Emotions Flashcards
Emotion and its two main dimensions
Cognitive interpretation of subjective feelings
Two main dimensions: arousal and valence
Components of Emotion
Physiology: heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration
Distinctive Motor Behaviour: facial expression, tone of voice, posture, crying
Self-Reported Cognition: cognitive processes based on self reports, being able to introspect
Unconscious Behavior: intuition/gut feeling (Sometimes the components of your emotions don’t always agree)
Basic Emotions, Ekman (7)
Emotions that are universal to all
Anger, fear, disgust, surprise, happiness, sadness
ALL APPEAR CROSS-CULTURALLY
May be a seventh basic universal emotion: pride (even people who are born blind, show the sensation of pride in a similar way to people who are not, therefore makes an argument that it is innate regardless of what is learned)
Cowen and Keltner, Basic Emotions Experiment
Participants had to rate videos in one of three ways: either free response and they could say anything they wanted, 34 categories given of fine grained emotion, and then the 14 most common affective dimensions
RESULTS: 27 SEPARATE DIMENSIONS RELIABLY EXIST WITH RESPECT TO EMOTION STATES
Gives evidence for traditional emotions (like happiness)
But there is also evidence for nuanced states that are much more specific (interest and surprise are very distinct, and horror and fear are also very distinct)
Cognitive Theory of Emotion (Two Factor Theory)
PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL AND COGNITIVE LABEL INTERACT
Schachter and Singer: emotional states result from the interaction of cognitive factors and physiological arousal
Arousal is important, BUT IS NOT THE ONLY THING RESPONSIBLE FOR EMOTION
Two Factor Theory of Emotion: physiological arousal intensifies emotions, the interaction between the physiological arousal and the cognitive label we put on the arousal “excited” or “surprised” = EMOTIONS
MUST BE COGNITIVE LABEL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL COMBINED
Cognitive Appraisal Theory
Thinking occurs before the experience of the emotion (hard to imagine this, feels like we react immediately without thought)
Arousal (snake) — appraisal — fear, heart pounding etc.
Stimulus leads to cognitive appraisal, which leads to the physiological response
ALEXITHYMIA:
can’t identify emotions
Cognitive Reappraisal CONTINUATION OF COGNITIVE APPRAISAL THEORY, 3 main components
Interpretation of situation that influences whether the situation is perceived as stressful
Different individuals may have a different emotional reaction to different stimuli
3 MAJOR COMPONENTS: Threatening
Sufficient resources
Effective Strategy
Primary and secondary appraisal
Primary Appraisal: initial evaluation of situation, categorize situation as positive or negative or neutral
Secondary Appraisal: evaluate whether there is sufficient ability or resources to cope with the situation
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY APPRAISALS FALL UNDER COGNITIVE APPRAISALS
Gross’s Process Model 5 steps and assumptions
Specific strategies are differentiated along the timeline of emotional response
ASSUMPTIONS: Emotion regulation strategies differ in when they have primary impact on the emotion process
Emotion regulation can occur with or without conscious awareness
Emotion regulation is not inherently good or bad
(1) situation selection: deciding what situation you want to put yourself in, approach or avoid etc. in order to regulate emotions
(2) situation modification: modify situation in order to change its emotional impact, problem-focused coping mechanisms (can you alter the situation in order to alter how you feel about it
(3) attention deployment: select which aspect of the situation you focus on
(4) cognitive change in labeling: selecting which of the possible meanings to attach to that aspect of the situation (REAPPRAISAL)
(5) response: attempts to influence emotion response tendencies once elicited (might be suppression)
^^FIRST FOUR STEPS ARE ANTECEDENT FOCUSED EMOTION REGULATION
LAST STEP IS RESPONSE-FOCUSED EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGY
Suppression
Suppression consequences
Inhibiting ongoing emotion-expressive behavior
Response focused strategy
Decreased positive but not negative experience
Increase sympathetic nervous system response
Greater activation in amygdala (emotion-generation)
Worse memory
Cognitive Reappraisal Strategy Benefits
Antecedent focused strategy
Construing an emotion-eliciting situation in non-emotional terms
Decreases negative emotions
No or little impact on sympathetic nervous system
Less response in amygdala
No or positive impact on memory
Context matters, strategy depends on person, situation, or goals
Flexibility maters: flexible deployment of the optimal strategy for that specific situation
