Emotion and Stress

Question 1

What is an emotion?

Answer 1

Short-lasting experiences, more transient than mood. They are strong, visceral, physical responses that can change our perception of the world and interfere with ongoing behaviour.

Question 2

What are the key approaches to emotion?

Answer 2

There are discrete (basic) emotions and emotions as emerging constructs, which view emotions not as entities but as constructs that individuals create themselves.

Question 3

How is research on emotion conducted, particularly in terms of fear and anxiety?

Answer 3

Research on emotion is often complex due to its subjective and individualised nature. Fear conditioning is used to understand pathological conditions like anxiety disorders.

Question 4

How did the study of emotion in psychology begin?

Answer 4

It started as a confluence of philosophy and physiology, where scholars from both disciplines came together to answer questions about how physiological input translates into vivid perspectives.

Question 5

How does behaviourism view emotion?

Answer 5

Behaviourism largely rejected emotion as it was not outwardly observable and too difficult to study. However, it did consider the conditioned emotional response paradigm, focusing on the effects of conditioned fear.

Question 6

What led to the emotional renaissance?

Answer 6

the advent of new methodologies that allowed an objective assessment of emotional response, not relying solely on self-report

Question 7

What is the difference between affect, mood and feeling?

Answer 7

Affect refers to the hedonic tone of an emotional state.

Mood is prevailing state that lasts longer than emotional state and is less intense.

Feeling is the subjective experience that accompanies an emotion.

Question 8

How do emotions change behaviour?

Answer 8

Emotions can interfere with ongoing behaviour. They might lead to physical changes like sweating, clenching, relaxation, and pupil dilation, and alter one’s experience of the world.

Question 9

What is the James-Lange Theory and the stages of emotional reaction?

Answer 9

The James-Lange Theory proposes that our emotional response is driven by our physiological reaction to a stimulus, not the stimulus itself.

There is an activating event (dog barking)
Psychological reaction (increased heart rate)
Emotional response (fear/anxiety)

Question 10

What is the cannon bard theory of emotion?

Answer 10

Emotions and physiological reactions occur simultaneously. The thalamus sends information to the cerebral cortex and the body’s peripheral nervous system concurrently, resulting in both physiological arousal and conscious emotional experience happening at the same time.

Question 11

What are basic emotions and how are they analysed?

Answer 11

Basic emotions are distinct emotional states that have evolved because they are adaptive. These typically include fear, anger, sadness, happiness, disgust, and surprise.

Analysed through:
Introspection
Judgement of facial expressions
Analyses of language

Question 12

What are the criteria for basic emotions according to Ekman (1999)?

Answer 12

Basic emotions should have distinct universal signals:

specifically physiology, automatic appraisal mechanisms, universal antecedent events, distinctive appearance during development, observability in other primates, fast onset, short duration, uncontrollable onset, and be associated with distinct subjective experiences.

Question 13

What is the traditional view of emotion and the matrix?

Answer 13

Emotion is an event that mediates between an antecedent and its various manifestations.

Event leads to emotion and there is a 4-way casual direction of behaviour:

Emotion -> Subjective feeling (e.g. afraid)
Emotion -> Nonverbal signal (face, voice)
Emotion -> Autonomic pattern
Emotion -> Instrumental action (e.g. flight)

Question 14

What are the problems with the basic emotion approach?

Answer 14

No agreement on the number of basic emotions; difficulty meeting criteria; difficulties in finding brain regions associated with specific emotions.

Question 15

What is the emerging construct hypothesis of emotion (Russel, 2013)?

Answer 15

There’e no specific entity for emotion that can be pinpointed in the brain. Emotion is an emergent construct that occurs when a set of precursors (core affect, perception of affective quality, attribution to object, appraisal, action, emotional meta-experience, emotion regulation) are activated.

Question 16

What was the status of emotion research after the cognitive revolution?

Answer 16

Emotion was rediscovered as humans were found not to function like computers; it became an area of vivid theoretical debate and active experimental research.

Question 17

Why is fear considered an adaptive emotion?

Answer 17

Fear is adaptive as it prevents individuals from engaging in harmful activities. It elicits bodily changes that help individuals deal with dangerous situations.

Question 18

What role does the amygdala play in fear?

Answer 18

The amygdala is centrally involved in mediating fear, but not the sole location of fear. Lesions in the amygdala can disrupt fear responses.

Question 19

How is the amygdala connected to fear responses in the body?

Answer 19

The amygdala is connected to many areas, including the hypothalamus for autonomic responses, and can activate the parasympathetic branch to change respiration, EEG, and behavioural activity.

Question 20

How is fear measured in humans through startle modulation?

Answer 20

A loud, short tone is distributed causing an eye blink which can be measured using an electromyogram of the muscles around the eye. The size of the human startle response can be indicative of the emotional state.

Question 21

How is picture viewing used in studying psychopathy?

Answer 21

Pictures with different emotional tones are shown to subjects and their blink magnitude (as part of the startle response) is measured. This provides an implicit measure of emotional response.

Question 22

What are the inputs to the amygdala in fear responses?

Answer 22

single cue conditioning (thalamus-amygdala connection)

differential conditioning (auditory association cortex), and;

context conditioning (hippocampus).

Question 23

What are the two different experimental paradigms that Lindquist (2012) used to understand emotion and emotional responses in amygdala and fear research?

Answer 23

Experimental
Induce emotions that make people angry - through actualising this you look at anger

Perceptual
Confront with information that expresses this emotion through association

Through both paradigms the amygdala lit up to fear and happiness responses. Concluding that the amygdala activates to anything it considers important, not fear exclusively. If you are to localise emotion in the brain, it is everywhere and stimulated across multiple brain regions.

Question 24

What neurobiological structures are involved in human fear conditioning?

Answer 24

Human fear conditioning involves activation in the amygdala and hippocampus. This is often studied using fMRI experiments.

Question 25

What components make up the neuroanatomy of the amygdala?

Answer 25

The basolateral complex and central nucleus make up the neuroanatomy of the amygdala

Question 26

What neurotransmitter plays a key role in the neurochemistry of the amygdala?

Answer 26

Glutamate, which mediates most excitatory processes in the brain, plays a key role in the neurochemistry of the amygdala.

Question 27

How do NMDA antagonists and agonists influence fear learning?

Answer 27

NMDA antagonists reduce fear learning, while NMDA agonists enhance fear learning in a fear conditioning paradigm.

Question 28

What is the potential application of D-Cycloserine?

Answer 28

D-Cycloserine, a partial NMDA agonist, is used as a cognitive enhancer and has been studied for its potential to speed up fear extinction in rats and humans.

Question 29

How does fear differ from anxiety?

Answer 29

Fear is an immediate response to a specific threat, whereas anxiety is a more diffuse and long-lasting response, often not tied to any specific threat.

Question 30

What is the animal model of anxiety and its relevant neuroanatomy?

Answer 30

Unconditioned startle enhancement, with differences in light exposure between rats and humans, involves the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, or extended amygdala.

Question 31

What is the role of glutamate in dissociating fear and anxiety?

Answer 31

Glutamate inactivation of the amygdala basolateral nucleus, amygdala central nucleus, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis can help differentiate between fear and anxiety responses.

Question 32

What is the NPU paradigm in assessing human fear and anxiety?

Answer 32

The NPU (no shock, paired shock, unpaired shock) paradigm uses geometric shapes in different contexts to assess startle reactions during cue and no-cue periods, indicating fear or anxiety responses.

Question 33

How can the effects of fear and anxiety be separated pharmacologically?

Answer 33

Alprazolam, a benzodiazepine, can be used to distinguish between the effects of fear and anxiety, as it has been found to have an effect on anxiety but not fear.

Question 34

What are the basics of the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) in stress and its three stages?

Answer 34

GAS is an endocrinology-based model fro stress response, divided into three stages: alarm reaction (which consists of shock and counter-shock phases), resistance or adaptation, and exhaustion.

Question 35

What are some criticisms of the GAS model?

Answer 35

criticised for suggesting a single response to a variety of stimuli and implying the HPA axis as the sole mediator of stress response.

Question 36

What is the field of Psychoneuroimmunology?

Answer 36

It studies the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems. It argues that the immune system can detect and destroy non-self entities and is subject to experiences and adaptation.

Question 37

What is cannons theory of stress?

Answer 37

Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system activating fight or flight.

Question 38

What is Selye’s theory of stress?

Answer 38

Stress is activated in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (ACTH) which activates an adrenal stress response. Seeing this largely as an endocortical response to stress.

Question 39

What is the current model of stress, the two pathways and its effects?

Answer 39

Stress activates two pathways from the brain into the body.

P1: Brain -> Anterior pituitary -> adrenal cortex -> Glucocorticoids

P2: Brain -> Sympathetic nervous system -> Adrenal medulla -> Norepinephrine and epinephrine.

There are immunological effects on the endocrine network when there is excessive stress including immune-derived messenger, hormone neurotransmitter and neuropeptide release and foreign antigens that impact and influence behaviour.

Question 40

What happens during the alarm reaction stage of GAS?

Answer 40

initial reaction to stress. The body’s “fight or flight” response is activated, releasing hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. This leads to increased heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolic rate.

Question 41

What happens during the resistance stage of GAS?

Answer 41

During the resistance stage, the body attempts to adapt to the persistent stressor. It reaims in a state of arousal, but at a lower intensity than the alarm stage. The adrenal glands continue to produce cortisol, which can lead to health issues if prolonged.

Question 42

What happens during the exhaustion stage of GAS?

Answer 42

The body’s resistance to the stressor decreases due to depleted energy resources, leading to an inability to maintain normal function. This can result in sever fatigue, depression, anxiety, decreased stress tolerance, and chronic health problems if the stress continues for a prolonged period.

Question 43

How does acute stress affect the immune system?

Answer 43

Temporarily enhance the immune response. It releases stress hormones that prepare the body to flight or flee from threat. This increases the production and circulation of natural killer cells, leukocytes, and other defence cells.

Question 44

How does chronic stress affect the immune system?

Answer 44

It can weaken the immune system due to continuous secretion of stress hormones. this can suppress the immune function over time, decrease the body’s capacity to produce antibodies and T-cells, and slow down the wound healing process.

Question 45

What is conditioned immunity?

Answer 45

The concept that the immune system can be trained or conditioned to respond to specific stimuli. The stressor can become associated with an immune response, causing the immune system to react when the conditioned stimulus is presented, even in the absence of a real pathogen.

Question 46

What is the relationship between testosterone and aggression in males?

Answer 46

There is a positive correlation, with higher levels of testosterone often associated with more aggressive behaviour. However, the relationship is complex, bidirectional, and influenced by various factors.

Question 47

Do environmental and social factors affect the relationship between testosterone and aggression?

Answer 47

Yes, the effect of testosterone on aggression can be mediated by factors such as upbringing, personal characteristics, and societal context.