Chapter 7: The Feeling Mind: Emotion and Motivation

Based on notes

Emotion

spontaneous, automatic responses to our ongoing perceptions and thoughts

Word emotion

derived from the Latin word meaning “to move”

We express emotions through

facial expression, body language, gestures, tone of voice

Debate if emotions are

discrete stand alone or points on a continuum

Discrete approach

argue there are core universal emotions - each has distinct emotional expressions

Continuum approach

argue emotions as existing along continuous dimensions

Circumplex theory of emotion

argues that all emotions can be placed along two orthogonal dimensions: arousal and valence

Motivation

a process that arouses, maintains, and guides behaviour toward a goal

Emotional behaviour

Charles Darwin - concluded that all primates form facial expressions using the same muscles - gained from evolution

Core emotional expressions

anger, sadness, happiness, fear, disgust, etc - identified correctly by most people

Yerkes-Dodson law

the ideal amount of arousal interacts with the complexity of a task

Simple tasks

greater arousal leads to greater performance

Complex tasks

arousal levels that are too high can begin to interfere with performance

“Choking” or performing badly

because of too much arousal

Antonio Damasio

hypothesized that emotions provide a bridge to past experiences - used to set priorities such as approach and avoidance

Researchers believe emotion expressions evolved through a two stage-process

• Stage 1 - Expressions served an adaptive physiological function

• Stage 2 - Expressions that originally served physiological functions - serve communicative functions

The James-Lange Theory of Emotion

the individual perceives a stimulus - that person experiences a physiological response

We might be able to influence our subjective feelings

by changing our physical sensations

Walter Cannon

disagreed with the James-Lange theory and proposed his own theory

Cannon-Bard theory

proposes that physical sensations and subjective feeling occur simultaneously and independently

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

of emotion that adds an intermediate step between physical sensations and subjective feelings

Emotional arousal signals

conscious, cognitive appraisal of our circumstances - then we identify our emotion

Somatovisceral afference model of emotion (SAME)

begins with a recognition that physical responses to a stimulus can range from quite specific to quite general

Appraisal Theory

Interpretation is a continuous process rather than a single decision about a stimulus

Emotional responses

combine bottom-up processing - lower parts of the nervous system send "alerts" to the cerebral cortex

Top-down processing

cortical executive functions such as attention and appraisal modify the activity of the lower structures

The Autonomic Nervous System

controls activities of our glands and organs - participates in the general arousal associated with emotional states

Fight-or-flight response

caused by activity of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system

The Hypothalamus

direct management role over the autonomic nervous system

Stimulating the hypothalamus in animals

can elicit behaviours such as sexual behaviours, eating, drinking etc

One patient experienced both the physical and subjective feelings normally associated with a panic attack

physical responses were expected but emotional responses were unexpected

The posterior hypothalamus

believed to serve a central role in activating the subcortical emotional system of the brain

Amygdala

identifies emotional stimuli and initiates responses to the perception of these stimuli

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dIPFC)

a region of the brain implicated in the reappraisal of sad events in order to minimize their emotional impact

Importance of the amygdala to emotion

Resulted from an experiment conducted in 1939 - researchers removed both temporal lobes from rhesus monkeys

• They became tamer and had less intense emotions

• They allowed people to pick them up and stroke them

• They were oblivious to stimuli that would normally scare them

Patient S.M

• Experienced damage to both amygdalae because of a rare disease

• Can recognize the emotions of happiness, sadness, and disgust portrayed in photographs - she has selective difficulty identifying fear correctly

• She has difficulty using information from the eye region of the face in judging emotion - when she was instructed to pay attention to eyes, her performance improved

Autism spectrum disorder

ave a reluctance to make eye contact and have difficulty identifying other people's emotions

The Insula

found in the fold between the junction of the temporal lobes with the frontal and parietal lobes

Back of the insula

internal sensations - ex. pain and itch, and physical sensations caused by emotional feeligs - ex. blood pressure, breathlessness

Front of the insula

more global feelings - a strong reaction to disgust

The Cingulate Cortex

forms circuits with the frontal cortex, the amygdala, and other subcortical structures involved with emotional processing

The basal ganglia

large, subcortical structures that participate in the generation of voluntary movement in response to emotional stimuli - show considerable activity in response to facial expressions of disgust

The anterior cingulate cortex along and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex

contribute to the more conscious appraisal of threat

Worrying and catastrophizing by anxious people

involves exaggerated appraisals of threat - has unsually high levels of activation

Nucleus Accumbens

part of the basal ganglia - associated with pleasure and reward

Huntington's disease

a disease that damage the basal ganglia - having difficulty recognizing recognizing facial expressions of disgust

Damage to the frontal lobes produces changes in emotional behaviour

a reduction in fear and anxiety - contributes to impulsive, risky behaviours

Humans express emotion with their entire bodies

When threatened or scared - they cross their arms and hunch forward

Facial expressions

influenced by the way the brain controls the tiny muscles of our faces

Muscles receive input from the motor areas of the cerebral cortex

control voluntary movement - from subcortical areas + basal ganglia

The cortical input

allows us to voluntarily "smile" for the camera

The subcortical input

responsible for more spontaneous expressions of emotion (laughing at a joke)

It is possible to lose one type of input without affecting the other

• Ex. A person with issues with their motor cortex - able to smile spontaneously but can’t voluntarily smile

• Ex. People with Parkinson's disease - unable to smile spontaneously but can voluntarily smile

Parkinson's disease

damages the subcortical emotional pathways

Darwin

believed that human emotional expression had been shaped through evolution

Rhesus monkeys - raised in isolation

had typical fear responses to monkeys engaging in threatening behaviours - same as those in normal social conditions

Universality of words for different emotional states

evidence of emotion's common biological source

The Japanese term ijirashi

a feeling that occurs when we see another person overcoming an obstacle

Children who are highly responsive to stimuli

often develop into anxious adults

Children who are oblivious to stimulation

may develop into fearless risk takers

Insensitivity to social signals produced by others

may lead to antisocial behaviour

Two major strategies for emotion regulation

suppression and cognitive reappraisal (modifying the meaningfulness of an event)

Reappraisal

involves thinking differently about the stimulus

People who use the reappraisal strategy more than the suppression strategy

experience less depression and higher life satisfaction

Emotional intelligence

Our abilities to identify, use, understand, and manage emotions

Multi-Health Systems (MHS) Assessments

numerous scientifically validated measures of emotional assessment

A person's ability to read others' emotional expressions

can be reduced by certain psychological disorders

Individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

struggle with distinguish among facial expressions

People with Autism and antisocial personality disorder

specific difficulties recognizing expressions of fear

Increase in international students in Canada

many still follow the norms from their home country - this can affect their transition to university

Juries are made up of human beings

who detect deception in face-to-face - not perfectly accurate

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

These techniques can be used to distinguish truth-telling from lying - some researchers say that you can beat it using “mental countermeasures”

Guilty Knowledge Test

used to assess deception - participants' brains showed significantly different activation lying (red areas) vs being truthful (blue areas)

Lying

• Can be found out through - inappropriate smiling, nervous laughter, avoiding eye contact, hesitating etc

• People telling the truth add 20 to 30 percent more detail to a story

• Reliable way to identify lying - ask people to tell their story backward in time - people conducting a false story struggle since it overwhelms their memory

Animals - limited time and resources

state of arousal is expensive in terms of the energy it requires

Walter Cannon

Motivation is a process that maintains homeostasis

Drive theories of motivation

“push theories” - drive is seen as pushing an organism toward a goal

Incentive theories

Incentives or rewards may be intrinsic or extrinsic

Intrinsic rewards

Internal - Ex. Enjoyment of the task or feelings of accomplishment when a goal is met

Extrinsic rewards

External - Ex. Such as money for completing work or praise from a parent

Motives

Some are approached from a mostly biological perspective (hunger) and others are approached from a more sociocultural perspective (affiliation)

Solitary confinement

viewed as one of the worst punishments humans inflict on one another

The effects of social isolation

can be as detrimental high blood pressure, lack of exercise, obesity, or smoking - can also cause extreme hostility

Achievement motivation

the desire to excel or outperform others - individual motivation to push themselves

A trait

stable characteristic that shows relatively little variation over time - traits interact with situations

High-achieving people

prepared to avoid or postpone fun to meet their achievement goals

Low-achieving people

prioritize fun alternatives and inhibited the achievement alternatives

Carol Dweck

argues that achievement motivation is influenced by people's beliefs about their own abilities

Growth mindset

belief that capacities can be developed - able to grow

Fixed mindset

belief that capacities do not change - unable to grow

Higher achievers

thrive on competition

Lower achievers

thrive on fun and relaxing aspects of a task

External cues for hunger

time of day, the sights and smells of favourite foods etc - may encourage us to eat when our bodies do not need nutrients or to eat more food than we require

Internal cues for hunger

when our bodies are genuinely short on nutrients

Glucose and insulin levels are positively correlated

high levels after just eating, low levels to signal need for more food

Diabetes

insufficient insulin activity - glucose is unable to move out of the blood into the cells that need nutrients

The body monitors fat stores

assessing levels of the hormone leptin

Leptin

Greek word leptos, or "thin," is produced and secreted by fat cells

Fat stores and leptin levels are positively correlated

leptin levels provide a measure for the amount of fat that has been stored

When fat stores and leptin levels are low

brain areas that include the lateral hypothalamus (LH) initiate feeding