Emotion and Emotional Intelligence Lecture

Defining Emotion

• Working definition: an internal response comprising
  • Arousal (physiological activation)
  • Cognition (thoughts/interpretations about the situation & the arousal itself)
  • Behavioural expression (facial cues, gestures, actions)
• Equation-style summary: Emotion = f(Arousal, Cognition, Behaviour)

Sequence & Triggers of Emotion

• Environmental interpretation is the most common trigger (e.g.
  • Meeting a friend → joy
  • Witnessing an accident → shock/fear)
• Occasionally arousal precedes thought ("Too much caffeine → jittery → must be nervous")
• Sometimes thought precedes arousal ("Did I leave the stove on?" → anxiety)

Motivation ↔ Emotion Interactions

• Motivation can evoke emotion (e.g. striving for success → anticipated pride)
• Emotion can fuel motivation
  • Fear → avoidance motivation
  • Positive affect → approach motivation
• Diagrammatically: Motivation \leftrightarrow Emotion

Classroom Picture Exercise (Illustrations of Triggers)

• Lightning strike: thrill, fear, awe, wonder
• Snarling dog: fear > if past negative experience; alternate reading "dog is yawning" → lower arousal
• Antelope drinking: peace, calm; low arousal
• Duck–alligator hybrid sculpture: confusion, curiosity
• Shows how identical stimulus + individual learning histories → different emotions

How Many Emotions Exist?

1. Binary model: 2 types (Positive vs Negative affect)
2. Primary/Basic model: 6\text{–}10 biologically rooted emotions
   • Common list: happiness, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, surprise (often add shame, guilt)
   • Criteria: cross-cultural facial expressions; distinct neural signatures
3. Constructivist/Blended model: "Nearly infinite" emotions created via
   • Blends of primaries
   • Diverse cognitive interpretations
   • Varied arousal levels
   • Idiosyncratic learning & culture

Recognising Primary Emotions (Facial Expression Task)

• Sadness: down-turned mouth, drooping eyes
• Happiness: raised cheeks, “Duchenne” eye wrinkles
• Anger: bared teeth, furrowed brow, tense eyes
• Even infants display unlearned, recognisable expressions → evidence of biological grounding

Nuanced/Secondary Positive Emotions (Partial List)

• Adored, amused, bonded, cheerful, dynamic, ecstatic, eager, lucky, passionate, radiant, revitalised, satisfied, valiant…
• Differences stem from
  • Arousal intensity (e.g. "ecstatic" > "cheerful")
  • Cognitive appraisal (why? context?)
  • Cultural/learning influences

Adaptive Functions of Emotion

1. Social communication & regulation
   • Facial & bodily cues guide conversations (friend’s eagerness vs sadness; angry stranger at the pub → move away)
2. Formation & maintenance of social bonds
   • Love/affection → parental care, team cohesion, patriotism, environmental stewardship
3. Motivation enhancement
   • Positive emotion → stronger approach; negative emotion → avoidance when adaptive
4. Learning & reinforcement
   • Pleasure or pain tags events as \text{Reinforcer} or \text{Punisher}
   • Primary reinforcers (e.g. chocolate) vs secondary/learned reinforcers (e.g. flowers associated with affection)
5. Decision making & effort allocation
   • Anticipated pride in graduation → sustained study effort
6. Caveat: Emotions can be maladaptive (e.g. clinical depression, unjustified fear)

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

• Definition: individual-difference capacity to adaptively perceive, understand, regulate & harness emotions in self/others
• Four core skills
  1. Perceiving (detect facial, vocal, bodily cues)
  2. Understanding (causes, trajectories, blends)
  3. Regulating (up- or down-modulating own & others’ emotions)
  4. Harnessing (using emotion for motivation, creativity, decision-making)

Empirical Benefits of High EI

• Better mental health (↓ anxiety, ↓ depression)
• Greater well-being & life satisfaction; workplace flourishing
• Stronger nature connectedness
• Higher relationship satisfaction
• Enhanced creativity & optimism
• Biological correlate: longer telomeres (chromosomal health marker)

Can EI Be Improved? Yes.

• Information + deliberate practice (skill training programmes)
• Emotional "priming"—contexts or cues that promote adaptive processing
• Personal strategies to explore (self-reflection journals, mindfulness, empathy training, emotion-regulation techniques)

Key Take-Home Equations & Numbers

• Emotion = f(Arousal, Cognition, Behaviour)
• Basic emotion count ≈ 6\text{–}10
• Binary affect count =2
• Potential nuanced emotions \rightarrow \infty

Reflective Prompts

• Identify three personal situations where emotion boosted or hindered motivation; analyse components
• Observe a day’s interactions: note at least five facial expressions and guess the emotions; verify when possible
• Choose one EI-building strategy to practice this week (e.g., daily emotional check-in) and track effects