Emotion

Question 1

Define emotion

Answer 1

• There is no consensus on what emotion is
  an emotion episode involves
  – A triggering event (which can be external or internal)
  – Bodily responses and communicative (esp. facial) expressions
  – Action tendency/readiness
  – Changes in the ways we think

Question 2

Charles Darwin and emotion

Answer 2

Darwin assumed that emotions:
1) are a class of mental states;
2) are usually caused by emotion-specific
appraisals of events; and
3) often cause emotion-specific bodily changes

• Darwin’s idea that emotion expressions correspond to different
  emotion categories in a one-on-one manner also inspires
  contemporary basic emotions theorists
• He used a range of research methods: intra- and intercultural
  studies of facial emotion recognition; observations of emotional
  expressions in children and in blind-born people, and crossspecies comparisons of emotional expressions
• Based on the data, Darwin concluded that facial expressions of
  emotions, as well as recognition of others’ emotional expression,
  is inherited
• Moreover, Darwin’s research methods also influenced most of the
  methods for studying emotional expressions today

Question 3

William James and emotion

Answer 3

• assumed that
  subjective emotional experience is caused by
  changes in the body resulting from perception of an important event.

E.g. we experience fear because we are trembling
This theory is called the James–Lange theory, the
first theory of emotion

Question 4

What was James approach to emotion

Answer 4

• James (1884) defined that “the bodily changes follow directly the
  perception of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur is the emotion”

Question 5

Explain the James-Lange theory of emotion

Answer 5

1. Stimulus
2. Bodily responses
   (Physiological responses are specific to different emotions)
3. Emotion
   (Experience of emotion is the result of interpretation of physiological responses

Question 6

What did Cannon (1927) and Bard (1982) say

Answer 6

They hypothesised that the feeling of emotions happens at the same time but separately from physical changes in the body
Emotional events have two separate effects on the brain
1) stimulate the ANS to elicit the physiological
arousal that prepares the body to respond to a
threat, and simultaneously,
2) cause the cerebral cortex to perceive emotions

Question 7

What is the importance of thalamus according to Cannon and Bard

Answer 7

The thalamic theory of emotion
- According to their theory, the physiological arousal, mediated by
the autonomic nervous system (ANS), is general and nondiscriminatory, and is not causal for emotion
- Moreover, the brain is capable of eliciting emotion even without
receiving information from the peripheral nervous system
- While the thalamus controls experience of emotion, the cerebral
cortex controls the expression of emotion

• Stimulus (the two pathways are seperated by the thalamus )
• pathway 1 is the bodily responses (physiological arousal, mediated by the ANS, is general and non-discriminatory)
• pathway 2 emotion (subjective feelings of emotion is mediated by the cerebral cortex)

Question 8

What did Schachter and Singer (1962) say about emotion

Answer 8

• proposed that emotion is determined
  by an interaction between two components: a physiological
  arousal and a cognition regarding the recognition to the situation
  triggering this physiological arousal
• Physical arousal is considered to be undifferentiated by nature,
  diffuse and non-specific to an emotion
• It is the interpretation of the situation which leads to the
  identification of the emotion felt
• Notably, for an emotion to occur, a link between the physiological
  arousal and a relevant explanation to the situation is necessary

Question 9

What is the two factor theory (Schachter and Singer)

Answer 9

• Stimulus
  |
  \/
• Bodily responses
  (Undifferentiated physical arousal non-specific to an emotion)
  |
  \/
• Cognitive interpretation
  (Interpretation of the situation determines the emotion felt)
  |
  \/
• Emotion

Question 10

What are the characteristics of basic emotions according to Ekman (1992)

Answer 10

• are present in non-human species
• are triggered rapidly and automatically, and appear spontaneously
  for a short duration
• have specific trigger conditions, patterns of autonomic nervous
  system activity, patterns of neural activities, and expressive
  patterns for each emotion

Example - Ekman 1982 - anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise are universal facial expression

Question 11

Facial expressions of basic emotion

Answer 11

• Ekman and his associates have demonstrated the universality of
  emotional facial expressions by showing that western facial
  expressions were well recognised in a preliterate New-Guinea
  culture (Ekman & Friesen, 1971)
• Facial expressions are considered as the pivot in communication
  between human beings (Ekman, 1982)
• Facial expression of each of the basic emotions has distinct
  adaptive functions
• Expressive behavior is also suggested to be fundamental in child
  development (Izard & King, 2009)

Question 12

Problems with basic emotion theories

Answer 12

• Evidence of the distinctness of physiological patterns of basic emotions
  has been inconsistent
• For instance, it was found that the patterns of emotional responses of
  fear and anger did not overlap. However, their differences can be better
  explained by appraisals (Stemmler et al., 2001)

Question 13

Dimensional approach
- Positive and negative affect

Answer 13

The orthogonal positive and negative affect dimensions emerge
after rotating the pleasantness-arousal circumplex model (Watson
& Tellegen, 1985)
 There is evidence that positive and negative affects are linked to
different neurobiological networks (Rohr et al., 2013)
 Moreover, it is suggested that positive affect and negative affect
corresponds to extraversion and neuroticism respectively (Meyer
& Shack, 1989)

Question 14

What is Scherer’s appraisal theory (2001,2009)

Answer 14

emotion is multidimensional and
comprises five components:
a) a stimulus or situation appraising component enabling the elicitation and
differentiation of emotions
b) a physiological component (bodily changes);
c) a motor expression component both in terms of facial and vocal
expression as well as posture and gestures;
d) a motivational component including action tendencies (e.g. approaching or
avoiding) and finally
e) a subjective feeling component reflecting felt emotional experience

Question 15

Critiques of dimensional theories of emotion

Answer 15

As these models are based on verbal reports, the bi-dimensional
structure may actually reflect the structure of the language
 There is no real consensus on the elementary dimensions.
Different proposals of a third dimension have been raised. And
Fontaine et al. (2007) have shown with multi-national data that
four dimensions are necessary
 The dimensional approach centers only on subjective feeling; yet
the underlying elicitation mechanisms are likely not bipolar

Question 16

What is the component process model Scherer’s (2001, 2009)

Answer 16

it regards cognitive appraisal as a process in which we continuously
appraise and reappraise our environment
 The CPM divides appraisal into four different stages:
1) relevance check
2) implications check
3) coping potential check
4) normative significance evaluation
 Each stage contains specific appraisal dimensions called stimulus
evaluation checks

Question 17

Appraisal theories of emotion

Answer 17

Appraisal theories of emotion has two central premises:
– emotion is an information processing system
– an evaluative cognitive processing, known as appraisal, determines the
elicitation of an emotion
 Specifically, when an event occurs, an individual would evaluate
this event based on a set of standard criteria
 These evaluations are often automatic and unconscious
 Different emotions can be described by different patterns of
appraisal – a claim with considerable empirical support

Question 18

What does Barret 2001 say about psychological primitives

Answer 18

Core affects – neurobiological states
that can be described as pleasant or
unpleasant with varying degree of
arousal, a neurophysiologic
barometer of bodily states
 Emotion concepts – collections of
knowledge sculpted by prior
experience that people use to
categorise core affects
 The role of working memory

Question 19

Lazarus theory of emotion

Answer 19

According to Smith and Lazarus (1990), the appraisal process
results in identification of a “core relational theme“, and each
distinct theme results in a distinct emotion
– E.g., an ambiguous danger or threat produces anxiety; loss and
helplessness produce sadness; offense to oneself or those one identifies
with produces anger, and so on
 Two global appraisal issues are identified:
– Primary appraisal – whether and how the encounter is relevant to the
person’s well-being
– Secondary appraisal – the person’s resources and coping options

Question 20

Scherers appraisal theory

Answer 20

According to Scherer (2001, 2009), emotion is multidimensional and
comprises five components:
a) a stimulus or situation appraising component enabling the elicitation and
differentiation of emotions
b) a physiological component (bodily changes);
c) a motor expression component both in terms of facial and vocal
expression as well as posture and gestures;
d) a motivational component including action tendencies (e.g. approaching or
avoiding) and finally
e) a subjective feeling component reflecting felt emotional experience

Question 21

Critiques of appraisal theories of emotion

Answer 21

The claim that appraisal is a cause of emotion is incompatible with
the claim that appraisal is a part of emotion. In fact, whether
appraisal and emotion are dissociable is questionable
 That appraisal is a cause of emotion is also difficult to test, as it
requires manipulation of appraisal independent of other variables
(e.g. the event)
 Moreover, not all theorists accept the idea of automatic and
unconscious appraisal, which is difficult to measure empirically
 That said, the role of appraisal in emotion is well-accepted