Emotions Flashcards
1
Q
Emotion
A
- Cognitive evaluations, subjective changes, autonomic and neural arousal, and impulses to action
- Closely linked to motivation
- e.g. anger linked with fight/flight response
- Emotions are goal direction e.g. puirsuit of happiness
- Emotions facilitate rational/irrational thoughts - emotions and decision making
2
Q
Characteristics of emotions
A
- A state associated with stimuli that are rewarding or punishing
- Emotions are transient (unlike a mood, where an emotional state becomes extended)
- Emotions have a hedonic value
- Emotions have a particular “feeling state” → bodily response e.g. heart rate
- Emotions elicit particular external motor outcomes (including facial expressions)
3
Q
James-Lange peripheral feedback theory
A
- 1880s
- Idea: Experience of bodily changes that produce the emotional experience
- Changes in bodily state occur before the emotional experience
- Experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
- However, what type of processing leads to the change in bodily states?
4
Q
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
A
- 1920s
- Idea: Perception of a stimulus elicits physiological reaction and emotional reaction simultaneously
- The physical reaction isn’t dependent on the emotional reaction, and vice versa
5
Q
Schachter’s cognition-plus-feedback theory
A
- Idea: Perception and thought about a stimulus influence the type of emotion
- Degree of bodily arousal influences the intensity of emotion
- Same as Canon-Bard theory but brings in context/cognition
- Schacter & Singer (1962) study showed that the context was important in determining the resulting emotion: arousal spurs emotion but cognition directs it
- Limitation: study could not be replicated and debate around whether bodily states are necessary for emotion
6
Q
Hypothalamus
A
- Expression of emotion
- Hypothalamus and aggression
- Stimulation of medial part of hypothalamus: Affective aggression (threat attack – not actually attack)
- Stimulation of lateral part of hypothalamus: Predator aggression (silent-biting attack – not accompanied by threatening gestures)
7
Q
Amygdala
A
- Emotional content of memories
- Learning whether a stimulus/response is rewarded or punished → fear conditioning
- Lesions
- Aggression↓
- “psychic blindness”, including inability to recognize fear in facial expressions and voice → perception of fear
- Patient with damaged amygdala: did not focus attention on relevant features
-
Pibram et al., 1954 study
- bilateral amygdala lesion to dominant monkey; when returned to colony, it fell to the bottom – become more placid and easier to challenge
- Amygdala is also involved in positive classical conditioning e.g. food rewards
8
Q
Pre-frontal cortex
A
Controlling emotion
9
Q
Sham rage
A
- Bard, 1929
- Lesion to cat’s cortex with the hypothalamus intact led to sham rage behaviour severe aggressive response to slightest provocation, e.g. light touch to the back
- The aggressive response is not directed at targets
- Lesion 2: Removal of cortex & posterior hypothalamus
- Behaviour: No sham rage
- Bard’s Conclusion
- Hypothalamus → critical for expression of aggressive responses
- Cortex → inhibition and direction of aggressive responses
10
Q
Kluver-Bucy Syndrome
A
- Discovered in monkeys with anterior TL lesions (including the amygdala)
- Symptoms
- Unusual tameness
- Emotional blunting
- Lack of fear (even in response to snakes)
- Inappropriate examination of objects with mouth, dietary changes
- Increased sexual activity often directed to inappropriate objects → lost learned emotional value
11
Q
Orbitofrontal cortex
A
Involved in setting and determining the reward value of a stimulus
12
Q
Lateral prefrontal cortex
A
Involved in situation reappraisal e.g. reappraising that blood is actually fake and part of a Halloween costume
13
Q
Unconscious emotions
A
Low level route serves to by-pass the sensory (visual) cortex and go straight from thalamus to the amygdala to activate an emotional response faster (LeDoux, 1998) → unconscious emotional processing
