Cognition and Emotion 1 Flashcards
define affect
the experience of feeling or emotion
define emotion
a brief but intense experience
relatively short lived
E.g. You experience the emotion of ‘fear’ as you notice a car heading directly towards you at fast speed. As the car brakes and slows down and drives around you, that feeling of ‘fear’ subsides
define affective judgement
a decision on what a person likes or dislikes
according to Watson and Clark (1994), how do they define emotion?
(What components are there that make up emotion?)
emotion is defined as:
- distinct
- integrated
- psychophysiological response systems
- suggested that an emotion contains 3 different response systems:
1/ a prototypic form of behavioural expression
2/ a pattern of consistent autonomic changes
3/ A distinct subjective feeling state
explain ‘a prototypic form of behavioural expression’ as a response system for emotion
this refers to recognising an emotion based on the specific behaviour displayed
i.e.: biting your lip = anxious or nervous
aka display behaviours like a facial expression
these can be seen by others
to some extent can be consciously controlled
explain ‘a pattern of consistent autonomic changes’ as a response system for emotion
this refers to change in the autonomic nervous system
this results in physiological changes to organs and systems in the body
e.g.: heart rate increasing, sweating
explain ‘a distinct subjective feeling state’ as a response system for emotion
this refers to an experience that you have that causes you to label as an emotion
taking all these components and labelling it as some sort of feeling/emotion
what two approaches are used to classify emotional experiences?
1/ basic emotion approach
2/ dimensional approach
explain the basic emotion approach to classifying emotional experiences
the idea that emotional experiences can be broken down into key number of basic emotions
idea that our emotions are a mix of basic types of emotions
basic emotions = the big 5
what are the 5 basic emotions according to the basic emotion theory?
(think inside out)
1/ anger
2/ disgust
3/ fear
4/ happiness
5/ sadness
what does it mean by the big 5 being pan-cultural?
these emotions are recognised universally regardless of culture and upbringing
who came up with ‘the big 5’?
Paul Ekman
Outline Ekman et al. (1971, 1972) study into facial recognition of emotion
- presented ppts with series of emotional expressions
- asked ppts to label the emotions of the expression
- looked to see whether ppts were consistent in giving a particular label to a particular emotion
FINDINGS:
- found high level of agreements over identifying a particular emotion when expressed in the face
- this was regardless of culture
what emotion is not so pan-cultural?
surprise
what is a basic emotion characterised as?
- distinct universal signals
e.g.: a facial expression - distinct physiology
e.g.: the way your body reacts to emotion
fear may elicit freeze, heart rate drops - emotion needs to be seen in other primates
see these emotions in chimpanzees or monkeys - quick onset
- brief duration
emotions need to last for a short period of time - distinct thoughts, memories etc.
emotion has to be associated with particular thoughts, memories, images
needs to bring about some type of subjective experiences
how did Ekman objectively measure facial expressions?
used FACS
facial action coding system
this measured the muscles used in the face when portraying particular emotions
these and a number of other things are things that have to be part of emotional experience in order for it to be classified as a basic emotion
explain the dimensional approach to classifying emotional experiences
- the theory that suggests emotions have 2 or more fundamental dimensions
- looks further into what an emotion is
- uses an affect grid which measures how a ppt is feeling
- uses two different dimensions to measure how ppt is feeling (i.e. arousal and valence)
what are the two dimension of emotion most widely accepted for the dimensional approach?
arousal and valence
define valence
:) / :(
refers to the distinction between how pleasant/unpleasant or positive/negative something is
define arousal
distinction between how calm or aroused/excited ppt feels
Outline Lang (1988) study for dimensional approach to categorising emotions
- presented ppts with series of International Affective Picture System (IAPS) images
- asked ppts to rate pictures in terms of 2 dimensions (valence and arousal)
- rating scale used = self assessment manikin (SAM) 9 point rating scale
FINDINGS:
- c-shaped affect grid
describe an affect grid
- c-shaped
due to there being very few arousing neutral things and many neutral non-arousing things - arousal across the X axis
- valence across the Y axis
what is a problem with the dimensional approach?
some emotions combine attributes of dimensions making them incompatible with dimensional models
e.g.: nostalgia is a combination of both positive and negative valence
identify 3 theories of emotion
1/ James-Lange Theory
2/ Cannon-Bard Theory
3/ Schachter & Singer 2 factor Theory
Explain the James-Lange Theory
- proposed a somatic theory (relating to the body)
- theory suggests that emotional experience is as a result of change in bodily function
- behaviour comes before cognition
perception of stimulus -> bodily changes -> emotional experience
Explain the Cannon-Bard Theory
- theory came about after criticism of James-Lange Theory
- suggests that emotional experience is as a result of a change in autonomic arousal that occurs simultaneously with a particular emotion
- e.g.: seeing a snake may prompt both feeling of fear (emotional response) and a racing heartbeat (physical reaction)
Explain Schachter & Singer cognitive theory
- two factor theory
- proposed emotion suggests that physiological arousal determines strength of emotion
- cognitive appraisal identifies emotion felt
- cognitive appraisals comes from context from previous experience
- suggested there are 2 factors essential to experience emotion
high physiological arousal
an emotional interpretation of that
arousal - if these factors = not present, you will not feel these emotions
Outline Schachter & Singer’s (1962) classic study
- told ppts they were investigating effects of a vitamin compound on vision (this was a lie)
- ppts were split into 4 groups
- 3 groups = injected with adrenaline
adrenaline causes change in autonomic nervous system - 1 group = injected with saline solution (this was the control group, they were not told anything about the effects of the drug they were given)
- of the 3 groups that had been given adrenaline: (informational manipulation)
- one group = correctly informed about side effects (racing heart etc.)
- one group = incorrectly informed of side effects (headaches, numb feet) this is not true of adrenaline
- one group = not informed at all
(context manipulation)
- ppts then exposed to a situation aimed to produce either joy, euphoria or anger
- emotional state of P’s later assessed
what was the hypothesis of Schachter & Singer classic study?
Those who were highly physiologically aroused (adrenalin groups) but who couldn’t interpret their arousal as being produced by the drug, should feel the most emotion and that the context will influence the emotion experienced (happiness or anger)
- groups that were physiologically aroused (due to adrenaline) but could not determine the arousal as being due to the drug (due to information given) should feel most emotion. The emotion is dependent on the context as this will influence the emotion experienced
- ppts are not able to appraise the situation and say the drug caused the arousal (as they believe they have been injected with a vitamin)
- because they cannot appraise the situation, they believe they are feeling an emotion
- context = instead of the appraisal coming from context of knowing what the drug is, the context will be coming from the experience they are put into
Outline the findings of Schachter & Singer’s classic study about emotion
Happy Group
- ppts that were misinformed experienced the most emotion (most happiness)
- followed by ignorant/uninformed group
- those informed about drug side effects, experienced the least emotion
this is because they can explain why they are feeling a particular emotion (arousal comes from drug)
Angry Group
- ignorant/uninformed groups felt most emotion (angry)
- saline/control group
- informed group felt least angry
despite adrenaline groups having identical physiological responses, the experience of emotion = influenced by information previously given AND the context (situation) ppt was in
what does Schachter & Singer classic study conclude about emotion?
concludes there is a cognitive component in the experience of emotion
