emotion - week 9 part 1 Flashcards
what is emotion?
comprise biological responses as well as subjective feelings
6 core emotions
happiness
saddness
anger
fear
suprise
disgust
how are the 6 core emotions defined
in relation to the facial expression that characterise each emotion
(cultural differences?)
what is emotion for?
aid survival and protection
eg. fear helps avoid danger
can emotion be maladaptive?
yes
phobias
drugs
PTSD
fear
when we are in a state of fear there are characteristic bodily responses that accompany the subjective feeling
autonomic –> changes in HR, blood pressure and breathing rate
physiological –> release of corticosterone
also behavioural responses
- fight or flight response
- more detailed memory of a fearful experience (changes in cognition)
subjective feeling
james-lange theory
posed q in relation to fear of how we should interpret the situation of a man meeting a bear, being frightened and running away
assumption that man becomes frightened when seeing the bear
- the emotional feeling
and hence runs away
- the emotional response
instead argued that:
the bodily manisfestations must first be interposed
- the man runs away because he sees the bear
- hence he is frightened
in order to feel an emotion we must experience these bodily manifestations which are the aforementioned biological responses
the man is afraid because he runs away
james - lange diagram
stimulus —-> perception —-> peripheral response —> interpetation -> emotion
the stimulus is in the environment
it is perceived in the brain and produces a peripheral response
- hormonal changes
- behavioural changes
- physiological changes
by the brain interpreting and recognising these changes and the specific pattern of the changes a subjective emotion is felt
only with a peripheral response being interpreted do we feel an emotion
james-lange - args for
can feel bodily changes
- what if emotion is stripped of bodily response?
if the subjective feeling preceeds and triggers the bodily response, the bodily response should be unimportant to the nature of emotional feeling
‘a purely disembodied emotion is a nonenity’
evolutionary perspective
- if we accept survival value of emotional responses makes sense that such a value is optimal if the responses are triggered as quickly as possible
- why should the mechanism that enables us to escape threat require first that the feeling of fear isi experienced?
- our experience shows bodily responses take place almost instamtaneously and often before any feeling of emotion
also species exist that shows an emotional response that do not have emotional feeling eg. a worm recoils when you touch it
james-lange - how our bodies give rise to different responses and how can we explain the fact we experience the apprpriate emotion with little or no confusion?
points to differences in bodily responses
- fear - adrenaline
- anger - noradrenaline
specific body pattern gives rise to different and relevent emotions
cannon-bard theory
theory that emotional feelings and physiological responses occur in parallel
if it is a requirement that bodily responses be produced and then monitored in order to feel an emotion, how can this be reconciled with the speed we feel the subjective emotion?
- seems to be a long and complex process for situations where we feel emotions very rapidly
this is not subjective feelings triggering the biological response, rather perception of the emotional stimulus triggers in parallel both the bodily responses and subjective feeling
- however, does place emphasis on the ability of subjective feeling to modulate the bodily response
—> if we consciously decide to be in a state of fear, the bodily responses associated with fear will be more intense should a fearful stimulus be encountered
cannon-bard diagram
stimulus —> perception —–> peripheral response
|
|
emotion
subjective experience of emotion does not depend on peripheral response
are bodily changes different enough to account for specific emotional feelings?
many of the bodily responses to emotional stimuli are coordinated by activation of the sympathetic nervous system
– sympathetic nervous system control internal organs
– stimulated in times of fear, anger, and non-emotional conditions (fever)
so how does body distinguish?
- not just an individual response
- specific patterns associated with specific emotion
1983
- induced emotions using instructions to produce a distinct emotional facial expression
6 core emotions investigates
- could partically be distunguished on the basis of HR and skin temp. alone
- therefore, remains possible that distinct emotions are characteriserised by specific patterns of many biological responses
are bodily changes different enough to account for specific emotional feelings? - issues of time
some bodily resonses are rapid in onset
many others slower
- stress hormone corticosterone peaks many minutes after induction of stress
if it is the integration of all these responses that defines an emotion, how is it that our subjective experience can begin within one second of stimulus presentation, while many of the bodily responses lag behind?
does prevention of peripheral feedback abolish emotional feelings?
james-lange vs cannon-bard
james-lange
- yes
if able to prevent preception of bodily responses there should be an absense of subjective feelings
cognitively might think a situation is fearful but would have no emotional sensation of that fear
cannon-bard
- no
evidence from sherrington 1906 showing that when spinal cord of dogs was severed (preventingn body —> brain)
emotional behaviour remained relatively intact
however such emotional behaviour may be part of teh pattern of bodily responses ratehr than indirect measure of subjective feelings in experimental animals (no idea how the dog feels, barking is a behavioural response)
