Emotion Flashcards
1
Q
3 key components of an emotion
A
- Distinct subjective feeling or affect (ie. Fear, anger)
- Bodily changes/symptoms (ie. Heart rate increases)
- Action tendencies (ie. Running away, fighting back)
2
Q
2 things emotions do
A
- Prepare us to respond appropriately to the situation (ie. Fear)
- Communicate to others (ie. Warn of threat)
3
Q
Person-environment transaction: stressful stimuli
A
- Integrates stress, appraisal, emotion, and response
- Steps in a transaction:
- Perceive stimulus ->
- Appraise as threatening (stress) ->
- Subjective feeling (fear/anxiety) ->
- Bodily changes/symptoms ->
- Action tendency (behaviour)
4
Q
hardiness (and its 3 main characteristics)
A
- Important in protecting people from negative effects of stress
- 3 main characteristics:
- Control (perceiving that they’re in control of their lives)
- Commitment (being involved in life; goal-setting, etc.)
- Challenge (seeing difficult things as challenges instead of feeling despair)
5
Q
Resilience
A
- An individual’s ability to successfully adapt to stress over time -> Recovery from stress/adversity without a lasting impact
- Big 5: associated with high openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and low neuroticism
6
Q
Factors associated with resilience
A
- Having positive relationships (family or friends)
- Ability to make realistic plans and follow through
- Positive self-concept and confidence in one’s abilities
- Good communication and problem-solving skills
- Self-control; good management of impulses & emotions
7
Q
Primary/basic emotions
A
- Initial 6 (Ekman): anger, fear, disgust, surprise, happiness, sadness
- Additional primary emotions: contempt, shame, embarrassment, amusement, pride
- To be a basic emotion, it must:
- Have distinct facial expression
- Be recognized across cultures
- Be universal
8
Q
emotions: states vs. traits
A
- typically thought of as temporary states (transitory or brief experiences; sometimes situational; often have a specific cause or environmental trigger; ie. John is sad because he lost his wallet)
- BUT can also be trait-like (certain emotions can be experienced more frequently or more consistently over time and across situations; ie. John is a happy guy)
9
Q
valence & arousal
A
- 2 factors that appear to underline emotions, which lead to 2 dimensions that can be plotted on a circumplex model
- Valence (+/-; pleasure/displeasure)
- Arousal (high/low activation)
10
Q
function of positive emotions
A
- Broaden-and-build theory: positive emotions (ie. Happiness, curiosity) broaden our awareness; encourage novel, exploratory thoughts & behaviours; build skills and resources over time
- Pleasant interactions with a stranger may result in support
- Curiosity results in navigational knowledge
11
Q
person-environment transaction: positive emotions
A
- Perceive stimulus ->
- Appraise as non-threatening ->
- Subjective feeling (happiness) ->
- Bodily changes/symptoms (ie. Increased oxytocin) ->
- Action tendency (behaviour, ie. Approach)
12
Q
emotional style vs. content
A
- style: the “how” of emotional life; how are these emotions typically experienced? (ex. intensity and variability)
- content: the “what” of emotional life; what types of emotions are frequently experienced? Come to define our personality over time
13
Q
emotional style: intensity and variability
A
- Strongly correlated
- High affect intensity/variability: Experience emotions strongly; emotionally reactive, variable (associated with both high neuroticism and high extraversion)
- Low affect intensity/variability: Experience emotions mildly; only gradual fluctuations over time, minor emotional reactions (Associated with alexithymia)
14
Q
Alexithymia
A
- A personality construct characterized by difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings to other people, and an externally bound cognitive style (focus on external factors when problem-solving rather than their own feelings/reactions
- Individuals show a marked deficit in experiencing positive emotions, empathy
- Associated with low levels of emotional intelligence and low affect intensity/variability
15
Q
content: 4 primary emotions associated with personality
A
- 3 Unpleasant emotions: anxiety, depression, and anger/hostility -> high neuroticism
- 1 Pleasant emotion: happiness (subjective well-being) -> high extraversion, low neuroticism
16
Q
Beck’s cognitive theory: Depressive Style
A
- Beck’s cognitive triad -> people more likely to be depressed have more depressing/negative schemas of 1) self, 2) world, and 3) future
- Depressive attributional style: Emphasizes internal, global, and stable causes for negative events (ie. Pessimistic); associated with feelings of helpnessness and poor adjustment
- creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
17
Q
Type A Personality
A
- Noticed by cardiologists who observed commonalities among many of their coronary heart disease (CHD) patients
- Considered a syndrome (achievement strivings, impatient, competitiveness, hostility -> most strongly related to CHD)
18
Q
Type D Personality
A
negative affectivity and social inhibition (these traits act synergistically to put cardiac patients at risk for further adverse cardiac events)
19
Q
Dispositional Happiness
A
- some people are more likely to feel happy than others
- Often termed subjective well-being
- 3 components:
- Cognitive appraisal of satisfaction with life
- Presence of positive emotions
- Absence of negative emotions
20
Q
Individual Differences in Happiness
A
- Demographic variables (gender, age, ethnicity, and income)
- Only account for approx. 10-15% of variance in happiness as demographic variables
- Happy people tend to be:
- High in extraversion: outgoing, sociable, friendly; promotes positive affect
- Low in neuroticism: emotionally stable, calm; prevents negative affect
21
Q
Does money buy happiness?
A
- Correlations between .12 and .25 have been observed between income and happiness
- appears that once you have enough money to support yourself, having additional doesn’t matter as much; increases in money do not lead to long-term happiness (ie. lottery winners)
- Spending money on others (prosocial spending) can have a larger positive impact on happiness than spending the same amount on oneself, especially if giver is aware of their positive impact
22
Q
emotions: categorical vs. dimensional approach
A
- some believe emotions fall into distinct groups of basic/primary emotions (categorical approach)
- others believe emotions are made up of different degrees of various dimensions - ie. high/low activation and positive/negative valence (dimensional approach)
23
Q
Pride
A
- Dr. Jess Tracy’s research works to establish it as a new universal emotion
- Cross-culturally, people have been able to identify someone with a slight smile, head tilted back, chin up, and either hands on hips or arms raised as someone who is experiencing pride
- 2 key aspects of pride (Both have same body manifestation):
- authentic pride: based on achievement; genuine self-esteem
- hubristic pride: self-aggrandizement, narcissism
24
Q
Happiness
A
- most people report being happy most of the time
- 2 components:
- cognitive: feeling like your life has meaning (life satisfaction
- affective: ratio of positive to negative emotions (hedonic balance)
- part of being happy is having positive illusions about yourself
- happy people are less abusive/hostile, less self-focused, report less disease, more helpful, cooperative, creative, trusting, etc. and more satisfied with their jobs, marriage, etc. (however, may involve reciprocal causality -> can flow in both directions)
- no difference between genders, times of life (although different things make you happy at different times), ethnic groups, or social groups, but there IS difference in nationality (ie. Canada happier than US) -> poor countries with less civil rights and less econ. dev. unhappier
25
what 2 traits predict subjective well-being/happiness? What traits do not predict happiness?
- Predict: extraversion -> positive affect & neuroticism -> negative affect
- - nationality as well (poor countries with less civil rights and economic development unhappier)
- Don't predict: gender, time of life (although different things make you happy at different times), ethnic group, or social group
26
2 models of personality
- direct model: when exposed to identical situations, different people respond with different emotions
- indirect model: personality causes someone to adapt a certain lifestyle, which influences how they respond to situations
27
Eysenck's biological theory: neuroticism
- high neuroticism due to easily-activated limbic system
| - appears to be somewhat inherited
28
brain areas associated with emotion
- limbic system: fight-or-flight response
- anterior cingulate: involved in early development of nervous system
- prefrontal cortex: executive control centre
29
theories about emotion
- biological theories
| - cognitive theories
30
cognitive theories of emotion: neuroticism
- neuroticism is less about the brain itself; more about how an individual processes information
- ex. high-N people recall more negative info, and recall it faster (about themselves, not about others)
31
neuroticism
- upset more easily, take more time to recover
- more likely to complain of and experience health problems
- pay more attention to negative cues/events in life
32
theories re: depression
- diathesis-stress model
- Beck's cognitive theory
- neurotransmitter theory of depression
33
diathesis-stress model
- pre-existing vulnerability (diathesis) amongst people who will later become depressed
- then, a stressful life event must occur to trigger the depression
- no element alone (diathesis or stress) is enough to trigger depression -> must happen together
34
neurotransmitter theory of depression
depression may be due to neurotransmitter imbalance at the synapses in nervous system
35
hostility
- tendency to respond to everyday situations with frustration/aggression, be easily irritated, act uncooperatively, etc.
- related to type-A personality
- may be due to decreased prefrontal cortex activity
36
research findings about high affect intensity emotional style
- people with high affect intensity rate good events as more good and bad events and more bad
- high affect intensity experience more mood variability
- tend to be more sociable, energetic, etc.
- affect intensity is unrelated to hedonic balance
37
cognitive distortions associated with depression
- overgeneralizing (applying one incident to many others - ie. believing you're a failure after failing 1 test)
- arbitrary influences (jumping to negative conclusions)
- personalizing (thinking everything is your fault)
- catastrophizing (thinking the worst will always happen)
