week 11 - Nature of emotions

What do emotions generate once activated?

Feelings, bodily arousal, motivation, and facial expressions.

What are the six perennial questions about emotion?

What is emotion? What causes it? How many are there? What good are they? Can we control them? Emotion vs mood?

Are feelings the same as emotion?

No—feelings are only one part of emotion

What are the four components of emotion?

Feeling, biological, expressive, and purposive (action-oriented).

Key definition of emotion?

Short-lived responses helping us adapt to life challenges.

What organizes emotion components?

Brain activity that coordinates feeling, body, motivation, and expression.

Relationship between emotion and motivation?

Emotions are motives AND a “readout” of adaptation success.

Main debate about emotion causes?

Biology vs cognition.

Two-systems view of emotion?

Biological system + cognitive appraisal system.

Biological system does what?

Automatic, evolved, fast emotional reactions.

Cognitive system does what?

Interprets meaning and context of events.

Can cognition or biology alone cause emotion?

No—emotion is an interactive feedback process.

Why do emotions end?

Event ends OR coping successfully resolves situation.

Biological view on number of emotions?

Few basic emotions (2–8 universal ones).

Cognitive view on emotions?

Many possible emotions shaped by experience.

Example of basic emotions (Ekman)?

Anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise, contempt.

What are emotion families?

Groups of related emotions under one basic theme.

First vs second-order emotions