Exam 3 Flashcards
Emotion
a state of arousal involving facial and bodily changes, brain activation, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, and tendencies toward action, all shaped by cultural rules
3 components of emotion
body response
expressive reaction
subjective experience
thus, emotions are said to be multi-dimensional
Body response
increased blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, respiration, etc. Associated with emotions
Expression: anger “it makes my blood boil”
Expressive reaction
Includes various facial and other bodily expressions that we can show, acting out in response to an emotional experience
Both nature and nurture influence expressive reactions
Ekman’s research showing the universal/innate aspects of facial expressions (diversity-universality)
microexpressions
very brief facial expressions that last only a fraction of a second. They occur when a person either deliberately or unconsciously conceals a feeling.
empathy training for resident physicians
a randomized controlled trial of a neuroscience-informed curriculum
Conclusion-
a brief intervention grounded in the neurobiology of empathy significantly improved physician empathy as rated by patients, suggesting that the quality of care in medicine could be improved by integrating the neuroscience of empathy into medical education
experimental method
can be used to answer questions about human psychology
other indicators of emotion
body language, including posture
explicit acts
voice qualities
Not everyone reads these cues equally well
culture learning position
the facial expressions of emotion are learned within a given culture. Diversity-universality and nature-nurture enduring issues.
display rules
social and cultural rules that regulate when, how, and where a person may express (or must suppress) emotions
subjective experience
how we label the psychological experience
feelings of happiness, anger, fear, etc.
this is how we “feel” when we experience emotion
the typical view of what emotions are the feelings we have
Darwin’s view
- Adaptive and survival functions: helps meet challenges of the social world- compete for status, win mates, defend ourselves, social bonding (e.g., love and attachment)
- Communication function: informs others how we feel/are likely to behave. Emotions as a nonverbal language
Principle of antithesis
hostile frame of mind vs. humble and affectionate
Goleman’s emotional intelligence (EI and EQ)
importance of emotions in our everyday, social lives
EI
ability to identify your own and other people’s emotion accurately, express your emotions clearly, and regulate emotions in yourself
Emotional intelligence quesitions
- Self awareness: knowing what we are feeling and why we are feeling it
- Self management: handling your distressing emotions in an effective way
- Empathy: knowing what someone else is feeling
- Putting them together: emotional intelligence
Benefits of empathy training: all anti social behavior goes down, academic achievement goes up, pro social behavior goes up
Damasio’s view
Emotions are important in making good decisions. Really cannot, and should not, separate completely emotion and cognition/reason, that is, to think only with one’s head and not with one’s heart
Plutchik’s basic emotions
Classification system
Primary emotions: found in all cultures, survival value, distinct facial expressions
Secondary emotions: not necessarily found in all cultures)
Ex- love= joy and acceptance
Three dimensional system
families of emotions that are related, differing in intensity
diversity-universality enduring issue
Common sense view
emotion leads to behavior
stimulus (growling dog) -> emotion (subjective experience-fear) -> behavior (arousal/body response-run) ->fear-> run
James-Lange theory
Behavior leads to emotion
Stimulus (growling dog) -> arousal/behavior (run)-> emotion (fear; the reverse of the common sense view) run-> fear
Cannon-Bard theory
Both emotion and behavior occur simultaneously, one is not the cause of the other
Stimulus-> emotion (fear) AND
Stimulus->behavior/arousal (run)
Cognitive theory
cognitive evaluation is what is happening in the situation is needed before an emotion is experience
stimulus (growling dog)-> arousal/behavior-> cognitive appraisal/interpretation of stimulus-> emotion
In some cases, cognitive evaluation of the situation determines the particular emotion experienced
Other cases, emotion is quick, no cognitive appraisal
PNS
sympathetic nervous system and the fight-or-flight response, hormone released
CNS
limbic system/amygdala involved in emotion/ reading of faces
prefrontal cortex and its role in controlling emotions; also, role of the cortex in interpreting situations, which contributes to the particular emotion experienced
gender and emotion
in a study, when men and women saw depictions of people in distress, the men showed little emotion, but the women expressed feelings of concern. Physiological measures showed that men were just as affected as women were. The men inhibited the expression of their emotion
