Unit 6: Personality, Motivation, and Emotion - Modules 4.4-4.8b
AP Psych Notes
Unit 6: Personality, Motivation, and Emotion - Modules 4.4-4.8b
Module 4.4: Introduction to Psychology
What is personality, and what theories inform our understanding of personality
- personality -- an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
- every branch of psychology has their own version of how a person develops their personality
Module 4.5a: Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theories of Personality: Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Theories
How did frued’s treatment of psychological disorders lead to his view on the unconsious mind, and what was his view of personality?
- psychodynamic theories -- theories tahat view personality w a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences
- te basis of psychodynamic theory i sigmud freud’s psychoanalysis, -- frue’ds theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motivated and conflicts, it is the technique in reating psychological disorders bg yseeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
- his work is heaviuky dependant on the existence of the unconscious -- a resoviouso of mostly unacceptable thouhgtss, feelings, wishes, and memories
- the unconscious mind is still a concept tin modem psychology, although it is now a thought of as synonymous with uncontrolled or automatic processing.
- freud used hypnosis at first but it didnt work, so he switched to free association -- a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
- the idea is that free association allows for a path for the clinician to travel down, back to the original source of trauma
- freud believed the mind was like an iceberg, the conscious is the tipoabove water and the unconsious is the larger part beneath
- psychoanalysis provided the opportunity to get into the parts of the mind we repress from our conscious awareness, areas that contain the memories from our past, especially childhood trauma, that is still causg problems in adulthood
- Freud believed the human personality was a conflict between our impulses for pleasure and the restraint we place on our impulses, so our personality is based on how we resolve tat conflict
- he believed that there were 3 interacting systems that form our personality
- id -- a reservoir o unconsiosu psychic energy that, according to freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives
- the id operates the pleasure principle, demanding immediete gratification and it is the first part of our personalities to develop
- Ego -- the largely unconscious, ‘executive’ part of the personality htatmediates among the dmeands of the id, superego, and reality
- the ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in was that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain. This develops in the first years of life
- superego -- part of the personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for for judgmenet (the conscious) and for future aspirations
- the superego develops around 4-5 according to freud and focus on how we ought to behave rather than how we want to behave, producing pride or guilt
- the conflict, to frued, was between the demands of the id and superego, with the ego reconciling the two
- if a conflict later in life is not resolved, he says it could lead to maladaptive behavior later in life
- at any point nt the oral anal and phallic phase, strong confluct could look or fixate, the eperson’s pleasure seeking energies in that stage
- a chld who recievedt too muuch or not enough attention during the oral phase (breastfeeding) may fixate at that stae and the adult may exhibit either passive dependance or an exaggerateddenial of this dependance, or they may be orally fixated on objects, taking up smoking or chewing on pens.
How did freud think people defended themselves against anxiety
- frued believed children passed through a series of stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which the ids pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones called psychosexual stages.
- each stage offers its own challenge bases on conflicct, based on the parts of the body, for example, during the phallic stage, a boy develops unconsious sexual desire for his mother and hatred for his father, a phenomoenon claled the Oedipus complex -- a finding that came from freud’s personal experience
- freud rarely considered female development , but contemporariews created the Electrac complex as the female counterpart
- the child must repres these thoughts and identify with the rival parent, a process where we assume our parents values into our superegos called identification
- these ideas have been largely disputed, but they provided the basis for the idea of gender identituy
- repression -- the unconscious blocking of unpleasant emotions, impulses, memories, and thoughts from your conscious mind. First described by Sigmund Freud, the purpose of this defense mechanism is to try to minimize feelings of guilt and anxiety.
- regression -- defense mechanism involving the reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of psychosexual development, as a reaction to an overwhelming external problem or internal conflict.
- displacement -- an unconscious defence mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for things felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.
- Sublimation -- a mature type of defense mechanism, in which socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse.
- reaction formation -- a psychological defense mechanism identified by Sigmund Freud, where a person unconsciously replaces an anxiety-provoking impulse with its opposite, often in an exaggerated manner.
- projection -- individuals attribute their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or impulses to others. This process allows them to avoid confronting these undesirable traits within themselves, often distorting their perception of reality in the process
- rationalization -- individuals justify their behaviors or feelings with seemingly logical reasons, rather than acknowledging the true, often uncomfortable motivations behind them. This process helps protect the ego from anxiety and maintains self-esteem by distorting reality to reduce emotional discomfort
Which of frued’s ideas did his folowers accept or rejet
- Neo-freudieans abandoned most of the unconscious mind concerns and instead turned the focus to the conscious mind and domonioshed the importance of sexual disire and aggression in conflicts
- alfred adler and karen hornay used the childhood doundation established by psychoanalysis, but shifted the focus to the social aspect
- adler identified the inferiority complex, which is the idea that childhood trauma and weakness is made up for in striving for superiority and power
- hornay attempted to balance his male bias by focusing her work on women and studied the effect childhood anxiety has onb our desire to be loved
- Carl Jung attemoted to turn back to the unconsiouys mind and its influence
- he expanded the understand of the concept with the idea of the collective unconscious -- a sharedm inherited reservoir of memory traces fron our species history
- he thought that memories were passed dowb from generation to generation like genenes, a concept that is not popular today
- most of freuds work is not practice today, ut his ideas of psychotherapy and conflits shaping our personalities is still important
How do contemporary psychologists view Freud’s psychoanalysis, and how has modern research developed our understanding of the unconscious?
- Freud has received a lot of criticism, but his influence still remains in some areas
- Most discount his assertions on development, largely because it is now seen as a lifelong process, not something that ends at adolescence
- Freud’s work was done with relatively few samples, so his work, especially his ideas on sexual desire, has been discounted
- The emphasis on dreams and slips of the tongue to diagnose mental illness is also largely forgotten
- The largest criticism is based on the idea that psychoanalysis is only concerned with the past and not how to help a person deal with their issues
- Due to Freud’s insistence on the importance of repression, critics have downplayed many of his ideas in this area
- It is no longer believed that traumatic events are repressed, the vast majority of people not only remember traumatic experiences, they remember them vividly and repeatedly
- Psychodynamics has postulated that repressed memories can damage the hippocampus, but modern research has shown this to be the result of stress, which may be caused by bad memories
- The idea that we push negative thoughts and feelings out of the conscious mind has not been forgotten, and is still largely believed to be somewhat accurate today
- Freud’s concept of the unconscious mind has largely been ignored, but most believe there is an active part of our cognition that we are not always aware of, some examples include:
- Priming to stimuli in which we have not consciously attended
- Schemas that automatically control our perceptions and interpretations
- Emotions that activate instantly
- Some of Freud’s defense mechanisms are still expected today, reaction formation is the idea that we form opposite outward attitudes to feelings we are ashamed of, a closeted person being anti-LGBTQ+
- Projection is another accepted defense mechanism, the idea of the false consensus effect (where we overestimate the prevalence of the beliefs we hold in the wider population) is a confirmation of this concept
- Researchers also believe Freud’s idea of unconsciously defending ourselves from anxiety does occur
- Terror-management theory -- a theory of death-related anxiety, it explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
- Proof of this is the strengthening of worldview that answer questions about life’s meaning near death
What are projective tests, how are they used, and what are some criticisms of them?
- There are several tests used in psychodynamics to assess a person’s personality, they are subjective assessments that leave a lot of interpretation to the clinician
- They are projective tests, a personality test such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics
- The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) -- a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
- The Rorschach test -- the most widely used projective test, it is a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach, that seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
- Due to the subjective nature of the tests, widespread doubt persists about the validity and reliability of these tests to diagnose mental disorder
Module 4.5b: Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theories of Personality: Humanistic Theories
How did Freud’s treatment of psychological disorders lead to his view on the unconscious mind, and what was his view of personality?
- In the 1960s, Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were instrumental in creating the humanistic theories, theories that view personality as with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth
- The movement began n response to the still-popular psychoanalytic of Freud and the behaviorist perspective of skinner
- The humanistic theories -- placed a larger emphasis on conscious thought and its potential for positive growth
- Maslow’s most important contribution was the hierarchy of needs -- his pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must be first satisfied before higher-;eve; safety needs and hen psychological needs becomes active, which he created by studying creative and happy people rather than troubled clinical cases
- Once we feel physically safe and secure we seek love, once we feel loved we seek to have high self-esteem
- Once we are secure physically, with loving relationships that help is feel confident in our abilities, we seek self-actualization -- the ultimate psychological needs that arises after all after needs are met which drives us to reach our full potential, and self-transcendence -- the striving for identity meaning, and purpose beyond the self
- By studying healthy and creative people he found common traits and expectations; they were self-aware and self-accepting rather than self-centered, they focused their energies on positive, problem-centered tasks and goals, they enjoyed few deep relationships rather than many superficial ones
- In terms of their relationships they tend to have good relationships with their parents, they were often very compassionate, they “acquired enough courage to be unpopular, to be unashamed about being openly virtuous”
Module 4.6a: Social-Cognitive and Trait Theories of Personality: Trait Theories
How do psychologists use traits to describe personality?
- Gordon Allport interviewed Freud and left the experience with the idea that the personality should be described in the opposite way Freud did, instead of looking for hidden meaning Allport decided to focus on fundamental traits, a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
- Allport was more concerned with describing the features of the personality rather than Freud’s ripping each trait apart and explaining it
- Isabel Brigges Myers and her mother katharine Briggs, developed the Myers Briggs Type Indicatory (MBTI), to describe facets of a personality
-The MBTi measures takers according to 4 pairs, extraversion vs. introversion, sensing vs. intuition, thinking vs. feeling, and judging vs. perceiving
- The MBTI is not used as a research instrument due to its questioned validity and lack of statistical foundation, but is still widely used in the business, counseling and sports worlds
- There are several tools researchers use for gauging personality traits in people
- One technique is factor analysis, a statistical procedure that identities clusters (factors) of test items that tap basic components of a trait
- It’s the idea that extraversion is a cluster of traits, it’s a mix of things like enjoying social experiences, describe themselves as outgoing and dislike quiet activities
- Hans and Subil Eysenck believe all traits can be boiled down to two factors; extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability
- Brain scans of extroverts reveal they may seek stimulation due to a relatively low normal brain arousal, especially in the inhibiting frontal lobe
- The autonomic nervous system has also been shown to be under-active in introverts, perhaps leading to anxiety and inhibition when responding to stress
What are personality inventories, and what are the strengths and weaknesses as trait-assessment tools?
- Personality inventories are questionnaires (often true-false or agree/disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors, they are used to assess selected personality traits
- The classical personality inventory is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality test
It was originally developed to identify emotional disorders, which is still considered its most appropriate use, but now used for many other screenings
- The MMPI was empirically derived, it was created by selecting from a pool of items those that discriminate between groups, and objective as opposed to the subjective Rorschach tests
- The MMPI-1 uses 10 clinical scales, including for depressive tendencies, masculinity/femininity, and extroversion-introversion, the revised MMPI-2 now features scales that assess work attitudes, family problems, and anger
Which traits seem to provide the most useful ino about personality variation?
- Robert McRae and Paul Costa developed the Big 5 Factor Test to give more full picture of a person’s personality thn the MMPI
- the big 5 tests specifically in 5 dimensions - concientioudness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion
- the big 5 is the most prevalenct personality test today, and is used to answer questions relating to
- Stability of emotions
- heritability of traits
- traits and related brain structures and their functioning, etc.
Does research support the consistency of personality traits over time and across situations?
- Our behavior is influenced by the interaction of our inner disposition with our environment, research is attempting to identify personality traits that seem to persist over time and many situations, called the person-info controversy
- research has shown that our personalities change early in life, quickly, but our behaior in different situations does change quite frequently, therefore, personality test scores are unreliable when it comes to predicting behavior
Module 4.6b: Social-cognitive and Trait theories of Personality: Social-cogntitive theories
How do cognitive theorists view personality development and how do they explore behavior
- the social-cognitive perspective -- views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits, including their thinking, and their social context
- the pioneer of the social-cognitive perspective is albert bandura,and it became known as the behavioral approach -- focuses ont he effects fo learning on our personality development
- these perspectives believe we learn behavior and our personality from conditioning or observing and imitating others
- the social cognitive perspective differs from the behavioralism of william james in that cognition plays a larger role than the reactive james
- bandura views the person-environemnt interaction as reciprocal determanism -- he itneractin influences of behavior, internal cognition, nad environment
- he thought inditvifuals interacted with their envirenments in menay ways. Some include the idea that different people chose different environments (we chose our environment, then it shapes us) our environment shapes how we interact and react with events (if we see the worl d as threatening, we react in that way) and our personalities help us create situations to which we react (how we view and treat others influence how they view and treat us)
- the gene-environment interaction --the idea that our genetically infleuced traits evoke certain response from others, which may nudge us in one direction or another, possessing aggressive genees and being raised in an abusive household draamatically increases the likelyhood of antisoical personalitu disorder iagnosis
- at every moment, were influeced by our genes, environemt, culture, cogniton, and our disposition.
What criticisms have social-cognitive theoriests faced?
- They develop tests to predict future behavior basedo n actions, not necessarily pen and paper tests, large companies will often simulate a situation and see how the perspective candidate actds anf reacts rather than giving them the big 5 factor test
- this idea rests on the thought that the best predictor of future behavior the person’s past behviror patterns in similar situations if a person’s traits remain the same, you would expect similar action in similar situations
- the criticisms of social-cogntitive theories is that inner cognition is largely set aside, in favor of the strong emphasis on the situation
Module 4.6c: Social-cognitive and Trait theories of Personality: Social-cogntitive theories
Why has psychology generated so much research ont he self? How important is self-esteem to our well-being
- the self -- an organizer of thoughts, feelings, and actions that occupy the center of our personalities, according to moerm psychology
- the self is abstract, but also not set in stone, this is the concept of possible future self, it allows us to project who we want to be, giving possible scenarios for our futures to strive for or avoid
- the self is smth we always think about, but we also think others are focused on us as well
- the spotlight effect -- overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders, as if we presume we’re constantly under a spotlight
- in the study that found this effect students were asked to wear an embarrassing shirt in a room of other students. They estimated that half would notice but oly 25% did.
- to control this, we can understand this effect, nad that nearly everyone we encounter don’t take much notice of our actions and we can take the audience’s perspective in an empathetic way.
- self-esteem- - one’s feelings of high or low self-worh, and self-effecacy -- one’s sense of competence and effectiveness, are two important features of our self-concept
- people with high self-esteem and effecacy sleep better, are more positive and productive, feel less shy, anxious nand lonely,a nd overall happier
- there is a chicken or egg debate on which leads to what
- most believe that high esteem follows efficacy, they point to research to show rewards absent of accomplishment have no effects
- most will agree that low self-esteem has negative effects
- when our self-mage and self esteem are threatened we tend to react in a predictable, avoidable manner
- because of this observed connections, it is widely believed self-esteem and self-image
- anxiety over portentiual failure is often motivational for us, we are often driven to avoid the failure
- excessive optimism can be as bad as excessive pessimism - an unrealistic optimism about future events can lead to unrealistic expectations, and if no fulfilled can be easily lead to depression
- blind optimism can be self-defeating as it can lead us to assume we are invinciible
- humans do tend to temper their optimism in a healthy way when we’re facing feedback
How od blindness to ones own incompetence and self-serving bias reveal the costs of self-esteem, and how do defensive and secure self-esteem differ?
- justin kruger and david dunning created the dunning-kruger effect -- the idea that we’re ignorant you our own incompetence, so that we act like we’re correct always, because it takes competence to contrast incompetence
- this leads to be overconfident of our cognitive abilities. This sis why peer-reviewing and assessment can be so helpful, we don’t knwo what we don’t know and dont even know we dont know it, so we act like we do.
- “Victory has thousands fathers and failure is an orphan” JFK
- most of us view ourselves thru a self-serving bias, a readiness to perceive oneself favorably, most people accept more credit for good deeds than bad and for success rather than failure.
- we often attribute our success to avoid unpleasant truths in order to protect our self-esteem and image, but it can also lead us to approach a task with confidence rather than despair
- evidence of the self-serving bias is found n the results of personal performance tests, we can’t lal be good drivers
- narcissism -- excessive self-love and self-absorbiton, is when selfserving bias goes too far
- the risks from a narcissist to others is when a person is able to “puncture their bubble of self-love” the often react with physical aggression
- narcissists have been found to be materialaitic, fame-seeking, risk-taking, and angaing in more forceful sexual behavior
- ironically, self-serving bias explains self-depricating behavbior in a few ways: it often illicit reassuring response, they prepare us for possible failure, it helps us learn from our mistakes, and it typically pertains to our old self
- research has shown two types of self-esteem
- defensive self-esteem -- focusing on sustaining the self, which makes failure and criticism feel threatening and often leads to response of anger and aggression
- secure self-esteem -- the focus becomes less about external rewards and is focused oninner motivations
How do individualist and collectivist cultures shape values and goals
- cultures around the world can lead people to be either individualist -- giving priority to one’s won goal over group goals and defining ones identity in terms of personal attributions rather than group identifications, or collectivist -- giving priority ot the group (often extended family or work groups) and defining ones own identity accordingly
- indivisdualist shares the human need to belong, but with groups hey arent overly concerned with the group success but rather their owne work and goal
- collectiveist receive a great deal of comfort and strength from their groups, group identification becomes part of their personalities
- collectivists receive a great deal of comfort and strength from their groups, group identification becomes a part of their personalities
- Collectivists judge sporting success by team success and individualsists judge them by personal success
- Collectivist are more prone to the concepts that relate to group harmony, like groupthink, while individualists are more prone to things like narcissism
- Western cultures and people tend to be more individualistic and eastern cultures tend to be more collectivist
Module 4.7a: Motivation: Motivational Concepts
How do Psychologists define motivation? What are key motivation theories?
- Motivation -- a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
- theories of motivation:
- Instinct theory -- humans are motivated by geeritcallly predisposed behavior
- An instinct is a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned
- because most animals do not have advanced speech or learning capabilities, it is believed that animals know their world through instincts
- human babies also exhibit signs of using instincts to navigate the world, but after the frist 18 months of life it is dfifficylt to attribute specific human actions to instincts
- drive reduction theory -- humans are motivated by their inner pushes and pulls
- we have physiological needs, a basic bodily requirement (food and water) that create an aroused, motivated state, which is a drive (hunger or thirst) that pushes us to resuce the need
- drive reduction theory -- the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy (reduce) it
- it is based on our body’s desire to achieve homeostasis -- a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state
- our bodies have a desired level of hydratiob, temprature, and energy level - sensory neurons montor the kevels throughout our body, when a low temp is detected internally the sensory neurons alert the hypothalamus, which leads to the blood vessel constiricaion, riasing the internal temp.
- drive-reduction theory also states that in addition to being “pushed” to reduce a drive, we can also be pulled by incentives, a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivaes behavior
- the incentives are based on the drives so that a pleasing aroma may motivate (pull) you to eat the food that emelss good, even if you are not hungry
- incentives and needs both create drives that lead us to a particular behavior in the drive-reduction theory
- needs act as intrinsic motivation and incentives act as extrinsic motivation
- arousal theory -- we are motivated by levels of stimulation
- We are not always acting according to homeostasis through, which seeks to reduce the arousal created by a need’s absence
- creatures seemingly do things with the specific goal of arousal, leading to the arousal theory, of motivation which says that humans seek the potimal level of arousal which varies from person to person
- if were in a situation where all our homeostatic needs are met, we look for stimulation to avoid boredom
- the arousal theory also states that when overstimulated, we seek to reduce the stimulation to avoid over arousal
- the Yerkes-Dodson Law -- is the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point beyons which performance decreases, a modificaton to the idea of social facilitation
Wy is the idea that ome needs are more compeloing than others a useful framework for thinking about motivation?
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: categories of needs and wants are prioritized
- Abraham Maslow created the Hierarchy of needs t odescribe motivation
- he created a pyramid with 6 levels, as we fufill th needs, we may chose to fufill the needs of the level above it
- The needs at the bottom are physical in nature then we progress to social needs, then on to esteem and needs
Module 4.7b: Motivation: Affiliation and Achievement
What evidence points to out human affiliation need -- our need to belong?
- the ancient greek were first to discuss the important of the affiliation need -- the need to build and maintain relationships and to feel part of the group
- its believed that social ties increased the likelihood of survival for our ancestors
- According to the self determination throy -- we strive to fufill these needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness
- self-determidned behaviors can be either motivated intrinsic or extrinsic
- intrinsic motivation -- is the desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake
- extrinsic motivation -- the desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid punishment
- the relatedness aspect of self detemrination explains why those who feel more connected to othrs tend to report feeling happier
- not only do married people report bein ghappoer but they also live longer than people who are divorced or separated
- children raised in nonloving environments tend to grow up to be avoidant, anxious adults
- the pandemic was an excellent time to impoove the relatedness as mental health indicators showed more anxiety and depression than at any point
- Ostracism is the deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups, and it can be a very severe form of punishment
- this threatens peoples need to belong, and people typically respond the same way, attempting to restore their position, followed by depression and finally withdrawl
- it’s a social pin that is often experienced as real pain, the same areas that respond to pain ae the same areas that are triggered when ostracized
- tends to make people disagreeable, uncooperative, and hostile, which often leads to furher ostracism
How does social networking influence us
- by connecting with like minded people, theinternet serves as a social amplifier
- social media leads people to compare their lives to others, which triggers unhappiness due to social compassion
- from 2010 to 2018 to number of smartphones tripled, and in the same period, teen rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide increased dramatically
- social mdia is a double-edged sword; it allows for more connections to more people, but those connections are not face-tofaced, there fore we dont ge the same advantages as when physically present
what is achievement motivation, and what are some ways to encourage achievement?
- achievement motivation -- a desire for significant accomplishment, for matstery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining high standards
- there is a strong link between achievement motivation and life success - economic, romantic, life satisfaction
- the best predictor of life success is discipline and self-control, those who have it will succeed regardless of personal traits
- the people who reach the top of their profession or field often do so bcause of self-disipline, but it is alos matched by natural talent.
- Researcher Angela Duckworth called a passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals
- grit + self control = success
- Grit -- is passion and perseverance in the pursilt of long term goals
- it has been observed that intrinsic motivators serve as the most important ad strongest motivators, but the goals we set using intrinsic motivation often end up rewarding extrinsically as well
Module 4.7c: Motivation: Hunger Motivation
What Physiological factors produce hunger
- The need for energy creates a drive to relieve hunger, and the ensuing behavior will be centered around obtaining food, but this is the result of several parts of te body reporting to the hypothalamus
- the most important part in transmitting the message appears to be the stomach, which contracts when empty
- Glucose -- the form of sugar that circulaes in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissue
- when w lower than desired level of glucose is detected in the blood, your brain detects it, and creates the feeling of hunger
- when we have too much glucose in our system, the pancreas secretes insulin, which breaks down glucose and stores it as fat, when inslulin is secreted its a sign that you dont need food, so your appetite diminished
- the brain area that monitors homeostatic levels of energy and body weight is the hypothalamus, specifically the arcuate nucleus, where blood vessels throughout th ebody montor our energy and body weight
- grelin -- a hungeer-arousing hormone secreted by an empty stomach, when the hypothalamus detects ghrelin in the bloodstream, its a sign we need energy, therefore, hunger is initiated
- orexin -- the neruopeptide secreted by the hypothalamus that triggers the feeling of hunger
- leptin -- the protein hormone secreted by fat cells, when high levels of leptin are detected in the blood, it triggers satiety
- peptide YY (PYY) -- a polupeptide that acts much like grhelin, but in the opposite direction, the colin and intestines secrete PYY when food is moving through, triggering satiety
- it appears that mammals have a desired body weight range, and bring out of that range one way or the other will cause fluctuations in hunger feelings
- the set point is the point where your ‘weight thermostat’ may be set; when your body falls below this weight you may notice increased hunger and a lower metabolic rate, the opposite occurs when you’re over the set point
- this is determined by genetics
- the basal metabolic rate -- the body’s resting rate of energy output -- when the metabolic rate is high glucose is metabolized into energy at a higher rate
- set point is a theory , many dispute it
- if we reduce our food intake, our basal metabolic rate also slows down, the reason why diets are so successful but then you may find it harder to lose weight
What are the physiological issues with hunger?
- Obesity -- body mass index measurement of 30 or above
- Anorexia nervosa -- an eating disorder where a person maintains a starvation diet of despite being signifigantly underweight; sometimes accompanies by excessive exercise
- bulimia nervosa -- an eating disorder where a person’s beinge eating (usually high calorie foods) is followed by inappropriate weight loss promoting behavior such as vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise
Module 4.8a: Emotion: Theories and physiology of emotions
How do arousal, expressive behavior, and cognition interact with emotion
- phineas gage was a railroad worker who had an iron rod blasted through his skull, damage to his frontal lobe and amygdala caused numerous emotional and cognitive problems for him
- an emotion is a response to ana ctual or perieved stimuli involving the whole organism. It infolves 3 components
- a physiological (bodily) response
- expressive behaviors
- a conscious experience
- psychologists agree these all need to be present to experience an emotion, but disagree to the order and importance of
- there are many theories that attempt to explain why we have emotions
The James Lange Theory
- physiological arousal first
- we interpret this arousal
- only after the interpretation can we expereicne emotion
- if the arousal is not noticed or is not given any thought, we will not expereice emotion
- EX: you are waling down a dark alley late at night. You hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens. You notice these and interpret them as your body’s preparation for a fearful situation. You then experience fear
EVENT --------> AROUSAL --------> INTERPRETATION --------> EMOTION
The Canon Bard Theroy
- experience physiological arousal and emotionl at the same time, gives no attention to the role of thoughts or outward behavior.
- EX: youre walking down a dark alley late at night. You hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens. At the same time as these occur, you begin to experience the emotion of fear
--------> AROUSAL
EVENT
--------> EMOTION
To experience emotion, must we consciously interpret and label them?
The two factor/ schachter singer theory
- event causes physiological arousal first
- identify the reason for this
- then youre able to experience and label the emotion
- one aspect of emotion taht they believe proves the validity is the spillover effect, if youre aroused emotioally uou tend to be more emotional in all ways
- EX: youre walking down a dark alley late at night. You hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens. Upon noticing this, you realize that is comes from the fact you’re walking down a dark alley by yourself, this bejavior is dangerous and therefore you feel the emotion of fear
EVENT --------> AROUSAL --------> REASONING --------> EMOTION
The Zajonc-Ledoux Theory
- Robert Zajonc beliebed we may have an emotional reaction apart from, or before, our consious interpretation of a situation -- think being surprised
- hsi work, combined with the work of joseph LeDoux, ives the idea that our emotion can take a low road or a high road in the brain depending on whether or not the appraisal of the situation is needed
- emotions that take the high road see the message be sent to the cerebral cortex (via the thalmus) and then to the amygdala for our emotional reaction; complex emotions like love and hate would take this route
- emotions that take the low road bypass the cerebral cortx and just get sent directly to the amygdala from the thalamus; simpler emotions like dislike and surprise would take this route
- the amygdala appears to send more emotional information to the cerebral cortex than it recieves, which is why our decision making may be hijacked by our emotions
The Lazarus Theory
- A thought must come before any emotion or physical ration
- think about the situation before you experience the emotion
- EX: youre walking down a dark alley late at night. You hear footsteps behind you and assume it may be a mugger so you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens and at the same time you experience fear
EVENT --------> THOUGHT --------> EMOTION
--------> AROUSAL
What are some of the basic emotions?
- most emotion scientists agree there are 5 basic emotions - anger, sadness, disgust, fear, and happiness
- caroll lzad described those 5 plus interest-excitement, surprise, contempt, shame, and guilt
- others believe there are as many as 28 including awe, love, and pride
- emotions are generally categorized according to two scales: valence (positive versus negative) and arousal (Low vs high)
What is the link between emotional arousal and our automatic nervous system
- when we experience emotion, our sympathetic nervous system triggers the release of the stress hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephine (noradrenaline) and your iver secretes extra glucose to the bloodstream for energy
- at the same time, your respiration deepens to provide your body with more oxygen and your hear rate and blood pressure increase
- your digestion slows as blood is moved from organs to appendages
- pupils dialate and you perspire
- when the emotion and situation subside, your parasympathetic nervous system return the body to normal
How do emotions activate different physiological and brian pattern responses
- the same brain areas seem to be involved in diff emotional reactions. The insula is a neural center deep in the brain and is activated when we experience many neg emotions
- physiologically, diff emotions cuse the same bodily reactions
- while several emotions may activate the same area, some are locallized; negative emotions, especially depression, deem to activate the right frontal lobe, while positive moods tend to trigger the left frontal lobe
- A Polygraph -- a machine used in attempts to detect lies
- a polygraph operates by detecting the changes n emotions when you lie, by measuring heart rate, perspiration, and breathing
- the science says that when you lie, you become nervous about being caught, so your sympathetic nervous system kicks in
Module 4.8b: Emotion: Expressing and experiencing emotion
How do we communicate nonverbally
- were able to detect certain emotions and threats wuth few brief cues, we can detec a smile in seconds and an angry face stand out in a crowd.
- the primary facial cues of an emotion can be hidden, yu can fight back a smile, but its impossible to account for every subtle cue of an emotion
- while happy, our eyebrows and cheeks raiwhnen we naturally smile, this is part of a duchenne smile, which is an authentic smie ends to be briefer, but fades less abruptly
- deceit is difficult as the facal cues when we’re nervous are ambiguous
- gestures, facial expressions, and voice tones are only present in face-to-face interactions, there fore written communication or voice only make this more difficult
How do men and women differ in nonverbal communication
- women have been found to be better detectors of emotions than men, an advantage thats noticed in infancy
- nonverbal sensitivity may explain why women tend to have a higher emotional intelligence, responsive, and expressive than men
- wwomen also express emotion more than men except when it comes to anger. Men are fund to expres snager clearly and angry faces are more attributed to men
- one reason is because were more likely to attribute a womans emotional state to her natuee whule we attribute emotional men as situational
- women and men are thought to exprerience empathy equaly, but women are believed to express sympathy more than men
How are gestures and facial expressions understood within and across cultures
- gestures are cultural, dont give someone a thumbs up in iran
- paul ekman studied the universality of facial expressions by showing people in new guinea expressive faces and asking them to make faces thart respond to certain facial situations
- his work led him to conclude that certain emotions are universal, happiness, sadness, disgust, supreise fear, and anger were early recognized and replicated
- more research has shown that beyond happiness and anger, facial expressions vary across cultures
- cultures across thw world have a universal language of emotion, but the extent of acceptable expression varies considerably across cultures
- asian cultures tend to express emotions differently, often less expressively than western cultures. Expressed less through the mouth than the eyes. They infer emotion from context more than expression.
- another sign that emotional expression is socio-cultural is that american-ethnic cultural groups express emotions in more traditionally american styles than their original cultures
How do our facial expressions influence our feelings?
- studies of emotional effects of facial expressions support the idea that expressions not only communicate emotion, they amplify and regulate it
- research has shown that people who fake a smile or scowl will begin to feel that emotion
- this is known as the facial feedback effect -- the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others thoughts, feelings, actions
- long, meaningful movements have been shown to improve moods and feeling, while short, meaningless movements have been shown to effect it the other way
- acting sad will makeyou feel sad
- if you want tot feel empathetic with another person, mimic their movements and expressions
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