Chapter 5

Question 1

emotions

Answer 1

:brief responses to challenges or opportunities that we appraise as important to our goals; they manifest in patterns of experience,expression, and physiology

Question 2

Emotions arise bc of construals also called appraisal

Answer 2

interpretations of events in terms of things like how pleasant, fair, etc. the event is and whether you or other people, or situational factors caused the event in first place

Question 3

A variety of complex processes, many automatic, give rise to emotional experience and we only articulate some of these processes

Question 4

How do we differentiate emotions from other subjective states like moods?

Answer 4

1)Emotions are brief
2)emotions are specific(only arise in response to specific events)

Question 5

Why do we have emotions?

Answer 5

1)They help us to interpret our surrounding circumstances
~Emotions prioritize which events you attend to in the environment, influence how much weight you assign them, determine how you reason about them

2)emotions serve to guide our actions

Question 6

Evolutionary approach portrays emotions as

Answer 6

adaptive reaction to survival related threats and opportunities

Question 7

Constructivist approach proposes that

Answer 7

culture affects how we feel about events, what we might do about our feelings

Question 8

Darwin proposed idea that expressions of human emotion derive from

Answer 8

actions that proved useful in evolutionary past

Question 9

3 hypotheses about universality of emotional expression proposed by Darwin

Answer 9

1)people in all cultures will likely communicate and perceive emotion in a similar fashion because all humans use the same 30-40 facial muscles to communicate emotion
2)because humans share evolutionary history with other mammals, our emotionally expressive behaviors should resemble those of other species
3)Blind individuals will still show expressions similar to sighted people because the tendency to express emotions in specific ways has been encoded evolutionarily

Question 10

Study(Alan Cowen et al)

Answer 10

Across 144 countries people showed very similar facial expressions in certain specific context

Question 11

Emotional expression in other animals

Answer 11

Mammals express emotions in ways that resemble human expression

Question 12

Participants were asked to watch recording of themselves singing “The star spangled banner” in the presence of other participants

Answer 12

Conclusion: cross-species comparison reveal that our expression of embarrassment resembles other mammal’s appeasement displays which function like apologies that short circuit conflict and trigger affiliation

Question 13

Embarrassment signals remorse for social transgressions, prompting forgiveness and reconciliation after an individual has violated a social norm

Question 14

Emotional expression in blind

Answer 14

Studies of blind people show that their expressions of emotions are remarkably similar to those of sighted people
~After blind people win the olympics, they express emotions similar to sighted athletes who win by expressing pride

Question 15

Pride is the feeling associated

Answer 15

with our desire to gain status through socially valued actions and appears to be universal

Question 16

Cultures vary in focal emotions

Answer 16

those that are relatively common in everyday lives of members of a culture and are experience and expressed with greater frequency and intensity

Question 17

Why do some emotions become focal in a particular culture?

Answer 17

Affect Valuation theory (Tsai and colleagues)
~Emotions that promote important cultural ideas are valued and will tend to play a more prominent role in social lives of individuals

Question 18

Emotional regulation

Answer 18

refers to the ways in which people modify their emotions to make themselves feel better or to fit present context

Question 19

3 regulation strategies:

Answer 19

1)reappraise: people rethink the reasons they are feeling as they do
2)acceptance: accept current emotional circumstances to understand that our emotions are fleeting and their causes change
3)supression: people minimize the outward signs of their emotion

Question 20

Cultures vary in how powerfully they encourage people to engage in emotional suppression

Answer 20

Interdependent cultures report more likely to suppress positive emotional expressions than people from independent cultures

Question 21

Social Functional Theory

Answer 21

emotions and their accompanying patterns of experience, expression, and physiology enable people to form maintain and negotiate the relationships that matter most to them

Question 22

commitment problem solved in 2 ways

Answer 22

1)expression of emotions that signal commitment to others’ well being
2)emotions can motivate us to act in way that prioritize well-being of others

Question 23

neurochemistry of commitment

Answer 23

-oxytocin: fosters emotions that strengthen long term familial relations and friendships;promotes pair bonding; prevalent in both human and non-human

Question 24

How do we collaborate with others?

Answer 24

~emotional mimicry

~touch and collaboration

Question 25

emotional mimicry

Answer 25

: copying other’s emotional expressions usually unconsciously (posture, tone, facial expression)

Question 26

touch and collaboration

Answer 26

~touch can encourage other’s actions or dissuade someone from inappropriate behavior
~tactile forms of expression function as rewards to others for behaviors we like(pat on the back)

Question 27

finding group identity in emotion

Answer 27

emotions help us feel sense of belonging to larger social collectives

Question 28

feelings of collective pride signal

Answer 28

how specific groups are important to sense of self
~feeling that something bigger than ourself is transcending our understanding of the world
~ie:sports game, political rally -> creates a sense of awe

Question 29

sense of awe

Answer 29

feeling of awe promotes a sense of belonging and collectievness

Question 30

finding our place in groups

Answer 30

emotions help identify with certain groups, and find our place/status within these groups

Question 31

emotions of anger or pride

Answer 31

signals dominance and expectations for others to follow
~expressing pride likely gets people to follow you or imitate you more

Question 32

emotions of envy

Answer 32

motivate people to act in ways that influence other people’s status
~envy motivates people to move up social hierarchy

Question 33

malicious envy

Answer 33

i will pull you down to my level

Question 34

benign envy

Answer 34

i want the status that person has

Question 35

philosophy of emotions

Answer 35

we make most decisions based on gut feelings, gut feelings lead to misguided/impuslive behavior

Question 36

psychology of emotions

Answer 36

-emotions bias how we view the world
-emotions prioritize what we should focus on and factor into our decisions

Question 37

emotions influence perception

Answer 37

we perceive events in ways that are consistent with the emotions we feel

Question 38

Mozart vs mahler

Answer 38

~particpants listened to uplifting music by Mozart vs melancholy music by mahler
~tried to identify words from strings of letters
~happy participants were fast to idenity happy or positive words

Question 39

fear leads to

Answer 39

exaggerated sense of danger around us

Question 40

Terrorism and emotions

Answer 40

Participants asked to write about 9/11 terrorist attack made them feel angry or frightened
~people primed to feel fear reported that future terrorism is more likely
~people primed to feel anger reported less of both measurements
-anger makes you draw fast conclusions that others have hostile intentions towards you

Question 41

emotions influence reasoning

Answer 41

positive emotions prompt people to reason in ways that are flexible and rational

Question 42

positive moods :

Answer 42

more likley to reach optimal agreements because it enables more flexible thinking for both positions and interests of both sides

Question 43

broaden and build hypothesis

Answer 43

~negative emotions focus attention on narrow details of what we perceive
~positive emotions broaden pattern of thought to help expand understanding of world and build social relationships
~~~broadened way of thinking also built stronger ties with teammates

Question 44

cultural variations of happiness

Answer 44

~indigenous societies, happiness is found in interdepends with others and nature
~ancient and classical Greece:happiness thought to be achieved through virtuous behavior
~middle ages: happiness though to be found in afterlife upon communion with god

Question 45

happiness shift currenlty

Answer 45

~american find happiness in personal achievemnt
~east asians find happiness in harmonious interactions
~latino culture have “simpartia”, warm, affectionate interaction

Question 46

2 distinct components of happiness

Answer 46

1)life satisfication(how well everything is going)
2)emotional well-being(moment-to-moment balance of positive and negative emotions)

Question 47

benefits of happiness

Answer 47

1)happiness enables better work(more creative, more productivity)
2)happiness matters in relationships(positive emotions boosts each other’s emotional well being)
3)happiness promotes health(less physical pain, better sleep)

Question 48

affective forecasting

Answer 48

predicting future emotions such as whether an event will result in happiness, anger, or sadness
(ie: comparing the predicted impact of breakup to the actual impact of breakup)

Question 49

multiple biases interfere with affective forecasting

Answer 49

immune neglect
focalism

Question 50

immune neglect

Answer 50

->tendency to ignore the ability to respond productively to stress and other potential sources of unhappiness

Question 51

focalism

Answer 51

focusing too much on the most central elements of significant events, we fail to consider how other aspects of life influence happiness

Question 52

duration neglect

Answer 52

length of experience is unimportant, only matters if it was pleasurable or unpleasant

Question 53

2 factors influencing recollections of pleasure

Answer 53

1)peak moment->strongly predicts how much pleasure you remember from a moment
2)end of event->recency effect

Question 54

happiness is found in money

Answer 54

more money =more life satisfaction

Question 55

happiness is found in being with other people

Answer 55

social bonds bring personal happiness

Question 56

practice gratitude

Answer 56

people who express gratitude reported to be happier than those who didn’t