Anxiety and Emotion Flashcards
What are the three dimensions of emotional responses?
- Behavioural
- Physiological
- Subjective
What is galvanic skin resistance?
Measure of skin’s electrical conductance as affected by sweating
What is the James-Lange theory of emotion?
Emotional experience derives from bodily experience
What did Walter Cannon argue?
Argued against the idea that bodily functions contributed to emotional experience mainly on the grounds that viscera are relatively insensitive structures and visceral changes are too slow to account for source of emotional feelings
How does spinal cord transection affect emotional feelings?
Subjective feelings of fear and anger are diminished
The higher the level of damage, the greater the effect
What is the Schachter-Singer theory of emotion?
Cognitive factors are critical in the interpretation of bodily changes and thereby determining emotional experience
What were the three groups in the Schachter and Singer experiment?
- Epinephrine ignorant - subjects not told symptoms of adrenaline injection
- Epinephrine misinformed - subjects told inaccurate side effects
- Epinephrine informed - subjects told accurate symptoms to expect
What were the two experimental conditions of the Schachter and Singer experiment?
- Euphoric stooge
2. Angry stooge
What was the hypothesis of the Schachter and Singer experiment?
Subjects in misinformed group would be most affected by external manipulations as they had the least adequate explanation for their bodily changes
How was the Schachter and Singer experiment measured?
- Self report
- Behavioural observations
- Pulse rate was measured
What were the results of the Schachter and Singer experiment?
- EpiIgn and EpiMisInf showed more emotion that the informed and placebo groups
- The quality of the emotion was determined by the subject’s cognitive appraisal of the context in which the bodily changes occurred
What is somatic anxiety?
Anxiety resulting largely from physical symptoms as opposed to external stressors?
How is somatic anxiety treated?
- Beta blockers (eg. propranolol)
2. Benzodiazepines
What type of anxiety to benzodiazepines treat more effectively?
Psychic rather than somatic
Which structures form the limbic system?
- Papez’s circuit
- Amygdala
- Septum
- Prefrontal cortex
NOT hippocampus
Which structures form Papez’s circuit?
- Hypothalamus
- Medial cortex
- Anterior thalamus
What is Kluver-Bucy syndrome?
Psychic blindness
- Tameness
- Lack of emotional responsiveness
- Excessive examination of objects with mouth
- Hypersexual behaviour
Which brain structures are particularly important for conditioned fear?
Amygdalae
What is Pavlovian fear conditioning?
Unconditioned stimulus becomes associated with an intrinsically aversive stimulus such that the conditioned stimulus elicits a fear response
Which brain structure is important for recognition of fearful faces?
Amygdalae
What are the amygdalae important for?
- Conditioned fear
- Recognition of fearful faces
- Interpreting emotional faces