Emotions Flashcards
Give 4 formal definitions of emotion
- Oatley and Jenkins 1996 - “An emotion is usually caused by a person consciously or unconsciously evaluating an event as relevant to a concern (goal) that is important; the emotion is felt as positive when the concern is advanced and negative when the concern is impeded.”
- Ortony et al., 1988 - “Emotion may be understood as the outcome of an evaluation of the extent to which ones goals are being met.”
- Rolls (2005) - Emotions are states elicited by rewards and punishers
- Paul et al., 2005 - Emotions are processes concerned with achieving goals (seeking valuable resources/rewards or avoiding harm/punishment)
What was the initial intuitive causal chain of emotion? Who proposed it to be wrong?
"See Bear" -> "Feel Fear" -> "Run" William James (1900s) and Carl Lange proposed "See Bear" -> Pounding heart, sweaty palms, run away -> "Feel fear" ie. That we feel emotions based on peripheral changes in the body
What is the James-Lange theory?
Emotions are felt due to sensing peripheral changes in our own body Antonio Demasio (Modern Theorist) Agrees with this view.
Who has challenged the James-lange theory?
Walter Cannon (1900s)
- major body changes appear similar for a range of reported emotions
- disruption of feedback from the periphery did not abolish emotional responses
- subjective emotions appear to happen faster than visceral changes suggested to cause them.
- humans injected with adrenaline do not report feeling a particular emotion
What did Schachter and Singer propose? When?
1962 - cognitive interpretation of peripheral body changes required to determine which emotion is experienced
What experiment did Schachter and Singer carry out?
Subjects injected with adrenaline, but half told it was just a vitamin. Both exposed to happy/playful confederate, half exposed to angry/rude confederate. Asked emotions afterwards - those who thought the drug was a vitamin attributed the feelings to emotion and said they felt happy/angry, those who knew the effects were due to the drug said they felt minimal emotion (cognitive dampening down of emotion)
What is the appraisal theory of emotion?
Stimulus -> Central appraisal of stimulus (may NOT be conscious) -> Emotion
What is interOception?
Detection of ones own physiological state eg. heart beat. People who are good at detecting their own heartbeats are more emotionally expressive and have more intense emotions
What are the 4 aspects of the componential view of emotion?
Subjective, Behavioural, Physiological, Cognitive
Define a reward
Something an animal will work for or learn an operant response to obtain.
Define a punisher
Something an animal will work to escape or avoid
Define primary reinforcers
Unlearned reinforcers or punishers eg. predators, nice tastes, pain. Specified by genetics.
Define secondary reinforcers
Learnt in association with a primary reinforcer - eg. sound/light
Define motivation according to Rolls 2005
A sate one is in when working to gain a specific reward or avoid a specific punisher
How do reinforcers interact to create emotions? (SIMPLIFIED CROSS DIAGRAM)
Presentation of a reward - Pleasure.. ecstasy
Omission or termination of a reward - Sadness.. Rage
Presentation of a punisher - fear.. terror
Omission or termination of a punisher - relief
In primates, where are the emotion centres?
Orbitofrontal cortex and Amygdala allow learning of associations between primary and secondary reinforcers, tagged with reward information
Where do outputs from the emotion centres of the brain project to?
Areas that control autonomic function eg. hypothalamus
Areas that control learning and behavioural responses eg. cingulate cortex and basal ganglia
Where are primary reinforcers coded? Do they have reward information?
Sensory processing areas like thalamus, primary taste cortex - no emotion associated
Where are secondary reinforcers coded for?
eg. seeing a dominant conspecific. Coded to allow recognition of WHAT they are but without any reward information at sensory processing structures eg. inferior temporal visual cortex
What are the functions of emotions?
- Enable a system in which survival goals (rewards and punishers) are coded by genes, and behaviour is guided by emotional states
- Prepare the body for action by changes in physiological state
- motivate specific action (eg. running away )
- may influence cognitive function
How do emotions and moods differ?
Emotions - short term states elicited by stimuli
Moods - long term emotional or affective states that persist in the absence of any stimuli
How do emotions and sensations differ?
Sensations - feed directly from sensory apparatus to the CNS
Emotions - no sensory apparatus, involve interpretation of stimuli
How do primary and secondary reinforcer areas of the brain differ in their firing?
Primary areas will keep firing in the presence of a stimulus - you are eating cake, cake tastes like x
Secondary areas firing will drop off as value added by stimulus decreases - cake doesn’t taste good anymore
What are the two dimensions of emotion?
Arousal and Valence High Arousal High Valence = Excitement High Arousal Low Valence = Fear Low Arousal Low Valence = Sadness Low Arousal High Valence = Contentment
How are subjective emotions assessed in humans?
Gold- Standard self report
Who believes that conscious experience of emotions coevolved with linguistic capabilities?
Rolls, Macphail
Who believes that most mammals will have a subjective experience of emotion?
Panksepp, Baars
What are the four components of emotion and which is the hardest to study?
Physiological, behavioural, cognitive, subjective
Subjective most difficult as requires self report
According to the reinforcer definition of emotion, do flys experience emotion?
Yes - can be trained to work to access a reward, therefore it does feel emotion when trying to obtain the reward and when denied it