Exam 3 Flashcards
To avoid adaptive problems, the mind must be equipped with
Superordinate programs that override some programs when others are activated
Superordinate programs that coordinate programs/modules into the right configuration
Emotions
To behave functionally according to evolutionary standards, the mind’s many subprograms need to be orchestrated so that their joint product at any given time is functionally coordinated, rather than cacophonous and self-defeating.
An emotion is:
A superordinate program whose function is to direct the activities and interactions of subprograms
Subprograms include:
Perception, attention, inference, learning, memory, goal choice, motivational priorities, categorization and conceptual framework, etc.
For this reason, an emotion is not reducible to any one category of effects
No sine qua non of emotions
Basic Emotions (Ekman, 1999)
Distinctive universal signals
Distinctive physiology
Automatic appraisal
Distinctive universals in antecedent events
Distinctive appearance developmentally
Presence in other primates
Quick onset
Brief duration
Unbidden occurrence
Distinctive thoughts, memories, images
Distinctive subjective experience
Emotions Are Not Merely Socially Constructed
Universality is good evidence that emotions are not socially constructed
Disgust face is
Recognized all around the world
Spontaneously made all around the world
(in response to appropriate stimuli*)
Primary function of emotion is to
mobilize the organism to deal quickly with important interpersonal encounters
Basic Emotions
Calling certain emotions “basic” obscures the fact that all emotions solve problems in the world
Emotions, like all biological constructs should be defined in terms of their function
What class of real-world problems was this emotion a solution for?
Joy
Facilitates strong social bonds
Serves as an antidote to stress
Sustains coping in taxing situations
Contributes to the well-being of the social surround
Sadness
Strengthens social bonds
Slows cognitive and motor systems
Promotes deeper reflection
Facilitates plans for better future performance
Generates empathy and altruistic behavior from others
Anger
Expression may prevent aggression in others
Expression may elicit an immediate apology from others
Expression communicates threat
Mobilizes and sustains energy at high levels
Disgust
Motivates to keep clean and sufficiently sanitary
Motive for environmental cleanliness and personal hygiene
Protects people from harmful substances
Protects people from the psychological consequences of violating norms
Fear
Motivates escape from dangerous situations
Motivates to alleviate fear-inducing stimuli
Threat can be physical or psychological
Focuses attention on the source of the threat (tunnel vision)
What is The function of happiness?
The function of happiness is to mobilize the mind to seek the keys to Darwinian fitness
We are happier when we are healthy, well fed, comfortable, safe, prosperous, knowledgeable, respected, non-celibate, and loved
In order to know what to strive for, we must know what we can attain.
How do we know what we can attain?
A good source of information is what other people have attained
Another good source of information is what you have now
If what you have now is attainable, chances are you can do at least a little bit better
People adapt to their circumstances, good or bad, the way their eyes adapt to sun or darkness
From this neutral point, improvement is happiness, loss is misery
Happiness is relative
Wealth is like health
Not having it makes you miserable, but having it does not guarantee happiness
… and relationships, too
The Happiness Treadmill
Happiness is brief and recalibrates
If we stayed happy for long after each increment of fitness, our happiness could not continue to grow with each fitness improvement
Happiness needs to be able to register increases and decreases so we can respond appropriately
Rational choice models
typically assume that people choose among possible actions so as to maximize the extent to which they achieve their goals-
These models appear to be incomplete
The Ultimatum Game
Two players (Proposer and Responder) bargain over some amount (say $10.00)
Proposer first makes an offer to the Responder
Offers x to the Responder
Leaving $10.00 – x for herself
Responder then has two choices:
Take the offer
The Responder gets x
Proposer gets $10.00 – x
Reject the offer
Both get nothing
The Prisoner’s Dilemma Game
Why would either party remain silent?
The dominant strategy is to confess rather than remain silent
Difficulty is that when each behaves in a self-interested way, both do worse than if each had shown restraint
Their problem is a lack of trust
both parties act selfishly, neither does as well as if they both acted cooperatively
In Ultimatum scenarios
If only a Responder could prove to a Proposer that she wouldn’t accept a low offer, both could avoid losing the entire pot
A credible commitment to reject a low offer would work
In Prisoner’s Dilemma scenarios
If both players could prove that they will act cooperatively, both could avoid the low payoff of mutual defection
A credible commitment to behave cooperatively no matter what would work
commitment device
something that provides the victim with an incentive to keep his promise
Moral Sentiments
Anger, contempt, disgust, envy, greed, shame, and guilt
These sentiments can and do compete with the feelings that spring from rational calculations about material payoffs
For exactly this reason, they can help people solve the commitment problem
Emotions as Incentives
Consider a person capable of strong feelings of guilt
This person will not cheat even when it is in their material interests to do so
Not because he/she fears being caught, but simply because he/she does not want to cheat
The aversion to feelings of guilt effectively alters the payoffs he/she faces
Irrationality
is an essential ingredient to the emotion of love
dating is a marketplace
People differ in their values as potential marriage partners
Most people agree that Mr. or Ms. Right should be good looking, smart, kind, stable, funny, and rich.
People shop for the most desirable person who will accept them
This is why most marriages pair a bride and a groom of approximately equal desirability
Committed by an emotion
An emotion that the person did not decide to have and so cannot decide not to have
An emotion that was not triggered by your objective mate-value and so will not be alienated by someone with a greater mate-value
Romantic Love
Irrationality is an essential ingredient to the emotion of love
The way to a person’s heart is to declare
That you are in love because you can’t help it
Romantic love as an incentive
Guilt would be most strongly summoned by disloyalty to a beloved person
Romantic Love- Suitors
Usually people don’t want a suitor who wants them too badly
Shows that the suitor is desperate, so they should wait for someone better
Shows that the suitor’s ardor is too easily triggered, hence too easily triggered by someone else
The contradiction of courtship comes from 2 parts of romantic love
Setting a minimal standard for candidates in the mate market
Capriciously committing body and soul to one of them
Honest Signals
costly, reliable, and hard-to-fake evidence of quality
The Full-Disclosure Principle
if some individuals stand to benefit by revealing a favorable value of some trait, others will be forced to disclose their less favorable values
The Face is a Dual-Processing System
Capable of both spontaneous and deliberate expressions
The Inhibition Hypothesis
Difficult to Deliberately Activate (Melina)
Difficult to Inhibit or Mask (Fauci)
Deliberate vs. Spontaneous Innervation of the Face
Separate UMN pathways
Deliberately induced movements
Cortical Motor Strip
Spontaneously induced movements
Extrapyramidal Motor System
Emotions as Incentives
Emotions compete with feelings stemming from calculations of rational self-interest
Threats
Someone who becomes enraged when dealt with unjustly will act out even when:
He cannot gain back what he has lost
The act of revenge will put him at risk
He will seek revenge because he wants to
Promises
A person capable of strong guilt feelings won’t cheat even when:
It is in her material interests to do so
She won’t cheat because she doesn’t want to
The Strategy of Conflict
Schelling (1960)
The trick to coming out ahead is “voluntary but irreversible sacrifice of freedom of choice”
Freedom, information, rationality are all handicaps
To defend yourself against threats, make it impossible for the threatener to make you an offer you can’t refuse
“Driver does not know combination to safe”
“Register does not hold larger than $20.00 bills”
A man who is worried that his daughter might be kidnapped can…
give away his fortune
leave town and remain incommunicado
lobby for a law that makes it a crime to pay ransom
break the hand he uses to sign checks
self-incapacitation
The Doomsday Machine Theory
States that emotions are guarantors of threats and promises
People consumed by pride, love, or rage have lost control.
They may act against their interests
These sacrifices of will and reason are effective tactics in the countless bargains, promises, and threats that make up our social relations
Threats and promises can only be effective if there is good reason that they will be carried out
If they are honestly signaled
A hypothesis on why we express emotions on our faces. Like the doomsday machine, emotions would not be effective unless other people know that you are experiencing them. They need to be honestly communicated.
Why We Express Emotion on Our Faces
Selection has handcuffed each emotion to a physiological control circuit
This activity is visible to observers
Flushing, blushing, blanching, sweating, trembling, quavering, croaking, crying, laughing, etc.
Why We Express Emotion on Our Faces & Honest Signals
people have an interest in showing everyone that an emotion is holding their body hostage and their angry words are no bluff
This is an explanation for why emotions are so intimately tied to the body.
Expressions of emotion serve as
effective guarantors of threats and promises because they are difficult to fake
PTSD
syndrome of emotional reactions to extremely stressful events
Intrusive symptoms
“Events so powerful that they threaten life or well being, severely tax or overwhelm coping capabilities, and challenge the assumptions that people make about the world and the way it works.”
human-engineered disasters
20% to 50% of individuals exposed to human-engineered disasters get PTSD
PTSD can be seen as a susceptibility to stress that overwhelms our normal defense against threats
The frequency of its occurrence reflects that mismatch between our evolved defenses and modern environment
Think of PTSD as a sunburn; we don’t have an adaptive response to man main disasters.
The Smoke Detector Principle
The cost of getting killed even once is enormously higher than the cost of responding to a hundred false alarms
Defenses vs. Defects
Distinction is crucial for someone who is sick
Correcting a defect is almost always a good thing
Stopping the clank in the car or doing something to turn the pneumonia patient’s skin warm pink is almost always beneficial
Eliminating a defense by blocking it can be catastrophic
Cut the wire to the light that indicates a low fuel supply and you are more likely to run out of gas
Block your cough excessively, and you may die of pneumonia
Fever As Defense Against Infection
Kluger showed that cold-blooded lizards benefit from fever
When infected, they seek out a place warm enough to raise their body temperature about two degrees Celsius
If they cannot move to a warm place, they are more likely to die
Body temperature is carefully regulated
When the lizard is infected, it just has a higher set point
Fever is an adaptation to combat infection
Chemoprophylaxis hypothesis
The human propensity to consume neurotoxic plants prevents or limits infection by helminths
Chemotherapy hypothesis
Chemotherapy hypothesis
Consumption of psychoactive substances should be
Up-regulated by infection serving to limit infection levels
Down-regulated if and when the infection is cleared
