IH

CHAPTER 6 - Emotion & Affect

Key Terms & Concepts

  1. Emotion:

    • Conscious, evaluative reaction to a specific event.

  2. Mood:

    • A general feeling state not linked to any specific event.

  3. Affect:

    • An automatic, nonconscious response to an event.

Emotional Intelligence

  • Definition: The ability to perceive, access, generate, understand, and regulate emotions.

The Dark Tetrad of Personality Traits

  1. Narcissism: Excessive self-centeredness.

  2. Psychopathy: Lack of empathy and guilt, impulsivity.

  3. Machiavellianism: Manipulation, deceit, doing whatever it takes to get what you want.

  4. Sadism: Deriving pleasure from the pain of others.

Functions of Emotions

  1. Feedback System: Emotions provide feedback on goals and actions.

  2. Promote Belongingness: Emotions help us feel accepted in social groups.

  3. Communicate Social Information: Emotional expressions convey messages to others.

  4. Guide Thinking and Learning: Emotions influence our decision-making and cognitive processes.

Emotion Theories

  • Affect-as-Information Hypothesis: If you feel good about something, it must be good.

  • Risk-as-Feelings Hypothesis: People rely on emotional responses to evaluate risks versus rewards.

Positive Emotions

  • Characteristics:

    • Fewer and less differentiated than negative emotions.

    • Counteract negative emotions (5 positive emotions for every 1 negative).

    • Aid creativity and problem-solving.

    • Decrease logical thinking, reduce short-term memory, and increase distraction by irrelevant information.

  • Broaden-and-Build Theory:

    • Intellectual Resources: Problem-solving, learning new info.

    • Physical Resources: Coordination, strength, cardiovascular health.

    • Social Resources: Bonding with others.

    • Psychological Resources: Resilience, optimism, identity formation, and goal orientation.

Gender Differences in Emotion

  • Daily emotional experiences are similar for men and women.

  • Men may show slightly more emotional response physiologically.

  • Women are more willing to report emotions and often claim to have stronger feelings.

  • Stereotypes about women being overly emotional are overblown.

Predicting Emotion

  • Affective Forecasting: Predicting how you'll feel in the future.

    • People are often good at predicting what emotions they’ll feel, but they tend to overestimate the duration of those feelings.

    • It’s a specialized form of introspection.

Universal Emotions (6)

  1. Anger: When a goal is blocked (internal emotions).

  2. Fear: Perception of a threat.

  3. Sadness: Experience of loss.

  4. Happiness: Collection of positive experiences.

  5. Disgust: Response to contagion or repulsion.

  6. Surprise: Reaction to an unexpected event.

  • Secondary and Tertiary Emotions:

    • These are combinations or variations of universal emotions.

Guilt

  • Occurs when someone believes they've acted wrongly.

  • Functions of Guilt:

    • Motivates people to do good (e.g., apologizing).

    • Prevents negative actions due to anticipated guilt.

    • Signals that the individual values the harmed relationship.

    • Survivor Guilt: Feeling guilty for suffering less than others.

    • Washing Away Guilt: A common act to alleviate guilt (e.g., washing hands or taking a shower).

Shame

  • A negative feeling that affects one’s entire sense of self.

  • Key Difference:

    • Guilt: "I did a bad thing."

    • Shame: "I am a bad person."

  • Consequences of Shame:

    • Often destructive and leads to withdrawal or aggression.

    • There's no immediate remedy for feeling like a bad person.

Key Studies

  1. Becker et al. (2006)

    • Participants categorized faces by facial expressions (angry or happy).

    • Reaction time was faster when categorizing faces, showing stronger emotional associations.

  2. Maner et al. (2005)

    • White participants watched a fearful or neutral movie and rated emotions of black vs. white faces.

    • In the fearful condition, black faces were perceived as angrier.

Old vs. New Views of Emotion

  • Old View: Emotions are bidimensional, based on two factors:

    • Arousal: High vs. low

    • Valence: Pleasant vs. unpleasant

  • New View: Emotions are domain-specific.

    • Example:

      • Disgust: Motivates avoidance of disease-causing stimuli.

      • Sadness: Promotes seeking social support.

      • Sexual Arousal: Motivates finding a romantic partner.

      • Love: Motivates maintaining relationships.

Maner, Rouby, & Gonzaga (2008)

  • Study: Participants primed with feelings of love or happiness.

  • They spent less time looking at attractive faces of the same sex, demonstrating that love serves to maintain relationships.




White et al. (1981)

  • Study on Misattribution of Arousal:

    • Men who engaged in either 15-second or 120-second runs were shown a video of an attractive or unattractive woman.

    • Men who had higher arousal (from the longer run) rated the woman more attractive, showing how physical arousal can influence emotional reactions.

Emotion Regulation

  • How to Cheer Yourself Up:

    • Do activities that generate good feelings.

    • Take your mind off the problem.

    • Seek social support or deal directly with the problem.

Tamir, Mitchell, & Gross (2008)

  • Study: Participants played either a confrontational or non-confrontational video game while listening to different types of music (angry, exciting, or neutral).

  • They rated their preferences for the games after receiving performance scores.

  • The study showed how emotions (like anger or excitement) can affect preferences and performance perceptions.