Chapter 1: Approaches to Understanding Emotions

Question 1

emotion

Answer 1

can be characterized as a psychological state that relates to an event that is out in the world or that is a person’s concern
- a key aspect of emotions is an internal experience that reflects the current contest related to an individual’s goals

Question 2

priority and urgency

Answer 2

emotions give priority and urgency to specific goals/concerns

Question 3

emotions are locally rational

Answer 3

they help us deal adaptively with concerns specific to our current social context and concerns related to safety, fairness, agency, etc.

Question 4

emotional states are very social

Answer 4

they connect a person’s pressing concerns with potential courses of action within the social environment. expressions of emotions guide specific interactions that make up your day. emotions are subjective and interpersonal but also powerfully social

Question 5

how are emotions expressed in humans and other animals? - Darwin

Answer 5

Question 6

where do emotions come from? - Darwin

Answer 6

• according to Darwin, emotional expressions primarily stem from habits that were beneficial in our evolutionary or personal history
• emotional expressions are based on reflex-like mechanisms, often occurring regardless of their usefulness. they can be triggered involuntarily in situations similar to those that originally prompted these habits
• Darwin hypothesized that emotions have useful functions, such as helping us navigate our social interactions

Question 7

William James - the bodily approach

Answer 7

challenged the common belief that emotions lead to specific actions. Instead, he proposed that emotion is actually the perception of bodily changes in response to a situation

Question 8

James-Lange theory of emotion

Answer 8

emphasized the bodily nature of emotional experiences, noting how emotions manifest physically. believed that the core of emotional experiences are defined by these bodily responses, asserting that if we attempt to separate the emotional experiences from its physical symptoms, we find nothing

Question 9

two ways in the study of emotions (guided by James)

Answer 9

• he focused on experience and proposed that our experience of many emotions involved changes in the autonomic nervous system (physiological reactions)
• James proposed that emotions give color and warmth to experience

Question 10

Freud

Answer 10

one of his ideas was that certain events in a person’s life can be so damaging that they can leave an emotional impact that will affect them for the rest of their lives. argued that emotions are the core of mental illness.

Question 11

psychoanalysis

Answer 11

what Freud used to treat his patients. The pateint would start by telling their life story. the stories often had gaps Freud would fill using interpretations. while doing so, the patient would come to relaise something that they have unconsciously been repressing

Question 12

Bowlby’s attachment theory

Answer 12

the emotional life of adulthood is strongly influenced by the relationships an individual has with their parents or caregivers

Question 13

Aristotle

Answer 13

believed that emotions are evaluative judgements of events in the world. in this way, we are responsible for our emotions because we are also responsible for our beliefs. our experience depends on our judgement

Question 14

two important effects of tragic drama

Answer 14

• in the theater, audiences are emotionally moved as they witness a main character face unforseen, uncontrollable consequences. this character, generally a good person, suffers from circumstances partly of their own making. viewers feel both sympathy for the character and a sense of fear for themselves, recognizing a shared human experience in the unfolding drama
• we can experience catharsis of our emotions

Question 15

two schools of philosophy after Aristotle’s death

Answer 15

• Epicureanism
• Stoicism

Question 16

the epicurians

Answer 16

claimed that humans have a right to pursue happiness and live in harmony with their environment
- they taught that one should live simply and enjoy simple things in life rather than chasing after things that make one anxious. being guided by such desires can only lead to painful emotions

Question 17

stotic philosophers

Answer 17

distinguished between the first movements of emotions, which are automatic and the second movements of emotions which are mental and involve judgement and decision-making
- a person can’t avoid the first movements since they occur in the body and we can’t do anything about them
- however, since the second move involves thought, they are up to the person to decide what to do

Question 18

stotics thought

Answer 18

that emotions derive from desires and advised people to pursue rationality and good character. most emotions are damaging to the self and society and so the desires that lead to them should be disciplined out of a person’s life

Question 19

six fundamental emotions (Descartes)

Answer 19

• wonder
• desire
• joy
• love
• hatred
• sadness

Question 20

Descartes

Answer 20

distinguished emotions from external perceptions and from bodily sensations like hunger or pain. like Aristotle suggested that emotions depend on how we evaluate events

Question 21

external and internal perceptions

Answer 21

external perceptions inform us about the world, bodily states signal internal needs, and emotions reveal what matters to us personally, reflecting our concerns and sense of self

Question 22

brain and emotions

Answer 22

when emotions are disrupted due to brain damage (e.g. frontal lobe, Phineas Cage), people can’t determine which concerns matter and their actions can often be inappropriate

Question 23

Cannon-Bard theory

Answer 23

claims that physiological and emotional responses happen at the same time and independently

Question 24

the cortex

Answer 24

Canon found that the cortex acts to inhibit the subcortical regions where emotions reside. damage or removal led to experiencing intense emotions

Question 25

fMRI

Answer 25

used to study emotion-related brain activation. detects changes in blood flow in regions of the brain when the neurons in those regions are active

Question 26

empathy

Answer 26

can be defined as having an emotion that is in some ways similar to that of another person, which is elicited by observations or imagination of the other’s emotion

Question 27

Tania Singer

Answer 27

conducted an experiment with fMRI where participants experienced painful shock and compared it to one elicited when the participants received a signal that their loved one was receiving a similar shock. some brain parts were only activated when they experienced the pain through their own senses. anterior insula and parts of anterior cingulate cortex were active for both

Question 28

anterior insula

Answer 28

tracks physical sensations in the body and represents these sensations as a conscious experience of feeling

Question 29

parts of the anterior cingulate cortex

Answer 29

engaged during the experience of negative emotions and conflict and also motivates action

Question 30

sympathy

Answer 30

involves responding to someone else’s suffering by feeling concern and being motivated to help them

Question 31

sympathy activates

Answer 31

• periaqueductal gray: enables nurturant behavior in mammals
• reward-related regions of the brain: ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens and orbifrontal cortex

Question 32

Magda Arnold

Answer 32

proposed that emotions are based on appraisals of events

Question 33

Sylvan Tomkins

Answer 33

offered a theory about the relation of emotions and facial expressions

Question 34

Arnold

Answer 34

proposed that an emotion related the self to an object. emotions are relational; they connect our internal concerns with external events and objects

Question 35

primary motivation system (Tomkins)

Answer 35

human actions and thoughts result from the interaction of motivational systems, each designed to fulfill specific functions and each having the potential to dominate behavior. what priotizes these systems is emotion, which emolifies a particular drive

Question 36

ethology

Answer 36

ethologists seek to understand behavior from a natural setting, from an evolutionary perspective. funding from ethology have shown that emotional expressions and experiences are the basic elements of interactions

Question 37

split-brain operation

Answer 37

separated the left side of the cortex from the right side to stop the spread of epileptic disturbances. despite this operations, the patient’s IQ, personality, language, and ability to engage in meaningful interactions were not dimished

Question 38

findings from split brain patients

Answer 38

revealed that certain regions of the brain are engaged in emotional experience. other regions are engaged as people label, narrate, and make sense of their emotional experiences

Question 39

what shapes emotions

Answer 39

emotions are significantly shaped by different social contexts - family or culture

Question 40

family

Answer 40

influences how you evaluate events in your life, the specific language you develop to conceptualize your emotions, how you express your emotions, and how you label, regulate, and express symbolically your experiences

Question 41

culture

Answer 41

the culture a person grew up in and their social class can also influence emotions. a person’s culture of origin and current living shape the language and concepts on which we rely to interpret social contexts

Question 42

affect

Answer 42

often used to refer to phenomena related to emotions, such as moods, dispositions, and preferences, are sometimes all grouped under the broad category of emotions

Question 43

spectrum of emotional states in terms of duration

Answer 43

Question 44

emotional episodes

Answer 44

generally refer to states that last for a limited time. facial expressions and most bodily responses generally last for seconds or minutes. typically have an object (to be about)

Question 45

mood

Answer 45

refers to a state that may last for hours, days, or weeks. it is unclear when moods start or stop. object-less and free-floating

Question 46

sentiment

Answer 46

now used less than it was before, but it’s a prolonged emotional state, like a mood but usually with an object

Question 47

emotional disorders

Answer 47

most common are: depression and clinical anxiety states. these may last for weeks or months, sometimes years

Question 48

emotional aspects of peronality

Answer 48

emotional aspects of personality can last for a lifetime. we refer to some people as warm or shy

Question 49

traits

Answer 49

refer to the encuring characteristics that define a person’s personality

Question 50

temperament

Answer 50

significant aspects of personality are based on temperament: the kind of personality a person is born with