8: Cognition and emotion Flashcards
What is priming?
Activation of an idea by repeatedly thinking or about or perceiving it
What is external priming?
When you keep getting exposed to something
What is internal priming?
Individuals personality - some are just ready to see certain things
What is chronic accessibility?
The tendency of an idea or concept to come easily to mind for an individual over a variety of stimuli and situations
This often results from repeated priming
Some ideas are likely to be repeated throughout a child’s childhood, what might that result in?
A long term bias to notice, respond to and recall certain types of information (Chronic accessibility)
Is the cause of chronic accessibility only environmental?
NO! can be both internal and external
How does personality and genetics influence priming and chronic accessibility?
Some people are more prone to see and experience positive thing and some are more prone to experience negative emotions.
We might see the world differently based on our genetic basis for specific emotions.
What is rejection sensibility?
Rejection sensibility represent chronic accessibility
Anxious expectations lead to scanning for indicators of impending rejection when discussing relationship problems
They interpret every ambiguous signal as a rejection/the partner is about to leave
Rejection sensibility become self-fulfilling because panicked response hurts relationships and increases the chances of the partner leaving
When thinking about rejection sensibility and other forms of chronic accessibility what is important to have in mind?
They only come into play when relevant stimuli are present.
We can see that in a way that they are not predictors of behaviors without thinking about the contexts
Rejection sensibility - the person might be very sweet and nice in the beginning when there is no impending rejection and then be uncaring and abusive later in the relationship when there is an impending rejection - Which of these is the “real” person?
BOTH - it is important to recognize that both of these are the real person. Rejection sensibility is highly context-dependent
How can you improve for example a hostile person’s chronic accessibility?
By overriding those immediate responses by slowing down (count to 10), thinking consciously and considering constructive responses
What does locus of control describe?
A person’s interpretation of responsibility for events.
Internal locus of control?
General expectations that events are under one’s control and that one is responsible for major life outcomes
External locus of control?
The general expectation that events are outside of one’s control
What is learned helplessness?
When people respond to unpleasant and inescapable event by becoming passive and accepting of the situation.
What is explanatory style?
Tendency that some people have to use certain attributional categories when explaining the causes of events. the 3 broad categories of attributions
- external vs internal (andres skyld vs. egen skyld)
- stable vs unstable (permanent årsag vs. unik årsag)
- global or specific (alle events vs. specifik situation)
Stable vs unstable (explanatory style)
Is it something that you will always experience or was this situation unique.
Whether a person believes a repeated event will be the same or subject to change.
Global or specific (explanatory style)
Global versus specific refers to whether or not a person’s explanation generalizes the event to others beyond the specific event in hand.
Describe the pessimistic explanatory style
Internal, stable, and global causes for negative events.
it is associated with feelings of helplessness and poor adjustment
Is explanatory style stable over time?
Yes!
What does the entity theory say?
Personal qualities such as intelligence and ability is unchangeable
The goal: Demonstrating competence
But negative feedback leads to helpless response - there is nothing I can do about it
What does the incremental theory say?
Intelligence and ability can change with time and experience
Goal: demonstrating and increasing competence
You CAN do something about it
Carol Dweck - Describes 2 types of goals - what are those?
Judgement goals: Seeking to judge or validate an attribute in oneself (you might have the goal to convince yourself that you are smart)
Developmental goals: The desire to actually improve oneself (to become smarter)
The balance between judgemental and developmental goals differ on 3 levels, what are those?
- Differ between people
- Differ within the same person in different situations
- Differ across time
How will a person with developmental goals respond to failure?
With mastery-orientated behavior. Will learn and try harder next time
How will a person with judgenmental goals respond to failure?
With the helpless pattern. “I can’t do it” and gives up
According to Dweck’s motivational theory, the type of goal someone pursues can be determined from within or without - what does that mean?
Within - people are either entity or incremtantal in their beliefs/personality
Without - One’s goal can be determined by the way other people structure the task or situation
What are some of the typical goals of a young adult?
Learning new things, education, finding a spouse
What are some of the typical goals of an older adult?
More focus on emotional meaning, ties with family and friends, thinking more about the positive than the negative
How does the goal change across lifespan?
Your goals change according to how much time of your life you have left - not how old you are. A young adult with a life-threatening illness tend to also have goals orientated toward emotional meaning
what is central in Mischel’s CAPS theory?
Individual differences in personality stem from four person variables that characterize properties and activities of the cognitive system - these variables all together explains why some people react and behave in different ways under some specific circumstances.
Describe CAPS If…..then…..contigencies
If situation A, then the person does X; but if situation B, then the person does Y
All the 4 personality variables combine in each individual a repertoire of behaviors
What are basic emotions according to Ekman?
The most elemental emotions - they build the foundations for all other emotions
They are innate, cross-cultural, be evident early in life, people should have a “build in” way of expressing it, have its own physiological basis
EX of basic emotions = fear, happiness
What are social emotions according to Ekman?
Emotion blends - emotions can come from combining 2 or more basic emotions. They are socially learned through classical and operant conditioning and social learning processes.
EX: jealousy and melancholy
What are Ekmans 6 basic emotions?
Happy, sad, anger, fear, surprise, disgust
What is content of emotional life?
The specific kinds of emotions that a person experiences
What is style of emotional life?
How emotions are experienced
Researchers have defined happiness in 2 complementary ways - which?
- judgment that life is satisfying
2. Predominance of positive relative to negative emotions
Self-report measures of happiness correlate with self-report scores on social desirability and also non-self-report scores - why is that?
2 explanations
- Social desirability measures partially reflects having “good” traits
- Part of being happy is to have positive illusions about the self
Does money make you happy?
Only to a certain point - when people can afford the necessities more money doesn’t influence happiness
A person’s happiness is often determined by their set point - what is a set point in this context’?
A homostatic degree of emotion that an individual typically experiences -> their typical mood
When good or bad event happens - temporarily improvement or worsening of mood (this drift back to normal over time)
How does habituation influence happiness?
Something good feels less good with repetition and bad things lessen over time
When your circumstances change your feeling will only feel that way for a certain time before it returns to the normal level
Genetics and life circumstances account for half the variability in individual happiness - what accounts for the rest?
Outlook - how you see things
What is meant by “happiness can become a self-perpetuating cycle”
Happiness promotes behaviours and problem-solving skills that in themselves can lead to good outcomes
Indirect model of the relationship between personality and well-being
Personality causes a person to create a certain lifestyle and lifestyle causes emotion reactions
Direct model of the relationship between personality and well-being
Personality causes emotional reactions
In term of the direct model what is the best predictor of positive mood and negative mood?
Positive - extraversion
negative- neuroticism
It is easier to put an extraverted in a good mood and a high on neuroticism person in a bad mood
What do cognitive theories say about neuroticism?
It is caused by styles of information processing (they prefer to process negative information about themselves (but not others)
They have richer networks of associations surrounding negative emotions.
Emotional content refers to the XXXX of a person’s emotional life whereas the style refers tp XXX?
Emotional content refers to the what of a person’s emotional life whereas the style refers to how?
What is affect intensity?
The intensity of experiences of emotions
High affect intensity people experience emotions strongly
Low affect intensity people experience emotions only mildly and don’t fluctuate as much
What is hedonic balance?
The balance between positive en negative emotions
What does affect intensity represent?
The style of emotional life
Emotional intelligence
People vary in terms of how well they understand emotional experiences in oneself and others
This construct includes: accurately percieving emotions if oneself and others, understanding emotions, using emotion information to make productive and adaptive decisions and controlling and regulating one’s own emotions
Personalizing cognition
processing information by relating it to similar event in your own life
EX: ‘My brother once had a bad gash on his head just like that, and I remember all the blood, and how upset my mother became, and my brother screaming and my mother trying to stop the bleeding, and me feeling helpless and confused.’ after seeing a mother holding a baby bleeding from the head
Objectifying cognition
processing information by relating it to objective facts
People’s conscious goals
a persons awareness of what he desires and believes is valuable and worth pursuing
Reducer/augmenting theory
people with low pain tolerance had a nervous system that amplified, or augmented, the subjective impact of sensory cues. In contrast, people who could tolerate pain well were thought to have a nervous system that dampened, or reduced, the effects of sensory stimulation
Personal construct
beliefs or concepts that summarize a set of observations that are unique to an individual which that person rutinely uses to interpret and predict events
Construction corollary
the fact that we use knowledge from our past to construct our anticipations
Ex: We can predict that we will get wet when we go out in the rain without an umbrella because it has happened in the past
Range collary
any construct can only be applied to a certain limited number of events.There is not one construct that can be used to understand all possible events
Modulation corollary
that constructs which more easily allow new events within his or her range make a person more flexible in dealing with new situations
Exploring/extend strategy
refers to trying different aspects of the same reality, therefore broadening or extending our knowledge of that reality
Exploit/define strategy
Deepening and consolidating one knowledge about the world
Ex: having the same job for 30 years and becomming really good at it
Specific expectations
specific areas of life, where people might be internal in one area and external in another
Optimistic explanatory style
which emphasizes external, temporary and specific causes of events.
Emotions can be defined by 4 components
- emotions have distinct SUBJECTIVE FEELINGS, or affects, associated with them
- emotions are accompanied by BODILY CHANGES, mostly in the nervous system, and these produce associated changes in breathing, heart rate, muscle tension, blood chemistry, and facial and bodily expressions
- emotions come with COGNITIONS, thoughts. The way you feel influences your thoughts and how you perceive the world
- emotions are accompanied by distinctACTION TENDENCIES, or increases in the probabilities of certain behaviours
Action tendencies
increases in probability of certain behaviors
Emotional stages
transitory stages that depend more on the circumstances or situation that a person is in on that specific person
EX: a man is angry BECAUSE….he is feeling that way BECAUSE of something
Emotional trait
table personality traits that are primarily characterized by specific emotions
EX: neuroticism is primarily characterized by the emotions of anxiety and worry
categorical approach to emotions
suggest emotions are best thought of as a small number of primary and distinct emotions.
They try to reduce the complexity of emotions by searching for the primary emotions that underlie the great variety of emotions
dimensional approach
suggest that emotions are best thought of as broad dimensions of experience (e.g. a dimension ranging from pleasant to unpleasant
What are the 2 primary dimensions in the dimensional approach / emotional circumplex?
Pleasant - unpleasant High activation (high arousal) - low activation (low arousal)
How does the emotional circumplex (= dimensional approach) derived from factor analytic studies contrast with Ekman’s approach
The dimensional approach focus more about the experience of emotions
- grader af emotioner
- more interested in the differences on the primary dimensions among people
The categorical (Ekmans) approach relies more on conceptual distinctions among emotions
- Primæremtioner
- interested in how people differ from eachother in relation to basic emotions (group differences)
