Exam Flashcards
James and Lange’s theory of emotion
- A bodily reaction occurs followed by the expression of emotion. Ex. thunder -> body jumps -> fear
- James says we cannot experience emotions without bodily reactions.
- Bodily reactions are instinctive and unconscious. However, even voluntary movements such as smiling elicit emotion (not powerful emotion).
- “Coarser” emotions include grief, fear, anger, and hatred. The “subtler” emotions, included “moral, intellectual, and aesthetic feelings”.
Cannons criticisms of Jame’s theory of emotion
- “Total separation of the viscera from the central nervous system does not alter emotional behavior”.
- “The same visceral changes occur in very different emotional states and in non-emotional states”.
- “The viscera are relatively insensitive structures”.
People with high blood pressure (note that anger raises blood pressure) are often totally unaware of their visceral reactions and may need equipment to measure their pressure. - “Visceral changes are too slow to be a source of emotional feeling”.
- “Artificial induction of the visceral changes typical of strong emotions does not produce them”.
Cannon suggested that the thalamus in the brain included a brain centre for the control of emotion (“thalamic processes are a source of affective experience”).
A fact → a reaction in the brain (thalamus) which leads to → emotions
Cannon and Bard’s theory of emotion
Cannon and Bard instead suggested that the experience of emotion was not dependent upon interpreting the body’s physiological reactions. Instead, they believed that the emotion and the physical response occur simultaneously and that one was not dependent upon the other.
Explain the role that the brain and body play in the theories of James and Cannon.
JAMES:
1) Bodily reaction comes first.
2) Gut reactions are the source of emotional experiences.
3) Emotion cannot exist without bodily reactions.
4) Creating the bodily reaction to an emotion will promote that emotion.
CANNON:
1) Brain reaction comes first.
2) Gut reactions are too slow, too common, and too insensitive to be the source of emotional experiences.
3) Emotion can and does exist without gut reactions.
4) Creating the bodily reaction to an emotion will not create that emotion.
What is adaption relating to the theory of evolution
- Adaption refers to a species’ ability to change or become variable in an attempt to survive and continue to reproduce to continue their species.
- Adaptions are genetically based traits that allow the organism to cope well with specific selection pressures, and to survive and reproduce.
What is survival relating to the theory of evolution
Survival is the present need and desire to live and to reproduce. Survival requires the ability of adaption to remain the “fittest”.
Darwin’s three principles of emotion
- “The principle of serviceable associated habits”
- Darwin believed that states of mind had the ability to produce “associated habits”. In other words, there are certain reflexive reactions that accompany emotional states of mind. Darwin also suggested that serviceable habits could be learned by association. The key to Darwin’s serviceable associated habits is that no voluntary thought is required. If associated habits were indeed adaptive (“serviceable” can be read as “adaptive”), Darwin felt that they would become innate and characteristic of the species. Examples of this principle include the turning away of the head in disgust, the jump or startle response, and the attack postures of animals. - “The principle… of antithesis”
- This principle proposes that “for every emotion, there is an equal and opposite emotion.” For Darwin, emotions existed in pairs of opposites (e.g., happy vs. sad), while modes of expression were also contrary (e.g., smile vs. sad face). - “The principle of the direct action of the nervous system”
- Darwin believed that extreme excitation of the nervous system in emotional situations would lead to emotional expressions with much the same inevitability as water runs downhill. This process was entirely involuntary.
Notice that some responses (e.g., the attack posture) maybe both serviceable (principle 1) and communicative or expressive (principle 3). They may also be antithetical to gestures of the opposite emotion (principle 2).
How do emotions help us survive
Darwin’s theory:
- fear is used in order to survive dangerous situations, it steers us away from danger.
- love and affection are used to care for our children and ensure that they survive to continue the human species.
- emotions also help us decide who to be friends with, who to start a romantic relationship with, etc.
Explain the relationship between Ekman’s theory of emotion and Darwin’s theory
Darwin’s principles on emotion outline their adaptiveness with automatic and habitual responses based on our nervous system. Ekman’s work on emotion in facial expressions agrees with those ideas. Ekman states that facial expressions are inherited, built-in, cross-cultural, and automatic. Darwin collected pictures of emotions in animals from the London zoo, his dog, hunter‐gatherer societies he met on his world travels and his own children. He gathered those pictures of facial expressions in his book ‘The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals’ to show the emotion’s evolution from mammals to humans and emotions’ universality Ekman expanded this work by providing a code system to depict and categorize emotions depending on facial muscles usage. The system is now called FACS (Facial Action Coding System of facial feedback theory by Ekman and Friesen). As William James, Paul Ekman build on the idea that without bodily expressions, there would be no emotions
What is FACS
Facial Action Coding System developed by Ekman. It is a method used to measure emotions in the human face. This system uses coded movements of facial muscles (ie: “jaw drop” made possible by the massager’s muscle) to measure emotional expression. The system then created a set of standard facial expressions for the six basic emotions.
What does Ekman mean by facial expressions of emotion are “pancultural and innate”
Ekman believes that we are born with facial expressions hence the term innate. However, not all emotions are expressed when we are born. Emotions develop as we age. For example, blind and seeing children start to smile around the same age.
Ekman also believes that facial expressions are cross-cultural hence the term pancultural. Therefore, facial expressions are universal. Much of Ekman’s early research established the fact that people in many different cultures react in the same way to facial expressions of basic emotions. In Ekman’s theory, the basic emotions are Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Surprise.
What are emotional appraisals
Appraisals involve the first attraction to, or repulsion from, some object, and they determine whether the emotion is positive or negative.
According to appraisal theory, our interpretation of a situation causes an emotional response that is based on that interpretation. Lazarus distinguished between primary appraisal, which seeks to establish the significance or meaning of an event, and secondary appraisal, which assesses the ability of the individual to cope with the consequences of the event.
Appraisal: Emotions are elicited as a result of our interpretation of a situation.
Two parts of the nervous system
- central nervous system
2. Peripheral nervous system
What are the different parts of the central nervous system?
- The brain and spinal cord.
- The brain receives and processes sensory info, initials responses, stores, memories, and generals thoughts on emotions.
- The spinal cord sends signals to and from the brain. and controls reflect activities.
What are the different parts of the peripheral nervous system?
- The motor neurons and sensory neurons
- Motor neurons: CNS to muscles and glands.
- Sensory neurons: sensory organs to CNS
Types of motor neurons
- Somatic nervous system and automatic nervous system.
- Somatic nervous system controls voluntary movements and the automatic nervous system controls involuntary responses.
Parts of the automatic nervous system
Sympathetic division (fight or flight) and parasympathetic division (rest or digest)
Explain the automatic system and its two divisions
Neural signals from the cortex communicate with the limbic system and the hypothalamus, which send signals to clusters of neurons of the autonomic nervous system and target organs, glands, muscles, and blood vessels. These structures in turn send signals back via the autonomic nervous system to the hypothalamus, limbic system, and cortex.
The parasympathetic branch of the system helps with restorative processes, reducing heart rate and blood pressure and directing inner resources to digestive processes. The sympathetic branch increases heart rate, blood pressure, and cardiac output and shuts down digestive processes to help the individual to engage in physically demanding actions. These two branches control processes such as digestion, blood flow, and body temperature, as well as behaviours with direct relevance to emotion, including defensive behaviour, sexual behaviour, and aggression.
What happens to the body when the sympathetic nervous system is activated.
It increases heart rate, blood pressure, and cardiac output. It produces vasoconstriction in most veins and arteries. It shuts down digestive processes, which is why it can be hard to eat when experiencing great stress. It is associated with contractions in the reproductive organs that are part of orgasm. The sympathetic system leads to the contraction of the piloerector muscles that surround the hairs on the arms, neck, and back, which helps with thermoregulation and is involved in emotional responses that involve goosebumps. And it increases many processes that provide energy for the body, including glycogenolysis and the freeing of fatty acids in the bloodstream. At the same time, the sympathetic system reduces the activity of natural killer cells, which are involved in immune responses. This may account for chronic stress-producing poor health outcomes. Given these effects, many have argued that the sympathetic system helps prepare the body for fight-or-flight responses.
Explain how hormones work, and relate the actions of adrenaline to emotion.
The endocrine system consists of a network of glands that secrets chemicals called hormones into the bloodstream to control various states of the body. Those states will include growth and development, reproduction, homeostasis, metabolism and response to stimuli.
Emotion essentially is a response to stimuli. The neuroendocrine system is the combined action between a nervous and endocrine system that will explain the adrenalin action in emotion better. The nervous system will react to the stimuli with its autonomic division, where dangers in fear or anxiety will activate the sympathetic system, and the parasympathetic system will respond to less active emotional forms like sadness. The hypothalamus will connect both systems by sending signals to the sympathetic branch and the endocrine system.
When the hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system, it will also send a signal to the ‘main’ gland, a pituitary gland that will send a message to the adrenal glands. Those glands are located on top of each kidney and complete the Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal (HPA) axis. Adrenal glands have two portions: the cortex will release corticosteroid hormones (long-term stress-related hormones), and the medulla to produce epinephrine (adrenaline) for an immediate response.
Specifically, adrenalin regulates metabolism and blood pressure.
The limbic system
The brain region responsible for humans feeling and expressing emotions is called the limbic system. It is located like a physical border between the hypothalamus and the cerebrum.
There are five functions of the limbic brain. The five F’s are feeding, forgetting, fighting, family (maternity and reproduction), fornication as sexual arousal
The main structures of the limbic system are the hypothalamus, amygdala, thalamus, and hippocampus.
The function of the amygdala in the limbic system
The amygdala helps to regulate emotions and colour memories with emotions. controls rage, panic, ecstasy and less intense expressions like anger, fear and joy
The functions of the hypothalamus in the limbic system
Hypothalamus regulates the autonomic nervous system with eating, sleeping, sexual behaviour, body temperature and other vital automatic functions.
The function of the thalamus in the limbic system
Thalamus is a relay station that will send the received emotional information to other brain parts.
The function of the hippocampus in the limbic system
Hippocampus forms short and long-term memories, learning, recognition of novelty, and recollection of spacial relationships.
Maclean’s theory of the three-part (triune) brain.
- the reptilian brain
- the limbic brain (mammal)
- the neocortex brain (human)
The reptilian brain
The reptilian brain, the oldest of the three, controls the body’s vital functions such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature and balance. Our reptilian brain includes the main structures found in a reptile’s brain: the brainstem and the cerebellum. The reptilian brain is reliable but tends to be somewhat rigid and compulsive.
The limbic brain
The limbic brain emerged in the first mammals. It can record memories of behaviours that produced agreeable and disagreeable experiences, so it is responsible for what are called emotions in human beings. The main structures of the limbic brain are the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus. The limbic brain is the seat of the value judgments that we make, often unconsciously, that exert such a strong influence on our behaviour.
The neocortex brain
The neocortex first assumed importance in primates and culminated in the human brain with its two large cerebral hemispheres that play such a dominant role. These hemispheres have been responsible for the development of human language, abstract thought, imagination, and consciousness. The neocortex is flexible and has almost infinite learning abilities. The neocortex is also what has enabled human cultures to develop.
The role of the amygdala in controlling emotion
- The amygdala is located in the medial aspects (inside) of the temporal lobe (in the part of the brain just above our ears).
- The amygdala has been known to influence many different emotional actions and reactions.
- The amygdala detects “biologically significant events” and orchestrates reactions to them.
- Although small, the amygdala has numerous sub-parts (called nuclei or nuclear divisions) which are identifiable by the techniques of histology (cell makeup) and other measures. Close to 30 such sub-parts are identified in the article.
- Divisions and subdivisions of the amygdala communicate with one another through neural pathways.
- Communication is reciprocal (messages travel backwards and forwards).
- Incoming information is distributed to several subparts of the amygdala simultaneously (in parallel). Each of these subparts may be receiving information from other parts of the brain as well.
- Eventually, information enters the “output regions,” or the amygdala, where appropriate behavioural responses are elicited.
One can think of the amygdala as one region in which primary appraisals, or automatic evaluation of events in relation to goals, occur. In other words, the amygdala seems to be responsible for assigning emotional significance to events.
What’s the “reward circuit” of the brain?
The brain’s reward circuit refers to several structures and pathways activated when we experience pleasure. Dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter of this circuit. It is activated in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and travels to the nucleus accumbens via a mesolimbic pathway (Guy-Evans, 2021). From VTA, dopamine goes to the amygdala to evaluate pleasure, the hippocampus to remember how and where pleasure was, and the prefrontal cortex to focus on the experience. Dopamine relates to enthusiasm, motivation, goal-oriented actions of seeking, affiliation, nursing, and sexual behaviour. It is our wanting.
Essentially dopamine is the reward understanding, and it creates that circle of reward pathways to be wanted, remembered and followed. But the reward enjoyment of itself is our experience of opiates’ effects on our brain. Opiates are our liking. Where dopamine pushes you to act, opiates will make you sit and enjoy.
Note: When you continually activate this reward circuit, each time dopamine is released, another neurotransmitter called serotonin (role in satiation/contentment) is decreased. This is why drugs that increase dopamine release (stimulants like cocaine) require more and more for the experience to continue to feel pleasurable (because of the decrease in serotonin).
Explain what role the prefrontal cortex plays in emotion.
the prefrontal cortex is responsible for emotion regulation: it is receiving signals from basic emotion-processing regions of the brain—the amygdala, as well as the nucleus accumbens—and represents those signals in ways that allow the individual to consider possible courses of action. This is central to emotion regulation, which refers to the different ways in which we modify our emotional responses once they are underway, in ways that fit the demands of the current social context.
Dorsal prefontal cortex
the region involved in selecting what to focus attention on, as well as reappraisal and refocusing attention elsewhere
Medial prefrontal cortex
involved in self-representation (third-person perspective) which involves observing oneself from an outside perspective
Anterior cingulate cortex
responsible for empathy and empathetic response. It is involved in reading other mental states and feeling/being able to relate/mimic similarly. It allows us to ensure others we know how they feel.
How is serotonin related to emotions
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in feelings of contentment, which with adequate levels in the brain, results in confidence and feel at ease. When there is not enough serotonin you will likely feel depressed, if there is too much serotonin this will result in serotonin syndrome.
How is dopamine related to emotions
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in pleasure/reward/accomplishment, when released makes you feel things like pleasure, joy, and pride. When there are low levels of dopamine you will likely feel anxious.
Describe the ways in which stress influences the body, and highlight their similarity to the ways in which emotion influences the body
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation results in the release of cortisol (stress hormone).
- HPA axis (fight or flight) activation results in physiological impacts such as heart rate acceleration, pupil dilation, muscle tension, increased blood flow to muscle groups, as well as ceasing/decreasing functioning in other areas not pertinent to survival at that moment.
- Stress (release of cortisol) in the short term helps performance (in fight or flight mode) activated by the HPA axis, but long term leads to wear and tear on the body physically and/or mentally.
- Chronic stress emotions=extended high cortisol levels. When cortisol levels remain high for a period of time, this weakens the immune system and continues to wear and tear on the body (ie. increase heart rate/ or blood pressure for example)
What are categorical models of emotion
The categorical model suggests that emotions are discrete and qualitatively different from one another. It also implies that our emotional apparatus produces emotion in terms of prepackaged systems and that there is one system for each emotion.
Examples of theories that suggest that emotions are categorical are Darwin’s theory with its preprogrammed routes for neural energy; Ekman’s theory with its six basic facial expressions; and Plutchik’s theory with its eight basic adaptive emotions.
What are dimensional models of emotions
The dimensional model suggests that emotions are different from one another only as a matter of degree. The difference is quantitative, not qualitative. All emotions may be expressed as a combination of some basic dimensions (such as E and A). In dimensional theories, the difference between anger and happiness is a difference between E (anger is less pleasant) and A (anger is more active).
Examples of theories that suggest that emotions are dimensional are Osgood’s theory of semantic meaning, Russell’s theory of the dimensionality of emotion, and Whissell’s theory. Plutchik’s theory hinted at dimensionality by placing similar emotions next to each other in a circle and different emotions opposite to each other
Plutchik’s integrative theory of emotion
1) Plutchik accepted all of Darwin’s evolutionary principles: emotions were adaptive, innate, and antithetical. 2) The 8 basic emotions of Plutchik’s model, expressed as antithetical pairs, are anger-fear, happiness-sadness, trust-disgust, and boldness-surprise. 3) Plutchik mentioned that more complex emotions may be created by mixing the eight different basic emotions. According to psychoevolutionary theory, it is easy to produce a “mix” of emotions that are close to each other because of their similarity and difficult to produce a mix of opposite emotions because of their antithesis. 4) Each of the eight basic emotions can be expressed at different levels of intensity. For example, disgust at a weak intensity is boredom. Then, there is disgust itself, and at a very strong intensity, it is loathing. The more intense emotions are, the easier it is to distinguish one from the other and the harder it becomes to mix opposites. Weak emotions, however, are indistinct. And, if you are feeling a very weak form of sadness, it is possible to mix this emotion with a very weak form of joy because the expression of each is minimal.
Explain the role that the theory of evolution plays in Plutchik’s theory
Plutchik accepted all of Darwin’s evolutionary principles. He held that emotions were adaptive, innate, and antithetical. In other words, Plutchik’s theory posits that emotions are useful and help animals survive (or we would not have them); that we are born with an innate emotional apparatus that we share with all others of our species, and that emotions come in pairs of opposites.
Robert Plutchik claims that there are eight basic emotions, each one is an adaptation, and all eight are found in all organisms. According to Plutchik, emotions are similar to traits such as DNA or lungs in air-breathing animals—traits that are so important that they arose once and have been conserved ever since. In the case of the emotions, which he calls “basic adaptations needed by all organisms in the struggle for individual survival”.The eight adaptations are incorporation, rejection, destruction, protection, reproduction, reintegration, orientation, and exploration.
The cone model that describes Plutchik’s theory
Plutchik created a wheel of emotions on a classical colour wheel. Today it is known as a ‘Plutchik Wheel.’ It provides an excellent tool for recognizing and working with emotions simply and effectively visualizing their relations.
The Plutchik wheel will show the opposite emotions on the top flat surface and display the intensity of those emotions in a cone going downward.
Other emotion wheels will provide different ways of identifying emotions. People who find to see more options of emotional words might prefer working with The Junto wheel, which is based on Plutchik’s wheel.
Another type of emotion wheel will be the Geneva Emotion Wheel. It divides emotions not as opposites but into four domains: how pleasant or unpleasant they are and how much control we have over them
Osgood’s approach of measuring meaning with the semantic differential
Osgood believes emotion is an important part of meaning. He designed semantic (meaning) differential charts, allowing people to plot meanings of words, similar backgrounds and interests plotted words similarly (words have connotations for cultures or subcultures). The semantic differential five-point scale has the opposite adjectives on each end. Osgood believed there were only three important dimensions underlying all semantic differential ratings: EPA. The evaluation reflects the pleasantness or desirability of the word. Potency reflects the strength or power of the word. Activation reflects the arousal of the word or concept.
Connotative meaning
the personal and subjective meaning of a word includes EPA.
Denotative meaning
the dictionary definition or objective meaning of a word.
Describe Russell’s two-dimensional model of emotion
Russell studied the dimensions proposed by Osgood and eventually reached three main conclusions:
1) There are really only two important dimensions of emotion or emotional meaning: Evaluation (E) and Activation (A) and excluded other dimensions because they are much weaker and are variable from situation to situation.
2) The dimensions of Evaluation and Activation are bipolar (two opposite ends).
3) The dimensions of Evaluation and Activation are orthogonal or unrelated. Russell emphasizes the fact that knowing one dimension (that something is unpleasant, for example) tells us nothing about the other. Is it active? Passive? We don’t know. In statistical terms, “orthogonal” means “not correlated.” If we took thousands of words and measured their Evaluation and Activation, we would find no relationship between the two dimensions.
Describe Whissell’s Dictionary of Affect in Language
The first system of measurement was the Dictionary of Affect in Language. There are two forms of the Dictionary, the earlier shorter form (4500 words) and the later longer form (8700 words). In both cases, words were rated by a large number of individuals in terms of their pleasantness (on a bipolar scale ranging from pleasant to unpleasant), and in terms of their activation (on a bipolar scale ranging from active to passive). The position of each word in emotional space depended on how people rated the word.
Whissell demonstrated that it was possible to use the Dictionary of Affect in Language to measure the emotion underlying verbal materials.
Describe Whissell’s phonoemotional analysis
Phonoemotional analysis looked at emotion in terms of the sounds in words. According to Whissell’s research, certain sounds tend to convey certain emotions. The sound for the letter “L,” for example, is soft (pleasant, passive), while the k sound is not (it is unpleasant, active). Using a set of 41 possible English sounds or phonemes, Whissell developed a way of measuring E and A for most of the sounds in words and she was able to give each sound an “emotional character.”
This system also proved to be useful in understanding emotion in many different types of materials (advertisements, lyrics, poetry, etc.). The advantage of the phonoemotional method is that ratings do not have to be acquired for every word in the English language. While there are many words in English (100,000 or more), there are only a few basic sounds (fewer than 100). Hence, if a person knows the emotion of sounds, he or she can deduce the emotion of words. Phonoemotional analysis can also be applied to non-words (names, for example, or nonsense words).
How are categorical and dimensional models are useful in the study of emotion
There is no obvious solution and both sides are clearly right some of the time. Choosing only one side of the argument would mean throwing away useful research and findings from the other side.
Sometimes it makes more sense to think of emotions as categories or discrete packages (for example when studying facial expressions), and other times it makes more sense to think of them in terms of dimensions (for example, when studying the connotations of words). Like the answer to many “either-or” arguments, the answer to this one should probably be “and”. As far as we now know, emotions are both categorical and dimensional.
What’s the role that appraisal play in determining emotional reactions to events
Firstly, appraisal brings a person’s attention to the importance of the event. It is our concern. Second, appraisal evaluates the event as good or bad. It means if the event is beneficial or harmful to a person. The sum of importance and level on a scale of pleasantness, together with causal attribution and evaluation of future implications, aka a core relation theme by Richard Lazarus, viewed from that person’s beliefs and goals perspective, will determine the plan or a reaction to an event
Describe the appraisal of relevance
the appraisal of relevance is a part of primary appraisals (initial thought). This is when an individual evaluates whether an event is relevant to their goals.
Describe the appraisal of congruence
Appraisal of congruence is also a part of the primary apprail. Once an event is appraised as relevant to a personal goal, it is then determined if it is congruent or incongruent to the goal.
e.g., does the event goes with or against my goals? For example, I do not like seeing garbage on the streets. When I see a person littering, this event is incongruent with my goal of clean streets and I get angry. When I see a person cleaning the street, this event is congruent with my goals and I expedience positive emotion.
Which type of appraisal evaluation (negative or positive) is more impactful and why
Negative apprails are much stronger than positive apprails, due to its importance to survival. When something bad happens, the brain shows much stronger activity compared to positive events. this leads to negativity bias in evaluation when our reaction to negative events is disproportionately larger than positive ones.
Explain the difference between primary and secondary appraisals
Primary appraisal is one’s first initial evaluation of a person, situation or event. Primary appraisals are basic operations of the mind, “the first movements of emotion” or “automatic evaluation”. Primary appraisals prepare you to respond to threats or opportunities. In contrast, Secondary appraisal then considers one’s ability to cope or take advantage of the situation.
Core relational themes
Term developed my Larazus. A core relational theme is a summary we have set for each specific emotion as a group of events that will harm or benefit us and elicit certain emotions as a rule.
Describe Lazarus’ appraisal theory including the decision tree of appraisals and the emotions that can occur with specific appraisals
Lazarus Theory or Cognitive Appraisal Theory proposes that cognition or thought must happen first before an emotion or physical arousal. It is built with a discrete approach of separate, distinct emotions with primary and secondary appraisals. Lazarus’s theory will show how different people experience different emotions to identical events.
The decision tree of appraisals shows the three steps that lead to the development of emotion. First is the goal relevance when a person decides if the event is important to him. Second, the goal congruence with the depiction of the event is aligned or not with the person’s goals. And the third is ego involvement, where the event is evaluated as a danger or a benefit to the person’s ego and thus creates a correlated emotion.
Outline of the development of emotions in the first three years of life
first moments: crying
newborn: disgust
1 month: occasional smile (non-social)
end of 1 month: social smile
2 months: smile with stroking
3 months: frequent smile with caregivers
4 months: sadness and fear emerge
4-7 months: anger emerges
4-12 months: increase in fear as capacity to recognize facial expressions of danger increases
7-12 months: significant development in anger
end of first year: separation fear emerges (peak at 15 months)
12-24 months: starts comforting others
18 months: self-conscious emotions emerge
2-3 years: self-conscious evaluative emotions emerge
by age 3: offers comfort in manner tailored to needs of others.
Maturation
Maturation is physical growth and does not require learning, experience, or contact with others.
Cognitive development
Piaget’s theory indicates as a child grows, it changes how it thinks about the world. Paget’s stages of development are: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, formal operational.
Brain development
Brain development does not finalize until our 20’s.
The frontal lobes (responsible for controlling emotions) are of the last to fully develop; our ability to control out emotions improves with age
Describe how emotion can develop as the result of learning and of differentiation
Operant conditioning, classical conditioning and social learning are all different types of learning that are applied in learning the emotions, their expression and reactions.
From the Jean Piaget model we can see how emotions develop alongside with cognitive advances. In sensorimotor the emotions will be simplified and simply expressed with crying or running. But more developed cognitions of the concrete operational stage and its ability to use logic will imply the ability to reason and regulate emotions in a much more differentiated way. The older we get the more complicated forms of differentiation between different types of stimulus and responses we develop.
stimulus differentiation
emotions remain the same throughout lifespan, but the triggers will differ and become more complex as we age.
response differentiation
underlying emotion remains the same, but how we express it changes over time
Fischer, Shaver, and Carnochan’s theory
Fisher and colleagues proposed a theory of emotional development (EMD) that describes the stages of emotional development with associated behaviour and the ways emotions influence long-term development in return. The EMD outlines that there are 5-7 basic emotions that come from the appraisal, and they can be categorized by prototypic event scripts. The EMD theory proposes three levels of development: superordinate, basic and subordinate.
The first superordinate level distinguishes between good and bad, pleasant or unpleasant. We are born with this level of detection without any learning, maturation or frontal lobes development in the brain. The second is the basic level of knowledge with 5-7 basic emotions. This level develops in the first few years of childhood and does not require learning or frontal lobes development. At this level of emotional development, we can differentiate the pleasant into love and joy and the unpleasant into fear, sadness and anger. Finally, at around ten years of age, we develop into the subordinate level of emotions. We adopt learning, front lobes, and cultural influences at the subordinate level.
Superordinate
present at birth, instinctive, common to all humans, distinguishes between pleasant and unpleasant/positive and negative emotions, does not require frontal lobe. e.g., newborn babies will respond to the caregivers’ negative or positive attitude.
Basic
matures in the first few years, pleasant emotions become more defined (joy and love), unpleasant emotions also become more defined/differentiated (into fear, sadness and anger), does not require learning, universal experience, does not require frontal lobe development, involves six basic emotions recognized in many theories, pre-operational or concrete. (also cross-cultural)
subordinate
appears after 10 years, further differentiation (ie. love to infatuation or friendship to love) more depth, includes combos of emotions, unlimited capacity for new emotions, involves frontal lobe development, formal operational level of cognitive development, not universal, culturally dependent, learned and defined by scripts (narrative experience like telling stories to explain an emotion), new emotions can be created by scripting; creates unique emotions).
Explain why we might reasonably expect emotion to influence thinking, memory, and attention
- we analyze the information not by facts but by our heuristics and emotional schemas. Like an angry person will give more pessimistic judgements than a happy person. Therefore we experience perceptual effects depending on the emotion present (p.265) and different styles of reasoning with explicit lighter views of a happy person and tangible, implicit, challenging ways of a sad or negatively positioned person
- Attention span has its limits. And although the presence of strong emotions will grab our attention, it is highly influenced by how much attention is preoccupied with other tasks and a person’s anxiety level.
- We build, store and assign priorities to our memories according to the intensity and relevance of associated emotions. This action is primarily supervised by the hippocampus and amygdala.
- Our remembering is constructed by emotional schemas (heuristics) that will be attached to a few emotionally intense details. We remember our version of the story in an emotional picture. That is why we cannot replicate the story with exact words
how arousing words in a list of varied words will be remembered and explain why
Research has shown a better memory for arousing words than passive or neutral words. In fact, this might be what underlies our tendency to remember “sex” and “vomit” from the list of words in the general overview.
Especially strong memory for arousing and unpleasant words.
The reasons why unpleasant arousing words hold such a firm grip on our memories has been explored. One possible explanation is an evolutionary approach which depends on relevance. Unpleasant arousing things are seen as threatening. If one’s brain was “programmed” to ignore such information, one would not survive for long. It can be seen as an adaptation (it promotes survival) to devote one’s energies to remembering threatening information. It provides a better chance of avoiding a threat.
Describe the importance of emotional relevance to memory
Memories are, in fact, stored on the basis of relevance. The first time you see a hallway (bricks, tiles, doors, and all) it is relevant by way of novelty. Under some other situations (looking for your two-year-old who wandered down the hallway and got lost), the information is relevant for a different reason. If one of those doors represents a potential employer waiting to interview you, relevance again applies. The same is true if your best friend, whom you have not seen for three years, is waiting behind one door. Relevance could come from novelty, threat, or anticipated pleasure. Those who study memory suggest that in cases like this, the information is stored. In cases of people doing repeated acts – those for whom the hallway is of no particular importance - the long-term memory structure remains largely unaffected by one additional walk down the hall. An extreme position taken by some researchers is that no memory is stored without emotional relevance, and that relevance is somehow attached to all memories. By this view, memories would not exist without an accompanying emotional relevance.
Give examples of “implicit” memory where actual words are forgotten but their emotional meaning is retained
Implicit memory is a long-term memory that is unconscious or automatic, unintentional. It can be acquired by repetition, e.g., learning a task like riding a bike. Or by emotional memory formation where in the future it will become priming on its own by repeating a response to a similar stimulus like a particular perfume smell will bring about a memory of that critical love conversation. That conversation was about love and affection, and we decided to get married. But I cannot remember the exact words said.
Evaluate the worth of eyewitness testimony, and describe how such testimony can be manipulated or misdirected
Another line of false memory research focused on the memories of witnesses to crimes. If a witness was provided with additional information after the crime, they sometimes reported this as information of the crime. The most obvious example is showing a picture of a suspected criminal to a witness who then “saw” this criminal in his or her further reports of the crime. Since there is the possibility that showing a witness the picture of one and only one suspect might taint their testimony, many cases have been thrown out of court. Other examples involved information casually provided by a supposed police officer (for example, referring to a fictitious “second burglar”), which the witness then confounded with his or her own report of the crime. Courts in the past tended to respect eyewitness testimony, regarding it as practically infallible. Now we realize that memory is not infallible and that it can be influenced by many things that happen between an event and the recall of that event.
This does not mean the witnesses are lying, memory is imperfect. It is open to problems such as weapon focus and suggestion. people will take on new information thinking it is their own memory. Additionly, when a long time as passed memory fades and is not as reliable.
Describe the results of memory experiments that expose people to both emotional and non-emotional materials
- Research has shown a better memory for arousing words than passive or neutral words. In fact, this might be what underlies our tendency to remember “sex” and “vomit” from the list of words in the general overview.
- Research has shown an especially strong memory for arousing and unpleasant words. The tendency, when faced with a list of words to memorize, is to remember words that are both arousing and unpleasant.
- On occasion, arousal and unpleasantness can interfere with the establishment of new connections in memory. it was found that arousal and unpleasantness interfere with the formation of new connections and that people found it easier to learn pairs such as “table-GAX” than those like “vomit-ZIV”.
- The energy, or arousal value, of the clue (e.g., vomit) can be viewed as the interfering factor in the formation of new connections to nonsense syllables.
- There is research evidence that supports the claim that people remember the emotion of a situation correctly, even if they don’t get the exact words right. Three different experiments support this claim.
The first was “Mr. Smith” experiment, where volunteers were given descriptions of characters on a committee. For example, they might be told that Mr. Smith is impatient, unfriendly, and mean, while Mr. Jones is gentle, thoughtful, and kind. Afterwards, recalling people used wrong words that were emotionally right.
A second experiment, involving children’s memory for a story, confirmed this finding for children. It was interesting to note that as children aged, they remembered more words exactly. Younger children, however, were almost as emotionally correct as older ones. Although they could not remember exact words, they could accurately remember the emotion in the story.
How does mood influence the ways in which incoming information is processed.
Bad, anxious moods will facilitate the second system’s attention to intrinsic attributes (systematic thinking approach) that need more significant cognitive effort. An unhappy person will pay attention to the actual quality of the product and its intrinsic values. This is also called depressive realism when people more accurately estimate their successes.
Take a position on the argument about the importance of emotion to reasoning (Descartes thought emotion was second-rate and Dimasio argued that it was important)
Damásio refers to René Descartes’ separation of the mind from the body the mind/body dualism “Dualism” as an error because reasoning requires the guidance of emotions and feelings conveyed from the body.
‘Cogito ergo sum’ (I think therefore I am) sums up the philosophy of René Descartes on which Western ideas of consciousness and mind are often based, postulating a division between mind and body (or brain). Damásio says, “I am, therefore I think”. His thesis is that our reasoning powers and the dissuasive (or persuasive) bodily emotions are in fact a life-saving, life-enhancing double act, and that without a body as a yard stick to perceive the outside world and respond to thoughts and memory, a mind as we know it could not exist.
what is dualism defined by decartes?
Dualism is the belief that humans have a soul that presents itself as the will for one’s motivation and the body that presents instinctive behaviour.
It is the belief that humans are the only ones with souls and everything else (animals and objects alike) are mechanical in nature, (soulless).
What is monism
Monism is the ideation that only one supreme being exists, and duality is debunked
There are two types of monism
1. materialism
What is psychopathology?
Psychopathology is the scientific study of mental disorders, including efforts to understand their genetic, biological, psychological, and social causes; effective classification schemes (nosology); course across all stages of development; manifestations; and treatment.
Define the term “mental disorder”
A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behaviour that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or development processes underlying mental functioning.
Define the term “emotion regulation”
emotion regulation is the process of decreasing or increasing emotions. Some emotions are adaptive and some are maladaptive (harm us). People differ in their abilities to regulate their emotions, and some people may have serious difficulties in this regard. In extreme cases, failure to adequately regulate emotions (also referred to as emotion dysregulation), in particular when they are very intense, can contribute to the development and/or maintenance of emotional and other mental disorders.
Describe DSM diagnoses related to an excess of fear (anxiety)
Anxiety disorders include disorders that share features of excessive fear and anxiety and related behavioral disturbances. Fear is the emotional response to real or perceived imminent threat, whereas anxiety is anticipation of future threat.
Anxiety disorders differ from developmentally normative fear or anxiety by being excessive or persisting beyond developmentally appropriate periods. They differ from transient fear or anxiety, often stress-induced, by being persistent (e.g., typically lasting 6 months or more), although the criterion for duration is intended as a general guide with allowance for some degree of flexibility and is sometimes of shorter duration in children (as in separation anxiety disorder and selective mutism). Since individuals with anxiety disorders typically overestimate the danger in situations they fear or avoid, the primary determination of whether the fear or anxiety is excessive or out of proportion is made by the clinician, taking cultural contextual factors into account. Many of the anxiety disorders develop in childhood and tend to persist if not treated. Most occur more frequently in females than in males (approximately 2:1 ratio). Each anxiety disorder is diagnosed only when the symptoms are not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance/medication or to another medical condition or are not better explained by another mental disorder.
Describe DSM diagnoses related to an excess of sadness (depression)
Depressive disorders include disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, major depressive disorder (including major depressive episode), persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia), premenstrual dysphoric disorder, substance/medication-induced depressive disorder, depressive disorder due to another medical condition, other specified depressive disorder, and unspecified depressive disorder. Unlike in DSM-IV, this chapter “Depressive Disorders” has been separated from the previous chapter “Bipolar and Related Disorders.” The common feature of all of these disorders is the presence of sad, empty, or irritable mood, accompanied by somatic and cognitive changes that significantly affect the individual’s capacity to function. What differs among them are issues of duration, timing, or presumed etiology. (Sadness, the parent emotion of depression)
In Henry’s theory (1986), sadness is the opposite of elation.
In Plutchik’s theory (1994), sadness is the opposite of joy.
Describe DSM diagnoses related to an excess of anger
the emotion of anger often gives rise to the behaviours of aggression and violence and is associated with a variety of negative health consequences Although anger does not have its own category in DSM-5, as anxiety and depression do, it is a component of many mental disorders. For example, anger is closely associated with some of the disorders in the categories of Disruptive, Impulse-Control, Conduct Disorders, Personality Disorders, and Trauma and Stress-Related Disorders.
Anger is part of most major theories of emotion. In Plutchik’s theory (1994), it is the opposite of fear. In Henry’s theory (1986), anger, being a fight or flight emotion, is the opposite of serenity. In Whissell’s model of sex differences (1996), anger is a masculine emotion (more common in men than women). In dimensional theories, anger would be an unpleasant active emotion.
Age and gender differences in depression
There have been some interesting discussions in the literature of the differences between depression as suffered by men and by women. Plutchik’s theory (1994), and Whissell’s model of sex differences, might throw some light on a possible explanation of these differences. In Whissell’s model (1996), depression is a feminine emotion (more typical of women). Disgust, however, is a masculine one (more typical of men). Male depression may be viewed as a combination of sadness with disgust, which is a neighbouring emotion. This would make it a very withdrawn depression. Female depression may be viewed as a combination of sadness with fear, its neighbour on the other side of the scale. This would make it a more anxious depression.
Age and gender differences in anxiety
Anxiety problems are the most commonly reported psychological problems There are estimates that approximately one out of every three people will likely experience anxiety problems at some time in their life These problems will be more frequent for women than for men, for older than for younger adults, for middle as opposed to lower socioeconomic classes, and for Caucasians as opposed to other races.
Age and gender differences in anger
For the most part, anger-related problems are more typical of men than of women, and more typical of the young than of the old. There are also some cultures and subcultures where aggressive expression of anger is not only accepted but encouraged and rewarded.Conversely, there are some cultures that try to suppress it altogether.
Treatments for anxiety
- pharmacological treatment for anxiety disorders involves the use of antidepressants. E.g selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), fluvoxamine (Luvox), paroxetine (Paxil) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) such as venlafaxine.
- Psychotherapies of many different kinds have been applied to anxiety problems including behavioural therapy (e.g., exposure), cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, group therapy, psychoanalysis, gestalt therapy, and others.
Treatments for depression
- Pharmacotherapy: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. antidepressants must include mood stabilizers such as lithium and valproate for the manic phase Transcranial magnetic stimulation It uses magnetic coil to produce electrical stimulation of superficial brain neurons.
- Electroconvulsive (or electroshock) therapy is the most effective form of treatment for depression.
- Psychotherapy. CBT and interpersonal psychotherapy have been found to be most effective in treating depression.
Treatments for anger disorders
- Mood stabilizers, such as valproate, effective in reducing impulsivity in borderline personality disorder.
- Serotonergic and noradrenergic antidepressants effective in impulsive aggression, mood disorders, irritability and impulsive aggression in individuals with personality disorders
- Anger is often treated within a psychotherapeutic interaction, and anger management is taught in a behavioural-cognitive manner.
Define the problem of “reporting bias”
Diagnoses of mental disorder are made on the basis of reported symptoms rather than objective tests. For example, DSM-5 criteria for Major Depressive Disorder include nine symptoms, and to be diagnosed with this disorder an individual must exhibit five of the symptoms for two weeks.
Epidemiological information is subject to a reporting bias. EX. our statistics originate from reported problems with anxiety, and it is possible that men have as many anxiety problems as women but are reluctant to report them.
Explain how we differentiate between common everyday expressions of various emotions and pathological expressions
If fear is adaptive, why should it lie at the root of anxiety problems? The answer is found not in the emotion itself, but in its intensity, frequency, and validity (i.e., reasonableness). If we feel too afraid (high intensity fear), too often (a high frequency of fear), and/or if we fear things that are actually not a threat (we are fearful for no good reason; low validity of fear), the fear will interfere with the quality of our lives and it may disable us. We all experience negative emotions. It is when these emotions become too strong (intensity), too common (frequency) and too widespread (validity) that we may be experiencing a problem. The DSM-5 is sensitive to these criteria, and includes them in its consideration of diagnoses.
Who proposed the first modern psychological theory of emotion
William James
How many supports are identified in the amygdala according to LeDoux
30
Who is the pioneer in stress research
Hans Selye
Phono-emotional analysis
Phono-emotions analysis looked at emotion in terms of the sounds of words and how they are heard by the ear.
Positive moods are associated with which processing system
System 1 style of processing
What behaviour occurs in response to pain, threats, or destruction according to Pultchik?
Protection
What are Pultchiks 8 adaptions?
incorporation, rejection, destruction, protection,reproduction, reintegration, orientation, and exploration
What are heuristics?
Heuristics are guesses or instincts
Which processing system is voluntary and analytically based?
System 2 style of processing
How many basic emotions are in Pultchik’s theory of emotion
there are 8 basic emotions in his theory of emotion
when is the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activated?
the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex is activated when people categorize emotions states
Social planning is controlled by which brain?
prefrontal cortex
Who proposed the triune brain theory
Paul Maclean
suicide is related to which mental disorders?
suicide is related to depression and aggression
Who proposed the theory of attachment?
John Bowlby
what percentage of depressed people commit suicide?
60%
When is oppositional defiant disorder present in childhood?
In preschool years
The limbic system is a part of which nervous system?
The peripheral nervous system
Where does language conceptualize emotion
in the prefrontal cortex
Where does information enter?
enters the output regions or the amygdala where the responses are then elicited.
whats the function of sadness in pultchik’s theory
reintegration
What kind of depression is psychotherapy effective for?
psychotherapy is only effective for acute depression
What is the function of joy in pultchik’s theory
mating
What attributes to you focus on when in a good mood?
extrintic attributes
Who was the first to say that emotions were important functions and yet also be dysfunctional?
Rene Descartes
