Lecture 12: Theories of emotion

What is emotion Keltner & Gross, 1999

• “Episodic, relatively short-term, biologically-based patterns of perception, experience, physiology, action, and communication that occur in response to specific physical and social challenges and opportunities”

What are the 5 components of emotion

• Subjective feelings

• Physiological responses

• Expressive behaviour

• Appraisals

• Action tendency

What do we mean by subjective feelings? What is the trouble with trying to explore subjective feelings in a lab?

• We feel a large range of emotions which we can recognise, report on and discuss with others

• the elicitation of emotions in a lab is not representative of a true emotional response (cant do big emotions, cant predict how people may react, unnatural stimuli)

What are some examples of physiological responses in emotion? How did we develop these responses?

• Heart racing when excited, sweating when nervous

• Refined during evolution; if being attacked, we must flee or fight, informed by emotion

What do we mean by expressive behaviour in emotion? How is expressive behaviour beneficial to us and others?

• Facial expressions, laughing smiling

• Key feature of studying emotion

• Our emotional expression also allows us to show and inform others of our experiences; communication to others enhancing survival

What problems might we face when trying to study or measure expressive behaviour?

• Need to think about restraints in a lab; we can modify our facial expressions away from how we truly feel (i.e. pretending not to be sad)

• Furthermore, some cultures express emotions differently, i.e. screaming and crying when grieving compared to western emotional control

• Expressive behaviour may not be a reliable indicator of true emotional experience

What are appraisals in emotion?

Evaluations of what do these emotions mean and how do they link to my goals

What do we mean by action tendency in emotion?

• Tendency towards certain behaviours associated with different emotions

  • I.e. with fear the tendency may be to run away, with disgust the tendency may be to avoid

• Tendencies because we can choose not to continue with this action; not always going to happen

What are the 3 key theories of emotions?

• Evolutionary

• Appraisal

• Psychological constructionist

What 3 things are we most interested in when evaluating viewpoints of the 3 theories of emotion

• Antecedents of an emotion (what causes them)

• Biological givens (innate emotional capabilities)

• The integration of emotional experience (how components of emotion fit together)

What is evolutionary theory? Who came up with it, and what does it argue?

• Evolutionary approaches are based in the writings of Darwin (1872)

• Observational approach: human and animal emotional expressions

• Argued for universality and functional adaptation of emotion (including communication)

According to evolutionary theory, what are the antecedents to emotion?

SIGNAL STIMULI

Evolutionary: antecedents - what are signal stimuli, and how to do they evoke emotion?

• Emotions arise when we detect a threat to survival, or an opportunity for reproduction - signal stimuli indicate these threats/opportunities

• Signal stimuli: indicate an adaptive problem (e.g., a high cliff = fear , a potential mate)

  • E.g. rotting food would be a signal stimuli for disgust

• Emotions associate with action tendencies

  • Desire to complete actions to resolve adaptive problems

Evolutionary: antecedents - What is Plutchik (1980)’s ‘theory of actions taken in response to adaptive problems’

• Examples of adaptive problems one may face, i.e. threat

• Suggests that problems → emotion → behaviour → outcome

  • Adaptive problems elicit emotions, i.e. fear

  • Emotions elicit behaviours, i.e. running away

  • Behaviours lead to outcomes i.e. protection from danger

According to evolutionary theory, what are the biological givens we have? (innate emotional capabilities)

• Basic emotions

Evolutionary theory - biological givens = what makes an emotion basic?

• Universal expression

  • Extends beyond just facial expression; includes bodily expression and vocalisations

• Discrete physiology

• Presence in other primates

• Automatic evaluations of the environment

Evolutionary theory - biological givens = what are Ekman’s 6 basic emotions? do these emotions interact or combine in any way?

• Anger, disgust, happiness, fear, sadness and surprise

• In theory, basic emotions can lead to different emotions

  • I.e disgust and sadness could combine and become regret, a more complex emotion which requires more complex processing

  • However, some people disagree with this idea, and focus more on things such as families of emotions

Evolutionary theory - biological givens = Is there any evidence to support the existence of universal basic emotions?

• Ekman

• Evidence to suggest that emotions are recognized and produced crossculturally

  • Went to tribes in new guinea and found that these emotions are recognised and reproduced more than by chance

Evolutionary theory - biological givens = what methodological concerns are there surrounding Ekman’s research into the crosscultural universality of recognition of emotions?

• People have concerns about the idea of using a false choice paradigm (which Ekman used to determine whether people could identify between emotions)

  • Whether giving people specific emotion words to choose from is biased

  • Whether forcing expression might affect recognition more than natural expression

  • Similarities between only some cultures also doesn’t confirm universality

  • Recognition doesn’t equal reproduction of an expression

Evolutionary theory - biological givens = What 7th emotion did Ekman argue we may have?

• contempt

  • Feeling of dislike for (and superiority over) another person

Evolutionary theory - biological givens = What did Levenson, Ekman, and Friesen (1990) do to explore the physiological effects of the basic emotions? How does this research support the existence of the 6 emotions

• Directed Facial Action Task: participants asked to contract specific muscles in their face

• Allows expression of emotion, without specific reference to it

• Measured various physiological components as people contracted specific facial muscles (heart rate, skin conductance)

• Results

  • emotions did show different patterns of physiological responding

  • Suggests that there are discrete differences across these emotions physiologically - something needed for the emotions to differ

Evolutionary theory - biological givens = what other physiological elements could Levenson, Ekman, and Friesen (1990) have explored to support the existence of discrete physiological effects of the basic emotions?

• Anger > blood flow to arms and hands (lets us fight)

• Fear > blood flow to legs and feet (lets us run)

• Happiness > neurotransmitter release, dampening effects of negative emotions (stops energy being drained)

According to evolutionary theory, how do we integrate our emotional experience (how components of emotion fit together)

Affect programs

Evolutionary: Integration of emotional experience - affect programs = What are affect programs? how do they work? Can affect programs change?

• All the components of an emotion are grouped together, building an affect program

  • There are distinct programs for each basic emotion

  • E.G. Signal stimuli → affect program → emotion

  • SEE GRAPH

• Affect programs are innate, but can change to include knowledge gained through individual experience (Ekman & Cordaro, 2011)

  • I.e. someone with trauma may experience a more elaborate affect program for fear

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY: Overall, what are the

1) Antecedants of an emotion (what causes them)

2) Biological givens (innate emotional capabilities)

3) The integration of emotional experience (how components of emotion fit together)

• Signal stimuli (threat to survival, opportunity to reproduce)

• Basic emotions (universal, discrete physiology, automatic)

• Affect programs (co-occurrence of emotion components)

What do appraisal theories focus on

Appraisal theories focus on people’s immediate evaluation of circumstances

According to appraisal theory, what is the antecedent to emotion?

Specific appraisal patternss among individuals

Appraisal theories: Antecedents - specific appraisal patterns = what is an appraisal?

Appraisal: mental process which allows detection and evaluation of stimuli and how they affect your well-being

• Appraisals are thought to be unconscious and automatic

• Appraisals are not as simple as good or bad

Appraisal theories: Antecedents - specific appraisal patterns = according to scherer, on what 5 dimensions do we make appraisals?

• Novelty

• Valence

• Goal relevence

• Agency

• Norms

Appraisal theories: Antecedents - specific appraisal patterns = What methodological concerns are there surrounding appraisal theory and research into appraisal theory

• Appraisals are v subjective

• same event causes different emotions in different people, this makes it harder to compare emotions across tasks.

• In experiments, people react to scenarios/artificial vignettes surrounding emotion, so they may engage in demand characteristics or change their expression of emotions/ responses to be socially acceptable

Appraisal theories: Antecedents - specific appraisal patterns = How did Scherer & Ceschi (1997) explore the appraisals of those in an airport? What emotions did people feel? what was the best predictor of their emotion?

• Went to an airport, and participants were those whose baggage did not come out of the baggage claim carousel

• Videotaped interactions with baggage claim agents and then gave them structured interviews afterwards to understand how they appraised the event

  • Conducted in 4 different languages

  • Opportunity sampling

  • Asked how they felt before going to the desk vs after going to the desk, to what extent do they think they are responsible, to what extent are the airport people responsible, have you known people who this has happened to before, is this acceptable or normal…. (look back at scherer)

    • aka did this fit norms/is this novel/does this go against norms/ agency

• RESULTS

  • many different emotions were felt

  • Goal relevence was the best predictor of emotions - if the loss of luggage impacted goals, they were more likely to feel worried or upset, if no they were fine.

Appraisal theories: Antecedents - specific appraisal patterns = Scherer & Ceschi (1997) key takeaways?

• there are a range of ways in which people can react to the same event, and the situation was important in predicting the emotion that they had experienced

  • Not all appraisals were equally relevant or important in predicting emotions

  • The way we appraise the emotion affects which emotion we experience

According to appraisal theories, what biological givens (innate emotional capabilities) do we have?

Secondary and primary appraisals

Appraisal theories - biological givens = what are primary and secondary appraisals, how are they different, and how do they help us? Scherer (2001)

• Primary = fast, clear-cut, innate (newborns have these)

• Secondary = higher-order, learned

• Scherer argues that primary appraisals focus on the novelty and valence of situations, while secondary appraisals focus on goal relevance, agency and norms

According to appraisal theory, how do elements of the emotional experience integrate?

They don’t - they remain seperate

Appraisal theories: Integration of emotional experience - independent components to emotion = How do the components of emotions influence and interact with one another if they do not co-occur?

• stimuli elicit appraisals which inform emotions

• Emotion components don’t all necessarily occur together, i.e. appraisals and emotions might be more focused on specific aspects of the emotional experience and whether certain appraisals lead to certain components of emotion

  • E.g. whether appraising things in a certain way changes facial expressions

  • You can have the physiology of fear and the subjective feeling of fear without the expression of fear, for example

Appraisal theories: Integration of emotional experience - independent components to emotion = how does research by Reisenzein, Studtmann, & Horstmann, 2013 support the idea that components are independent

• Review of lab evidence of the relationship between reported feelings and appearance of specific facial expressions.

• Emotions and expressions did not reliably co-occur

Overall, in appraisal theory, what are

1) antecedents to emotion (what causes them)

2) biological givens (innate emotional capabilities)

3) The integration of emotional experience (how components of emotion fit together)

• Specific appraisal patterns (can differ across people)

• Primary appraisals (valence and novelty) VS secondary appraisals (goal relevance, agency, norms)

• Components are independent

What does psychological constructionism focus on?

• Why is there huge variation in how emotions look and feel

According to psychological constructionism, what are the antecedents to emotion

Categorisation of affect responses

Psychological constructionism: Antecedents - Categorisation of affect responses = What do we mean by categorisation?

• Categorization: Mental process by which we take experience and give it meaning

  • The brain is using prior knowledge and experience in order to give meaning to the bodily sensations that we feel in a particular moment in a particular context

  • I.e. we learn what sadness looks like, then we can begin to categorise our experiences if they agree with what sadness is like

Psychological constructionism: Antecedents - Categorisation of affect responses = What are categories based on?

• Categories are based on the individual’s learning history, culture, and current context. They contain varied examples

  • If you were asked to explain fear, you might say trembling, sweating etc, but if you were asked about the last time you felt fear, you may answer differently- our category has lots of instances of the experience of fear that isn’t the singular prototypical example we may expect.

Psychological constructionism: Antecedents - Categorisation of affect responses = How might our interpretation of a stomach ache differ depending on context

• tomach ache at dinner table = hunger

• stomach ache during pandemic = nausea or illness

• Stomach ache in front of a court judge = mistrust

• Stomach ache in a GP waiting room = anxiety

• Stomach ache when taking the bins out = disgust

• AGAIN, BRAIN CONSTRUCTS MEANING FROM THE CONTEXT WE ARE IN = FEELING IS CATEGORISED INTO EMOTION FROM AFFECT RESPONSE

According to the psychological constructionism approach, what are our biological givens (innate emotional capabilities)

Core affect

Psychological constructionism: biological givens - core affect = what is core affect? What is it composed of (2 dimensions)

• Core affect: Current affective state

  • Composed of 2 dimensions

    • Valence: pleasant vs unpleasant

    • Activation: activated vs deactivated

Psychological constructionism: biological givens - core affect = What can core affect manifest as? How can core affect be made meaningful?

• Can be a mood, an emotion, a symptom, a body state, or an evaluation

• This affect can be made meaningful and constructed using our past experience and the context we are in to form emotions too

Psychological constructionism: biological givens - core affect = How may people with 1) Alexithymia 2) Anxiety, depression provide support for the concept of core affect?

• Alexithymia

  • People who have difficulty recognising and describing emotions, known more likely to experience affect as like a bodily state more than an emotion

• Anxiety, depression

  • People here might over categorise their bodily states or feelings as emotions rather than just affect.

• Affect is CORE = basis of all emotion.

Psychological constructionism: biological givens - core affect = How do MacCormack & Lindquist (2019) show evidence that core affect can influence our emotions

• Participants rated hunger, shown context image, then asked to rate pleasantness of pictograph

• With increasing hunger, there were increased unpleasantness ratings but only with negative context (image)

• Participants conceptualized their affect as negative feelings when made meaningful in a negative context

According to Psychological constructionsism, how do the components of emotional experience integrate

They don’t, components are seperate

Psychological constructionsism : The integration of emotional experience - independent components = How do components of emotion interact to build emotion if they are not integrated with eachother?

• Stimuli change core affect, allowing us to categorise how we feel based on context and experience, allowing us to identify and have an emotional experience

• Stimulus → core affect → categorisation → emotion

Overall, for psychological constructionism, what are the

1) Antecedents of an emotion (what causes them):

2) Biological givens (innate emotional capabilities):

3) The integration of emotional experience (how components of emotion fit together):

• Categorization of affect responses

• Core Affect

• Components are independent