Psychology Review: Chapter 10

What are the theories of emotion

• Discrete emotions theory

• James-Lange theory

• Somatic Marker theory

• Cannon-Bard theory

• Two-factor theory (schacter and singer)

What is the discrete emotions theory?

• Emotions are a product of evolution

• A small amount of distinct emotions create more complex versions

• Rooted in

  • Biological roots

  • Evolutionary functions

• Emotional reactions often occur before thoughts

  • Seen via the fact that the limbic system was created before other organs

• Emotions are innate and occur naturally

What is the James-Lange theory?

• Emotions result from interpretations of bodily reactions to stimuli

• Ones’ observations determines psychological state

What is somatic marker theory?

• The unconscious use of autonomic responses to determine the source of influence

• "trusting" your gut

What is cannon-bard theory

• Believes that James-Lange is too dispersed

• Thinks that emotion and bodily response to stimuli happen simultaneously

• Involves the thalamus, hypothalamus, and amygdala

What is the two-factor theory

• Emotion is produced by two psychological events

  • Emotions are a cognitive label

• 2 states

  • Undifferentiated physiological arousal (alertness)

  • Attribution of arousal (labeling)

    • Identifying why some behaviors occur

    • Emotions are the explanations we create for our state of arousal

• Potential limitation for the study: pool was all males (involved adrenaline injection and emotion reflection)

 

How do we nonverbally express our emotions

• Gestures

• Personal Space

What are the types of gestures

• Illustrators: highlights or accentuates speech

• Manipulators: one body part touches another

  • i.e. twirling hair or biting nails give off the impression that they are scared

• Emblems: conveyance of conventional meanings

  • i.e. thumbs up = got it!

What is the significance of personal space

• Physical distance = emotional distance

  • Exception: Intimidation

• 4 implicit rules to personal space?

  • Public (12ft+)

  • Social (4-12ft)

  • Personal (1.5-4ft)

  • Intimate (0-1.5ft)

Significance of lying and deception

• Nonverbal cues are not always more telling than verbal cues

• Overreliance on nonverbal cues

  • Poor=no better "than" chance (54%)

  • Accuracy and validity for non and verbal cues are around the same

  • People create mistakes (i.e. custom officials, police officers, etc.)

What are the methods to detecting deception

• Polygraph test

  • Controlled Question Test (CQT) and Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT)

• Integrity testing

• “Truth serum”

• Brain scanning

• Utility of verbal vs. non-verbal cues

Describe polygraph testing

• Predicts the existence of physiological indicators of lying

• Types

  • Controlled Question Test

  • Guilty Knowledge Test

Describe CQT and its issues

• How its done

  • Controlled Questions

    • Is used to detect the "baseline

  • Irrelevant: unrelated to the crime

  • Relevant: directly related to the crime in question

• Issues

  • Design: will be asked irrelevant and relevant questions

  • High rates of false positives

    • Biased against innocent suspects

    • Confuses physiological arousal with attempting deception

  • High amount of false negatives, because they made their baseline for physiological baseline high, so that when they lie it won't be flagged

Describe GKT and its issues

• Idea: only true suspect would react to pertinent knowledge of the crime

• Observes physiological responses to non-public knowledge about crime

  • Via multiple-choice questions

  • Put in table of example questions

• Has fewer false-positives, but more false-negatives occur

Alternative lie detection methods

Reasoning for the creation of these methods are due to the limitations in only looking at physiological arousal

• Brain scans (EEG and fMRI)

  • EEG: when, but not where

  • fMRI: where

  • However is not well supported

• "Truth Serums"

  • Barbiturates (Sedative-hypnotics): depressant so it causes relaxation and sleepiness

  • Lowers the threshold for response, as both true and false information are discussed

• Integrity tests

  • Assesses a worker’s tendency to steal or cheat

  • Limitation: records a high rate of false-positives

What are display rules?

• societal guidelines or norms for how and when to express emotions

  • i.e. in western cultures more parents teach boys not to cry, while its okay for girls

• different cultures may be associated with different “nonverbal accents”

  • i.e. some cultures show different emotions, despite being in the same circumstance

  • can be affected by immigration (i.e. diff between asian americans and native-born asians)

What is the significance of the mere exposure effect

Definition: repeated exposure to stimulus makes us like it more

• contradicts popular wisdom (“familiarity breeds contempt")

• Why?

  • people usually seek things they enjoy

  • another hypothesis: repeated exposure reinforces the idea that the stimulus is correct, so it has a positive evaluation

• Ex..

  • faces: we like the image in the mirror compared to what appear in a photograph

  • advertising: repeated exposure to ads make us want it more

What is facial feedback hypothesis

Definition:  changes in the blood vessels in the face send temperature information to the brain, which alters our emotions

• Argued that emotions arise from behavioral and physiological reactions (akin to James-Lange)

• Differed: purely biochemical and not cognitive(no thinking)

Why are we unable to affective forecast moods

• Definition: ability to predict our own happiness and others’

• Durability bias: overestimation of the impact events will have on a person's mood

  • Ex. Belief that getting that promotion would maintain our happiness over an extended period of time, instead our feelings will fade as we become more acclimated to it

  • Drives the hedonic treadmill: continuously chasing the high of pleasure, but ultimately losing it

    • i.e. getting the promotion, but then it levels out as your realize the increase in work

What is the significance of drive reduction theory

• Drive to minimize negative feelings and seek pleasure

  • Drive is unpleasant

    • Desire for satisfaction reduces tension and causes pleasure

• The strength of the drive serves as an evolutionary function (i.e. thirst vs. hunger)

  • Affected by physiological arousal (alertness)

    • Influences how much "energy" we're willing to perform the functions necessary to complete this drive

    • Yerkes-Dodson Law

Define motivation

• The drive the propels us in a direction (toward or away)

• Based on needs and wants

Elaborate on the Yerkes-Dodson Law

• The existence of an optimal point of arousal for best performance

• Ex. Think about if you pulled an all-nighter, then you aren't "alert" enough to perform the degree you hope to

What are the incentive theories

• meant to explain

  • "why do we continue to have drive, despite already achieving something"

    • i.e. music artists keep putting out music, even though they might have already gotten successful from their first album

• intrinsic

• extrinsic

Explain intrinsic motivation

• Intrinsic (internal) motivation

  • Positive feeling/goals that we give to ourselves

  • There is something inherently good about it

    • Half-marathons: some people inherently enjoy it/find pleasure from it

Explain extrinsic motivation

• Ex. Runners (first inherent) but were offered 1500 per mile which made it extrinsic

• However, once the motivator went away runners no longer wanted to do it as their motivation was no longer intrinsic

What are types of eating disorders

• Obesity

• Bulimia nervosa

• Anorexia Nervosa

Discuss the different types of obesity

• Biological perspective:

  • Leptin resistance

    • body tells you that you feel full

    • neurotransmitters

  • Biological set-point

    • genetically determined weight range for when a person's body naturally functions best

  • Serotonin sensitivity 

    • how good someone feels when eating certain foods

    • Bodies have individual differences, which impact when they feel full

• Food can be used as a coping mechanism (contributes to weight gain);

• Portion distortion (everything in America is bigger, so on average people eat more calories)

Describe the specific types of eating disorders

• Bulimia nervosa: binge, then purge pattern

  • High intake in one sitting, then a feeling to get rid of the rate (vomiting, exercise, and laxatives)

• Anorexia nervosa: excessive calorie restriction

• Social (western are heavily associated with eating disorders) and biological factors occur

  • Discovered via twin studies

What are some other motivations in daily life

• Libido (sex drive)

  • Testosterone

  • Serotonin (high levels = low levels of sexual desire)

  • DRD4 gene (protein related to dopamine transmission)

    • variations correlate to reports of sexual desire and arousal

  • Cultural Norms

    • Are hookups okay?

• Sexual Orientation

  • Corpus Callosum thickness

    • Study looked at males who identify are straight and gay

    • Fetal exposure to testosterone

    • Maternal Immune responses

    • Cultural acknowledgement and acceptance

What are the influences on interpersonal attraction?

• Proximity (near becomes dear)

• Similarity (birds of a feather flock together)

  • People feel more comfortable around others that are similar to themselves

• Reciprocity (all give and no take does not a good relationship make)

  • Equal effort>One-sided relationship

• Physical Attraction

What are the types of love (stages)

• Passionate Love: powerful, and overwhelming longing

  • Think: Romeo and Juliet

  • Strong emotional experience, where both sides are ignorant to the issues

• Companionate love: deep friendship and fondness

  • Passionate love transforms into deep fondness

  • Instead of a burning flame it becomes softer and more reliable

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What is the significance of Maslow's hierarchy of needs

• Created by Abraham Maslow

• The desire to satisfy primary needs before secondary needs

  • Primary: basic biological needs

  • Secondary: psychological desire

What does supercilious mean?

• the feeling of being superior to others

• Facial expressions associated with contempt, of which communicate the sense that others are “beneath us”

What is the difference between the pan am smile and the duchenne

• Pan am: obviously fake smiles, where only the mouth moves but not the eyes

• Duchenne smile: a genuine smile displayed when people experience positive emotions in the presence of others

Describe the Broaden and Build Theory

• happiness leads us to feeling more openly

  • ex. doctors who received a small bag of candy made more accurate diagnoses of liver disease than did other doctor

• broader thinking can permit people to find more unique solutions to problem

Elaborate positive psychology

• a discipline that emphasize human strengths such as resilience, coping, life satisfaction, love, kindness, and happiness

• it focuses on helping people find ways to enhance positive emotions like happiness and fulfillment

Explain defensive pessimism

• it is a strategy of anticipating failure and then compensating for this expectation by mentally over-preparing for potential negative outcomes

• used as solution for many anxious people

• helps certain people improve their performance, because it encourages them to work harder

• Limitations: pessimism can decrease life satisfaction, and irritate others due to its focus on worst-case scenarios

What is the ventromedial

• it is the lower middle part of the rats’ hypothalamus

• it seems to let rats know when to stop eating

Describe glucostatic theory

• the belief that when our blood glucose levels drop, hunger creates a drive to eat in order to restore the proper level of glucose

• via this theory homeostasis is achieved as the balance of energy we take in and expend

  • people gain weight when there is a an imbalance in energy taken in and burned