Emotion and Well-Being Flashcards
Emotion
A complex psychological event that involves a mixture of reactions, a physiological response (usually arousal), an expressive reaction (distinctive facial expression, body posture, or vocalization), and some kind of subjective experience (internal thoughts and feelings).
Bodily Arousal
Physiological activation, bodily preparation for action. Involves autonomic nervous system.
Expressive Behaviour
Facial expression, vocal expression, and/or social communication (lets people know what we are feeling so they know how to respond/react).
Subjective Experience
Feelings, subjective awareness, and cognition.
Amygdala
Rapidly responses to emotionally arousing stimuli (in less than a second), especially aversive/fear-inducing stimuli (threat detector). It sends information to outer brain areas for more complex responding. Located in the temporal lobe.
Prefrontal Cortex
Involved in modulation and regulation of emotional response.
Fast Pathway
Information goes from the thalamus directly to the amygdala.
Slow Pathway
Information goes from the thalamus to the sensory cortex and other cortical areas for further processing before going to the amygdala.
Parasympathetic Nervous System
Rest and digest.
Sympathetic Nervous System
Fight or flight.
Subjective Experience
Cognitive experience comes before physiological arousal. We subjectively experience an emotion (ex. fear) and this causes bodily arousal (ex. trembling).
James-Lange Theory
Physiological arousal comes before conscious experience (causes our subjective experience). We first experience physiological arousal (ex. trembling) and this causes the subjective emotion (ex. fear). There are more emotions than physiological triggers (ex. physiological triggers for fear, stress, and love are quite similar so how does the brain know which emotion to feel?), so this theory is not an accurate depiction.
Cannon-Bard Theory
Physiological arousal and conscious experience happen simultaneously. Stimulus activates both the body (ex. trembling) and the cortex (ex. fear). It is not causal but correlational. Emotional experience is affected by physiological arousal, so this theory is not an accurate depiction.
Schacter-Singer
Initial physiological arousal is interpreted, leading to conscious experience. First we have a physical response (ex. trembling), we interpret that response (ex. this is dangerous), leading to subjective emotion (ex. fear). Context and expectation are very important.
Misattribution of Arousal
Dutton and Aron study in 1974. Studied men crossing the Capilano river, one bridge was high and unstable and another bridge was low and stable. At the end of the bridge there was an attractive female research assistant who would give the men her number. The men who crossed the high, scary bridge were more likely to call the assistant because their arousal was misinterpreted as attraction not fear.
6 Universal Emotions
1) Fear
2) Happiness
3) Disgust
4) Anger
5) Surprise
6) Sadness
Non-Verbal Accents
Even though we make the same facial expressions for certain emotions, it will vary slightly culture to culture.
Emotions (Western Cultures)
Tend to express more ego-focused emotions (more personal emotions). Ex. pride, anger, and frustration.
Emotions (Eastern Cultures)
Tend to express more other-focused emotions (more focused on other people). Ex. shame and sympathy.
Display Rules
Unwritten expectations for when it is appropriate to show an emotion ex. North Americans blush and look away when embarrassed while Japanese smile, trying not to show embarrassment. Ex. North Americans believe that if there are slight changes to emotion it is a low intensity of emotion while Japanese believe that it is a high intensity of emotion.
Happiness (Aristotle)
Is a virtue, living a good and virtuous life. You can still be happy even if your life is miserable because you are reaching your full potential.
Happiness (Psychological Well-Being)
A satisfaction of basic needs (however, there is disagreement about what are the basic needs). Involves autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations, purpose, and self-acceptance.
Happiness (Subjective Well-Being)
Experiencing positive affect (positive emotion), negative affect (low negative emotion), and life satisfaction.
Set Point
Genetically-determined biological predisposition for happiness. Happiness is about 50% heritable (genetic).
Hedonic Adaptation
Tendency to return to a relatively stable level of happiness (hedonic treadmill).
Increased Right-Frontal Activity
Tends to be associated with more negative emotions.
Increased Left-Frontal Activity
Tends to be associated with more positive emotions.
How to Be Happier
1) Change Your Brain
—> Mediation
—> Cognitive Therapy
—> Prozac (medication)
2) Happiness-Boosting Activities
—> How We Think (optimism, gratitude)
—> What We Pay Attention To (savouring)
—> Our Social Relationships (nurturing relationships, acts of kindness)
—> What We Work Towards (goal commitment)
