Emotion Flashcards
Emotion is…
psychologically interpreted; physiologically the same whether sad or happy
Functions of Emotions
1) adaptive
2) communicative
3) interpretative
Function of Emotion: Adaptive
support surivival; focus attention and energize actions
Function of Emotion: Communicative
-convey messages to others; able to infer about the internal states of others
Function of Emotion: Interpretative
provides color and meaning to life; helps us determine valence (positve or negative) of experience; determines context
Components of Emotion
1) physiological activation
2) conscious experiences
3) expressive behavioral responses
Component of Emotion: Physiological activation
autonomoic arousal; sympathetic activation —> increased HR
Component of Emotion: Conscious Experience
Interpretations of physiological arousal
-thoughts or judgements of feeling
Component of Emotion: Expressive Behavioral Responses
Physcial action in response to internal experiences; outward action in response to situation
If funny, laugh and fall over
Do we experience physcial arousal first or emotion
its complicated
James-Lange Theory
physcial arousal happens before emotional interpretation
emotional interpretatoin is in response to physiological response to stimulus
behavioral response provides interpretative feedback for physiological arousal
Example of James-Lange Theory
- Sight of oncoming car (perception of stimulus)
- increased HR; heart pounding (arousal)
- fear (emotion)
Cannon Bard Theory
an emotion arousing stimulus simutaneously triggers a physiological repsonse and a seubjective emotion expereinces
- argues that physiogical expereinces are too similar to cause an emotional response
- assumes that context and physiological arousal are processed simulatenously via different pathways
Example of Cannon-Bard Theory
Sight of oncoming car (perception of stimulus)
I simutaneously I
pounding heart (arousal) Fear (emotion)
Schachter Singer Two Factor Theory
Emotional experience comes from how we INTERPRET our physiological arousal
-emotion relies on our past experiences, perceptions, and interpretation of event
Two factors before emotion:
physical arousal and cognitve appraisal
Schachter Singer Two Factor Theory Example
Sight of oncoming car (perception of stimulus)
I I
cognitve label “im afraid” physiological response (pounding)
I I
fear (emotion)
Spillover effect
what is it and is a part of what theory
Schachter singer two factor theory
- arousal states can spill over from one even to another influencing our response
e. g having a bad day? unintentially take it on someone else - argues for infectious nature of emotional responses; jokes may seem more funnier in a crowd; ppl moods may rub off on us
LeDoux Dual-Pathway
some emotional reponse happen before or even seperate from our interpretations (fear responses happen quickly)
- eomtional responses are the final step in a process that can follow two different pathways in our brain
1. high road
2. low road
High road
information travels from thalamus to cerebral cortex before going to the amygdala
-information is assessed before an emotional response is generated
THE THINKER
Low road
informatino goes directly from thalamus to amygdala
allows for faster response for danger
the doer
emotional response and action is generated before information is accessed
Emotional expressions around the world
many types of emotionale expressions around the world are considered universal even despite culture differences; still able to identify the emotion
Six Basic emotional expressions
what are they, suggests what
1) anger
2) fear
3) joy
4) supprised
5) disgusted
6) sad
people from all cultures are generally able to identfy six basic emotions because we all express them the same way
this suggests an evolutionary basis for emotional expression; before language facial expressions may have been used to convey messages; may also have adaptive component
Facial Feedback Effect
facial expressions can infleunce how we feel
contracting our facial muscles to make an emotional expression can trigger the corresponding emotional experience
smile through the pain
