Emotion

Question 1

Emotions

Answer 1

Complex psychological states than involve:
Subjective experience
Physiological/hormonal responses
Behavioural/expressive responses
Cognition
They are intense and short-lived vs. moods - less intense but longer lived

Question 2

Goal Directing Emotion

Answer 2

Can be goal directing - avoid anxiety provoking situation

Or can be a goal - goal to be happy

Question 3

Phineas Gage (1848)

Answer 3

Lesion of medial PFC caused by tamping tool
Intelligence was preserved
Personality changed: became impulsive, bad social judgement, short-tempered
Frontal lobe damage causes: emotional bluntness, poor planning, obession over details

Question 4

Darwin’s Theory of Emotion

Answer 4

Expression of emotion is a product of evolution

1. evolves from behaviour indicating what an animal will do next
2. if behaviour benefits animal they will evolve in a way that enhances communicative function
3. principle of antithesis: opposite messages signalled by opposite movements and postures

Question 5

Darwin’s Threat Display Responses

Answer 5

Aggression: expose weapons, intimidate enemy
Submission: opposite to aggression, avert gaze

Question 6

James-Lange Peripheral Feedback Theory

Answer 6

1900ish
Perception of a stimulus causes bodily arousal which leads to emotion - bodily arousal before emotion
Evidence: skin conductance response (SCR) increases with enhanced arousal

Question 7

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

Answer 7

Perception of a stimulus elicits emotion which causes bodily arousal - emotion before bodily arousal
Evidence: if a participant can’t feel bodily arousal due to spinal cord injury then there should also be no emotional experience

Question 8

Schachter & Singer 2 Factor Model

Answer 8

Perception and thought about stimulus influence type of emotion
Degree of bodily arousal influences intensity of behaviour
Suggests visceral arousal is not sufficient enough to produce emotion - needs cognition aswell
Evidence:
Adrenalin injections - cold emotions e.g. i feel as if….
Adrenalin injections and chat about deceased family member sometimes produced hot emotions

Question 9

Emotion Based Learning Brain Areas

Answer 9

Amygdala and ventromedial frontal cortex

Question 10

Episodic Memory Brain Areas

Answer 10

Hippocampus and para-hippocampul gyrus

Question 11

Emotion-Based Learning and Amnesia

Answer 11

Patient S.L.
Posterior cerebral artery stroke
Intact intelligence (WAIS)
Emotion based learning (Iowa gambling task) he showed normal levels of performance despite severe memory impairment
Normal executive performance (Turnball & Evans, 2006)

Question 12

Emotional Faces and Electrical Potential Recordings from Amygdala and Visual Cortex

Answer 12

Krolak-Salmon et al, 2004
Participants presented with expressions: neutral, fearful, happy, disgust
Largest amygdala response for the fearful faces
Amygdala response to faces is present before cortex response

Question 13

Subcortical Pathway for Threatening Emotional Stimuli 
La Doux (1998)

Answer 13

Suggests there is a low-level route to emotional response when faced with a threatening emotional stimuli

Question 14

Sham Rage (Bard, 1929)

Answer 14

Studies with decorticate cats
Lesion 1: removal of cortex - sham rage, severe aggression to slightest provocation, aggression not directed at target
Lesion 2: removal of cortex and hypothalamus - no sham rage
Conclusion: hypothalamus is critical for expression of aggressive responses, cortex is critical for inhibition and direction of aggressive responses

Question 15

Medial Limbic Circuit

Answer 15

Papez circuit (1937) neural circuit for control of emotional responses

Question 16

Ekman’s Standardised Emotional Expressions

Answer 16

Fear, disgust, sadness, happiness, anger, surprise
Other primary emotion??
Ekman (1992) contempt, embarrassment
Tracy & Robbins (2004) pride

Question 17

Primary Emotions

Answer 17

Can’t be mixed with other emotions and include postural and facial components

Question 18

Facial Feedback Theory (Adelman & Zajonc, 1989)

Answer 18

Sensory feedback from expression contributes to emotional feeling
Link: James-Lange theory

Question 19

Deaf/Blind Children

Answer 19

Exhibit facial expressions of emotions in appropriate situations
Deaf children: less refined because of lack of practise and feedback

Question 20

Cultural Differences in Perceiving Facial Expressions

Answer 20

Differences recognising fearful faces based on attentional focus on different facial features (Garrod et al, 2012)

Question 21

Kuwer-Bucy Syndrome

Answer 21

AKA visual agnosia

Caused by bilateral lesions of medial temporal lobe