Chapter 12: Emotional Behaviors Flashcards
Paul Ekman’s theory of 6 primary facial expressions
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Surprised
- Disgusted
- Fear
Common sense theories
-Feel first, then react
James-Lange theory of emotion
- Autonomic arousal occurs first, then experience emotion
- Emotion is label we give the experience
- Largely driven by mixtures of sympathetic and parasympathetic activation
3 compounds of James-Lange
- Cognition: appraisal of situation
- Action
- Feeling
James-Lange theory predicts
- People with weak autonomic response should feel less emotion
- Pure autonomic failure: less intense emotion
- Increasing reaction should enhance emotion
- Panic attacks: extreme sympathetic nervous system arousal that appears spontaneous
Forced boy actions
- Can also influence emotion
- Smiling slightly increases happiness
- Frowning leads to lower pleasantness
Actions not required to experience emotion
- Mobius syndrome: problems moving facial muscles needed to smile
- People with this still experience emotions
Laughter yoga
-Perceptions of body’s actions can contribute to an emotional feeling
Limbic system
-Important for emotions
Amygdala
-Helps regulate fear and startle responses
Startle reflex
- Extremely fast response to unexpected loud noises
- Suggests fear is built in and unlearned
- Pons triggers it, but is mediated by amygdala
- Basal, lateral & central nuclei of amygdala receive input from pain, vision & hearing
Attack behaviors
-Associated with activity in corticomedial nucleus of amygdala
Escape behaviors
-Associated with central, lateral & basal nuclei of amygdala
Amygdala–>hypothalamus
-Autonomic fear
Amygdala–>prefrontal cortex
-Approach/avoid
Damage to amygdala interferes with
- Learning/retaining fear responses
- Interpreting stimuli with emotional effects
- Kluver-Bucy syndrome–monkey’s- Calm, placid, displays less fear of snakes and dominant monkeys
- Misinterprets threat signals
Amygdala damage
- Impairs processing of subtle emotions (trustworthiness)
- Affects ability to recognize similar emotions –>usually only in pictures, not real life (fear/disgust)
- Does not remove emotional express but we focus less on emotional cues
Ambiguous stimuli
- Can cause strong amygdala response
- Indirect anger and direct fear
Left hemisphere (approach behavior)
- Behavioral activation system (BAS)
- Low to moderate arousal
- Characterized by happiness or anger
Right hemisphere (retreat behavior_)
- Behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
- Increases attention & arousal but inhibits action
- Stimulates emotions such as fear & disgust
Hormones influence on aggressive behavior
- Testosterone levels associated with rates of violent crimes in men
- High testosterone: more violent crimes
Emotions not localized in brain
- Exception: emotion of disgust
- Insular cortex is strongly activated during exposure ti stimuli perceived as disgusting
- Primary taste cortex
