Lectures 9-10 Emotions and Happiness

THEORY EVIDENCE: POSITIVE EMOTIONS AND CREATIVITY

Previous studies have found that positive emotions improve creative thinking (broaden) • Inducing positive emotions helped participants with creativity test of word associations • “How do these three words relate to each other: mower, atomic, and foreign”

• Positive emotions also facilitated more creative responses from Torrance creativity test • “Name as many unusual uses as you can for the following object: a brick

Situation Selection (emotion and regulation)

deciding when to engage or disengage in a specific situation to pre-regulate emotions (I know this environment will stress me out so I am purposely avoiding this environment)

Situation modification (emotion and regulation)

changing aspects of env that influence our emotional experience (when ppl are being loud in lib so you wear headphones)

Attention deployment (emotion and regulation)

changing where u are direction attention (towards or away from situation that is eliciting emotional response)

Cognitive change (emotion and regulation)

involves changing how we think about situation to alter emotional impact it has on us

Response modulation (emotion and regulation)

changing physiological responses or outward expressions of responses (hiding behaviors, breathing, social sharing

emotional regulation strats

1. situation selection- avoidance, approach

2. situation modification- problem solving, seek social support, conflict resolution

3. attentional deployment- distraction, rumination, focus on positive, thoughts suppression

4. cognitive change- self efficacy, challenge threat appraisal, acceptance, distancing, positive appraisal

5. response modulation- emotional suppression, social sharing, breathing

emotions as social info

Emotions tend to be elicited by other people, expressed toward other people, and regulated to influence other people or to comply with social norms

individual level (emotions as social info)

motivates social actions, I feel emotions to promote social functions (gratitude can lead us to act towards other, form of award of being generous, reward to keep us social)

dyadic level (emotions as social info)

how individuals perceive and respond to emotions (expressions of regret lead people to to think the expressor is responsible-the problem)

if angry they are the victim

group level (emotions as social info)

Group emotional patterns shape norms, cohesion, differentiation, and individual behaviors, how we know who are outsiders (people seek to conform to group so ppl don’t feel left out )

universal nature of emotions

darwin thot we share similar emotional expressions with other animals Darwin

More recent findings:

• Ekman’s work on facial expressions – 80-90% agreement, even in a remote tribal group.

• Tracy’s pride studies – Posture of pride recognized across cultures, expressed by the blind, similar to animals.

CULTURAL VARIATION IN EMOTIONS

• Affect valuation theory : Cultures place value on certain goals; emotions aligning with those goals are more valued as well

• western culture values that high feeling —music before game

• Display rules : How, when, and to whom it’s appropriate to express emotions.

HISTORY OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Post World War II

• Focus of psychology on human problems and how to remedy them

• Led to the development of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

• Led to field embracing a “disease model of human nature”

• People seen as flawed and fragile

• Casualties of cruel environments or bad genetics

• Focus on fixing weaknesses

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

The scientific study of human flourishing, or of what goes right in life

• Challenges disease model, arguing that human goodness and excellence are just as authentic as disorders and distress

“THE GOOD LIFE”

Well-being researchers currently study 3 types of well-being, or as Shige Oishi describes it “ways to pursue the good life”

• happy life

• meaningful life

• psychological rich life

Subjective Well-Being

Psychological operationalization of happiness According to Ed Diener, made of 2 components:

1. Affective (Positive and Negative Emotions)

2. Cognitive (Life Satisfaction)

CORRELATES OF HAPPINESS

Genetic heritability

• Ex: Personality traits, such as high extraversion or low neuroticism

Income and wealth (to an extent)

Close relationships

• Relationship between social support and well-being

• Married people report being happier and more satisfied with life (compared to single and divorced people) 6

Faith and Religion

HEDONIC ADAPTATION

After positive (or negative) events (i.e., something good or bad happening to someone), and a subsequent increase in positive (or negative) feelings, people return to a relatively stable, baseline level of affect 8

Also referred to as the “Hedonic Treadmill”

CAN YOU PURSUE HAPPINESS?

According to the Sustainable Happiness Model, yes you can!

The Sustainable Happiness Model proposes our subjective well-being is influenced by three factors:

1. Our Set Point/Genetics

2. Life Circumstances 9

3. Intentional Activity

emotion

Emotions are brief: Only seconds or minutes.

Emotions are specific: Responses to specific events or experiences.

dont always know why we experience certain emotion

emotion vs mood

emotions brief while mood is long lasting and don’t know cause of

COMPONENTS OF AN EMOTION

Psychologists do so by studying 5 components of emotion:

1. Appraisal process

2. Physiological responses

3. Expressive behaviors

4. Subjective feelings

5. Action tendencies

Appraisal process

What gives rise to emotions initially

Appraisal Process: Patterns for evaluation events and objects in the environment based on their relation to the current goal.

Fast, automatic appraisals:

• is the event consistent or inconsistent with our goals

• leads to general pleasant or unpleasant feelings

Deliberate appraisals:

• What caused an event

• who is responsible

• is it fair

• what can I do about it

physiological response

Appraisal processes physiological responses

• Blushing

• Goosebumps

expressive behavior

• Emotions can be expressed verbally through words and nonverbally through facial expressions, gestures, body postures, etc.

• Specific expressions can be influenced by cultural norms (how we express happiness etc)

subjective feelings

The qualities that define what the experience of a particular emotion is like

action tendencies

Emotions move us towards specific actions and behaviors

• ex: Anger can motivate behavior that helps restore justice

BROADEN-AND-BUILD THEORY (FREDRICKSON)

While negative emotions narrow and focus our behavior (thought-action repertoire), positive emotions broaden our behaviors by prompting us to pursue novel and creative thoughts and actions.

This broadening of behaviors also allows us to build personal resources over time.