Exam 2

Question 1

Which of the following best summarizes the main finding of Paul Ekman and colleagues’ study of facial expressions of emotion in New Guinea?
a. When asked to pose expressions such as anger, sadness, and fear, the New Guinea participants showed exactly the same expressions as people in the U.S. typically would.
b. When asked to pose expressions such as anger, sadness, and fear, the New Guinea participants showed completely different expressions than people in the U.S. typically would.
c. New Guinea participants appeared to connect facial expressions with emotional situations at random, suggesting they do not use the face to communicate emotions.
d. New Guinea participants chose the expected facial expression as the best match for culturally-appropriate emotion stories at rates much higher than change.

Answer 1

New Guinea participants chose the expected facial expression as the best match for culturally-appropriate emotion stories at rates much higher than change.

Question 2

Aviezer and colleagues’ study of tennis players’ spontaneous expressions after winning or losing a point in a match suggests that __________ reliably communicate(s) the distinction between positive and negative affect.
a. Facial expression
b. Posture
c. Tone of voice
d. Both facial expression and posture

Answer 2

b. Posture

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT included in the prototypical display of pride, as documented by Tracy and colleagues?
a. Raised head with lifted chin
b. Puffed-out chest
c. A large, open-mouthed smile
d. Fists in the air or placed on hips

Answer 3

c. A large, open-mouthed smile

Question 4

Which of the following statements about the vocal bursts used in Simon-Thomas and colleagues’ (2009) studies of emotional expression is/are TRUE?
a. Vocal bursts used in the study included words people automatically spoke in response to an emotional situation.
b. Participants in the first study were asked to produce vocal bursts for several specific emotions.
c. Some vocal bursts were recognized as expressions of the intended emotion at rates above 80%, whereas others were recognized at far lower rates.
d. Both B and C are true.

Answer 4

d. Both B and C are true.

Question 5

Which of the following statements about Ekman’s body of cross-cultural research on facial expressions of fear, anger, sadness, disgust, happiness, and surprise is FALSE?
a. Across countries, expressions were associated with the intended emotion by almost 100% of participants.
b. In both Western and non-Western countries, recognition rates were greater than chance for expressions of all six emotions.
c. Recognition rates were consistently higher in Western than in non-Western countries.
d. Happiness expressions were recognized at higher rates than any other expression.

Answer 5

a. Across countries, expressions were associated with the intended emotion by almost 100% of participants.

Question 6

Meta-analysis is:
a. a statistical technique combining results of many studies into a single analysis.
b. analysis of a data from a single, extremely large study.
c. comparison of conclusions reached by analyzing the same data in several different ways.
d. a literature review conceptually summarizing the results of many individual studies.

Answer 6

a. statistical technique combining results of many studies into a single analysis.

Question 7

In cross-cultural research by Jessica Tracy and colleagues, people who display a lifted head and expanded posture are consistently interpreted as:
a. feeling proud.
b. being dominant.
c. having high social status.
d. All of the above are true.

Answer 7

d. All of the above are true.

Question 8

Hilary Elfenbein and colleagues (2007) studied facial expressions of several emotions, as posed by participants in Quebec, Canada, and Gabon, Africa. Which of the following most accurately describes their findings?
a. The muscles moved by participants in the two groups were the same, but the movements by African participants were more intense than the movements by Canadian participants.
b. Poses by each group included muscle movements associated with Ekman’s prototype expressions of the emotions, but each group emphasized somewhat different specific movements.
c. Muscles moved in poses by the two groups were completely different, although individuals within each culture could recognize the expressions accurately.
d. Results of this study are meaningless, because participants in the two groups spoke different languages.

Answer 8

b. Poses by each group included muscle movements associated with Ekman’s prototype expressions of the emotions, but each group emphasized somewhat different specific movements.

Question 9

Research consistently finds that, across cultures, men display _____ more openly than do women, despite feeling this emotion with similar frequency.
a. disgust
b. happiness
c. anger
d. shame

Answer 9

c. anger

Question 10

A research study asked participants to rate the emotions of photographs of Olympians following an important match. Some of the time, participants were told the truth about whether the Olympian had won or lost; some of the time, they were told the opposite of the true outcome. In this study, participants accurately rated the emotional expressions of the athletes, regardless of what they were told about wins and losses.
a. True – facial expressions dominated judgments
b. False – context about winning or losing dominated judgements

Answer 10

b. False – context about winning or losing dominated judgements

Question 11

Which of the following best summarizes the facial feedback hypothesis?
a. Producing the facial/postural expression of some emotion can cause you to feel that emotion.
b. Displaying the facial expression of some emotion leads other people to give you feedback on your feelings.
c. Once a facial expression begins, it tends to continue in a positive feedback loop.
d. Displaying the facial expression of some emotion leads other people to treat you in a way that facilitates continued experience of that emotion.

Answer 11

a. Producing the facial/postural expression of some emotion can cause you to feel that emotion.

Question 12

Which of the following effects of “power posing,” reported in the original study by Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010), has consistently been replicated in subsequent research?
a. Making riskier decisions in a gambling task
b. Increased testosterone and decreased cortisol
c. Feeling more powerful
d. All of the effects above have replicated consistently in subsequent research.

Answer 12

c. Feeling more powerful

Question 13

James is a graduate student in an emotion neuroscience program. He decides to investigate an electrical component of brain activity in response to emotional and neutral facial expressions by attaching sensors to the scalp and then averaging the signals across many different trials. James is using which technique
a. Functional magnetic resonance imaging
b. Experience sampling
c. Event-related potentials
d. Lesion studies

Answer 13

c. Event-related potentials

Question 14

fMRI uses _____ to image _____ in the brain.
a. Sensors on the scalp; brain waves
b. Injected radioactive substance; blood flow
c. X-rays; tissue density
d. Magnets and radio waves; blood flow

Answer 14

d. Magnets and radio waves; blood flow

Question 15

Inferring a certain internal experience (e.g., “this person is afraid”) based solely on changes in blood flow in the brain (e.g., greater blood flow in the amygdala) is a logical error known as:
a. Fundamental attribution error
b. Reverse inference
c. Confirmation bias
d. False consensus effect

Answer 15

b. Reverse inference

Question 16

A mammalian biological system motivating approach toward evolutionary opportunities like food, potential sex partners, and social partners is known as:
a. Behavioral inhibition system
b. Drive reduction theory
c. Behavioral activation system
d. Homeostasis

Answer 16

c. Behavioral activation system

Question 17

A researcher interested in how the brain responds to threatening situations is most likely to measure brain activation patterns in which region of the brain?
a. Amygdala
b. Hippocampus
c. Prefrontal cortex
d. Ventral caudate

Answer 17

c. Prefrontal cortex

Question 18

The research study on dogs by Cook et al. revealed that activation in the dogs’ ______ to cues of either praise or food predicted their real-life choices of praise versus food.
a. Amygdala
b. Hippocampus
c. Prefrontal cortex
d. Ventral caudate

Answer 18

c. Prefrontal cortex

Question 19

This brain region appears to be critically involved in the regulation of physiological states and homeostasis.
a. Amygdala
b. Hypothalamus
c. Amygdala
d. Nucleus accumbens

Answer 19

b. Hypothalamus

Question 20

The _____ is a brain region critically involved in the mapping of the interior of the body and the response of organs to emotional perception, which is known as ______.

Answer 20

Insula, Interoception

Question 21

In the history of psychology, Phineas Gage is generally known as:
a. A well-known researcher who studied the human brain
b. A physician who studied individuals with severe brain damage
c. An influential emotion researcher
d. A railroad worker who suffered frontal lobe damage

Answer 21

d. A railroad worker who suffered frontal lobe damage

Question 22

A condition in which parts of the frontal and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex gradually degenerate is known as ________.

Answer 22

frontotemporal lobar dementia (or frontotemporal degeneration)

Question 23

Match the neurotransmitter with its associated functions.

Answer 23

a. Dopamine = Pleasure, reward, learning
b. β-endorphin = Natural painkiller, also involved in pleasures like the runner’s high
c. Oxytocin = Trust, bonding, maternal care

Question 24

The fMRI study by Zhou and colleagues that revealed a “brain signature” for the experience of fear was most consistent with which theory of emotion?
a. Basic/discrete emotion theory
b. The component process model
c. Psychological construction theory
d. Core affect theory

Answer 24

a. Basic/discrete emotion theory

Question 25

In the middle of a horror movie, a grotesque creature suddenly appears in a mirror and rushed toward the main character. Involuntarily, Maria’s heart races, breathing speeds up, and her endocrine system releases adrenaline. These effects are the most closely the result of the activation of her _________ nervous system:
a. Sympathetic
b. Parasympathetic
c. Somatic
d. Central

Answer 25

a. Sympathetic

Question 26

People with _____ resting parasympathetic activation tend to be better than average at regulating their emotions.

Answer 26

Higher / high / increased

Question 27

Emotion researchers have extensively studied the hormone _______ because of its critical role in the stress response.
a. Oxytocin
b. Estrogen
c. Progesterone
d. Cortisol

Answer 27

d. Cortisol

Question 28

There is some research evidence that testosterone can have _______ effect on mood for men with minor symptoms of depression.
a. A beneficial
b. An adverse
c. Little to no

Answer 28

a. A beneficial

Question 29

Dr. Birk is assessing whether his participants have adequately responded to his anxiety mood induction. He attaches sensors to the undersides of his participants’ index and middle fingers to assess the degree to which their hands are sweating, which is thought to reflect the degree to which their autonomic nervous system is activated. Dr. Birk is measuring
a. Electrodermal response
b. Electromyography
c. Neurocognition
d. Echocardiography

Answer 29

a. Electrodermal response

Question 30

A common method of measuring parasympathetic activation that taps into both heart rate and breath is called _______.

Answer 30

respiratory sinus arrhythmia

Question 31

Which of the following statements is most consistent with the evidence from emotional experience in pure autonomic failure and locked in syndrome? Patients with these disorders:
a. Lack feelings of emotion
b. Lack expressions of emotions
c. Have no diminishment of emotional experience
d. Feel emotions, but may do so less intensely

Answer 31

a. Lack feelings of emotion

Question 32

A feeling of warmth or glow when one thinks about situations characterized by unusual closeness or kindness that one research study showed had a distinct physiological profile is called
a. Awe
b. Kama muta
c. Nostalgia
d. Schadenfreude

Answer 32

b. Kama muta

Question 33

The finding that positive emotions can help people recover physiologically from an intense negative emotion is known as the _____ effect.

Answer 33

undoing

Question 34

The beginning of the scientific study of stress is most associated with research Hans Selye, who proposed which theory of how human beings experience stress:

Answer 34

General adaptation syndrome

Question 35

Like the sympathetic nervous system, the _______ readies the body for physical action and emotional challenge, but its effects are slower and lasts longer.
a. Prefrontal-limbic system
b. Suprachiasmatic nucleus
c. Hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis
d. Gut-brain axis

Answer 35

Hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis

Question 36

All of the following have been critiques levied at stress measurement research EXCEPT
a. Minor and major stresses are often given equal weight in stress scales
b. People vary tremendously in whether they find a certain event stressful or not
c. Stress scales do not often measure how much support a person has
d. It is not important to measure stress

Answer 36

d. It is not important to measure stress

Question 37

1. (a) Describe the methods used in Ekman’s study of facial expression recognition in New Guinea; (b) summarize results of the study; and (c) indicate one strength and one limitation of the study.

Answer 37

a. Paul Ekman sought to study residents of Isolated New guinea villages with little or no exposure to westerners.
b. Pictures with expressions were shown in regard to the facial action coding system.
c. Instead of having work labels, stories were told about the photos. Which picture would go with the best story. Someone steals from you; a dead pig remains in the road for a long time.
d. Shown high rates of agreement for happiness.
e. People in the study were the actors of the studies and their facial expressions were studied.
f. Questions like whether your friend would show up or a child were to die were asked.
g. Six basic facial expressions were identified. Happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, surprised, fear.
h. Some aspects of nonverbal communication are universal. Most people that feel these emotions do not show a prototypical facial expression.

Question 38

2. Summarize the results of Aviezer and colleagues’ (2012) study that used photos of tennis players after a winning or losing a point in a tennis match; and explain what the results suggest about the role of posture in communicating emotional experience.

Answer 38

a. Tennis players show facial expressions during scoring or losing a point.
b. Participants chose to identify whether the player loss or gained a point.
c. With body and face, win or loss is identified better. With just body, people can just as much identify who lost or gained a point. With just face, both winning and losing a point is negative.
d. Posture seems to show more expression but can change in valence with an opposing face versus a congruent one.

Question 39

3. The human posture commonly adopted to express pride is similar to a posture often observed in nonhuman primates. Describe when this pose is shown by nonhuman primates and explain the connection.

Answer 39

a. The expression of pride is shown as a slightly raised head, puffed out chest, arms akimbo or raised in the air and feet planted firmly in a wide-legged stance with a small smile.
b. This pose is shown by nonhuman primates to express physical threat by changing posture to appear large.
c. Primates stand on their hind legs and lift their arms.
d. Humans may have inherited this postural expression as a means of displaying high social status.

Question 40

4. List two well-established gender differences in facial expressions of emotion, according to your textbook, and summarize the theorized explanation of these differences.

Answer 40

a. World wide, women report more often crying than men. Men report expressing anger openly more often.
b. In a business context, this can change in respect to power
c. Women smiled more than men regardless of status in a mock job interview.
d. Between interviewer and applicant, or egalitarian about work and career goals.
e. More people smiled and felt good in the interviewer position and less in the egalitarian position, but much lower in the interviewee position.

Question 41

5. (i) Summarize the facial feedback hypothesis; and (ii) describe the methods and results of one study that has been used to test this hypothesis.

Answer 41

a. Coming from the Jame-Lange theory, an emotional eliciting stimulus like seeing a bear creates a body response such as increased heart rate and produce an emotion, feeling fear.
b. Can expressions influence feeling? Posed facial, postural expressions of emotion can help generate emotional feelings.
c. Strack, martin, and strepper study Making an unintended facial expression alter emotional expression.
d. Hold a pen either with your teeth or lips and rate funniness of cartoons
e. Those with pen in teeth “smiling” rated cartoons as funnier.

Question 42

1. According to your textbook, what is the difference between the behavioral activation system and the behavioral inhibition system?

Answer 42

a. Jeffrey gray systems of motivation include the behavioral activation system and the behavioral inhibition system.
b. The Behavioral activation system neural system that motivates approach opportunities. Going up to a friend that you find attractive. Involves the left hemisphere
c. The Behavioral inhibition system is the neural system that motivates threat detection and avoidance. Anything that causes us harm or can get us sick. Involves the right hemisphere
d. Watching certain things can activate and stimulate either side.

Question 43

2. Describe how memory for emotionally evocative stimuli typically differs from memory for emotionally neutral stimuli, and explain how the performance of a typical person with amygdala damage would differ from that of someone without brain damage.

Answer 43

a. Amygdala receives input from hearing, vision, pain, and other senses. Sends output to many regions of brainstem as well as cortex.
b. Kluver Bucy syndrome - normal caution in approaching strangers, diminished learning to avoid shock, pain
c. Urbach-Wiethe disease – humans caused by calcium damage to amygdalae. Develop fearless behavior though panic can be induced by suffocation.
d. Rats with amygdala lesions showed weaker fear condition response
e. Normal control subjects can be conditioned to respond to a stimulus.
f. Damaged to amygdala impairs conditioned fear response
g. The patient with damage lacks implicit memory to fear the blue square.
h. Individuals with amygdala damage do not show emotional facilitation.

Question 44

3. Summarize the function of the hypothalamus, and this structure’s role in emotion.

Answer 44

a. Is a small structure located just above the brain stem and below the larger thalamus.
b. Critical for many life-or-death processes, regulating many motivational drives as well as generating aspects of our fight-flight and rest-digest responses.
c. Regulates temperature, blood chemistry, hydration, and other processes.
d. Can prepare the body for upcoming changes in the environment.
e. Has receptors for leptin and ghrelin that activates physiological aspects of hunger and satiety.
f. Plays an important role in sexuality by triggering the release of sex hormones into the bloodstream from the pituitary gland.

Question 45

4. Define interoception and provide an example of a time that you experienced interoception.

Answer 45

a. Interoception is perception of the body itself, especially organs such as the heart, digestive system, bladder, muscles, and the skin caused by an activation of the insula.
b. One time I used interoception was during my Medical Assistant class. We would test our heartrates at a rest and then excited condition.

Question 46

5. List three functions of oxytocin, as described in your textbook.

Answer 46

a. Causes contractions during labor and delivery of children.
b. Facilitates nursing.
c. Promote pair-bonding between mates and between parents and offspring

Question 47

1. Summarize the function and structure of the autonomic nervous system.

Answer 47

a. the set of neurons communicating between the CNS and visceral organs, including heart lung, arteries, stomach, intestines, genitals, and sweat glands in skin.
b. Important role in maintaining homeostasis.
c. Two branches: sympathetic and parasympathetic system.

Question 48

2. Describe one aspect of emotional experience in which both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activation are involved

Answer 48

a. In Nausea, the SNS produces retching while PNS stimulates intestines.

Question 49

3. Describe the daily rhythm of cortisol levels seen in healthy individuals, summarize the function served by the peak of cortisol release in this rhythm, and describe one research finding linking disruption of this rhythm to emotional wellbeing.

Answer 49

a. Cortisol activates and peaks in the morning.
b. This hormone is responsible for providing one the energy to go through the day.
c. Out of balance cortisol responses have been linked with depression and trauma on the low end, and depression and negative daily emotions on the high end.
d. Since cortisol peaks in the morning, Schlotz’s research finding would suggest that interrupting cortisol levels in can help with not feeling overworked during weekdays.

Question 50

4. Define locked-In syndrome, and explain what studying patients with this condition can tell us about the relationship between physiology and emotion.

Answer 50

a. A condition in which people lose almost all output from the brain to the muscles and the autonomic nervous system although they continue to feel sensations like touch or pressure.
b. Studying patients with this condition can tell us that physiology responses are connected and repeat with certain emotions.
c. These patterns are called the autonomic specificity hypotheses.

Question 51

5. Differentiate the alarm, resistance, and exhaustion stages of Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, a.k.a the stress response.

Answer 51

a. The alarm stage is a brief period of high arousal, readying the body for vigorous activity. Mediated by sympathetic nervous system, hormones adrenaline, cortisol.
b. The resistance stage is a period of prolonged but moderate arousal in response to some stressor. Mediated primarily by endocrine system.
c. The exhaustion stage of reaction to a prolonged stressor, characterized by weakness, fatigue, loss of appetite, and lack of interest.

Question 52

6. Describe one aspect of the physiological stress response that is adaptive when facing a short-term physical threat, but harmful to health when it goes on for too long under chronic stress.

Answer 52

a. Increase heart rate and blood pressure as a response to stress is adaptive in helping prepare for fight or flight situations.
b. However, if the body is always in that type of response, it can lead to hypertension or atherosclerosis.