Chapter 6 - Emotional Intelligence: Emotion Appraisals, Experience, and Regulation

Appraisal

The brain’s judgement of a situation that leads to an emotional response

Stein et al Sequence of Appraisals

Proposed order the brain processes its appraisal of the situation

1. An event happened (usually unexpected)

   • What happened?

2. Challenges in beliefs

   • What do you think?

3. Plans are formed to decide whether or not to support or go against it

   • What to do next?

Primary Appraisals

The first and automatic judgment from the brain

• First movement (helps survival)

• Decides if rewarding or threatening

  • Also called automatic evaluations

Murphy & Zajonc Study

The study was conducted with flashing images of Chinese ideographs for either 4 milliseconds or 4 seconds

• Subliminal graph displays those who only saw it for 4 milliseconds

• Above awareness graph displays those who saw it for 4 seconds

• Results: The subliminal graph shows more smiling faces, while Above Awareness shows angry faces

• Conclusion: Those in the subliminal graph did not have enough time to perceive the ideographs as a threat to their system 1 thinking so they remained with a smiling face, while those in the above awareness graph had enough time to perceive it and felt threatened with an angry face

System 1

The automatic processing of the brain

• Initially determines threat or no threat

  • Processes all the facts at the same time

    • Negativity bias

System 2

The conscious processing of the brain

• Takes in one aspect at a time

  • Generally slower

Conscious Processing Track

Emotional reactions that we are aware of and can interpret

• System 2 in other words

Autonomous Processing Track

Emotional reactions that happen unconsciously

• System 1 in other words

Negativity Bias

We naturally react stronger to negative stimuli we perceive as threatening

• A survival instinct

Discrete Approach

Appraisals that trigger distinct emotions

Dimensional Approach

The various appraisals that shape how the stimulus is perceived

• Primary Approaches help survival

• Secondary Approaches place multiple labels

Lazarus’ Appraisal Stages

Proposed that discrete approach happens like this:

1. Emotional event happens

2. Positive or Negative?

3. Does it involve ego?

   • Irrelevant?

   • Self-esteem?

   • Survival?

   • Mutual Affection?

Action Readiness

Acts that are usually associated with certain appraisals

• With Primary Appraisals, it is automatic and acts with goals in mind

• With Secondary Appraisals, results are considered

Smith & Ellsworth Study (1985)

A study with participants imagined experiencing 15 emotions and rated the imagined experience on 8 dimensions

• Unique dimensions here create discrete emotions

• Results: The most important dimension is agency, which is the appraisal of who or what was responsible for the event

Tertiary Appraisals

The step that comes after Primary and Secondary Appraisals

• This is when feelings are verbalized to others

Intentional Objects

The external stimulus that triggers our emotions

Emotion Prototypes

The basic foundations and examples of how an emotion is like

Oatley & Duncan Study

A daily diary study with 175 emotional episodes

• Appraisals did not cause 6% of them but rather experiences from the past

• Conclusion: Basic emotions are something we understand and process immediately

Keltner & Cowen Study

The study with participants watching 2000 film clips and reporting discrete emotions they felt

• They also reported on primary dimensions of positive and negative emotions

Emotional Regulation

The act of lessening an emotion’s intensity and duration

Reppraisal

Changing perspective about something

Suppression

The act of purposely blocking out an emotion

• Common misconception: Suppression is bad

  • It is okay, as long as you eventually deal with it

Repression

The body’s unconscious act of blocking out emotional pain

• In other words, a defense mechanism that prevents thoughts or feelings from entering conscious awareness, often to protect oneself from distress.