Emotions and Social Interactions

Question 1

What is our survival dependent on?

Answer 1

Social animals - survival is dependent on ability to build relationships with others

Question 2

What increases our chances of survival?

Answer 2

If we are part of a social group

Question 3

Why do we have emotions?

Answer 3

Evolved to serve 2 functions:
promoting survival and reproductive goals
attainment of social goals - indirectly related to survival

Question 4

What are problems with emotions linked too?

Answer 4

Problems with social interactions. for example: autism

when emotional processing is diminished, so is social processes

Question 5

What do social and physical pain involve?

Answer 5

The same parts of the brain
For example, when experiencing social rejection, feel the same pain as we would if physically hurt - taking paracetamol reduces this

Question 6

What is the function of pain?

Answer 6

Telling us we are doing something which is harming our survival - so stop - whether it be physical pain or social pain from harming relationships

Question 7

What is the function of self-conscious emotions?

Answer 7

Regulate the self in the context of social groups and relationships - regulate behaviour so we avoid embarrassment etc
pride reinforces and motivates socially valued behaviours and shame and guilt are felt in response to transgressions of norms - feeling anxious
emotions drive people to act in a way which is valued and appropriate - these guide our behaviour

Question 8

Who believed emotions were social and what did he say?

Answer 8

Parkinson - all emotions are social
emotions are often caused by social factors - due to others
they have consequences for other people - affect how they feel
and they serve interpersonal and cultural functions
they are communicative

Question 9

What is the evidence that emotions are social?

Answer 9

Kraut and Johnston - observed peoples facial expressions when bowling. These were more pronounced when turning around to look at an audience than when facing the result of the bowl - shows it is not just a source of success or failure triggering emotions, it is sharing events with others

Question 10

What do we use our emotions for?

Answer 10

To communicate our needs and wants
sadness - want reassurance
Direct ours and others behaviour - emotions have an experiencer and receiver

Question 11

What is the emotions as social information model?

Answer 11

Kleef - emotions regulate social interactions by triggering affective reactions and inferences in observers- we use emotions to infer how to behave in a situation
use others - make sense of situation - decide behaviour

others emotions change how we feel and how we interpret the situation - triggering changes in our behaviour

Question 12

What is the process in the EASI model influenced by?

Answer 12

Factors such as our relationships with the other person

observers informational processing and social relational factors

Question 13

Do emotions have social functions?

Answer 13

Yes - they guide our social behaviour, especially self-conscious emotions - also influence other people’s behaviour - EASI model
main function is to direct social behaviour, both ours and others

Question 14

What is mood contagion?

Answer 14

Developing the same mood as people that you spend time with

Question 15

Is there evidence for mood contagion?

Answer 15

Individuals living with a depressed roommate are more likely to become depressed themselves - even when controlled for baseline depression, still got effect
this can happen on a shorter timescale, just hearing someone talk in a depressed tone of voice can cause contagion

Question 16

Kramer et al - a controversial study on contagion

Answer 16

Researchers reduced the amount of positive or negative emotional content in 7000 people’s newsfeed
Their manipulation influenced the emotions their ppts expressed in own status:
if removed pos, less likely to use pos and more likely to use neg
if remove neg, more likely to use pos and less likely to use neg

but didn’t have consent, just did it over people’s Facebook and the effects size was very small. was statistically significant because of the large sample but practically little impact in how they feel

Question 17

Why does mood contagion occur?

Answer 17

The facial feedback hypothesis

Question 18

What is the facial feedback hypothesis?

Answer 18

Believes that people’s facial activity influences their affective responses - debate about this is ongoing, recent research failed to replicate effect

Question 19

Is there evidence to support the facial feedback hypothesis

Answer 19

Stract at al - ppts were more amused by cartoons when holding a pen with their teeth (smiling) than when holding the pen by their lips - this is because they were smiling

Question 20

How does mood contagion occur?

Answer 20

We unconsciously process other people’s expressions we are with (motor mimicry, facial and bodily feedback). We do it the more we like someone and when trying to understand others - can lead to changes in emotion
We also consciously do it - appraisal, social comparison - e.g., if someone else is laughing, we reappraise situation, realise it is happy
Less likely to mimic the behaviour of people we don’t like

Question 21

What prevents the ability to understand other people’s emotions?

Answer 21

Getting botox reduces the ability to understand other people’s emotional expressions, as well as reducing your own emotional responses - blocks you from doing facial mimicry

Question 22

Do emotions spread through groups?

Answer 22

Infecting a friend with your mood, will then impact the people they interact with - spread to network of people you are connected too

our happiness is linked to how happy our friends friends are
one individual can affect the mood of a group (ripple effect)
the moods of individuals within a group e.g. work or sports can become linked

Question 23

What is the ripple effect?

Answer 23

One individual can affect the mood of a group - in a study, trained confederates to be negative, could change others emotions

Question 24

How do our emotions influence other people?

Answer 24

One way is by changing the emotions of others - consciously or non conscious
they can be transmitter beyond the people we actually interact with, through larger groups and networks

Question 25

What does social sharing of emotion refer too?

Answer 25

People have a strong impulse to tell other people about events, the most common response for this is it to be spoke about with lots of people. This spreads through social networks, if you tell someone, they tell someone else

Question 26

Is there evidence that we share our emotions with others?

Answer 26

People reported that they shared 9/10 emotional events that happened to them with others - these people then share the events with other secondary sharing - occurred in 75% of cases in a study - so emotions spread through these active processes

Question 27

What impact does social sharing of emotion have on relationships?

Answer 27

Relates to friendships - benefits them, like them more
co-rumination is liked to anxiety and depression but also to closeness and friendship quality
self-disclose increases liking
helps bonds between people

Question 28

What is co-rumination?

Answer 28

Sharing emotions with other people

Question 29

What do positive emotions facilitate?

Answer 29

Bonding between infants and caregivers, promotes romantic relationships and leads to better relationships with co-workers - but it isn’t always good

Question 30

When is it not good to express positive emotions?

Answer 30

Winners who express positive emotions are seen as less likeable

Question 31

Are all emotional expressions good?

Answer 31

Gottman and Levenson studied 79 married partners discussing positive and negative events in their relationship - how couples interacted during these discussions predicted whether they would be divorced 17 years later with 93% accuracy - negative emotional expressions during discussion of conflict were especially important predictors - only need a small bit of behaviour to get a good idea to make a judgment of if they would stay together

Question 32

How do our emotions influence social relationships?

Answer 32

Expressing and sharing them can function to strengthen our relationships, making us feel closer to others
however, some kinds of emotional expressions can damage relationships
sharing relationships with others doesn’t necessarily make you feel better, but it can strengthen social bonds