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.