Emotion Lecture

Question 1

What is the James-Lange theory of emotion?

Answer 1

Emotions are interpretations of our physiological responses. Arousal comes before emotion

Question 2

What is the Cannon-Bard theory?

Answer 2

Emotion and arousal occur at the same time. Emotion does not cause arousal, arousal does not cause emotion

Question 3

What is the two factor theory of arousal?

Answer 3

Emotions are made of (1) physical arousal, and (2) cognitive

Question 4

What is a spillover effect?

Answer 4

Interpreting physiological arousal for emotional arousal

Question 5

Who proposed that priming one stimulus influences how we feel about a subsequent stimulus?

Answer 5

Zajonc

Question 6

Who proposed that cognitive appraisal sometimes happens without awareness and that cognitive appraisal defines emotional responses?

Answer 6

Lazarus

Question 7

What is the fear center of the brain?

Answer 7

The amygdala

Question 8

Define the two pathways for fear stimuli

Answer 8

i. High road: From the visual/audio center, through the thalamus, to the cortex, to the amygdala
ii. Low road: Straight from the visual/audio center to the amygdala through the thalamus

Question 9

What are complex emotions?

Answer 9

(e.g., memories, expectations, interpretations) require conscious appraisal

Question 10

What is reappraisal?

Answer 10

Consciously changing interpretations of a stimulus or stressor

Question 11

Which emotion tends to “pop out” of a crowd and why?

Answer 11

angry because our brains are very good at detecting non-verbal threats

Question 12

What are the six primary emotions?

Answer 12

Happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise

Question 13

How did people communicate in prehistoric times?

Answer 13

people communicated threats, greetings and submissions using facial expressions

Question 14

What serves as a universal language across cultures?

Answer 14

Facial expressions

Question 15

Which cultures encourage individual emotion expression, and which encourage adjustment of emotional states to others?

Answer 15

ii. Individualistic cultures (e.g., North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand) encourage individual emotional expression
iii. Collectivistic cultures (e.g., China, Japan, India, Korea) encourage adjusting emotional expression to others

Question 16

Which part of the world expresses emotion with the mouth, and which part of the world expresses emotion with the eyes?

Answer 16

Americans express emotion with the mouth, people in Asia express emotion with the eyes

Question 17

Which emotion is triggered by the fight or flight response?

Answer 17

anger

Question 18

What is catharsis?

Answer 18

aggressive action or fantasy enables emotional release

Question 19

Which emotion colors everything we experience?

Answer 19

Our state of happiness or unhappiness colors how we see the world

Question 20

What are traits of happy people?

Answer 20

decisive, confident, and cooperative

Question 21

What is the feel-good do-good phenomenon?

Answer 21

A mood-boosting experience makes people more likely to give money, pick up someone’s dropped papers, volunteer, and do other good deeds

Question 22

What is the adaptation-level phenomenon?

Answer 22

tendency to judge stimuli in comparison with our past experiences

Question 23

What is relative deprivation?

Answer 23

Believing that we are worse off than people we compare ourselves to

Question 24

What six factors is happiness related to?

Answer 24

i. High self-esteem
ii. Being optimistic, outgoing, agreeable
iii. Having close, positive, long lasting relationships
iv. Having work and leisure that engages one’s skills
v. Having a religious faith
vi. Sleeping well and exercising

Question 25

What three factors is happiness less related to?

Answer 25

i. Age
ii. Gender (women tend to be more depressed, but also more joyful)
iii. Physical attractiveness