Emotions and Positive Psychology: Lecture Notes

Emotions & Positive Psychology

  • A range of emotions are displayed including happy, sad, surprised, horrified, mischievous, angry, suspicious, hysterical, embarrassed, bored, shocked, interested, turned on, eavesdropping, concentrating, asleep, on caffeine, innocent, envious, guilty, in pain, enraged, proud, lovestruck, idiotic, hungover, disappointed, bemused, exhausted, hot, meditative, anxious, prudish, and dead.

Happiness

  • Exploring what contributes to happiness.
  • Factors that are often considered but may not guarantee happiness: attractiveness, money, youth, self-focus, and leisure.
  • Even genetics play a role, but aren't the only decider.

Be H.A.P.P.Y.

  • An acronym representing five research-based tips for happiness.

H - Health

  • Encompasses spirit health, body wellness, and mind.

A - Attitude (& Acting Happy)

P - Purpose

  • A graph shows the aspirations of college students in the USA from 1967-1997.
  • The graph plots the percentage of students saying that being very well-off financially versus developing a meaningful philosophy of life is very important or essential.

P - People

Y - Yin-Yang (or Yerkes-Dodson)

  • The Yerkes-Dodson law illustrates the relationship between stress and performance.
  • Performance is low under low stress, optimal under medium stress (good stress), and declines again under high stress (bad stress).

Emotion & Expression: Nature or Nurture?

  • The question of whether emotions and their expressions are primarily determined by nature (innate factors) or nurture (environmental influences) is posed.
  • References Paul Eckman's studies and the movie "Inside Out."
  • Basic emotional expressions include: Anger, Fear, Disgust, Surprise, Joy, Sadness.

Theories of Emotion

  • Scenario: A dog attacks you. The question is raised: Which comes first, the conscious emotion or the autonomic reaction?

James-Lange Theory

  • Stimulus leads to autonomic response, which then leads to conscious emotion.
  • Facial-Feedback

Cannon-Bard Theory

  • Stimulus leads to autonomic response AND conscious emotion simultaneously.

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

  • Stimulus leads to autonomic response and appraisal of the situation, which combine to create conscious emotion.
The Schachter-Singer Experiment
  • Participants received an epinephrine injection.
  • Stooges acted differently while the participants waited.
  • Participants reacted differently to the drug, depending on the stooge's behavior.
Examples of Two-Factor Theory
  • Spillover Effect (Excitation Transfer)

Zajonc-LeDoux Two-Pathways Theory (“Two-Track Brain”)

  • “High Road” Emotions (love, hatred, & complex feelings).
  • “Low Road” Emotions (fear, disgust, & basic feelings).

Opponent-Process Theory

  • Explains phenomena like "Post-Concert Depression" and "Emotional Hangovers."
  • Involves the interplay between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

Evolutionary Theory

  • Charles Darwin's work, "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals", is referenced.
  • Suggestion that emotions have evolved because of their adaptive significance.

Practice: Identify the Theory of Emotion

  • A series of statements are given, and the task is to identify which theory of emotion is being described: James-Lange (JL), Cannon-Bard (CB), Schachter-Singer (SS), Zajonc-LeDoux (ZL), Opponent Process (OP), or Evolutionary (EV).
  1. The thalamus is the center of emotional experience. (CB)
  2. Interpretation is required before we experience an emotion. (SS)
  3. Emotions like fear are processed quickly without conscious awareness. (ZL)
  4. You start to run, and then become aware you are afraid. (JL)
  5. Awareness of an emotion and bodily changes occur simultaneously. (CB)
  6. Basic vs. complex emotions occur because of two different brain pathways. (ZL)
  7. Emotions have an adaptive significance for humans and animals. (EV)
  8. We label emotions differently though physiologically they are often indistinguishable. (SS)
  9. Different autonomic reactions result in different facial expressions of emotion. (JL)
  10. The situation determines the cognitive appraisal, which determines the emotion. (SS)
  11. A stimulus activates the sympathetic nervous system, then the parasympathetic. (OP)
  12. It is possible to interpret a particular type of arousal as many different emotions. (SS)

Crash Course Review

  • References Crash Course videos on "Feeling All The Feels" (Episode 25) and "Emotion, Stress, & Health" (Episode 26).