Emotion: Behavioural Perspectives - 9

Question 1

What is an emotion?

Answer 1

Emotions are affective states which are triggered by external stimuli. Emotions can serve to arouse or motivate behaviours. Emotions consist of sets of cognitive, subjective, physiological and motor changes that arise from an individual’s conscious or non-conscious determination that a stimulus has a positive of negative value in a particular context and with respect to that individual’s currently active goals.

Question 2

What are Darwin’s thoughts of emotion?

Answer 2

Darwin was interested in expression of emotion and how emotions could communicate across species. Also interested in muscle contractions & how they were produced. Used direct electrical stimulation of muscle groups to provoke emotional expression.

Question 3

James’ and Darwins work on emotional responses.

Answer 3

Darwin and William James both wrote of the role that facial expression might have on leading to/amplifying an emotional responses.

Question 4

What are emotions for?

Answer 4

evolved through natural selection:

1. allow coordination of responses to environmental challenges = A ‘fear system’ helps to coordinate the various behavioural and physiological responses to a threatening stimulus. Brain mechanisms are involved in evaluating a situation. Means emotional states are likely to be evolutionary ancient.
2. a basis for social communication = through facial expressions and body posture.
3. a component of neural mechanism that support conscious evaluation and appraisal of a situation.

Question 5

What are the two ‘classic’ facial expression.

Answer 5

Fear and surprise. Common features in both expressions.

Question 6

What are the origins of emotional responses?

Answer 6

When become frightened it evokes far in us, which may be expressed in facial expression. Then experience a stress response. However, James suggested that stimulus is evaluated, leading to a physiological response. This remains the dominate theory.

Question 7

What are Cannon and Bard’s objections to the James-Lange Model?

Answer 7

Made 5 broad criticisms:

1. Disconnection of the viscera from brain does not disturb emotional experience (both experimental and clinical evidence)
2. The same visceral changes occur in diverse emotional and non-emotional states
3. Viscera are ‘poorly’ innervated.
4. Visceral changes are too slow to be the direct source of emotional experiences
5. ‘Artificial’ induction of visceral responses does not lead to specific emotional experiences.

Powerful criticism that were influential, however after a few decades the original theory returned.

Question 8

What is Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis?

Answer 8

Suggests feelings are able to guide decision making. Damasio suggested that preconscious knowledge generates an emotional state, guiding choice behaviour before we are cognitively aware of our decision (card game study).

Question 9

What is Schatcher and Singer’s Cognitive Arousal Theory?

Answer 9

Suggested physiological arousal enhances emotion. Referred to as a 2-factor theory (physiology + cognition generates emotion). Suggests there are 2 routes to the heightening of an emotional response: perception of stimuli producing the emotional state and the cognition that generates it, with the stimulus having arousing characteristics.

Experiment: injections, one group shared emotions because they were aware of their physiology. However experiment lacked double blind procedures, no control groups, statistics were poor, hard to replicate.

Question 10

What is Zajonc’s Affective Primacy Theory?

Answer 10

Stimulus leads to unconscious affect which leads to feeling. ‘mere exposure effect’ - have emotion even where there has been no conscious registration of stimuli.

Study - Korean ideographs - people how viewed photos more said they had a greater liking even though they were not consciously aware.