Emotion

Emotion

a response of the whole organism involving physiological arousal and expressive behaviors

• a conscious experience

Physiological arousal

the physical response/ reaction

• quickened heartbeat, sweaty palms, etc

Conscious experience of emotion

you know you’re feeling happy, fearful, sad, etc

Expressive behaviors

how you convey your emotions

• ex. pacing, making facial expressions, etc.

Common sense perspective

theory of emotion that emotions CAUSE physiological arousal

• I am sad, so I cry

critics of common sense perspective

very narrow because the body sometimes reacts quicker than conscious awareness of an emotion

James-Lange Theory

a theory of emotion that physiological arousal occurs BEFORE conscious emotion

• my heart races, so I recognize fear

critics of james-lange

different kinds of emotions exhibit similar symptoms

• a racing heart can be fear and joy

Cannon-Bard theory

a theory of emotion that physiological arousal and conscious emotion happen simultaneously

• my heart races and I feel fear at the same time

critics of cannon-bard

it is not simultaneous all the time

• ex. sometimes you’re sad, but don’t cry

Two factor/ schachter theory

a theory of emotion that emotions are context dependent and the brain appraises the physiological arousal AND the surroundings before experiencing the emotion

• your heart rate increases, brain sees in a dark alley, experience fear

• your heart rate increases, brain sees won a game, experience happiness

critics of two factor

what if the context is ambiguous/ not evident?

Darwin

evolutionary theory; how emotions are present because they helped us survive in the past (ex. fear made ppl avoid danger)

innate

facial expressions are _______

shared emotions

all cultures have _____ and all other more complex ones are from factors in our society

Appraisal Theory

your brain makes judgement and your emotions depend on subconscious thoughts

appraisal

judging

Lazarus

the person who researched how the prefrontal cortex makes appraisals

LeDoux

the person who theorized that some emotions require no cognition/ bypass contextual interpretation and are reflexes

high road

emotions go to sensory cortex for appraisal and then to amygdala for experience

Low road

emotions go straight to the amygdala; a neural shortcut that bypasses neural cortext - simply react