Emotions and Disorders Flashcards
Three Components of Emotion
Cognition, Expression, Physiology
Love Bridge
Illustrates some of the primary issues in the study of emotion
Study 1: Two groups of subjects, males who just walked across a scary bridge or males who just walked across a less scary bridge
Experiment 1: Love Bridge
After crossing the scary bridge or the not scary bridge, the male subjects are approached by either a male or female experimenter. Subjects fill out questionnaires containing Thematic Apperception Test Picture. People are shown ambiguous pictures and asked to make up a story about the picture. After subjects filled out questionnaire, experimenter thanked them and offered to explain the study in more detail when they had more time, gives phone number to subject
Results for Love Bridge Experiment
Scary Bridge group (approached by female experimenter)
More sexual content in stories than non scary bridge group, 2.47 vs. 1.41
More attempts to contact experimenter
50% vs. 15%
No difference when experimenter was male
0.8 vs. 0.61
Only 5%
Physiological Component of Emotion
- Might be relatively general
- Different emotions could have similar patterns of arousal (faster heartbeat, perspiration, etc)
Cognitive Component of Emotion
We have to interpret our physiological arousal. What’s causing this aroused state? May misattribute physiological arousal to other things in environment
Experiment 2: Love Bridge
- Control for group selection effects.
- Give questionnaire to males who had crossed the scary bridge 10 minutes ago, assumed they were more relaxed after the delay
- They also differed from the group of males interviewed just after crossing the scary bridge
Experiment 3: Lab Study
- Effects of electric shock on learning
- Subjects told they would get strong shock or only weak shock
- Asked about level of anxiety, took TAT, also asked if attracted to other student in the study
- If they expected strong shock were more anxious AND more attracted to the confederate
Amygdala basic “fear” mechanism
- Generate emotional responses
- hormonal secretions and autonomic reactions that accompany strong emotions
- Damage causes inability to recognize fear in faces
Brain-Based Emotions
- Frontal lobes
- Influence people’s conscious emotional feelings and ability to act in planned ways based on feelings
What emotions is the left frontal lobe responsible for?
Processes positive emotions
What emotions is the right frontal lobe responsible for?
Involved with negative emotions
Sympathetic functions
Fight or flight
Parasympathetic functions
Restore calm
James-Lange Theory of Emotion
- Emotion arises from physiological arousal
- Event causes physiological arousal–> this causes emotion to be felt
- Different physiological states for each emotion
Perceived event–> physiological and behavioral responses –> emotional experience
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
“Body” (physiological systems) and “mind” (emotional experience) are independently activated at the same time. Not physiological reaction, and then emotion. Could have general aroused state, not a distinct physiological state for each emotion
Two-Factor Theory of Emotion (Schacter)
Physiological arousal
- Sweaty palms
- Increased heart rate
- Rapid breathing
Cognitive Label
- Attribute source of arousal to a cause
To have an emotion both are required
Schacter and Singer
- Injected subjects with adrenaline
- 3 groups: placebo, informed, uninformed
- Confederate acted angry in one condition, in other he acted euphoric
- Uninformed subject were happy or angry depending on what confederate did
- Informed were not as affected (nor were placebo group)
Zajonc/LeDoux Theory
- Some emotions are processed rapidly like reflexes–bypass cortex
- Two-track theory: High road (cortex), low road (amygdala) - bypassing the cortex
Polygraph Tests
- Recording many tests
- Autonomic Nervous System
- Typical Measures:
- Galvanic Skin Response
- Pulse, Blood pressure
- Breathing
- Fidgeting - Can’t measure lying directly, measure physiological correlates
Emotion: Lie Detectors
50 were innocent
50 were guilty
1/3 of innocent declared guilty
1/4 of guilty declared innocent
Guilty Knowledge Test
Let’s say an expensive Rolex watch is stolen
Catch a suspect: show him pictures of the stolen watch and several other watches. Only thief knows that this is a stolen watch. Look at autonomic system reactions (pupil etc.) to these pictures.
harder to cheat, more reliable
Ekman’s Theory of Facial Expression and Feedback
1.Each basic (6 or 7) emotion is built in to us
2. Each has a unique facial expression
3. Sensory feedback from expression contributes to emotional feeling
4. If you look, you will BE happy
Universal Facial Expressions
- Asked people in lots of different cultures to look at pictures of faces and guess which emotion:
- People can agree on 6 emotions (happiness, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust) - More variability for other emotional expressions
- May be that these 6 have most survival value
- But these were all college educated populations, in cultures that had some contact with each other
What is the relationship between income and happiness?
Over a 40-year period, Americans became over twice as wealthy, but no happier
What is happiness not related to?
Age, Gender, Education levels, Parenthood, physical attractiveness
Social-Comparison Theory
The theory that people evaluate themselves by making comparisons with others
Adaptation-Level Theory
The theory that people evaluate experiences in relation to current levels, to which they have become accustomed. Good things cause only temporary increase in happiness, But it is true of bad things too
Evidence in support that people have a baseline happiness level
- Identical twins have very similar happiness ratings, even if raised apart
- Positive or negative events only have temporary effects on happiness. Even big things like marriage or being hospitalized only have effects for three months
- Individual happiness levels are stable over the whole life span
Stress and Health
Stress is…the physiological and psychological response to conditions that are threatening or challenging
Catastrophic stressors
Plane crash, really bad earthquake, etc
Major life event stressors
relatively uncommon but emotionally charged events, like death of loved one
Micro-stressors (daily hassles)
Having an argument with someone, living in a crowded city, financial stressors, job stress
The Stress Mechanism (Seyle) or General adaptation syndrome
Alarm: a threat mobilizes body resistance to stress
Physiological response: Adrenaline, heart rate increases
Resistance: stress resistance reaches its maximum
If short fine, but if chronic
Chronic stress leads to
Exhaustion: the organism’s resources for dealing with stress are exhausted – stress resistance drops off (prolonged stress is detrimental)
Stress Duration and Illness
Volunteers were interviewed about life stressors, then infected with virus for cold. As length of stress increased, so did the likelihood of catching the cold. Stress impairs immune system functioning
Personality and Coronary Heart Disease
Type A personality: competitive, impatient, quick to anger, hostile (type A more prone to coronary heart disease)
Type B Personality: easygoing, relaxed, laid back
What are the 4 D’s?
- Dangerousness
- Distress: amount of distress it causes others
- Dysfunction: Suffering it causes the person, does it interfere with daily life, job etc.
- Deviance: Strangeness, considered bizarre within their context
Greater on this scale, greater odds of being abnormal
Reliability
Want individual diagnosticians reach the same conclusions using the same system
Validity
Want the system’s categories to be clinically meaningful. Predict future behavior, course of illness, response to medication
Confirmation Bias
People tend to look for evidence to confirm their hypothesis, but almost nevery try to look for evidence to disconfirm it
Schemas
We use schemas to interpret events and to make inferences. If we expect people with mental illness to act a certain way (we have a schema) so if I think that someone has X (they’ve been labeled), we interpret what they say and do differently.
Who’s Crazy Here, Anyway (Rosenhan)
- Can mental health professionals really distinguish healthy from mentally ill people?
- Sent healthy volunteers seek admittance to psychiatric facilities
- Once in hospital, the “pseudo-patients” would act as they would in outside world
- Would they be diagnosed as “normal”?
Basics of Rosenhan
8 subjects including himself checked themselves into a mental hospital saying that they heard voices, 7 out of 8 were labeled as schizophrenic despite acting normally in the interview.
Implications of Rosenahan Study
Was it a fair test of mental health professionals ability to distinguish healthy people from people who are mentally ill?
Second Test (Rosenhan)
Hospital was warned that Rosenhan was sending pseudo-patients to them. During the next three months one or more pseudo-patients were going to seek admittance
Results:
41 “pseudo-patients” were “uncovered” by at least one staff member
Phobia
An unreasonable, excessive, or irrational fear. To be a phobia, there must be great distress or major interference with daily life
Agoraphobia
Marked by intense fear when isolated in open spaces or in crowds. Fear of being in a place where escape would be difficult or impossible. May completely avoid going out in public
Social Phobias
Fear of situation that involves public scrutiny (fear of public embarrassment, lead to avoidance of social situations)
Simple (object) phobias
Fear of specific object or event
Freud’s theory for what causes Phobias?
Phobia is displacement of deeper fear. Little Hans 5 year old scared of being bitten by horses but really scared of his father (oedipal conflict)
Classical conditioning approach to Phobias
Learn to fear dogs cause one bit you when you were two years old. Reinforcement: avoid the object (dogs, spiders, heights) feel less anxiety
Panic Attack/Panic Disorder
Panic: Intense physiological reactions that occur in the absence of an emergency (onset can be sudden). Frequent attacks diagnosed as panic disorder (rate among women twice rate for men)
Stress and Panic Disorder
Panic disorder includes sudden, intense rushes of anxiety without apparent reason. In many cases, the first attack comes soon after illness, miscarriage, or other traumatic event. Big increase in stress in the months leading up to an attack
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- High level of anxiety
- Lasts 6 months or more
- No obvious feared object (free floating anxiety)
- Sensitive to criticism, dwells on past mistakes, worries about money, family matters, illness, etc.
- Genetic contribution, but also could arise form childhood experiences
PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawl, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia lingering for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. Battle-scarred veterans, survivors of accidents, disasters, and violent and sexual assaults
Obsessions (OCD)
Persistent, uncontrollable thoughts
Compulsions
Intrusive, inappropriate actions
Obsessive Compulsive Cycle
Obsessions–> then anxiety–> try to reduce that with compulsions but then have obsessions again
Dissociative Disorders
Disruption in memory, consciousness or self-identity. Conscious awareness is separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, feelings. Amnesia (loss of memory for self-relevant info, who are, where you live)
Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personality)
- Person has two or more distinct personalities/identities
- May not be aware of each others actions (or even existence)
- Each personality may have own voice, speech pattern habits, memories, sexual orientation, handwriting
- Cause? Often history of child abuse, child who is abused constructs alternate personalities to escape the pain and suffering
Controversies- dissociative identity disorder (mutliple personality disorder)
- Everyone can assume different personalities in different contexts
- Therapists can perhaps induce this in patients
- Reported rates of DID have changed a lot
- May be an “offshoot” of other disorders (such as personality disorders like Borderline Personality Disorder)
Major Depressive Disorder
- Overwhelming feelings of sadness, despair, hopelessness
- Loss of interest in pleasurable activities
- Intense feelings of guilt, worthlessness, self-blame
- Problems sleeping, concentrating on work, making decisions
- Loss of energy and fatigue
- Thoughts of suicide and death
Age of First Onset for Depression
- Depression is seldom identified before adolescence
- Diagnosed increases in early adulthood
- Most commonly diagnosed in middle age
- First diagnosis rare among the elderly
- Diagnosed more often in women than men
Relative Deprivation
is a sociological concept describing the feeling of being deprived or lacking something compared to others in one’s social group, even if one’s absolute situation is not objectively poor, essentially meaning that someone feels deprived based on their comparison to others around them, rather than an absolute standard of need; it often leads to feelings of discontent and can contribute to social unrest or activism.
Social Readjustment Scale
a psychological tool used to assess the amount of stress a person is experiencing by assigning numerical values to common life events, with the assumption that significant life changes, regardless of whether they are positive or negative, can contribute to stress and potential health issues; essentially, it measures the impact of life events on an individual’s stress level by calculating a total score based on the events they have experienced recently.
Fugue State
more extensive than simple amnesia.May forgot not just name, but wander off and start a new life. New job, get married, etc
