one’s creativity, sense of play, and expand one’s mind, while prideful emotions might encourage interpersonal communication and hopes for the future. Therefore, Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build model emphasizes the adaptability of positive emotions because of how they improve one’s enduring personal resources that can be used at a later time when needed.

Reflective appraisal !!!

Reflective appraisal refers to the process by which individuals form an understanding of themselves based on how they believe others perceive and evaluate them. This concept suggests that people internalize others' reactions—real or imagined—as part of their self-concept. For example, when a child cries and a caregiver responds with warmth, the child may internalize, “It’s okay to feel sad.” But if the caregiver looks annoyed, the child may learn, “My sadness is a problem.”

Beyond identity development, reflective appraisal also plays a role in emotional processing. Reflective appraisal involved a person’s conscious awareness and evaluation of their own internal reactions, particularly in uncertain or ambiguous situations. Unlike automatic appraisals, which occur rapidly and unconsciously, reflective appraisals take more time but can be used to one’s advantage and help rationalize out of automatic emotional appraisal. Therefore, reflective appraisals play a role in both social cognitive processes by shaping self-concept and a tool for emotional self-awareness and regulation.

James Lange theory of vs basic emotion theory vs cannon bard !!!!

The James–Lange theory proposes that we experience emotions as a result of becoming aware of our physiological responses to an emotion-arousing stimulus. In other words, bodily changes occur first, and the perception of those changes produces the emotion. For example, upon seeing a bear, an individual may experience increased muscle tension and a racing heart, which leads to the feeling of fear.

The Cannon–Bard theory was proposed in disagreement to the James–Lange theory. Cannon argued that the body’s physiological responses (such as changes in heart rate, perspiration, or body temperature) are often too similar across emotions and occur too slowly to account for the wide variety of emotional experiences. Instead, the Cannon–Bard theory suggests that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological arousal via the sympathetic nervous system and (2) the subjective experience of emotion via the brain’s cortex. These processes occur separately but at the same time, rather than one causing the other. For example, upon seeing a bear, the individual’s heart begins pounding at the same time they feel fear; neither reaction directly causes the other. However, a later study on WWII soldiers found that those with high spinal cord injuries reported that their emotions became weaker after the injury, challenging Cannon’s idea that emotions and physiological responses are independent.

Basic Emotion Theory: Basic Emotion theorist, such as Ekman, propose that there are specific, biological, and universal emotions present within all cultures, specifically anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. They all elicit distinct facial expressions that can be understood universally. However, more resent research, such as Cowen, argues for broader models of emotion recognition, which have demonstrated greater accuracy across cultures and encompass a wider range of affective states and blends than the traditional six-emotion model. Research has shown that individuals from different cultures use diverse words to label emotions. Second, neuroscience research supports this expanded view, showing evidence for more than 15 distinct emotions.  

What changes in fear extinction !!!

In behavioral psychology and classical conditioning research, fear extinction is the decline of a conditioned fear response (CR) following repeated, non-reinforced exposure to a feared conditioned stimulus (CS). For example, if a child develops a fear of dogs after being bitten, fear extinction could occur if she is repeatedly exposed to dogs without being bitten, leading to reduced fear over time. However, evidence suggests that extinction is best understood as a form of inhibitory learning rather than the full erasing of the original fear memory. Instead of eliminating the original fear, extinction involves forming a new association that suppresses or inhibits the expression of fear. This is demonstrated by spontaneous recovery, in which extinguished fear responses can reappear after time has passed. Gray further describes fear extinction as a part of exposure treatment, typically used with specific phobias.

Positivity effect in emotional aging

The positivity effect refers to a relative preference in older adults for positive stimuli/information over negative in cognitive processing, attention, and memory. The positivity effect is typically explained by drawing upon Carstensen’s socioemotional selectivity theory (SST). According to SST, goals are always set in time-based contexts. Because chronological age tends to correlate with perceptions of time, this results in age-differences in life goals. Young adults are theorized to perceive time as expansive; thus, they prioritize future-oriented goals, such as exploration and learning new information. In contrast, Older adults are theorized to perceive time as limited; they should therefore strive to maximize their emotional well-being and avoid wasting time on unpleasant or unfulfilling pursuits. This theory was shown in cartensen’s expierment where the positivity effect among American older adults was shown by using a dot-probe paradigm and found that older adults responded faster to the dot probe if it was presented on the same side as a neutral face than on the same side as a negative face. Younger adults did not show this bias.

Incidental versus integral emotions

Integral emotions are emotions that are directly related to the object or situation being considered. They are the feelings that arise from the decision or judgment itself. For example, feeling anxious when considering asking for a promotion. Incidental emotions are unrelated to a judgment or decision. These emotions are elicited by other factors, such as mood, unrelated events, or environmental cues. For example, a person in a good mood from sunny weather may feel more positive about unrelated situations, such as donating to charity.

A newspaper article study examined how incidental emotions influence judgment. Participants read emotionally charged articles about tragic events (e.g., fatal car accidents) or neutral topics. Those who read the negative articles experienced sadness or anxiety and, as a result, judged unrelated future risks (like other types of accidents or natural disasters) as more likely to occur than participants in a neutral mood. This showed that emotions unrelated to the decision can spill over and bias risk perceptions.

Serotonin Deficiency Hypothesis

According to Bear and colleagues, The serotonin deficiency hypothesis explains how reduced turnover rates in the synthesis, release, and resynthesis of serotonin might be responsible for more aggressive behaviors. This has been shown in male rodents in which regardless of the level of serotonin they have, physical isolation results in poor serotonin turnover and thus leads to aggression. This has additionally been shown in mice who, when serotonin synthesis is blocked, become aggressive and attack other mice more frequently as well as primates who, when serotonin activity was blocked, became more aggressive. However, Bear and colleagues (2016) emphasize that while evidence supports this correlated process, that actual neurobiological process are likely much more complicated.

Allostasis and Interoception 

The brain did not evolve for rationality, happiness, or accurate perception. Instead, its primary function is to efficiently manage the body’s internal resources in service of survival, growth, and reproduction. This core task is achieved through a process known as allostasis—the brain’s ability to anticipate the body's physiological needs and regulate bodily systems accordingly. Unlike homeostasis, allostasis is predictive and cost-sensitive. It prioritizes efficient regulation by preparing the body in advance for demands, weighing the costs and benefits before needs arise.  

Interoception is the brain’s representation and interpretation of internal bodily sensations. Interoception arises from the brain’s predictive regulation of the body via allostasis and provides the subjective foundation for feelings. Interoceptive signals are typically experienced as broad, low-dimensional affective states characterized by valence (pleasant–unpleasant) and arousal (activation–calm). Through the continuous integration of interoceptive signals and allostatic predictions, the brain constructs a dynamic internal model that supports bodily regulation, perception, action, and conscious awareness.  For example, as the skeletomotor prediction signals prepare the body for movement, the interoceptive prediction signals initiate a change in affect (i.e. the expected sensory consequences of allostatic changes within the body’s internal milieu). 

Degeneracy

Degeneracy is the capacity for biologically different systems or processes to produce the same function. (e.g., different sets of neurons can both give rise to anger). Unlike redundancy, which involves duplicate systems and is considered inefficient. Degeneracy supports flexibility and adaptability, which is favorable for natural selection.