Social Psychology: Emotion I & II

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the components, universality, cultural aspects, cognitive consequences, and moral foundations of emotions from Lectures 8 and 9.

Emotion

A psychological state that relates to something we care about in the world, prepares us for action, lasts from seconds to hours, and occurs in response to a specific event.

Expressive Behavior

A component of emotion manifested externally through the face, body, or voice.

Physiological Response

A component of emotion involving biological and bodily reactions, such as changes in heart rate and sweat production.

Subjective Experience

A component of emotion that involves a person's conscious awareness and description of how they feel (e.g., stating 'I feel…').

Mood

An affective state lasting hours to weeks that may be a prolonged response to a specific event or to no specific event.

Emotional Disorder

A clinical affective state lasting weeks to years that represents a prolonged response to a specific event or a response to many events.

Darwin's Evolutionary Perspective on Emotion

The view proposed by Charles Darwin that emotions are useful reflexes accompanied by a taxonomy linking specific emotional expressions to distinct bodily systems.

Decoding Hypothesis

The proposition that people around the world will interpret emotional expressions in similar ways, regardless of culture.

Encoding Hypothesis

The proposition that people around the world will express emotions in similar ways, regardless of culture.

Ekman and Friesen Studies

Cross-cultural research conducted in Papua New Guinea using stories and photographs showing that natives accurately decoded and encoded six basic emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, fear, surprise, and disgust.

Facial Action Coding System (FACS)

An objective coding system developed to measure and describe facial expressions based on specific facial muscle movements.

Focal Emotion

An emotion that is especially common in everyday life within a given culture, such as anger in honor cultures or shame in cultures that prioritize shame.

Amae

A Japanese emotion characterized as a merged togetherness and receiving comfort from another person's complete acceptance.

Schaudenfreude

A German emotion referring to the experience of pleasure at someone else's misfortune.

Gigil

A Tagalog/Filipino emotion referring to trembling or gritting one's teeth from cuteness overload.

Ideal Emotions

The specific affective states that people want to feel, such as high-energy positive emotions preferred by Westerners versus low-energy positive emotions preferred by East Asians.

Display Rules

Culturally defined rules regarding what emotions are appropriate to display and when, the violation of which can disrupt social harmony, create conflict, or make a bad impression.

Oxytocin

A hormone released when caring about others that promotes commitment and rises following physical contact such as hugging or sex, differing from hormones linked to lust or attraction.

The Visual Cliff Experiment

A developmental psychology study by Joseph Campos illustrating that infants use a caregiver's emotional facial expressions to coordinate action and navigate an ambiguous depth drop.

Awe

An emotional state that helps individuals connect with others as a group.

System 1 (Intuitive Processing)

A fast, intuitive cognitive processing mode promoted by positive emotions that enhances perspective-taking.

System 2 (Rational Processing)

A deliberate, rational cognitive processing mode promoted by negative emotions that enhances critical thinking.

Social Intuitionist Model of Moral Judgment

A model stating that moral judgments are primarily the result of fast, emotional intuitions, with deep conscious reasoning occurring only after the judgment is formed.

Switch Dilemma

A moral dilemma investigating whether an individual should pull a lever to divert a runaway trolley onto a side track to save five people by killing one.

Footbridge Dilemma

A moral dilemma investigating whether an individual should physically push a man off a footbridge to stop a runaway trolley before it kills five people.

Moral Foundations Theory

A theoretical framework proposing that there are five core moral foundations (such as fairness and purity) that elicit distinct emotional reactions when violated.