Chapter 13- Emotion – ‘15
3 components:
Theories: James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Two-FactorAKA Schacter-Singer
Emotion and physiology – figure 13-2 (516), ANS components, Yerkes-Dodson Law (figure 13-3)
Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions:
Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions:
-hormones, microexpressions, brain circuits, experience
-positive vs. negative emotions – left hemisphere’s dopamine, nucleus accumbens, spinal injuries
-cognition AKA appraisal and emotion: spillover effect, amygdala shortcut, emotional hijacking, order
and effect on emotions,
-polygraphs, issues, guilty knowledge test
Expressed emotion – F.A.C.(E)S.
-gender differences, introverts vs. extraverts; empathy
-detecting and computing: Paul Ekman research, liars, natural vs. faked / liars, Rosenthal clips, Body
Language, email
-Culture and expression: Ekman again – universals and degree, social-cultural influences, interpreting
-effects: facial feedback system, “fake it ‘til you make it”
Experienced Emotion: fear, anger, happiness; innates (Izard, pg. 532 bottom); two dimensions – arousal level and valence (figure 13.15, pg. 533)
-Fear: learning, temperament, phobias, genetic predispositions, amygdala / brain route – anterior
cingulate cortex
-“the work of worry”
-Anger: biggest causes, catharsis and research, long-term effects, what you should do with it
-Happiness: Myers; feel-good-do-good phenomenon, subjective well-being, psychology’s failing
positive psychology (Seligman);
-temporary vs. long-term happiness: wealth and well-being, adaptation-level phenomenon, relative
deprivation principle
-- true predictors: how to be happy
Chapter 13- Emotion – ‘15
3 components:
Theories: James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Two-FactorAKA Schacter-Singer
Emotion and physiology – figure 13-2 (516), ANS components, Yerkes-Dodson Law (figure 13-3)
Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions:
Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions:
-hormones, microexpressions, brain circuits, experience
-positive vs. negative emotions – left hemisphere’s dopamine, nucleus accumbens, spinal injuries
-cognition AKA appraisal and emotion: spillover effect, amygdala shortcut, emotional hijacking, order
and effect on emotions,
-polygraphs, issues, guilty knowledge test
Expressed emotion – F.A.C. (E) S.
-gender differences, introverts vs. extraverts; empathy
-detecting and computing: Paul Ekman research, liars, natural vs. faked / liars, Rosenthal clips, Body
Language, email
-Culture and expression: Ekman again – universals and degree, social-cultural influences, interpreting
-effects: facial feedback system, “fake it ‘til you make it”
Experienced Emotion: fear, anger, happiness; innates (Izard, pg. 532 bottom); two dimensions – arousal level and valence (figure 13.15, pg. 533)
-Fear: learning, temperament, phobias, genetic predispositions, amygdala / brain route – anterior
cingulate cortex
-“the work of worry”
-Anger: biggest causes, catharsis and research, long-term effects, what you should do with it
-Happiness: Myers; feel-good-do-good phenomenon, subjective well-being, psychology’s failing
positive psychology (Seligman);
-temporary vs. long-term happiness: wealth and well-being, adaptation-level phenomenon, relative
deprivation principle
-- true predictors: how to be happy
Chapter 13: Emotion
Emotion: A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience
James-Lange Theory: theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli. <ex: after losing control of your car and you hit the brakes, you notice you’re racing heart and then, shaking with fright. Your feeling of fear followed your body’s response.>
Cannon-Bard Theory: the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion<one does not cause the other>
Cognition and Emotion
-Schachter’s Two Factor Theory of Emotion: Two Factor Theory: To experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal.
Schachter presumed that our experience of emotion grows from our awareness of our body’s arousal.
-Spillover Effect: an effect that our arousal response to one event spills over into our response to the next event. <Experiment by Schachter and Singer showed that a stirred-up state can be experienced as one emotion or another very different one, depending on how we interpret and label it>
Must cognition precede emotion?
One neural pathway shows how we can experience emotion before cognition. This pathway is called the eye-to-amygdala shortcut. This pathway runs from the eye or ear via the thalamus to the amygdala. This shortcut bypasses the cortex and enables our greased-lightning emotional response before our intellect intervenes.
-The amygdala sends more neural projections up to the cortex than it receives back. This makes it easier for our feelings to hijack our thinking than for our thinking to rule our feelings. <In a forest, we jump at the sound of rustling leaves nearby, leaving the cortex to decide later whether the sound was made by a predator or just the wind>
Two Dimensions of Emotion
Pleasant vs. Unpleasant, Low arousal vs. High arousal
The valence dimension can be seen in successful Olympic gymnast and in exam takers who –more than their less successful counterparts-label arousal as energizing. <Olympic gymnasts might label that their arousal has a positive valence and those suffering with fright might say their arousal has a negative valence> Terrified is a more negative and aroused state afraid, and enraged is angrier than angry, delighted is happier than happy.
Sympathetic Nervous System<arousing>: Pupils dilate, salivation decreases, skin perspires, respiration increase, heart accelerates, digestion inhibits, and adrenal glands secrete stress hormones. Parasympathetic Nervous System<calming>: all opposite reactions to sympathetic nervous system.
-The sympathetic division directs adrenal glands hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
-Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks.
Physiology of Specific Emotions
Though fear and joy can prompt similar increased heart rate, they stimulate different facial muscles. During fear, brow muscles tense. During joy, the muscles in the cheek and under the eye pull into a smile. Emotions also differ in brain circuits they use. Observers watching a fearful face show more amygdala brain activity than do those watching angry faces.
-When people experience negative emotions such as disgust and they have a negative personality, they show more brain activity in the right prefrontal cortex than in the left. People with positive emotions and personalities show more activity in the left frontal lobe than in the right. <Left frontal lobe produces rich supply of dopamine>
Polygraph: (lie detector): a machine commonly used to detect lies, that measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion such as perspiration, cardiovascular and breathing changes. <Problem: an innocent person might respond with heightened tension to the accusations implied by the relevant questions. The polygraph cannot distinguish anxiety, irritation, and guilt.>
Expressed Emotion (Nonverbal Communication)
Most of us are good enough at reading nonverbal cues to decipher the emotions on a face or even an old silent film. (Especially good at detecting nonverbal threats)
-Although male and female students do not differ dramatically in self-reported emotions or physiological responses while viewing emotional films, the women’s faces showed much more emotion. Women’s nonverbal sensitivity explains their greater emotional literacy. Women’s skill at decoding others’ emotions may also contribute to their greater emotional responsiveness in positive and negative situations. (Women are more likely than men to describe themselves as empathic) Females express empathy- to cry and to report distress when observing someone in distress.
-Paul Ekman found that by teaching researchers to watch for telltale signs of lying, such as a rise in voice pitch, they cold boost accuracy rates.
-Frank Rosenthal clips: A mere 10 second clip of either the teacher’s voice or face provided enough clues for both young and old viewers to determine whether the teacher liked and admired the child he or she was addressing.
-Popular guidebooks and articles offer advice on how to interpret nonverbal signals when negotiating a business deal, etc…
-Email communication includes signs such as ;) for a wink or :( for a frown. Email letters lack nonverbal cues to status, personality, and age. <Easy to misread emails>
Do facial expressions have different meanings for different cultures? Paul Eckman showed photographs of different facial expressions to people in different parts of the world and asked them to guess the emotion. <everyone did well regardless of cultural background. A smile is a smile.> Facial muscles speak a fairly universal language.
-A smile is a social phenomenon. <Ex: bowlers don’t smile when they score a strike-they smile when they turn to face their companions>
It is also adaptive for us to interpret faces in particular contexts. Movie directors harness this phenomenon by creating contexts and soundtracks that amplify our perceptions of particular emotions.
Facial feedback Effect: 1) is subtly manipulated into furrowing their brows, people feel sadder while looking at sad photos. 2) Saying the phonemes e and ah, which activate smiling muscles, puts people in a better mood.
Experienced Emotion
Fear: as infants become mobile they experience falls and near-falls and become increasingly afraid of heights. Learning by observation: After repeatedly observing their parents or peers refusing to reach for food in the presence of a snake, the younger monkeys developed a similar strong fear for snakes.
-A key to fear learning lies in the amygdala, that limbic system neural center deep in the brain. The amygdala plays a key role in associating various emotions, including fear, with certain situations.
- Today, we are less predisposed to fear cars, electricity, bombs, and global warming, all of which are now far more dangerous. Stone Age fears leave us unprepared for high-tech dangers.
-Genes influence our temperament-our emotional reactivity. Even among identical twins reared separately, one twin’s level of fearfulness is similar to the others.
Anger: Most people reported becoming at least mildly angry several times a week, some several times a day. The anger was often a response to friends’ or loved ones’ perceived misdeeds and was especially common when another persons’ act seemed willful, unjustified, and avoidable.
-Blameless annoyances such as foul odors, high temperatures, a traffic jam, aches and pain also have the power to make us angry.
Catharsis: emotional release. In psychology, the catharsis hypothesis maintains that “releasing’ aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.
-Experimenters report that this sometimes occurs. When people retaliate against someone who has provoked them, they may indeed calm don-if their counterattack is directed against the provoker.
-A nonaccusing statement of feeling can help revolve the conflicts that cause anger.
Happiness:
Feel-good, do-good phenomenon: people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood.
Subjective well-being: self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being to evaluate people’s quality of life.
-positive psychology is one the rise.
-The effect of dramatically positive events is similarly temporary. <Once their rush of euphoria wears off, state lottery winners typically find their overall happiness unchanged.>
-most people agree that money can’t buy happiness but they do believe that a little more money would make them a little more happy, secure, and comfortable.
-increasing real incomes have not produced increasing happiness.
-Economic growth in affluent countries has provided no apparent boost to morale or social well-being.
Adaptation-level phenomenon: Our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a “neutral” level defined by our prior experience.
-Satisfaction and dissatisfaction, success and failure- all are relative to our recent experience.
Relative deprivation: the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.
-self satisfying tasks and relationships affect our happiness, but always within limits imposed by our genetic leash. Happy people tend to have high self-esteem, be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable.
-How to be happier: realize that enduring happiness doesn’t come from financial success. Take control of your time. Act happy. Give priority to close relationships.