emotions

Question 1

emotions have various functions

Answer 1

• intrapersonal - they influence how we think and behave
• interpersonal - they guide social behaviour and how others behave toward us
• cultural - they are shaped by culture in a way that reinforces social order

Question 2

emotions

Answer 2

• motivated states with various components: physiological arousal (e.g., autonomic nervous system and hormones), expressive behaviours (e.g., facial expressions, postures), and conscious experience (feeling a certain way)

Question 3

people use different words for different types of emotional state

Answer 3

• emotion - intense, short-lived, specific feelings about something
• mood - less intense, longer lasting, more general, not clearly linked to an event or cause
• affect - generic term covering all of the above, often just means feeling ‘good’ or ‘bad’

Question 4

why do we have emotions?

Answer 4

• evolutionary perspective - motions promote the “right” response to recurring situations of adaptive significance in our revolutionary past, such as fighting, falling in love, escaping predators, losing status (Loewenstein, 2010)

Question 5

are the effects of emotions irrational?

Answer 5

• emotions and cognition aren’t localised in separate neural systems; the view that emotions battle with cognition to control behaviour isn’t how the brain works (Feldman Barrett, 2017)

Question 6

emotions can affect how we think and behave

Answer 6

• When we make statements like these, we show that we already understand this.
• Emotions might influence our judgement and decisions.
• However, we tend to underestimate this influence (the ‘hot-cold empathy gap’; Loewenstein et al, 2001).
• Cognitive bias in which people underestimate the influences of visceral drives on their own attitudes, preferences and behaviours.
• The tendency to neglect the emotional state that has an effect on our decisions.

Question 7

emotions influence the judgements we make about ourselves

Answer 7

• Mildly depressed people make more accurate self-ratings; they don’t show the usual self-serving bias (“depressive realism”, Alloy and Abramson, 1988).
• Depressed people show a positive bias when rating others, so they’re not more accurate overall; they are just making self-judgements differently.

Question 8

emotions influence the judgements we make about other people

Answer 8

• “Misattribution or arousal” (Dutton and Aron, 1974):
• High bridge - 39% called the female researcher.
• Low bridge - 9% called the female researcher.
• Participants who’d just crossed the bridge, and thus had higher physiological arousal, seemed to misattribute that arousal and interpret it as attraction for the experimenter.
• We seem to use our emotions as a source of information when we make judgements, whether or not the emotions are relevant (feeling as information model, Schwarz and Clore, 1983).

Question 9

what happens if people dont have emotions?

Answer 9

• Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex impairs emotional processing, but this doesn’t make people more rational; instead, it impairs their ability to make decisions and learn from mistakes (e.g., Bechara et al, 1994).
• “Choosing on the basis of one’s current emotional state is not an effective decision making strategy for humans… (but) decision making that makes use of lessons learned from emotional experiences and consideration of anticipated emotional experiences and consideration of anticipated emotional states may be a beneficial and successful decision making strategy.” (Baumeister et al, 2007)

Question 10

what are emotions and why do we have them?

Answer 10

• emotions are co-ordinated physiological, behavioural and cognitive states, which influence thoughts and behaviour in ways that might have helped us to survive as we evolved
• evolved to guide our cognition and behaviour

Question 11

how do emotions influence our judgements and decisions?

Answer 11

• we are influenced both by our current emotion, and the predicted emotional consequences of our actions
• decision making is impaired without them, suggesting these effects are functional

Question 12

why do we have emotions?

Answer 12

• “Emotions are likely to have evolved to serve two primary functions: promoting the attainment of survival and reproductive goals, and promoting the attainment of social goals more indirectly related to survival” (Tracey and Robins, 2007)

Question 13

emotions have social functions

Answer 13

• “Although a variety of functions have been proposed… what is undeniable is that when emotional processing is compromised, most things social go awry” (Niedenthal and Brauer, 2012)

Question 14

self-conscious emotions seem to be especially important

Answer 14

• Tracy and Robins (2004) suggest the function of these emotions is to regulate the self in the context of social groups and relationships.
  Pride reinforces and motivates socially valued, behaviours, and shame, guilt and embarrassment are felt in response to transgressions of norms.

Question 15

“Emotions are social” (Parkinson, 1996)

Answer 15

• emotions are often caused by social factors, they have consequences for other people, and they serve interpersonal and cultural functions.
• emotions are essentially communicative

Question 16

Kurt and Johnston (1979) observed people bowling

Answer 16

• facial displays were much more pronounced when turning around to an audience than when facing the result of the bowl

Question 17

the emotions as social information model (EASI) - van keel, 2009

Answer 17

• other people’s emotional expressions change how we feel and how we interpret the situation, and thus trigger changes in our behaviour
• this process is influenced by factors such as our relationship with the other person
• we use other peoples expressions of emotions to make sense of social situations

Question 18

mood/emotion contagion

Answer 18

• Individuals living with a depressed roommate are more likely to become depressed themselves, this was over a 3 week study - Joiner (1994)
• This can also happen on a much shorter timescale; just hearing someone talk in a depressed tone of voice can cause contagion - Neumann and Strack (2000).

Question 19

a controversial study of contagion - Kramer et al, 2014

Answer 19

• Researchers at Facebook reduced the amount of positive or negative emotional content in N = 700k people’s news feeds
• Their manipulation influenced the emotions their ‘participants’ expressed in their own statuses
• Didn’t ask people if they wanted to participate - goes against ethics, but Facebook argued against it

Question 20

facial feedback hypothesis

Answer 20

• Strack et al (1988) found that participants were more amused by cartoons when holding a pen with their teeth (e.g., smiling) than when holding the pen by their lips.
• Their facial feedback hypothesis states that people’s facial activity influence their affective responses.
• Debated about this theory is ongoing at the moment, as some research has failed to replicate this original study (Wagenmakers et al, 2016).

Question 21

how does mood contagion occur

Answer 21

• Getting Botox reduces your ability to understand other peoples emotional expressions, as well as reducing your won emotional responses - Neal et al (2011), Davis et al, (2011).

Question 22

do emotions have a social function

Answer 22

• theories have suggested that emotions evolved to guide social behaviour, and this is supported by various evidence (e.g., on how social functioning is negatively affected when emotions are absent)

Question 23

how do our emotions influence other people?

Answer 23

• emotions influence both how we behave in social interactions, and how others behave toward us
• they also influence others’ emotions, through processes such as mood contagion

Question 24

we dont just learn these expressions by copying others

Answer 24

• Matsumoto and Willingham (2009) studied athletes’ facial expressions after winning or losing Judo matches at the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic games.
• They found no differences between blind and sighted athletes, or across cultures.

Question 25

but does this tell us whether emotional experiences differ across cultures?

Answer 25

• Basic emotions are expressed similarly across cultures, and are universally recognised across cultures - Ekman and Friesman (1971), Elfenbein and Ambady (2002).
• But, just because humans have the potential to experience the same emotions doesn’t mean they actually have the same emotional experiences - Mesquita and Frijda (1992).

Question 26

emotional experiences do differ across cultures

Answer 26

• Americans report a higher frequency of positive than negative emotions, whereas Japanese report equal frequencies - Kitayama et al, (2000).
• The emotions that are ‘normal’ in a given culture will influence what’s perceived as ‘abnormal’; sadness is especially noticeable in a culture that values happiness - Mesquita and Walker (2003).

Question 27

emotional experiences can also differ within cultures

Answer 27

• Lower-class individuals experience more negative emotions (anxiety, sadness, anger) than upper-class individuals - Gallo and Matthews (2003).
• Higher class people more likely to express anger in Japan, less likely in America - Park et al, (2013).

Question 28

this reflects the importance of emotions in different cultures

Answer 28

• Cultures vary in the number of terms they have for particular emotions; an emotion with many different labels is hypercognised - Levy (1984).
• For example, the Chinese language has 113 terms for share - Li et al, (2004)

Question 29

does the way we label an emotion influence what we feel?

Answer 29

• Its been argued that the experience of feeling an emotion occurs when a person categorises their internal state - Feldman-Barret, 2006.
• This is a version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: that the structure of a language determines how speakers categorise and perceive the world.
• Implication - language and concepts shape emotion, and people with different labels might actually experience emotions differently.

Question 30

Feldman Barrett’s theory of constructed emotion (2006)

Answer 30

• emotions aren’t discrete mental or bodily states, instead, they are things we construct based on knowledge and past experience
• maybe there is no thing as a universal emotional experience

Question 31

emotion preferences differ across cultures

Answer 31

• this type if measure has been used to assess how people want to feel, or their ‘ideal affect’ (e.g., Tsai, 2007)

Question 32

which emotions do people from different cultures prefer to feel?

Answer 32

• East Asians are more likely to want to feel calm, peaceful, and other “low arousal positive” states - Tsai, Knutson and Fung, 2006.
• Whereas North Americans are more likely to want to feel excited, enthusiastic, energetic and other “high arousal positive” states.

Question 33

observation evidence for differences in ideal affect

Answer 33

• Facebook profile photos and official photos of leaders are more likely to be closed-mouth smiles in Eastern cultures and open-mouth smiles in Western cultures, supporting a preference for different types of positive emotion - Moon et al, 2011; Tsai et al, 2016.

Question 34

how do emotions differ across cultures?

Answer 34

• while certain emotions seem to be universally experiences, there is evidence that culture shapes emotional experience in various ways

Question 35

why do emotions differ across cultures?

Answer 35

• cultural differences in emotion concepts and ideal affect are two of the factors that shape emotional experience
• these processes reinforce behaviours that are socially appropriate in that culture