Biological Basis of Behavior: Emotion - In Depth Notes

Emotion: Overview

  • Emotions are reactions to situations or events that have positive or negative valence.
  • Valence refers to the direction (positive or negative).
  • Emotions vary in intensity.

Perspectives on Emotion

Three ways to understand emotions:
  1. Emotions as feelings
  2. Emotions as communication
  3. Emotions as behavioral and physiological responses

How Emotions Affect Behavior

  • Provide meaningful experiences in the present, making memories more memorable.
  • Elicited by particular events, leading to observable behavioral patterns.
  • Involve physiological changes necessary for these behaviors.
  • Include subjective feelings (affect).

Theories of Emotion

James-Lange Theory
  • Proposed by William James and Carl Lange.
  • Suggests that different emotions result from different patterns of physiological arousal.
  • Involves:
    • Activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and autonomic nervous system (ANS).
    • Feedback about bodily responses leads to emotional feelings (e.g., trembling, increased heart rate).
Evidence for James-Lange Theory
  • Hohman (1966): Reduced emotional intensity in spinal cord injury patients indicated that peripheral nervous system arousal affects emotions.
  • Bermond et al. (1991) attempted to replicate findings but had inconclusive results.
Observations on Interoceptive Ability
  • Individuals with better ability to detect bodily states report more intense emotions.
Ekman's Autonomic Activity and Emotion
  • Emotional responses can be distinguished by patterns of autonomic activity (e.g., heart rate, skin temperature).
  • Meta-analysis by Kreibig (2010) supports this hypothesis.
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
  • Suggests making a facial expression of emotion can increase the likelihood of experiencing that emotion.
  • Ekman et al. (1983): Participants who produced facial muscular contractions reported feeling the associated emotion.
  • Additional evidence includes:
    • Pain ratings affected by facial expressions (Salomons, 2008).
    • Cartoons rated funnier when participants simulated smiling.
  • Recent studies have yielded mixed results concerning replicability.
Cannon-Bard Theory
  • Walter Cannon argued that emotions occur simultaneously with physiological responses.
  • Involves the thalamus coordinating emotional experience and bodily responses.
  • Cannon found that emotional behaviors in animals weren't affected by peripheral feedback, suggesting emotions are generated independently of physiological responses.
Schachter-Singer Theory
  • Suggests that the interpretation of physiological arousal influences the type of emotion experienced.
  • Findings showed that physiological arousal (e.g., adrenaline) could lead to varied emotional experiences depending on cognitive interpretation.
Competing Theories Summary
  • James-Lange Theory: Emotions arise from autonomic feedback.
  • Cannon-Bard Theory: Emotions are independent of autonomic responses.
  • Schachter-Singer Theory: Emotion depends on physiological arousal for intensity, but cognitive interpretation is crucial for determining emotion valence and identity.
Modern Biopsychological Approaches
  • Suggest three main aspects of emotional experience:
    1. Perception of an emotion-inducing stimulus.
    2. Autonomic and somatic responses.
    3. Subjective experience of emotion.
Emotions as Communication
  • Emotional expressions signal potential behavior (e.g., anger may indicate aggression).
  • Paul Ekman identified six basic universal emotions:
    • Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, Surprise.
  • Lisa Feldman Barrett posits that emotional categories are socially constructed rather than innate.
Expression and Recognition in the Brain
  • Emotion recognition may be lateralized:
    • Right hemisphere lesions impair emotional comprehension.
    • Amygdala activation is critical for recognizing fearful expressions.
Affective Blindsight
  • Individuals with visual cortex damage can still recognize emotional expressions, labeled as affective blindsight.
Two Routes of Emotion Recognition
  • Suggests a fast, subcortical processing route for emotional responses and a slower, cortical route for regulating them.

Conclusion

  • Emotions involve complex interactions between physiological responses, spontaneous expressions, and cognitive assessments, influenced by social learning and context with an understanding of both innate and learned components of emotional experience.