Social Psych 2121-Lecture 7: Emotion and Well-being

emotions

brief, specific responses - psychological and physiological - to a meaningful event or goal. typically last for seconds or minutes. helps people meet goals including social goals and often drive for understanding, explanation, meaning

moods

last for longer than emotions - hours or days, or weeks, months, or years

components of emotion

1. appraisal

2. physiological response

3. expressive behavior

4. subjective feeling

5. action tendencies

appraisal

quick positive or negative feeling. refined assessment (e.g. after you consider someones intention), transforms initial assessment into emotion (e.g. sympathy)

physiological response

related to appraisal, body’s initial response (e.g. red face of embarrassment)

expressive behavior

how much emotion is displayed (e.g. facial expression, non-verbal behavior)

subjective feeling

awareness - what the experience of the emotion is like (e.g. as described, or through metaphors such as “the weight of guilt”)

action tendancies

the adaptive value of emotions. emotions are sometimes linked to subsequent behaviors (e.g. fear=run, anger=attack) but most of this research is on negative emotions

build and broaden theory

negative emotions narrow responses. more tunnel focused, fewer options (e.g. run, attack)

postitive emotions broaden our responses. wider range of attention, thoughts, and actions (e.g. notice, explore, play). the broadening of thoughts and actions builds personal resources (e.g. social, intellectual, psychological, physical)

psychology of well-being/positive psychology

the science of the good life, what makes life worth while. the conditions and processes that contribute to flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions

subjective well-being measures

1. emotional well-being: positive and negative affect, emotional responses

2. cognitive well-being: your belief of how satisfied you are with your life

most people report positive well-being

well-being and GNP

GNP is not a good predictor of well-being in countries. once a country has a certain amount of wealth (developed countries), GNP does not relate to happiness

well-being and household income

emotional well-being increases with income but levels off around $75,000

life satisfaction increases with income

affective forecasting

• following an event we can predict if we will feel positive or negative

• but we tend to overestimate our emotional responses.

• e.g. getting an award or job may feel less positive for a shorter time than expected

focalism

excessive focus on primary aspect of an event while neglecting the possible impact of peripheral considerations or extraneous events. e.g. getting your dream job and thinking you will be enduringly happy and forgetting about other life events that can impact happiness such as financial stress or conflicts

immune neglect

overlook our capacity to be resilient following negative events (e.g. a silver lining, positive aspects). we overestimate the extent to which lifes problems will reduce our well-being.we respond to negative events better than we think

peak-end effect

experiences are evaluated by..

1. peak moments

2. ending

not the total length of time (i.e. duration neglect)

well-being interventions

three good things exercise led to increased happiness and decreased depression up to 6 months later if continued for more than 1 week

helping behaviors and well-being

acts of kindness and generosity are causually linked to well-being as well as prosocial behavior but in moderation (e.g. volunteering)

spending money and well-being

experiential purchases (movie, travel) are linked to higher well-being rather than material purchases (clothing, laptop)

personal vs prosocial spending

increase in well-being when spending on others with strong social ties. (amount of money and source of money irrelevant)

internal object

focus of an emotional experience. when angry you usually have a clear sense of what your angry about. other states such as moods are more general and unfocused

emotions influence perception

we perceive events in ways that are consistent with the emotions we are currently feeling. emotions can also influence broader judgements such as our sense that our circumstances are fair/safe or unfair/dangerous

duration neglect

the relative unimportance of the length of an emotional experience, whether pleasurable or unpleasurable, in retrospective assessments of the overall experience. what matters most is the quality of the experience at its peak and at its end

construal process

a sense of control can counter the stress of disease and promote better health