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.