Psych Chapter 12

1. Introduction to Emotion

   1. Emotion: Arousal, Behavior, and Cognition

      1. Emotion

         1. Emotions

            1. A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and most importantly, (3) conscious experience resulting from one’s interpretations

            2. Bodily arousal (heart pounding)

            3. Expressive behaviors (quickened pace)

            4. Conscious experience (is this a kidnapping?) and feelings (panic, fear, joy)

            5. Mental state associated with our evaluation of an experience

            6. Adaptive responses that support survival

See a bear: it's a good thing you feel fear

• Include components:

Bodily arousal

Expressive behaviors

Conscious experiences

• James-Lange Theory: Arousal Comes Before Emotion

  1. The idea that common sense is backwards

     1. Common sense tells us that we cry because we are sad or lash out because we are angry

     2. William James argues that we feel sorry because we cry and angry because we lash out

Carl Lange joined this proposal

• James-Lange Theory

  1. The theory that our experience of emotions occurs when we become aware of our physiological responses to an emotion-arousing stimulus

  1. Cannon-Bard Theory: Arousal and Emotion Occur Simultaneously

     1. Concluded that our bodily responses and experienced emotions occur separately but simultaneously

     2. Cannon-Bard Theory

        1. The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion

     3. Example

        1. Heart begins to pound when fear is experienced

        2. The emotion-triggering stimulus traveled to sympathetic nervous system, causing bodily arousal

        3. Pounding heart did not cause fear nor did the feeling of fear cause the pounding heart

  2. Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory: Arousal + Label = Emotion

     1. Our physical reaction and our thoughts (perceptions, memories, and interpretations) together create emotion

     2. Two-factor theory

        1. To experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal

     3. Spillover effect

        1. Example: arousal from a soccer match can fuel anger, which can descend into rioting or other violent confrontations

     4. Point to remember

        1. Arousal fuels emotion, cognition channels it

  3. Zajonc, LeDoux, and Lazarus: Does Cognition Always Precede Emotion?

     1. The brian’s pathways for emotion

        1. High Road

Sensory input may be routed to the cortex (via thalamus) for analysis and then transmission to the amygdala

• Low Road

Sensory input may be routed directly to the amygdala (via thalamus) for an instant emotional reaction

• Summary

  1. Some simple emotional responses involve no conscious thinking

  2. But other emotions (depressive moods and complex feelings) are greatly affected by our conscious and unconscious information processing (memories, expectations, and interpretations)

  1. Embodied Emotion

     1. Emotions and the Autonomic Nervous System

        1. In crisis, sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) mobilizes the body for action

           1. Adrenal glands release stress hormones (epinephrine - adrenaline) (norepinephrine - noradrenaline)

           2. Liver pours extra sugar (glucose) into bloodstream for energy

           3. Respiration increases to supply needed oxygen

           4. Heart rate and blood pressure increase

           5. Digestion slows - diverting blood from internal organs to muscles (makes action become easier)

           6. Pupils dialate

           7. Skin prespires

           8. Blood clots more quickly if wounded

        2. When the crisis passes, the parasympathetic division of ANS gradually calms the body

           1. Pupils contract

           2. Salvation increases

           3. Skin dries

           4. Respiration decreases

           5. Heart slows

           6. Digestion activates

           7. Adrenal glands decrease secretion of stress hormones

           8. Immune system functioning enhances

     2. The Physiological of Emotions

        1. Different emotions can share common biological signatures

        2. Insula

           1. A neural center deep inside the brain

        3. Some of our emotions have distinct brain circuits

        4. Positive moods tend to trigger more left frontal lobe activity

        5. Scary thrills

           1. Elated excitement and panicky fear involve similar physiological arousal. That allows us to flip rapidly between the two emotions

        6. Polygraph

           1. A machine used in attempts to detect lies; measures emotion-linked changes in perspiration, heart rate, and breathing

1. Expressing Emotion

   1. Detecting Emotion in Others

      1. The brain is an amazing detector of subtle expressions, helping most of us read non-verbal cues well

         1. Also at detecting nonverbal threats

      2. Experiences can sensitize us to particular emotions

         1. When viewing images starting with an angry face and then morphing into fearful face, physically abused children were more likely to identify the morphed fear/anger face as anger that children that were not physically abused

      3. Hard to control facial muscles can reveal emotions you may be trying to conceal

      4. Gestures, facial expressions, and vocal tones convey important information

      5. Egocentrism

         1. Jean Piaget’s term

         2. Failing to perceive how other interpret our “just kidding” message

   2. Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior

      1. Studies indicate that women do outperform men at emotion detection

         1. This advantage starts at early development, even in infants

         2. Women’s nonverbal sensitivity help explain their greater emotional literacy

            1. Also their skill at decoding others’ emotions

Contributes to their greater responsiveness and expressiveness

• Anger strikes people as a masculine emotion

  • Empathy

    1. Identify with others and imagine being in their skin

    2. Women are more likely to express

  1. Culture and Emotional Expression

     1. Gestures

        1. Vary from culture to culture

        2. Example

           1. Thumbs up = good

     2. Data shows that humans do a better job of judging emotional displays our their own culture

     3. Universal emotions

        1. No matter where on earth you live, you have no trouble recognizing the surprise and joy experienced

        2. Facial muscles

  2. The Effect of Facial Expressions

     1. William James (1890) and Charles Darwin (1872)

        1. William James

           1. Believed that we can control our emotions by going “through the outward movements”

        2. Charles Darwin

           1. Contended that “the free expression by outward signs of emotion intensifies it”

        3. Together = Fake it until you make it

           1. Expressions not only communicate emotion, they also amplify it and regulate it

     2. Facial Feedback Effect

        1. The tendency of facial muscles states to trigger corresponding feelings, such as fear, anger, or happiness

     3. Behavior Feedback Effect

        1. The tendency of behavior to influence our own and others’ thoughts, feelings, and actions

1. Experiencing Emotion

   1. Anger

      1. Short madness

      2. Anger triggers fight

      3. Boosts our heart rate, increases inflammation, and raises our testosterone levels

      4. Catharsis

         1. In psychology, the idea that “releasing” aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

      5. Anger is often maladaptive

         1. It can fuel aggression and prime prejudice

      6. How to deal with anger

         1. Wait

         2. Find a healthy distraction or support

         3. Distance yourself

   2. Happiness

      1. Moods Matter

         1. When gloomy, life seems gloomy

         2. When happy, life is positive

      2. Feel-good, do-good phenomenon

         1. People’s tendency to be helpful when in a good mood

      3. Positive Psychology

         1. Positive psychology

            1. The scientific study of human flourishing, with the goal of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities thrive

         2. Subjective well-being

            1. Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people’s quality of life

         3. Pilars

            1. Positive Well-being

            2. Positive Traits

            3. Positive groups, communities, and cultures

      4. The Short Life of Emotional Ups and Downs

         1. We overestimate the durations of our emotions and underestimate our resiliency and capacity to adapt.

      5. Can Money Buy Happiness?

         1. Effect of Income and Inequality

            1. National wealth matters

People who have secure livelihood tend to be happier

• Personal Income (up to a satiation point) predicts happiness

Having money to live comfortably predicts greater happiness

• Over time, a rising economic tide has not produced increased happiness or decreased depression

Economic growth in affluent countries has provided no apparent boost to people’s morale or social well-being

• Extreme Inequality is socially toxic

Those who live in an affluent country and strive for intimacy, personal growth, and community contribution experience a higher quality of life

• Happiness is Relative: Adaptation and Comparison

  1. Happiness is relative to our own experience

     1. Adaptation-level phenomenon

Our tendency to form judgments (of sound, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experiences

• Feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, success and failure are judgment we make based partly on expectations formed by our recent experience

  1. Happiness is relative to others’ success

     1. Relative Deprivation

The perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves

• What Predicts Our Happiness Levels?

  1. Genes matter

     1. Human traits are influenced by many genes having small effects

  2. Personal and culture matter

  3. Self esteem and achievement matter

     1. Western cultures

1. Stress and Illness

   1. Stress: Some Basic Concepts

      1. Stress

         1. The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

      2. Stress appraisal

         1. The events of our lives flow through a psychological filter. How we appraise an event influences how much stress we experience and how effectively we respond

      3. Mind and Body interact; everything psychological is simultaneously physiological

      4. Stressor - Things that Push Our Buttons

         1. Catastrophes

            1. After such events, damage to emotional and physical health can be significant

         2. Significant Life Changes

            1. Life transitions are often keenly felt

Leaving home

Having a loved one die

Taking on student debt

Losing a job

Getting divorced

• A cluster of crisis puts one even more at risk

  1. Daily Hassles and Social Stress

     1. Daily hassles

Aggravating housemates

Incessant social media notifications

Too many things to do in too little time

• Social stress

May be compounded by prejudice

Racial discrimination

• Approach and avoidance motives

The drive to move toward (approach) or away from (avoid) a stimulus

Least stressful are the approach-approach conflicts

Avoidance avoidance conflict

• The Stress Response System

  1. Walter Cannon confirmed that the stress response is a part of a unified mind-body system

  2. Fight or Flight

     1. Increases heart rate and respiration

     2. Diverts blood from digestion to skeletal muscles

     3. Dulls feelings of pain

     4. Releases sugar and fat from the body’s store

     5. Epinephrine is the one handing out guns

     6. Glucocorticoids are the one drawing up the blueprints

  3. Sympathetic Nervous System

     1. Helps with immediate threats than with distant or looming threats

     2. By fighting or fleeing we increase our chances of survival

     3. Additional stress response

Glucocorticoid stress hormones such as cortisol

• General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

  1. Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases - alarm, resistance, exhaustion

  • Phase 1

    1. Alarm reaction

    2. SNS activated

  • Phase 2

    1. Resistance

    2. Adrenal glands pump

  • Phase 3

    1. Exhaustion

    2. More vulnerable to illness

  • Tend and befriend response

    1. Under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)

  1. Stress and Vulnerability to Disease

     1. Healthy Psychology

        1. A subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine

     2. Psychoneuroimmunology

        1. The study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect our immune system and resulting health

     3. Human Immune systems reacting to stress

        1. Surgical wounds heal more slowly in stressed people

        2. Stressed people are more vulnerable to colds

        3. Stress can hasten the course of disease

     4. Stress gets under the skin. It does not make us sick but it does alter our immune functioning, which leaves us less able to resist infection

     5. Stress and Cancer

        1. Stress does not create cancer cells

           1. It was found that stressed rodents developed cancer more often than non stressed ones

     6. Stress and Heart Disease

        1. Coronary Heart Disease

           1. The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; a leading cause of death in many developed countries

        2. The Effects of Personality, Pessimism, and Depression

           1. Meye Friedman and Ray Rosenman tested the idea that stress increases vulnerability to heart disease by measuring at different times of the year the blood cholesterol level and clotting speed of 40 U.S. men who were tax accountants

           2. Type A

Friedman and Roseman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people

• Type B

Friedman and Roseman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people

• Stress and Inflammation

  1. Both heart disease and depression may result when chronic stress triggers blood vessel inflammation, disrupting the body’s disease-fighting immune system

1. Health and Coping

   1. Coping with Stress

      1. Cope

         1. Alleviating stress using emotional cognitive, or behavioral methods

      2. Problem-focused coping

         1. Attempting to alleviate stress directly - by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor

      3. Emotion-focused coping

         1. Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attempting to emotional needs related to our stress reaction

      4. Perceived Lack of Control

         1. Personal Control

            1. Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless

         2. Learned helplessness

            1. The hopelessness and passive resignation humans and other animals learn when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

         3. Internal Versus External Locus of Control

            1. External locus of control

The perception that outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate

• Internal locus of control

The perception that we control our own fate

• Building Self-Control

  1. Self Control

The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards

• Strengthening self control is key to coping effectively with stress

  1. Explanatory Style: Optimism Versus Pessimism

     1. Optimists

        1. tend to have optimal health

        2. Better grades

        3. Them and their romantic partners generally manage conflict constructively, resulting in feeling more supported and satisfied with the resolution and with relationship

  2. Social Support

     1. People need to be social

        1. To combat social isolation, we need to do more than collect a lot of acquaintances, we need people to genuinely care about us

     2. Social support calms us, improves our sleep, and reduces blood pressure

     3. Social support fosters stronger immune functioning

     4. Close relationships give us an opportunity for “open heart therapy” - a chance to confide

  1. Reducing Stress

     1. Aerobic Exercise

        1. Aerobic exercise

           1. Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; also helps alleviate stress depression and anxiety

     2. Relaxation and Meditation

        1. Mindful meditation

           1. A reflective practice in which people attend to current experiences in a nonjudgmental and accepting manner

        2. Mindfulness

           1. Strengthens connections among brain regions

           2. Activated brain regions associated with more reflective awareness

           3. Calms brain activation in emotional situations

     3. Faith Communities and Health

        1. Research points to three possibilities explanations for the religiosity-longevity correlation

           1. Healthy Behaviors

Religion promotes self-control

• Social support

To belong to a faith community is to participate in a support network

• Positive emotions

Lecture notes:

How many emotions are there?

• According to Eckman

  • 6 emotions

    • Happy

    • Sad

    • Fear

    • Surprise

    • Anger

    • Disgust

• According to Izard

  • 10 emotions

    • Sad

    • Fear

    • Surprise

    • Anger

    • Disgust

    • Contemp

    • Guilt

    • Interest

    • joy/excitement

    • Shame

Complex emotions

• Combinations of the primary emotions that combine to create more complex emotions

  • Schadenfreude or joy at others misfortune

    • happiness/anger/pride

  • Bittersweet

    • happy/sad

Core affect (valence vs. arousal)

• JA Russell

  • Dimensions of emotion

  • “Circumplex Model” of core affect

• Continued

  • Valence

    • Positive to Negative

    • Pleasant to unpleasant

    • Approach to withdraw

  • Arousal

    • Activation to deactivation

Theories of emotion

• Theories of emotion generally address two major question

  • Does physiological arousal come before or after emotional feelings?

  • How does feeling and cognition interact?

• James-Lange

  • Arousal before emotion

    • See scary dog, heart races, feel scared

  • 1. Stimulus

  • 2. Bodily response

  • 3. Awareness of bodily response

  • 4. Feel fear

• Cannon-Bard

  • Arousal simultaneous with emotion

    • See scary dog, heart race and you feel scared together

  • 1. Stimulus

  • 2. Bodily response & feel fear at the same time

• Schachter-Singer

  • Arousal+Laber = emotions

  • Two factors

    • 1. General arousal

    • 2. Conscious cognitive label

  • Arousal can be interpreted as fear or excitement

• Lazarus

  • Cognition appraisal define emotion

Features of Emotion

• Physiological

  • ANS

    • Sympathetic system

      • Arousing

    • Parasympathetic system

      • Calming

  • Neural Systems

    • Insula

    • Hippocampus

      • Relationship: Connected to all of these emotion structures

    • Thalamus

      • Sensory relay

    • Cingulate gyrus (cortex)

    • Amygdala

      • Fear

    • Orbitofrontal cortex

    • Hypothalamus

      • Fight or flight response

  • Neural pathways

    • Two processing route (perhaps deliberate)

      • Slow

        • Thalamus

        • Sensory cortex

        • PFC

        • Amygdala

        • Emotion

      • Speedy (perhaps unconscious)

        • Thalamus

        • Amygdala

        • Emotion

  • Neural correlates of basic emotion

    • FMRI

    • Activations distinguish emotion

Influencing emotion

• Stimulus —> Perception attention —> Physiology Feeling behavior —> Regulation

• Additional Factors

  • Biases

  • Heuristics

  • Past Experience

• Cultural differences

  • Display rules

    • How and when to express emotion

    • Do not affect actual emotions just the overt expression

  • Cultures share a facial language

  • But!! Differ in how much emotion is expressed

• Gender and Expressiveness

  • Experiment

    • Men and women participants view a film

    • No gender differences in self-reported emotions or physiological responses

    • Women showed much more emotion

  • Women

    • Tend to read emotional cues more easily and to be more empathic

    • Express more emotion with their face

    • Famle emotionality = disposition

      • “Nasty woman” - trump (barf)

    • Male emotionality = circumstance

      • “Stressed man”

• Nonverbal Expression

  • Large amounts of emotional expression is nonverbal

    • Facial expression. Gestures, postures

  • Nonverbal leakage

    • Unconscious spillover of emotions into non-verbal behavior

• Body language and gestures

  • Posture can communicate emotions, largely in unconscious ways

    • Illustrators

      • Gestures that highlight or accentuate speech

        • hand/arm emphasis, pointing

    • Manipulators

      • Gestures in which one body part strokes bites etc another body part

        • Twirling hair

    • Emblems

      • Gestures that convey conventional meaning

        • Waving, nodding

Experiment

1. G

2. F

3. F

4. F

5. G

6. G

7. G

8. F

9. G

10. G

7/10