7 emotion

Question 1

What are the six basic human emotions according to paul eckman?

Answer 1

Happiness: Contentment, joy, gratification; expressed via smiling,
relaxed stance, upbeat tone.

Sadness: Disappointment, grief, hopelessness; expressed via crying,
lethargy, withdrawal.

Fear: Fight or flight response; expressed via widened eyes, rapid
breathing, increased heart rate.

Disgust: Reaction to unpleasant stimuli; expressed via wrinkled nose, turning away, vomiting.

Anger: Hostility, agitation; expressed via frowning, yelling, aggressive behaviors.

Surprise: Brief startle response; expressed via raised eyebrows,
jumping back, gasping.

Question 2

Whats problematic about defining six basic emotions?

Answer 2

additional, no clear cut
structure?
interconnectedness?

Question 3

How can emotion be defined?

Answer 3

emotions are episodes of coordinated changes in several components in response to external or internal events of major significance to the organism.

→ limited in time, contrary to mood

-> Physiological reaction, Motor expression/action tendencies, Subjective feeling (affect), Cognitive processes

-> External - behavior of others, encounter with novel stimuli; Internal - thoughts, memories

Question 4

What is the James & Lange theory of emotion?

Answer 4

Emotions result from physiological responses to stimuli.

1. Perceive Stimulus: You see something (e.g., a bear).
2. Physiological Response: Your body reacts (e.g., heart races).
3. Emotion: You interpret the physical reaction as an emotion (e.g., fear).

Core Idea:We feel emotions because of our body’s reactions, not the other way around.

Question 5

What is Ekman´s basic emotion model?

Answer 5

Basic Emotions: Ekman identified six primary emotions:

Happiness
Sadness
Fear
Anger
Surprise
Disgust
Universality: These emotions are universally recognized through facial expressions, regardless of cultural background.

Facial Expressions: Each basic emotion is associated with specific, innate facial expressions that are consistent across different cultures.

Evolutionary Basis: Ekman proposed that these emotions have evolved because they serve important survival functions, helping humans respond to environmental challenges.

Question 6

What is Russell & Barrett´s circumplex model?

Answer 6

Two Dimensions:

Valence (Pleasure-Displeasure): This dimension ranges from pleasant (positive) to unpleasant (negative) emotions.
Arousal (Activation-Deactivation): This dimension ranges from high arousal (e.g., excitement) to low arousal (e.g., calmness).
Emotion Placement: Emotions are placed within the circular space formed by these two dimensions.

For example:
High Arousal + Positive Valence: Excitement
High Arousal + Negative Valence: Anger
Low Arousal + Positive Valence: Contentment
Low Arousal + Negative Valence: Sadness

Circumplex Structure: The circular (circumplex) structure suggests that emotions blend into one another smoothly along these dimensions, allowing for a wide range of emotional experiences.

Core Affect: The model emphasizes “core affect,” which is the fundamental, ongoing emotional state that can vary in intensity and can be influenced by various factors, leading to different emotional experiences.

Question 7

What is the appraisal model of emotion?

Answer 7

Appraisal Process: Emotions arise from how a person appraises or evaluates a situation. This appraisal involves assessing factors like:

Relevance: Is the situation relevant to my goals or concerns?
Implications: What are the potential outcomes or consequences of this situation?
Coping Potential: Do I have the resources or ability to deal with the situation?
Normative Significance: How does this situation align with my values or social norms?

Subjective Experience: The specific emotion experienced (e.g., anger, joy, fear) depends on the nature of the appraisal.

emphasizes the role of cognition (thinking processes) in emotion generation
emotions are closely tied to our mental interpretation of events rather than just automatic, biological responses.

Dynamic and Individualized

Question 8

What is the appraisal hierarchy?

Answer 8

Affective meaning
- VMPFC, MTL
-> Stable final appraisal of the affective significance of one’s situation

Norm/value compatibility
- Superior temporal cortex
- DLPFC

Slower appraisal mechanisms (340–600ms):

Agency (caused by self or other?)
- Sensorimotor feedback
- DMPFC, TPJ

Goal congruence
- VTA, nACC (congruent)
- dACC, DLPFC (incongruent)

Concern relevance
- Amygdala (modulated by other structures)

Fast appraisal mechanisms (100–140ms):

Novelty
- Amygdala
- Hippocampus/perirhinal cortex
- Orbitofrontal cortex

Question 9

What is Watson & Tellegen´s approach to emotions?

Answer 9

favored two uncorrelated dimensions of positive
and negative affect

dimensional approach

Watson and Tellegen - 1985 analysed data from numerous studies using various self-report mood measures and found 50%-65% of the variance was
accounted for by dimensions of negative and positive affect.

Question 10

What is the difference between emotion, mood and affect?

Answer 10

Emotion = A short-lived affective state typically triggered by a specific event.
Mood = State resembling emotion but generally longer lasting, less intense and of unknown cause.
Affect = A general term referring to evaluative (positive or negative) reactions; it encompasses mood and emotion.

Question 11

What is Valence?

Answer 11

refers to the degree of pleasantness/positivity vs unpleasantness/negativity associated with an emotion.

Question 12

What is activation likelihood estimation?

Answer 12

a type of coordinate-based
meta-analysis used to summarize the location of consistent findings across multiple neuroimaging studies

Question 13

What is multivariate pattern analysis?

Answer 13

a neuroimaging analysis method that uses powerful pattern-classification algorithms to decode information concerning cognitive and affective representations from patterns of activity distributed across multiple brain loci.

Question 14

What is the conceptual act model?

Answer 14

a particular psychological constructionist model of emotion that proposes that emotions arise from the combination of ‘core affectʼ (mental representation of bodily changes, associated with arousal
and valence) with a categorization process that determines the emotional meaning of core affect, incorporating past experience and the current situation

Question 15

What evidence exists for brain regions associated with emotions?

Answer 15

Prominent findings: fear associated with amygdala; disgust with insula,
ventral prefrontal cortex, and amygdala; sadness with medial prefrontal cortex; anger with orbitofrontal cortex; happiness with rostral anterior cingulate cortex.

Neuroimaging identifies consistent neural correlates for emotions but
supports complex, network-based representations over one-to-one
mappings between emotions and brain regions

Question 16

How can the concept of basic emotions be critiqued?

Answer 16

no discriminable neural correlates for basic emotions were found;
each region activated for a given emotion was also activated for at least one other emotion.

-> conceptual act model as an alternative, suggesting emotions emerge from combinations of basic psychological and neural components.

-> complex interaction of arousal and valence across multiple brain regions

Question 17

What evidence exists for specific functional brain groups active during emotion processing?

Answer 17

Findings: Identified six distributed functional groups in the brain that are consistently activated during emotion processing.

Proposed Function: These groups are suggested to serve as building blocks for generating emotional states, as per the conceptual act model.

Core Affect: The process begins with core affect (lateral paralimbic and core limbic groups).

Further Processing: Core affect is then given situation-specific meaning by medial posterior and medial prefrontal cortical groups.

Interaction: These groups interact with another functional group responsible for attentional and linguistic functions.

Visual Processing: A sixth group (occipital/visual) is involved in visual processing and attention to emotional stimuli.

Question 18

How is happiness processed in the brain?

Answer 18

Activates the right frontal cortex, precuneus, left amygdala, and left
insula.

Involves connections between awareness (frontal cortex and insula) and the “feeling center” (amygdala).

Question 19

How is fear processed in the brain?

Answer 19

Activates bilateral amygdala, hypothalamus, and areas of the left frontal cortex.

Involves thinking (frontal cortex), a “gutˮ feeling (amygdala), and
survival urgency (hypothalamus).

Question 20

How is sadness processed in the brain?

Answer 20

Associated with increased activity in the right occipital lobe, left insula,
left thalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus.

The hippocampus links sadness with memory.

Question 21

How is disgust processed in the brain?

Answer 21

Linked with activation in the left amygdala, left inferior frontal cortex, and insular cortex

Question 22

How is anger processed in the brain?

Answer 22

Activates the right hippocampus, amygdala, both sides of the prefrontal cortex, and insular cortex

Question 23

How is surprise processed in the brain?

Answer 23

Activates the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral hippocampus.

Associated with experiencing unexpected events.

Question 24

How do emotion and cognition interact?

Answer 24

Appraisal involves many cognitive processes (comparison of stimulus
features to stored schemata, memory, expectations, and motivations).

The outcome of appraisal modulates cognitive functions (e.g., rapid allocation of attention to relevant stimuli).

Emotionally relevant information is prioritized in memory, potentially via increased autonomic arousal from stimulus appraisal.

Emotional episodes show high interdependence between emotional responses and cognitive functions with underlying neural circuits.

Question 25

What is becks schema theory?

Answer 25

• Theory suggests individuals with emotional disorders have biased cognitive schemas.
• These schemas focus on processing information relevant to their disorder.
• Schemas develop from past experiences and activate automatically with relevant stimuli.
• In an emotional Stroop task, anxiety sufferers may process threat-related words more, slowing their color-naming times.

Question 26

What is Bowers Network theory?

Answer 26

Emotions are organized in a network of interconnected nodes.

Activation of an emotional node spreads to related nodes, influencing thoughts, memories, and responses.

This network activation can interfere with cognitive tasks by engaging related emotional and cognitive processes

Question 27

What is the connectionist model by Cohen et al (1990)?

Answer 27

computational approach that explains cognitive processes through networks of interconnected units

Processing pathways vary in strength based on past experiences and associations.

Attention modulates which pathways are prioritized, with stronger pathways (emotional stimuli) receiving more resources.

Question 28

What is alexithymia?

Answer 28

Alexithymia is a subclinical condition characterized by difficulty in identifying and describing one’s emotions, as well as a limited ability to express feelings verbally.

People with alexithymia often struggle to differentiate between
emotions and bodily sensations of emotional arousal.

Question 29

How are alexithymia and emotion processing related?

Answer 29

Emotional processing deficits are a core feature of alexithymia.

Behavioral experiments show alexithymia is linked to poorer recognition of emotional expressions in faces Grynberg et al., 2012; Cook et al., 2013.

Individuals with alexithymia have lower recall for emotional material
Luminet et al., 2006.

impaired language processing

Question 30

What is oxcytocin?

Answer 30

The neuropeptide oxytocin alters the perceptual salience and
processing of social cues and increases socio-emotional
communication and trust Carter, 1998; Bartz et al., 2011.

Oxytocin can be administered externally through inhalation.

Administration studies indicate that oxytocin fosters social-cognitive
processes impaired in alexithymic individuals.

Question 31

What is neurofeedback?

Answer 31

Brain areas implicated in empathy, emotion, interoceptive awareness,
and alexithymia (e.g., the anterior insula) can be trained using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI neurofeedback Caria et al., 2010.

Question 32

What is emotional intelligence according to Goleman, 1995?

Answer 32

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others.