Exam 3

Question 1

1. What are the four components of emotion?

Answer 1

1. Feelings
2. Bodily Arousal
3. Sense of Purpose
4. Social-Expressive

Question 2

2. What is the function of each of those four components of emotion?

Answer 2

1. Feelings:
   Gives emotion its subjective experience that has both meaning and personal significance.
   Subjective Experience
   Phenomenological Awareness
   Cognition (rooted in cognitive processes)

2. Bodily Arousal
Prepares the body for adaptive coping behavior.
Physiological Arousal
Bodily preparation for Action
Motor Responses

3. Sense of Purpose:
   Gives emotion a goal-directed sense of motivation to take a specific course of action (to cope with the circumstances at hand).
   Goal-directed motivational state
   Functional aspect

4. Social-Expressive:
Emotion’s communicative aspect. 
Social communication
Facial expression
Vocal Expression

Question 3

How many emotions are there?

Answer 3

Izard says we have 10 fundamental emotions: interest, joy, surprise, fear, anger, disgust, distress, contempt, shame, guilt.

Question 4

How do the cognitive and biological paradigms differ in their view of emotions?

Answer 4

Biological Perspective:
Biology lies at the causal core of emotion

According to the biological perspective, emotions arise from bodily influences such as neural pathways in the brain’s limbic system.

Emotions occur without a prior cognitive event, but they cannot occur without a prior biological event. Biology, not cognition, is therefore primary.

Biological Aspects of Emotion: Autonomic Nervous System, Endocrine system, Neural brain circuits, Rate of neural firing, Facial Feedback

Cognitive:
Cognitive activity is a necessary prerequisite to emotion

Appraisal of meaning causes emotions

Question 5

How many basic emotions are there and what are they?

Answer 5

There are 6 basic emotions: Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Joy, and Interest

Question 6

What causes each of the basic emotions? What causes fear, joy etc.?

Answer 6

Fear: Reaction to a threat. Fear is an emotional reaction that arises from a person’s interpretation that the situation he or she faces is a threat to one’s well being. The perception that one can do little to cope with a threat is also an important source of fear.

Anger: Anger is ubiquitous. It has numerous origins. A belief that the situation is not as it should be due to unwarranted interference. An obstacle.

Disgust: Getting rid of or away from a contaminated, spoiled, or deteriorated object. Reaction to a gruesome object. Nature of that object is determined by development and culture.

Sadness: Arises primarily from experiences of separation or failure.

Joy: The emotional evidence that things are going well (e.g. success, achievement, progress, respect, love)

Interest: Some level of interest is ever present.

Question 7

What is the most common emotion in day to day living? What do we experience most?

Answer 7

Interest

Question 8

What emotion helps to hold society together?

Answer 8

sadness

Question 9

How does positive affect effect your behavior? what does positive affect do to your behavior?

Answer 9

When people feel good, they are more sociable, cooperative, creative, persistent during failure, efficient in their decision making, and intrinsically motivated during interesting tasks.

Question 10

How would you describe the James-lange theory? The Cannon-bard theory?

Answer 10

James-Lange Theory of Emotion:
Stimulus —-> Bodily Reaction —-> Emotion

James argued that bodily experience preceded emotion (instead of being the result of emotions.

Emotions arise from, and depend on, bodily reactions

Cannon-Bard theory states that we feel emotions and experience physiological reactions such as sweating, trembling and muscle tension simultaneously.

Question 11

What is the differential emotions theory?

Answer 11

Each emotion operates as a system that coordinates feeling (2), expression (3), neural activity (4), and purpose/motivation (5) components.

Theory argues that 10 discrete emotions act as motivation systems that prepare the individual for acting in adaptive ways.

Each emotion exists to provide the individual with an organized heuristic for dealing effectively with life tasks and problems.

Question 12

According to the strong facial feedback hypothesis what is the function of facial feedback?

Answer 12

Emotion Activation.

It activates specific emotions (ex. smiling activates joy)

In its strong version, the FFH proposes that manipulating one’s facial musculature into a pattern that corresponds to an emotion display will activate that emotional experience

Question 13

What emotions are related to an increase in cortical activity? decrease and no change in cortical activity?

Answer 13

Activity increase: Surprise, Fear, Interest

Activity remains constant: Anger, Distress

Activity decreases: Joy

Question 14

How would you describe appraisal theory (Arnold) of emotion? and how does that differ from the james-lange theory?

Answer 14

According to Arnold, an initial appraisal begins the emotional sequence by arousing both the appropriate physiological reactions and the emotional experience itself.

Change the appraisal and you change the emotion

Change the emotion and you change the action

Cognitive (Arnold) versus Biological (James-Lange)

Situation>Appraisal>Emotion>Action

Question 15

What is the diff between primary and secondary appraisal?

Answer 15

Primary appraisal includes about how one thinks about the situation, and secondary appraisal has to do with how one copes with it.

Primary appraisal- ask whether one’s physical or psychological well being, goals and financial status, pr interpersonal relationships are at stake during particular encounter.

Secondary appraisal- involves the person’s assessment for coping with the possible benefit, harm, or threat.

Question 16

Which appraisal (primary or secondary) involves reflection?

Answer 16

Secondary appraisal- because it occurs after some reflection

Question 17

Which type of appraisal (primary or secondary) leads to coping response?

Answer 17

Secondary appraisal- assessment if a person can cope successfully with the event.

Question 18

What’s emotional contagion?

Answer 18

The tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally. (people tend to “catch” other people’s emotions)

Question 19

What appraisals go into forming specific emotions- which appraisals give rise to specific emotions? (three specific emotions- and specific appraisals involved)?

Answer 19

Anger:
1) A valued Goal is at stake (Personal Relevance) -> 2) The goal was lost (Unpleasantness)-> 3) Someone blocked goal attainment (Irresponsibility) -> 4) The loss was undeserved (Illegitimacy)

Sentimentality:
Personal Relevance -> High Coping Potential -> Expectancy -> Pleasantness -> Compatibility with Standards

Longing:
Personal Relevance -> Low Coping Potential -> Expectancy -> Pleasantness -> Compatibility with Standards

Question 20

Who’s happier introverts or extroverts?

Answer 20

Extroverts are usually happier. Extroverts are more sensitive to the rewards inherent in most social situations (compared to introverts), therefore they are more susceptible to positive emotions.

Question 21

Are we usually happy or unhappy?

Answer 21

Most people are mildly happy most of the time. This is because they find their work engaging, are making some progress in the life goals that are important to them, are healthy, and are included in loving social relationships.

Question 22

Does money lead to happiness?

Answer 22

People who do pursue psychological happiness tend to have more anxiety, depression, narcissism than people who pursue self-actualization goals.

Question 23

Is bas stronger in introverts or extroverts?

Answer 23

Extroverts have a stronger and more sensitive behavioral activating system.

They are more eager to approach potentially rewarding situations.

They have greater sociability, social dominance or assertiveness, adventurous than introverts (these are energized by the BAS).

Question 24

What are the two diff types of happiness?

Answer 24

Hedonic- the totality of one’s pleasurable moments

Eudaimonic- self realization, engaging in meaningful pursuits and doing what is worth doing. Refers to the true self, comes from doing things that are important to you, that are part of you and you consider them worthwhile (this is expressed by introverts).

We usually experience hedonic happiness.

Question 25

Do introverts and extroverts experience the two types of happiness the same way? How do they experience them?

Answer 25

Usually extroverts tend to experience hedonic happiness, whereas introverts experience eudaimonic happiness

Question 26

What is arousal?

Answer 26

Arousal refers to a dimension of activation versus deactivation. A person’s arousal level is mostly a function of how stimulating the environment is. People engage in behavior increase or decrease their arousal.

Largely the function of our environment. We develop ways to mitigate our levels of arousal. We can increase it or decrease it given the situation. The reticular formation is the part of the brain that controls arousal

Question 27

What are the effects of sensory deprivation?

Answer 27

Inability to think clearly, experiencing blank spots (running out of things to think of), having dreams and visions and auditory hallucinations while awake. Performance on simple math problems depreciates quickly. People become increasingly irritable.

The mind begins to hallucinate, the mind begins to stimulate itself.

Question 28

How much arousal do we need to feel pleasure?

Answer 28

A moderate level of arousal coincides with the experience of pleasure (remember the inverted U curve)

Question 29

What is affect intensity?

Answer 29

Affect intensity concerns people’s capacity to become aroused emotionally. It is defined in terms of the strength with which individuals typically experience their emotions

Affect-intense individuals experience their emotions strongly and show emotional reactivity and variability across many different emotion-eliciting situations.

Affect-stable individuals experience their emotions only mildly and show only minor fluctuations in their emotional reactions from moment to moment or from day to day.

Question 30

What is sensation seeking?

Answer 30

Sensation seeking is the personality characteristic related to arousal and reactivity.

A high sensation seeker prefers a continual external supply of brain stimulation, becomes bored with routine, and is continually in search of ways to increase arousal through exciting experiences.

A low sensation seeker prefers less brain stimulation and tolerates routine relatively well.

Question 31

What are the biological correlates to sensation seeking?

Answer 31

The most reliable finding is that sensation seekers have low levels of monoamine oxidase (MAO)

MAO is a limbic system enzyme involved in breaking down brain neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin.

Sensation seekers tend to have relatively high levels of dopamine; hence, their biochemistry favors approach over inhibition. They also tend to have relatively low levels of serotonin; hence, their biochemistry fails to inhibit them from risks and new experiences.

Question 32

How would you describe the diff between affect intense and affect stable individual?

Answer 32

Affect-intense individuals experience their emotions strongly and show emotional reactivity and variability across many different emotion-eliciting situations.

Affect-stable individuals experience their emotions only mildly and show only minor fluctuations in their emotional reactions from moment to moment or from day to day.

Question 33

How do perceived control beliefs relate to engagement?

Answer 33

Perceived control beliefs predict how much effort a person is willing to exert

Perceived control beliefs influence the individual’s engagement, emotion, coping, and challenge-seeking

High perceived control show relatively high effort, concentrate and pay attention, persist in the face of failure, maintain interest and curiosity in the task, and maintain optimism for future positive outcomes.

Low show relatively low effort, doubt their capacities, tend to give up in the face of challenge or failure, become discouraged quickly, are prone to passivity, anxiety, and even anger, and appear to simply go through the motions of participating

Question 34

What does psychoanalysis study?

Answer 34

Psychoanalysis is deterministic in that it holds that the ultimate cause of motivation and behavior derives from biologically endowed and socially acquired impulses that determine our desires, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, whether we like it or not.

Psychoanalysis is further deterministic in that personality changes little after puberty. Thus, many of the motivational impulses of an adult can be traced to events that took place in childhood. Motivation comes across as something that happens to us, rather than as something one chooses or creates.

Psychoanalysis is also relatively pessimistic in tone, as it places the spotlight on sexual and aggressive urges, conflict, anxiety, repression, defense mechanisms, anxiety, and a host of emotional burdens, vulnerabilities, and shortcomings of human nature.

Question 35

What is psychodynamics?

Answer 35

Refers to the study of dynamic unconscious mental processes. In other words, one can study unconscious mental processes (e.g., prejudice, depression, thought suppression, defense mechanisms) inside or outside the Freudian tradition.

Question 36

What are the diff types of unconscious and what do they do?

Answer 36

Freudian Unconscious
A mental storehouse of inaccessible instinctual impulses, repressed experience, childhood (pre-language) memories and strong but unfulfilled wants and desires

Adaptive Unconscious
Automatically appraises the environment
Sets goals, makes judgements, and initiates action

Implicit motivation
Automatically attend to emotionally linked environmental events

Question 37

According to Freud what is the most important motivational component of our personality?

Answer 37

Ego?

Question 38

What is ego development? what are the different stages of ego maturation?

Answer 38

A developmental progression toward what is possible in terms of psychological growth, maturity, adjustment, prosocial interdependence, competence, and autonomous functioning
Defends against anxiety and develops to make the person interact with his environment better

• Symbiotic
(infantile) symbiotic stage, the ego is extremely immature and constantly overwhelmed by impulses.

• Impulsive		 	 	 		
External forces (parental constraints, rules), and not the ego per se, curb the child’s impulses and desires.

• Self-protective
Emerges when the child first anticipates consequences and understands that rules exist. The ego then internalizes these consequences and rules in guiding its self-protective defensive capabilities

• Conformist
The ego internalizes group-accepted rules, and the anxiety of group disapproval becomes a potent counterforce against one’s impulses.

• Conscientious
An internalized set of rules, and a prosocial sense of responsibility to others

• Autonomous
One in which thoughts, plans, goals, and behaviors originate from within the ego and its resources, rather than from id impulses or from other people’s (including society’s) demands and pressures

Question 39

What is the difference between repression and suppression? Which one is more effective?

Answer 39

Repression is the process of forgetting information or an experience by ways that are unconscious, unintentional, and automatic. It is the ego’s psychodynamic counterforce to the id’s demanding and distressing wishes, desires, ideas, or memories.

When unconscious impulses try to surface, anxiety emerges as a danger signal. It is this anxiety that moves the unconscious mind to repression

Suppression is the process of removing a thought by ways that are conscious, intentional, and deliberate (white bears)
Repression is more effective

Question 40

What part of the brain may correlate with the iD and what part with the ego?

Answer 40

ID: The Limbic system

• Hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala, medial forebrain bundle, nucleus accumbens…
• Pleasure-unpleasure brain centers.

Ego: The Neocortex
•Learning, memory, decision-making, intellectual problem-solving
•Executive control center that perceived the world and learns to adapt to it.

Question 41

What is object relations theory? What is being studied in this theory?

Answer 41

Central to the object relations theory are the infant’s need for attachment to the caregiver and the adult’s subsequent interpersonal connectedness to the important people in his or her life.

Studies how people satisfy their need for relatedness through their mental representations of and actual attachments to social and sexual objects (i.e., other people).

Object relations theory studies how people relate to objects (others) to satisfy that emotional and psychological need for relatedness.

Question 42

What is humanistic psychology about? Describe it in one sentence, what does it study?

Answer 42

Humanistic psychology stresses the notions of inherent potentialities, holism and striving toward personal fulfillment - In practice, humanistic psychology is about identifying and developing human potential.

Humanistic psychology emphasizes holism and self-actualization.

I.e. Humanistic approach: helping someone doesn’t mean giving them the answer, it means giving them the tools to figure it out for themselves

I.e. Education is not something the teacher gives you but rather the teacher gives you the tools to become a lifelong learner in your own right

I.e. Curiosity enhances and actualizes the person via greater learning and the development of new interests

Question 43

What other approaches is humanistic psychology related to?

Answer 43

Holism - discovering the human potential; it is based on striving towards growth and achieving self-realization

Self-actualization - inherent developmental striving of human potential - the full realization and use of one’s talents, capacities, and potentialities

Question 44

What is the relationship between ego maturity and stressful life circumstances?

Answer 44

Ego - primary purpose: develops in order to defend against anxiety - also allows us to interact more effectively and proactively with the environment

As the ego matures, it develops defense mechanisms - the primary defense mechanisms are: Denial, Projection, Displacement, Reaction Formation

You want the ego defense mechanisms to mature and expand, which in turn leads to better everything

Ego Effectance - individuals ability to deal with the environment and demands - similar to self-efficacy - this can lead to: effectance motivation: an undifferentiated ego response to a situation

As we mature, we learn what we can do, and are more willing to exercise control over the environment — leads to act proactively protect the ego and combat the anxiety - which leads to increased effectance motivation

Ego - learns and is maturational - as we see that it is successful in dealing, we are more likely to use effectance motivation rather than just reacting

Question 45

What are some of the negative effects of pursuing extrinsic goals rather than striving for self-actualization?

Answer 45

Pursuing extrinsic goals (validation-seeking) rather than striving for self-actualization leads to: Vulnerability to mental health difficulties, higher rates of anxiety, high fear of failure, higher rates of depression.

In contrast, growth-seeking individuals center their strivings on learning, improving and reaching personal potential

Question 46

What is self-actualization?

Answer 46

Self-actualization is an inherent developmental striving

Self-actualization refers to the full realization and use of one’s talents, capacities, and potentialities

It is an underlying flow of movement toward constructive fulfillment of its inherent possibilities

Question 47

What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how is it organized?

Answer 47

Physiological needs>Safety and security needs>Love and belongingness need>Esteem needs

Three Primary Themes:

The lower the need is in the hierarchy, the stronger and more urgently it is felt
The lower the need is in the hierarchy, the sooner it appears in development
Needs in the hierarchy are fulfilled sequentially from lowest to highest

*Maslow made the key distinction between: Deficiency (Survival) Needs versus Growth Needs

Question 48

What is holism?

Answer 48

Holism - the sum or entirety of a person is greater than a sum of its components

Holism focuses on discovering the human potential; it is based on striving towards growth and achieving self-realization

Holism stresses top-down master motives such as the self and its strivings toward fulfillment.

Holism focuses on discovering human potential and encouraging its full development. Therefore, it is concerned with striving towards growth and achieving self-realization and strives AWAY from pleasing and fulfilling the expectations of others

Question 49

What is the organismic valuation process?

Answer 49

Organismic Valuation Process: An inherent capacity to judge for oneself whether a specific experience promotes or reverses growth. It is also an inherent capacity to judge what is important and essential for a more fulfilling life.

*All experiences within the struggle and pain of actualizing one’s potential are evaluated by the organismic valuing process. Experiences perceived as enhancing the person are positively valued and are given the ‘green light’ by the organismic valuation process and are subsequently approached

Organismic valuation process: our ability to judge any experience as to whether or not it will promote or inhibit growth - we always want growth - this then judges the situation and works with actualizing tendency to work past the struggle and achieve potential

Question 50

What is the actualization tendency?

Answer 50

Actualizing tendency - “The forward thrust of life” - an innate, continual presence that guides the individual toward genetically determined potentials

Actualizing tendency guides us towards our potentials and motivates us to undertake challenges even in the face of failure - it is more than intrinsic motivation; its this idea that you have the potential to do this, and you just have to keep on fighting past the failure

Actualizing Tendency - we’re all born to achieve certain things, but this forward-moving process of development is accompanied by struggle and pain - but we continue fighting through the pain

I.e. toddlers trying to walk are not shooting for a goal per se, they’re trying to walk because they have the innate potential to do so - the pain and disappointment undermine and discourage the child’s motivation to walk, but the actualization theory supports the child ever forward

Question 51

In order to develop congruence, we have to grow in unconditional parental support then we lead to congruence in the self, if we have conditional we end up seeking validation and ending up in incongruence, we then start to experience everything in how this will extend my sense of self. What happens when we get conditional positive regards from parents, what are the effects of that?

Answer 51

Process of Actualization:
When we get conditional positive regard from parents, we end up seeking validation and ending up in incongruence, which in turn leads us to experience everything in: How will this experience extend my sense of self?

This leads to implied rejection, which is the constant need for retraining. Social experiences are judged as valuable to the extent that others approve.

When we get unconditional positive regard from parents, then we end up having congruence in the self. This leads to a positive self-view which is a true representation of self. Social experiences are evaluated in accordance with organismic valuation process; ultimately leading to congruence and the fully functioning individual.

Question 52

What guides the behavior of people with conditional / low level of parental regard?

Answer 52

If we have parents that offer conditional positive regard / parental support, we tend to question our sense of worth and experiences are judged as valuable to the extent that others approve.

Question 53

How would you define incongruence?

Answer 53

Congruence - The extent that an individual accepts the full range of their personal characteristics, abilities, desires, and beliefs

Incongruence - The extent that an individual rejects the full range of their personal characteristics, abilities, desires, and beliefs

*The congruent, fully functioning individual lives in close proximity to the actualizing tendency and therefore experiences a marked sense of autonomy, openness to experience, and personal growth.

Question 54

What is the basic assertion of positive psychology?

Answer 54

Positive Psychology devotes attention to the proactive building of personal strengths and competencies. It seeks to make people stronger and more productive, and to actualize the human potential in all of us.

In practice, Positive Psychology seeks to build people’s strengths so to cultivate psychological wellness.

Rather than focusing on what goes wrong, positive psychology focuses on what could be, in order to get the best results

Question 55

What were those four exercises that Seligman said we should do to experience pleasantness and the good life?

Answer 55

Have a beautiful day - take your best skills and design a beautiful day, and use savoring and mindfulness to enhance the pleasures

Gratitude visit - visit someone who did something enormously important in your life in a good direction that you never properly thanked - write a 300 word testimonial describing your gratitude towards them

Strength’s Date - couples identify their highest strengths, and then design an evening to use their strengths - proven to strengthen relationships

Fun vs. Philanthropy - have someone do something fun and have someone do something altruistic - contrast the two; altruistic act lasts and lasts much longer

Question 56

What does the behavioral activating system do to emotions?

Answer 56

it energizes them