Emotions and Social Interactions Flashcards
What is our survival dependent on?
Social animals - survival is dependent on ability to build relationships with others
What increases our chances of survival?
If we are part of a social group
Why do we have emotions?
Evolved to serve 2 functions:
promoting survival and reproductive goals
attainment of social goals - indirectly related to survival
What are problems with emotions linked too?
Problems with social interactions. for example: autism
when emotional processing is diminished, so is social processes
What do social and physical pain involve?
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
What is the function of pain?
Telling us we are doing something which is harming our survival - so stop - whether it be physical pain or social pain from harming relationships
What is the function of self-conscious emotions?
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
Who believed emotions were social and what did he say?
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
What is the evidence that emotions are social?
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
What do we use our emotions for?
To communicate our needs and wants
sadness - want reassurance
Direct ours and others behaviour - emotions have an experiencer and receiver
What is the emotions as social information model?
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
What is the process in the EASI model influenced by?
Factors such as our relationships with the other person
observers informational processing and social relational factors
Do emotions have social functions?
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
What is mood contagion?
Developing the same mood as people that you spend time with
Is there evidence for mood contagion?
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
Kramer et al - a controversial study on contagion
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
Why does mood contagion occur?
The facial feedback hypothesis
What is the facial feedback hypothesis?
Believes that people’s facial activity influences their affective responses - debate about this is ongoing, recent research failed to replicate effect
Is there evidence to support the facial feedback hypothesis
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
How does mood contagion occur?
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
What prevents the ability to understand other people’s emotions?
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
Do emotions spread through groups?
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
What is the ripple effect?
One individual can affect the mood of a group - in a study, trained confederates to be negative, could change others emotions
How do our emotions influence other people?
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
What does social sharing of emotion refer too?
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
Is there evidence that we share our emotions with others?
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
What impact does social sharing of emotion have on relationships?
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
What is co-rumination?
Sharing emotions with other people
What do positive emotions facilitate?
Bonding between infants and caregivers, promotes romantic relationships and leads to better relationships with co-workers - but it isn’t always good
When is it not good to express positive emotions?
Winners who express positive emotions are seen as less likeable
Are all emotional expressions good?
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
How do our emotions influence social relationships?
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
