Chapter 2 - The Actor Takes the Stage 

  • What actors do: convey human emotion in vivid and convincing fashion
  • ^^Human social behavior^^: series of ^^performances^^ through which actors play roles and enact ^^scripts^^ to manage the ^^impressions^^ of other characters in the social scene
  • Routine: pre-established pattern of action which is unfolded during a performance and can be presented/played through on other occasions
  • Improvisation: actors can personalize their performance
  • Personal front: consists of cues that signify the actor’s position in the performance and their status/identity in the group (clothing, age, posture, curious smile…)

→ Personality

Acting, Emotion, and the Self

  • ^^Every human is a social actor at ALL TIMES^^ (even babies!)
    • Newborns can express emotions of general distress + basic emotions between 2-7 months
    • Babies are social actors because they communicate information to the group through emotional displays using their face
    • Babies of depressed mothers eventually stop trying to engage their mothers
  • ^^Facial scripts^^ ^^= 1st scripts^^
  • Autistic children have difficulty expressing and decoding facial cues
  • At 2 months, babies display ^^social smiles^^, which indicate joy and happiness to their parents
  • ^^Anxiety and attachment:^^
    • ^^Stranger anxiety^^: fear/wariness in the presence of strangers
    • ^^Separation anxiety^^^^:^^ fear/anger/sadness in response to prolonged separation from primary caregivers
    • ^^Secure attachment^^^^:^^ when the infant sees the caregiver as a safe haven during periods of emotional distress and as a secure base from which to explore the world when emotions feel more positive
    • ^^Working model of attachment^^: infant’s ^^emotional history of attachment^^ that sets forth expectations about how experiences of love/trust can transpire in the future. It ^^can be updated and changed over time^^
  • You ^^cannot remember the first 2 years of your life^^ because your early socio-emotional development occurs without conscious awareness
  • ^^Self-awareness^^ = 18 months (recognize themselves in mirrors + use words like me and mine + express emotions like pride and embarrassment)
  • At 3-4 years old, the child consolidates a clear sense of self

Performing Positive Emotion: The Development of Extraversion

  • ^^Temperament^^: differences in the overall quality of a baby’s mood, the baby’s energy level, behavioral tempo, and alertness
  • ^^Performance of emotion^^: how the infant ^^expresses^^ and ^^regulates^^ the feelings that well up inside
    • Emotions
    • Positive emotions: feel good
    • Negative emotions: feel bad
  • ^^Positive emotionality^^: basic temperament tendency ^^to feel positive affect^^ like joy/excitement/pleasure and to act in a way that suggests a positive emotional engagement with the social world
    • ^^High positive emotionality^^ = more cheerful, lively, high-spirited, smile more, seek out social interaction, reward-seeking…
    • Infants who experience more anger in response to frustration = more outgoing and sociable in school
    • Same brain processes are involved when experiencing positive emotion + human sociality
  • ^^Behavioral Approach System (BAS)^^: motivates the individual to ^^approach potentially rewarding (social) situations^^ and to experience the positive emotion associated with the pursuit and attainment of rewards
    • Implicated in the release of ^^dopamine^^
    • Dopamine’s role: reward seeking [wanting]
    • Implicated in the ^^opioid system^^
    • Releases neuropeptides when an individual achieves rewards, which produces feelings of joy and pleasure [liking one’s experience after receiving the reward]
  • ^^E: extraversion-introversion^^
    • ^^High extraversion^^ = sociable, oriented toward social interaction, inclined to find reward in social situations

    *Brings more advantages than disadvantages

  • ^^Bell-shaped curve - continuum^^
  • FIGURE 2.1 - The Architecture of Extraversion
  • Sub traits: excitement seeking, activity, assertiveness, gregariousness, positive emotions, warmth
  • Differences: social behavior, emotion regulation, learning and memory, vocational interests and identity, various indices of risk and psychopathology
  • ^^Extraversion^^^^: seeking social rewards and enjoying social rewards^^
    • Extraversion’s function: to ^^attract and hold the attention of other social actors^^

The Life and Career of an Extreme Extravert

  • George W. Bush's extrovert traits
  • Highly extraverted people tend to drink more alcohol and take more risks, which can lead to substance abuse

Negative Emotion and Neuroticism

  • Negative emotions evolution:

→ newborns: distress + disgust → 6 months: anger + fear + sadness → 2 years old: shame + embarrassment + guilt

  • Negative emotions’ function: ^^to warn about a problem^^ (threat in the environment, obstacles…)
  • Individual differences: how people react to negative events
  • ^^Negative emotionality - Neuroticism (N)^^
    • High negative emotionality = fearful, inhibited, irritable and prone to frustration

    → ^^Having a low negative emotionality doesn’t mean that the person has a high positive emotionality. It just means that they experience fewer negative emotions^^

  • Characteristics of negative emotionality in infants:

     1. ^^Emotional fearfulness + behavioral inhibition^^

        1. Timidity 2. High levels of morning cortisol 2. ^^Irritability and strong response to frustration^^

        1. Easily frustrated 2. Agitation/Hostility when facing failure 3. Anger

  • Neuroticism ^^consequences^^:
    • Strong risk factor for mental illness + life-threatening illnesses
    • Bad interpersonal experiences - high divorce rate
    • Negative outcomes in life - poorer health
  • Neurotic cascade

  Highly neurotic actors are:

  • More reactive to signs of threat and negative emotion in the social world
  • Exposed to more negative events
  • Reinforced tendency to appraise objectively neutral/positive events in negative terms
  • Mood spillover (negative feelings in one area of life spill over into others)
  • Sting of familiar problems (day’s negative events can bring back into psychological old issues and conflicts that were never resolved, leading to more negative feelings)
    • ^^People high in N have high levels of fear and anxiety^^
  • Fear: results of immediate threats to the environment
  • Anxiety: situations that evoke uncertainty
    • ^^Fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS)^^^^:^^

  When confronted with a threat people can either ^^attack the source of the threat, flee to escape, or freeze^^

  • Plays an important role in the development of negative emotionality
    • ^^Behavioral inhibition system (BIS)^^^^:^^

  Alerts the actor to ^^potential threats^^ associated with uncertainty and conflict in the environment

  *Anxiety

  • ^^People with high N have an overactive BIS^^

  → BIS is shaped by learning and personal experience

  • Amygdala: implicated in the experience of fear and anxiety
  • Hypothalamus: stimulates the release of cortisol, elevates blood pressure, and prompts the ANS to prepare the actor or the emergency
  • Hippocampus: involved in the formation of memories
    • ^^Anxiety^^: a learned response
    • The ^^BIS + BAS + FFFS are sensitive to environmental inputs and their functioning reflects the actors’ accumulated performances throughout their life^^