Emotion Flashcards
EMOTION
- “… strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances/mood/relationships; instinctive/intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning/knowledge…”
STAGES OF EMOTIONAL PROCESSING
PHILLIPS et al (2003):
- regulation = regulation of the affective state
- affective state production (emotion-feeling-mood = duration)
- appraisal = identification of the emotional significance of a stimuli
- stimulus presentation
CROSS-SPECIES
DARWIN (1872)
- similarities of anger between dogs, swans and humans; ruffled body features and tensed face to bare teeth repeated across species
DR LISA PARR
- chimps make similar faces of excitement when playing/tickling, and also smile to appease their friend and show lack of aggression afterwards; easily comparable to respective human expressions
CROSS-CULTURE
EKMAN & FRIESEN (1971/1972)
- basic emotions (ie. joy, anger, disgust, sadness, fear) are universal across cultures, ie:
- her friends have come; she is happy
- his mother had dies; he feels sad
- he is angry; he is about to fight
- she is surprised; she is looking at something new
- he is disgusted; he smells something bad
- tribe members w/no social interactions were asked to show faces of joy/sadness etc.; same as ours
- BUT display rules are culture-specific
INDIVIDUAL FUNCTIONS OF EMOTIONS
- expressions change in-taken info ie.
fear = eyes widen = helps detect a threat
disgust = eyes/nose wrinkle = avoids ingesting contamination
OATLEY & JOHNSON-LAIRD (1987) - emotions adapt beh to achieve goals ie.
joy = goals achieved = continue w/plan
sadness = failure of goal = search for new plan
anxiety = self-preservation threatened = vigilantly attend to environment/escape
anger = goal frustrated = aggress/try harder
disgust = goal violated = reject substance/withdraw
GENDER DISPLAY RULES
- kids taught to behave according to norms/stereotypes:
girls = cooperative/nice/friendly/smile
boys = manly/strong/angry/controlled
BBC 2 STUDY - boys = overconfident; struggled w/emotions other than anger
CULTURAL DISPLAY RULES
- smiling is not culturally universal; smiling people are culturally-influenced rather than related to happiness level in life
- smiling common = USA; smiling uncommon = Japan via “less average emotional expression”
NATURE
JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY/SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
- facial expressions are hard-wired/innate, not culturally learned; blind athletes express the same sadness after losing a match as sighted athletes; nigh perfect correlation suggests genetic resident source of facial expression
GIL et al (2011)
- 6w infants; sadness/joy already distinguish themselves via reflexes; show social-communicative functions for infant-parent interaction vital in caretaker communication
PARRY (2011)
- feti show expressions increasingly complex over time
CLASSIFICATION OF EMOTIONS
SCHNEIRLA (1959)
- single dual-system theories categorise emotions via approach/withdrawal
GRAY (1970/1980)
- behavioural approach (reward); inhibition systems (punishment/distinct brain circuits)
DAVIDSON
- valence-asymmetry hypothesis left-sided prefrontal cortex = approach-related (positive) goals
- right-sided PFC = goals requiring inhibition/withdrawal (negative)
CIRCUMPLEX MODEL
RUSSEL (1980) valence = positive/negative arousal = dull/intense - sadness = dull/negative - anger = intense/negative
THE ROLE OF EMOTION EXPRESSION
EKMAN et al (1980)
- do facial expressions reflect emotional experience?
- pps watched movies while expressions videotaped
- self-reported subjective experiences (ie. emotions, intensity, etc.)
- expressions codes via FACS (Facial Action Coding System)
- pps who showed particular smile movements (action unit 12) reported more joy; respective for sadness
MEASURING EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIONS
EKMAN & FRIESEN (1978)
- developed FACS (Face Action Coding System)
- “Pan Am” smile = doesn’t meet the eyes
- “Duchenne” smile = overexaggerated
KUNECKE et al (2014)
- facial EMG measures subtle activity in corrugator (frown) and zygomatic (smile) muscles
- EMG positively correlated w/emotion perception ability; shows gender difs (fem > male)
SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
- wide fearful eyes = threat signal; white of eye helps quickly direct attention to gaze location
- joy/anger = reinforcers (3m)
- sadness = elicits caregiving
- basically think Inside Out lmao
SOCIAL CONTEXT
FRIDLUND (1991)
- pps saw pleasant video; 4c: alone/alone but thinking a friend was near/alone but thinking a friend was also watching the tape/with friend
- EMG measured smiling; increased w/sociability but not as function of self-reported emotion
- argues facial expressions communicate motives rather than emotional states
CONTEXTUAL INTENSITY
HESS et al (1995)
- similar paradigm of Fridlund (1991) but varied intensity (ie. funny VS slightly funny) + relationship (ie. friend VS stranger) of other pp
- measured EMG/skin conductance/self-report
- intensity of smiling affected by sociality of context but more strongly by film funniness
- context + internal emotion play a role BUT effects emerge only w/friends not strangers
- so emotion expression is influenced by state/context/relationship w/audience
