5.0 emotions Motivation and Emotion

Motivation and Emotion

The components of emotion

• Feeling component

• Physiological component

• Motivational component.

• Expressive component.

Emotions related to other affective processes

• Emotions & moods

• Emotions & feelings

What is an Emotion

• Exist of four emotional components

• Related to other affective processes.

• The emotional episode.

• Emotional regulation Strategies

• Functions of emotions

Emotion is “in vogue” (authors)

• Kahneman

• Damasio

• Haidt

Damasio

Neuropsychology

Kahneman

Behavioral Economics

Haidt

Social Psychology

emotions Today

• Analyzing emotions is solid business

• Problem arises when we try to define the concept. 

William James → emotions

• Multidimensional concepts

• Exist as subjective, social, biological & intentional phenomena.

• adapt to four perspectives

• not a unique definition for emotion

What is an emotion?

• complex

• subjective, biological, purposive & social phenomena

• Emotions are short-lived, feeling–arousal–purposive–expressive phenomena

To understand emotions

• Need to analyze each of these dimensions

• How they interact with one another.

We think of an emotion as

• moves us–a feeling we experience.

• emotions from latin → “MOVING”

Emotions are short-lived, feeling–arousal–purposive–expressive phenomena

• Help us adapt to the opportunities & challenges we face during important life events.

Emotions definition depends on

• feelings

• sense of purpose

• social expressive

• bodily arousal

• significant life event

  

 FEELINGS

Subjective experience

• Gives emotion its subjective quality.

• Provides meaning & personal significance.

• Intensity & quality, emotion is felt and experienced at the subjective

• Rooted in cognitive or mental processes

PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIVATION

• Includes our neural & physiological activation

• The activity of the autonomic & hormonal-systems.

• Brain activation, bodily arousal, & physiological activity =

• → intertwined with emotion that any attempt to imagine an angry or disgusted person who is not bodily aroused is nearly impossible.

PURPOSIVE COMPONENT

• Gives emotion its goal-directed character to take the action necessary to cope with the circumstances at hand.

• It is the impulse to act in a certain way.

• LONG-TERM based

example of PURPOSIVE component 

• The person without emotions would be at a substantial social & evolutionary disadvantage to the rest of us.

Emotions ingredients

• Feeling

• Physiological

• Purposive behaviour

• social-expressiveness

 SOCIAL EXPRESSIVE COMPONENT

• Emotion’s communicative aspect.

• NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

• e.g. Postures, Gestures, Vocalizations, Facial expressions.

illustration

Feelings

• Subjective experience

• Phenomenological awareness

• Cognitive interpretation

Sense of purpose

• Impulse to action

• Goal directed motivational state

• Functional aspect

Bodily arousal

• Body preparation for action

• Physiological activation

• Motor responses

Social-expressive

• Social communication

• Facial expression

• Vocal expression

Relationship between motivation & emotion

• Latin root of both words → movere (to move), supports this relationship

•  emotion & motivated linked to pressure and heat.

• Both constructs rely on the relationship between an individual and their environment

• Both rely on overlapping brain structures (amygdala, hypothalamus, nucleus accumbens)

Emotions relate to motivation in two ways

• a type of motiv → energies & direct behaviour

• ongoing readout system → indicate how well or poorly personal adaption is going → reflect satisfied versus frustrated status of other motives. 

According to Tomkins emotions & motivation

• if we take away the emotion = we take away motivation.

illustration → of motivation = emotion 

Emotion in relation to

other affective processes

• mood

• feelings

EMOTION 

• Caused by specific events

• Very brief duration

• Specific & numerous in nature (there are several emotions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise).

• Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions

• Action-oriented in nature

MOOD

• The cause is often general & unclear

• Last longer than emotions

• More general (two main dimensions: positive or negative)

• Generally not indicated by distinct expressions

• Cognitive in nature; they influence what we think.

Emotions & feelings

• mental events to reaction of emotions

• originate in the neocortical regions of the brain

• Influenced by experience, belief, & memories.

• Portrayal of what is happening in your body.

• byproduct of your brain perceiving & assigning meaning to the emotion.

Damasio says that feelings

• are mental experiences of body states → arise when the brain interprets our emotions.

• While emotions are inborn & common to everyone

• The meanings they acquire & the feelings they prompt are personal.

The emotional episode (model by GROSS)

• Situation

• Attention

• Appraisal

• Response

Situation

• The sequence begins with a stimulus—whether real or imaginary, past or present—that the individual finds emotionally relevant. 

Attention

• Our focus of attention is directed towards the situation.

Appraisal

The situation is analyzed

Response

• The emotional response is generated, provoking coordinated experiential, behavioral, & physiological changes.

Emotion Regulation Process:

process → an individual can modify the onset, duration, magnitude, latency, intensity, or nature of one or more aspects involved in the emotional response 

Emotion Regulation can

• Dampen or intensify emotions, depending on the individual's goals

regulatory processes

• Automatic or controlled

• Conscious or unconscious

• Can affect one or more stages in the emotional generative process.

prototypical episode of emotion regulation

• is controlled → influence individuals’ spontaneous emotional responses

Emotion regulation inn affective litterature

• one of the most popular research areas

• since 2009 → More than two-thirds papers on emotion regulation (published) → most focused on intrinsic processes

unresolved issue in emotional regulation →

• whether it refers to:

• intrinsic processes (FREDU)

• extrinsic processes (SALLY/Bob’s emotions)

• or both

EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES

• Antecedent-focused strategies

• Response-focused strategies

Antecedent-focused strategies: involves

• Situation selection

• Situation modification

• Attentional deployment

• Cognitive change

Response-focused strategies: involves 

• Response modulation

Situation selection

• happens before the situation

• it is like we know what to expectations → & we behave accordingly e.g, avoiding a situation that lead to an emotions

Situation modification

• inside the Situation

• able to change the situation / changing the scenario objectively 

Attentional deployment

• Attention

• attention deployment → “ignore it”

• distraction → think of something else

Cognitive change

• Appraisal

Response modulation

• Response

Situation selection

• taking actions that make it more (or less) likely for one to find oneself in a situation expected to elicit desirable (or undesirable) emotions.

Examples of situation selection include 

• Approach strategies (e.g., spending time with supportive friends when you are upset)

• or avoidance strategies (e.g., declining invitations to events that make you feel anxious).

Barrier of situation selection

• backward- and forward-looking biases

• short-term benefits of emotion regulation against the longer-term

costs.

backward- and forward-looking biases

• makes it difficult to accurately represent past or future situations for the purposes of situation selection.

• Situation modification

• Efforts to change the scenario & reduce its emotional impact.

• This strategy addresses the source of emotional responses directly.

• - efforts to modify may effectively create a new situation altogether.

Attentional deployment

• Refers to how individuals direct their attention within a given situation to influence their emotions.

• DISTRACTION

• CONCENTRATION

• MINDFULNESS

DISTRACTION

• Focuses attention on different aspects of the situation, or moves attention away from the situation altogether.

• Changing of internal focus: individuals invoke thoughts or memories that are inconsistent with the undesirable emotional state

MINDFULNESS

• psychological process

• bringing one's attention to the internal & external experiences occurring in the present moment

• developed through the practice of meditation & other training

CONCENTRATION

• draws attention to emotional features of a situation.

• rumination

rumination

attention is directed in a repetitive way to one’s feelings & consequences

Cognitive change

• Changing how one appraises the situation → to alter its emotional significance

• either by changing how one thinks about the situation or about one’s capacity to manage the demands it poses.

REAPPRAISAL

• Type of cognitive change

• Altering the meaning of a situation in a way that changes its emotional impact

• More effective when emotions are generated in low-intensity negative situations or when emotions are elicited in a top-down fashion.

Response modulation

• occurs late in the generative process, after response tendencies

• influencing physiological, experiential, or behavioral responses as directly as possible

response modulation can include

• suppressing emotional expressions

• altering physiological response (for instance, controlling heart rate)

• modifying behaviors in response to stimuli.

Emotional suppression involves 

• regulating emotion-expressive behavior

• provokes → expressive dissonance

• misalignment between internal experience & its overt expression 

Response modulation, particularly emotional suppression →

• Significant attention in the affective literature

• Less beneficial

• Not effectively reduce negative emotional experiences.

FUNCTIONS OF EMOTIONS

• main role of emotion is contributing to our personal adaptation

• INTRAPERSONAL FUNCTIONS

• INTERPERSONAL FUNCTIONS

INTERPERSONAL FUNCTIONS

• Help us understand how we feel & exert influence on others' emotional states.

• They shape our position in relation to others & establish boundaries between ourselves & them.

INTRAPERSONAL FUNCTIONS

• Emotions coordinate subjective, physiological, & behavioral systems.

• Change our behavioral hierarchies & activate unexpected behaviors.

• They provide physiological support for our behaviors.

• They enable fast information processing.

• They highlight important information.

Antecedent - focused strategies

• Situation selection → Situation modification → attentional deployment → cognitive change → response modulation

External situation

• Situation selection → Situation modification

Internal situation

• attentional deployment → cognitive change

response

• Response modulation

• → leading again to interactive feedback loop → external situation

Illustration of Antecedent - focused strategies