Social Psych Chapter 6

emotion

a full blown conscious state that is clearly linked to some event

mood

a feeling state that is not clearly linked to some event

affect

defined as a result of mapping all emotions onto a single good-bad dimension. Positive affect encompasses all good emotions, whereas negative affect encompasses all bad emotions

conscious emotion

a powerful single feeling state

automatic affect

felt as liking or disliking (good or bad feelings) toward something. may occur outside of consciousness

arousal

a physiological response that occurs within the body, including a faster heartbeat or heavier breathing

James-Lange theory of emotion

the proposal that the bodily processes of emotion come first then the mind’s perception of these bodily reactions creates the subjective feeling of emotion

facial feedback hypothesis

facial expressions can evoke or magnify emotions because the brain reacts to what the facial muscles are doing

Schachter-Stinger theory of emotion

the idea that emotion has two components: a bodily state of general arousal and a cognitive label that specifies the emotion

excitation transfer

the idea that arousal from one event can transfer to a later event

appraisal theory of emotion

the idea that emotion is determined by how an event in the environment is appraised (evaluated, interpreted, explained)

affect balance

a measure of happiness based on the frequency of positive emotions minus the frequency of negative emotions

life satisfaction

the most complex form of happiness involving not only evaluating how your life is generally, but also how it compares to some standard

hedonic treadmill

a theory that people stay at the same level of happiness regardless of what happens to them

emodiversity

refers to how much a person experience the variety and abundance of different human emotions

anger

is an emotional response to a real or imagined threat or provocation. can range from mild irritation to extreme rage

three ways of dealing with anger

1. never show anger

2. vent one’s anger

3. try to get rid of one’s anger

catharsis theory

the proposition that expressing negative emotions produces a healthy release of those emotions and is therefore good for the psyche

guilt

negative emotional feeling and it is usually associated with some implicit reproach that one has acted badly or wrongly. especially associated with acts that could damage a relationship about which one cares

shame

a moral emotion that involves feeling bad, but unlike guilt spreads to the whole person

survivor guilt

an unpleasant emotion associated with living through an experience during which other people died

disgust

a strong negative feeling of repugnance and revulsion

affect as information hypothesis

people judge something as good or bad by asking themselves “How do they feel about it?”

affective forecasting

the ability to predict one’s emotional reactions to future beliefs

Yerkes-Dodson law

the proposition that arousal works in an upside down U-shaped curve. some arousal is better than none, but too much can hurt performance

emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive emotions to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth (denoted by EI or EQ rather than IQ)

four parts of emotional intelligence

1. perceiving emotions

2. facilitating thought

3. understanding emotions

4. managing emotions

dark tetrad of personality

consists of narcissism, psychopathy, machiavellianism, and sadi