Emotion & Motivation Flashcards
1
Q
Theories of Emotion
A
- mental states or feelings associated with our evaluation of our experiences
- psychological arousal
- expressive behaviours
- mental experiences (ex. cognitions)
2
Q
Discrete Emotions Theory
A
- humans experience a small number of distinct emotions, but they combine in complex way
- emotions have biological roots and serve evolutionary functions (Darwin 1872)
- emotions have distinct “motor programs”: physiological and behavioural responses
- emotions (limbic system) precede our thoughts about them (cortex)
- emotions are innate and universal
- emotions happen before our thoughts - more evolutionary ancient
3
Q
Support for an Evolutionary Account
A
Innateness: some emotions appear early in life
- spontaneous smiles during sleep (newborns)
- social smile (6 weeks)
- blind infants show expressions (3 months)
- it’s an innate behaviour for children, not baby copying its surroundings
Individual emotions are Functional:
- prepare us for biologically important actions
- ex. disgust
- important function, as it is survival skill (expelling substances)
Animal Kingdom
- emotional expressions of non-human animals
- high-pitched vs low-pitched sounds
- high pitched: happy/ joy (ex. playing)
- low pitched: anger/ fear (ex. threat)
Universality of Emotion
- cross-culturally recognized emotions
- Paul Ekman, American Psychologist
- “primary emotions”
Good Support for 7 Primary Emotions
- happiness, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, anger, contempt
- pride? awe?
- people suggested these are also universal emotions
- primary emotions coming to form secondary emotions
- ex. annoyance, contentment, guilt
4
Q
Cultural Differences in Expression
A
- cultures differ in display rules
- societal guidelines for how and when to express emotion
- acceptable to see people laughing and smiling while walking in Canada vs in other places, it may not be allowed- does not influence emotion itself, but instead its overt expression
- societal guidelines for how and when to express emotion
5
Q
Emotions & Physiology
A
- able to differentiate some primary emotions psychologically
- heart rate increases more with negative emotions
- digestive system slows down with fear, speeds up with anger
- part of fight or flight response
- digest activates insulation, fear activates amygdala \ - not all are different, though
- happy and sad look the same in brain scans
- multiple brain regions active in all emotions
6
Q
Cognitive Theories of Emotion
A
- emphasize cognition (ie. mental interpretation)
- think first, feel later - no discrete emotions, as many emotions as there are kinds of thought
3 Theories
1. James-Lange Theory
2. Cannon-Bard
3. Two-Factor
- very active area of research, no confirmed theory, lots of agreements
7
Q
James-Lange Theory
A
- emotions result from our interpretations of our bodily reactions to stimuli
- ex. when we see a bear → our bodies react (heart rate increase, eyes widen) → our body goes into action (runs), → and then we realize we are scared
- stimulus → emtoional expression (reaction) → emotional experience (fear)
Somatic Marker Theory
- we use “gut reactions” to gauge how we should act
8
Q
Cannon-Bard
A
- an emotion-provoking event leads simultaneously to an emotional and bodily reaction
9
Q
Two-Factor Theory
A
- emotions are produced by an undifferentiated arousal (“alertness”), and a mental attribution of that arousal
- ex. you see a bear, you attribute that undifferentiated arousal and interpret it as fear
- misattribution of arousal
- ex. you have had a terrible day, you arrive home and your mom says she made a dinner you don’t really like, you react worse than you normally would (you aren’t actually that mad, your built up anger just got the best of you
- In the capilano bridge study, the researchers believed that the men attributed their increased heart rate and sweaty palms to the attractive woman rather than the fact they just crossed over a wood and cable bridge 70 meters above a river - a third of the participants called the woman after the study (romantically)
10
Q
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
A
- feel emotions that correspond to the facial expression
- forced to bite pencil (smile muscles in use) or hold pencil between lips (frowning muscles) found to have feelings of happiness/ sadness
- similar to James-Lange, but unconscious process
- feedback to the brain? or classical conditioning?
- original finding has been replicated numerous times
- not every time though - up in the air
- in 2016, 17 studies failed to replicated
11
Q
Nonverbal Expression of Emotion
A
- much emotional expression is nonverbal
- facial expressions, gestures, postures -
Nonverbal leakage: unconscious spillover of emotions into nonverbal behaviour
- ex. rolling your eyes when trying to hide the fact that you’re frustrated, angry or bored
12
Q
Body Language and Gestures
A
- posture can communicate emotions
- Gestures
- illustrators
- hand motions (talking with hands)
- often used for emphasis
- manipulators
- touching body in soothing way (twirling hair), when sad or distressed
- illustrators
- Emblems: culture-specific gestures
- waving goodbye
- raising middle finger
13
Q
Personal Space
A
- Proxemics is the study of personal space
- 4 Levels of Distance:
- Public (12 feet or more)
- commuting/ malls
- Social (4 - 12 feet)
- gatherings
- Personal (1.5 - 4 feet)
- family/ friends
- Intimate (0 - 1.5 feet)
- romantic partners/ babies
- Public (12 feet or more)
- moderate cultural and sex differences in the definition of personal space
- western versus eastern
14
Q
Lying and Lie Detection
A
- most people are not good at detecting lies
- no correlation between confidence and accuracy
- most professionals only slight above chance (50%)
- on average, adults lie twice a day (could be white lies)
15
Q
Polygraph
A
- though called a “lie detector”, it more correctly is an “autonomic activity detector”
- rests on assumption of a Pinocchio response
- supposedly perfect physiological or behavioural indicators of lying
- Yields high rates of false positives
- it’s biased against the innocent
- not admissible in most courts of law
16
Q
Other Lie Detection Methods
A
-
Guilty Knowledge Test
- relies on the premise that criminals have concealed knowledge about the crime
- low false positive rate, high false negative rate
- Brain “fingerprinting” using imaging techniques
-
Integrity Tests
- questionnaire that presumably assess workers’ tendency to steal or cheat
17
Q
Motivation
A
- the drives - especially wants and needs - that propel us in specific directions
- two of the most powerful motivators are food and sex
18
Q
Drive Reduction Theory
A
- drives motivate us to act in ways that minimize aversive states
- hunger, thirst, and sexual frustration
- evolutionary basis
- we are attempting to maintain psychological homeostasis
- we have a set point and our body is trying to keep us at the right mode (ex. hunger so we eat and are nourished to set point, or full so you don’t eat and come back to set point)
19
Q
Level of Arousal
A
- Yerkes-Dodson law shows relation between arousal and performance
- not able to perform our best
- ex. sports psychology, low arousal, won’t perform your best, too much arousal, will perform bad
20
Q
When Drives Clash
A
- while certain drives lead us to approach, others lead to avoidance
- can lead us to experience conflicts
- approach-avoidance
- approach-approach
- avoidance-avoidance
21
Q
Incentive Theories
A
- drive theory is incomplete
- ex. creating art (doing something you like)
-
Incentive theories propose that we are motivated by positive goals
- intrinsic (internal) vs extrinsic (external) motivations
- ex. intrinsically motivated to learn psych
- ex. extrinsically motivated to get a good grade
- intrinsic (internal) vs extrinsic (external) motivations
22
Q
Incentive Theory of Motivation
A
- preschool children interested in drawing
- Collected kids whom were intrinsically motivated to draw
- Asked to draw (not told there was a reward) & given reward at the end (certificate) VS. Asked kids to draw for a reward (less interest in drawing)
- Researchers said there was a misattribution in kids brain; their perspective on their drawing behaviours changed to extrinsic motivation, as they thought they were drawing to get a reward
- some needs take precedence over others
- Primary - biological necessities (ex. hunger, thirst)
- Secondary - psychological desires
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- but what about starving artists?
- poor, but they make art (instrically motivated)
- Self actualization: being and reaching to be the best erosion of yourself
- things that impact our abilities our abilities to basic biological needs, you can’t reach self actualization
- even if you have everything, doesn’t mean you’ll reach actualization
23
Q
Hunger & Eating
A
- the brain is the center for food cravings
- hypothalamus
- lateral (initiating)
- sides of brain
- ventromedial (stopping)
- bottom inside of middle brain
- other parts
- ex. rats and lateral hyp + stimulus → rats ate and ate and became obese vs ventromedial hyp → rats stop eating
- rats and ventromedial hyp + stimulus → rats stop eating vs ventromedial hyp + legion → ate and obese
- other parts
- lateral (initiating)
- hypothalamus
- Hormones also play a strong role
- Ghrelin communicates with the hypothalamus to increase hunger
- stimulates lateral hyp to intimate eating and increase hunger
- Cholecystokinin (CCK) counteracts the effects of ghrelin to decrease hunger
- Ghrelin communicates with the hypothalamus to increase hunger
- Leptin - signals to hypothalamus to increase appetite
24
Q
Weight Gain and Obesity
A
- less sensitivity to leptin
- over consuming amount of food + slow metabolism; don’t use energy efficiently or as much after eating, so calories become fat
- we may have a set point that establishes a range of body fat and muscle mass we tend to maintain
- mixed research to support this
- Genes also play a role in obesity
- 0.7 - 0.9 correlation for identical twins, if raised together
- 0.4 - 0.7 if raised apart
- likely a combination many different genes
- 0.7 - 0.9 correlation for identical twins, if raised together
- expectations and external cues
- portion disorder
25
Q
Eating Disorders
A
- individuals with bulimia nervosa engage in recurrent binge eating, followed by efforts to minimize weight gain
- most common eating disorders; affects 1-3% of the population
- primarily female (95%) report high levels of body dissatisfaction
-
Anorexia Nervosa is less common (0.5 - 1%) and more dangerous
- mortality rate: 5-10%
- individuals tend to become emaciated: abnormally thin or weak, especially because of illness or a lack of food
- often losing 25-50% of their body weight
- body dissatisfaction, distorted perception of body size
- more culturally and historically universal than bulimia
26
Q
Attraction & Love
A
- interpersonal attraction is influenced by several social factors (friends and relationships)
-
Proximity
- ex. study finds that students in dorms are more attracted to others on their floor as opposed to a floor up or down
-
Similarity
- ex. birds of a feather flock together
- Reciprocity
- Level of Physical Attraction
-
Proximity
27
Q
Sex Differences in Attention
A
- males place more emphasis on looks and younger mates, women on financial resources and older mates
- men evolutionarily need someone who can pass their genetics
- both place a premium on intelligence, dependability, and kindness
- evolutionary vs social role models of explanation
28
Q
What is Attractive?
A
- cross-culturally, men and women agree at much higher than chance levels about who is/ is not attractive
- however, culture does influence preference, including for body size
29
Q
“Just Average”
A
- the more “average” a face is, the more highly rated it is as attractive
- holds up across cultures
- why?
- indicate lack of genetic mutation/ serious disease?
- symmetry
- but we prefer averageness in lots of stimuli
- ex. animals, objects
- indicate lack of genetic mutation/ serious disease?
30
Q
Love
A
- theorists don’t agree on the types of love
- Hatfield and Rapson’s passionate and companionate love
- Sternbergs 3
- Sternberg’s triangular theory of love and three major elements
31
Q
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