Emotion and Anxiety Flashcards
what are the 3 related but distinct dimensions of the emotional response
what do each mean
(a) subjective (i.e. verbal report about how an individual feels);
(b) behavioural (i.e. what an individual does): this could include behaviour in social situations, changes in facial expression e.g. to show rage, freezing to danger, psychomotor retardation in depression;
(c) physiological: this includes changes in heart rate and respiration (autonomic responses), and neuroendocrine responses such as adrenaline or corticosteroids secreted from the adrenals.
Why do humans find it hard to describe their emotional feelings (2)
intrinsically difficult
linguistic constraints
how do behavioural indices of emotion between humans and animals
measured precisely in animals, but in humans they consist mainly of self-report or observations of symptoms by human observers, often clinicians
what is a reinforcer
a stimulus that if it occurs, terminates or is omitted because of a response of the animal, the probability of that response occurring in the future is altered. Reinforcers increase a type of response
what is a positive reinforcer
stimulus that increases a response
what is a negative reinforcer
involves removal of a negative condition to strengthen behaviour
eg starting to cycle to work and finding that the negative condition (traffic) has been avoided
what is punishment
given after the behaviour is exhibited and reduces responding as a consequence.
what are the major physiological repsosnes to emotion that are usually measured (5)
heart rate,
blood pressure, galvanic skin resistance (GSR),
muscle tension
arousal measured as desynchronisation of the EEG
What is GSR
galvanic skin resistance
a measure of the skin’s electrical conductance (often called SCR), as affected by sweating
What are the physiological reactions to a spider in a patient with arachnophobia
what can we infer about these responses then
increases in heart rate,
skin conductance, vasomotor activity
decreased respiration
in response even to a picture of a spider
these autonomic changes are correlates of anxiety, but it is still not entirely clear whether a similar or different pattern of bodily responses accompanies other emotional feelings e.g. of joy or anger
What did James hypothesise about emotion
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
thus we don’t run bc we are afraid, we area afraid because we run
What did Lange propose at the same time as James
emotion could be experienced as organic symptoms (thus essentially introducing the notion of psychosomatic illness)
thus the idea that emotional experience derives from bodily experience is generally called the James-Lange theory
What did Cannon argue about emotion
argued strongly against the view that bodily feelings
contributed to emotional experience, mainly on the grounds that the viscera are relatively
insensitive structures and that visceral changes mediated by autonomic activity are too slow to be a
source of emotional feelings, which can arise very rapidly
Give an experiment that supported Cannon’s argument against the James-Lange theory
(don’t describe the whole thing)
artificial induction of the visceral changes typical of strong emotions, e.g. by injecting adrenaline to produce tachycardia, did not actually produce emotional experiences. (Schachter and Singer, 1962)
What did Hohmann find that supported the james-Lange theory
subjective feelings of anger and fear were diminished in subjects with spinal cord transection
and that the effect was greater the higher the level of the lesion.
subjects could act
as if they were angry in appropriate situations, but this “anger” subjectively lacked emotional colouring and intensity.
Therefore, although certain aspects of emotion (eg the thoughts or cognitions associated with specific emotions) apparently remained intact when the viscera were disconnected from the CNS, emotional experience was greatly reduced.
What were the 4 main groups in the Schachter and Singer study of 1962
- Epinephrine Ignorant: subjects were told (while being injected) that the injection was mild and harmless with no side effects. Therefore, the subject had no externally provided explanation of his/her bodily state.
- Epinephrine Misinformed: subjects were told to expect totally inaccurate side effects e.g. numbness of feet, itching.
- Epinephrine Informed: subjects were told to expect hand tremor, palpitations and flushing.
- Placebo: subjects received injections of saline and were told the same as group 1.
How were the 4 groups divided in the S and S emotion experiment
into two experimental conditions (or contexts) designed to elicit Euphoria or Anger.
In the first condition, subjects interacted with an actor (or “stooge”) who behaved euphorically.
In the second condition, the actor behaved angrily (there was no ‘Epinephrine Misinformed’ group for this condition).
What was Schachter and Singer’s hypothesis
subjects in the misinformed group would be most affected by the external manipulations of the context of their emotional state, because they had a less adequate explanation of their bodily changes. This would then show that the same symptoms of peripheral arousal (in the 3 groups) could produce different emotions, depending on the external environmental context (evaluated cognitively)
What were the 2 mains measures used by Schachter and Singer
- Self-report ratings (e.g. How good or happy would you say you feel at present? 0 - I don’t feel at all happy to 4- I feel extremely happy).
- Behavioural observations, through a one-way mirror - e.g. scores of initiating activity or agreeing/disagreeing with the actor.
pulse rate was also measured before and after the Adr injection to check it produced normal effects
Why is the Singer and Schachter experiment important (2)
(i) providing support for the James-Lange position that peripheral arousal provides a substrate for emotion
(ii) Showing the importance of cognitive factors (especially the attribution or labelling of bodily states) in interpreting this generally non-specific peripheral arousal as specific emotions
Which theories does the schachter and singer experiment bring together
theories of emotion based on peripheral arousal and those based on the neural mediation of emotional feelings and behaviour.
Is hunger an emotional state
not really
merely an internal sensation
What is required for hunger to be considered an emotion
must trigger cognitive appraisal of the situation that then elicits an emotional state.
For example, ‘anxiety’ may be elicited if the prospect of getting food in the near future is unlikely because you are living in the wilderness and finding food is becoming increasingly difficult
How do benzodiazepines and beta blockers affect anxiety
While benzodiazepines are successfully used to treat different types of anxiety, ß-adrenergic receptor blockers (e.g. propranolol) are also effective for
treating ‘somatic’ rather than ‘psychic’ forms of anxiety
What experiments did Tyrer perform to assess use of propranolol vs Diazepam
What were the results of the experiments (2)
used the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (for subjective ratings) and physiological measures, such as pulse and respiratory rate, to compare the effects of placebo, diazepam and propranolol on groups of ‘somatic’ and ‘psychic’ clinically anxious subjects
(i) Diazepam was effective for treating both psychic and somatic anxiety whereas the ß-blocker propranolol was effective only for treating somatic anxiety.
(ii) Under propranolol, ‘psychic’ anxiety patients showed a greatly reduced pulse rate but reported no subjective reduction in their anxiety
What elements of anxiety do bezxodiazepines affect
the psychic, rather than the somatic, in alleviating anxiety.
What did Broca identify about the emotional parts of the brain
identified a rim of old cortex on the medial wall of the hemisphere and called it the grande lobe limbique or ‘smell brain’ as it received information from the olfactory system.
What did Papez introduce for emotion in the brain
(Papez’s circuit) subserving emotion based not only on ideas from Broca but also observations about the consequences of brain damage in medial cortex in humans with research on the role of the hypothalamus in the control of emotional reactions in animals
How did Papez’s theory explain subjective emotion
explained the subjective experience of emotion in terms of the flow of information through a circle of anatomical connections from the
hypothalamus to the medial cortex, via the anterior thalamus and back to the hypothalamus by way of the hippocampus. cingulate cortex also involved
why was the cingulate cortex involved in Papez’s theory of emotion
Why was the hippocampus involved
when damaged, there was resulting apathy, depression and loss of emotional spontaneity,
the hippocampus was included because brain damage resulting from rabies, which included pathology in the hippocampus, resulted in emotional
disturbance
Who identified the limbic system
what does it involve
Maclean
all the structures in the original Papez circuit along with the amygdala, septum and prefrontal cortex.
What did Maclean hypothesise about the limbic system’s evolution
evolved to mediate visceral functions and affective behaviours including feeding, defense, fighting and reproduction
emphasised the role of hippocampus in emotional experience
Why was the amygdala involved in the limbic system
removal of the temporal lobe gave a range of symptoms termeed ‘psychic blindness’ including tameness, lack of emotional responsiveness, excessive examination of objects often with mouthing and eating of previously rejected items such as meat as well as hypersexual behaviour
What is another name for psychic blindness
what are the symptoms
‘Kluver-Bucy’ syndrome
tameness, lack of emotional responsiveness, excessive examination of objects often with mouthing and eating of previously rejected items such as meat as well as hypersexual behaviour
what structures would a system that mediates emotionality involve
both cortical & subcortical elements. Some of these areas, if not all, will be intimately connected to the hypothalamus
What are the principal components of the emotion system (5)
Which is now thought to be less important
hypothalamus, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, cingulate cortex
BUT NOT so much hippocampus (hippocampus important for memory)
why may we still think the hippocampus is involved in emotional processing
recent studies do implicate anterior hippocampus (or ventral hippocampus in rodents) in emotional processing
are all emotional brain structures used for all emotions
There is ongoing debate whether there is a common set of brain structures important for all emotional behaviour or whether different emotions use a different set of brain structures by virtue of the fact that different emotions evolved for different reasons.
What is important for emotions about the connections of the amygdala
e connections of the central amygdala to the brain stem and hypothalamus are well placed to initiate fearful and aggressive responses (emotional expression).
What are US and CS in conditioning
US - unconditioned stimulus
CS - conditioned stimulus
