EXAM 4: CHAPTER 11 Flashcards
Emotion
An intrapersonal state in response to an internal or external event
4 components of emotion:
- Physiological: Changes in bodily arousal (eg. Heart rate, temperature, respiration
- Cognitive: Subjective interpretation of one’s feelings and environment
- Physical: Expression of emotion verbally/non-verbally (eg. Smile, frown, laugh)
- Emotional: Keeping the emotion present (happiness) or removing it (sadness)
How are emotions adaptive (3):
- Signals important events to direct attention
- Triggers fight or flight
- Social communication
Universality hypothesis
Emotional expressions have the same meaning for everyone; originally proposed by Charles Darwin
6 universal emotions expressed:
- Anger
- Disgust
- Fear
- Happiness
-Sadness - Surprise
Ways to measure emotions - detecting lies:
- Behavioural displays of emotion
- Self-reports of emotion
- Psychophysiological reactions (eg. Heart rate, skin conductance, MRI)
Cognitive functions for emotion
Helps organize and retrieve memories, prioritizes concerns and needs, and guides judgement for decisions
Behavioural functions for emotion
Emotions alter behavior
Social functions for emotion
Foundation of relationships, improve quality of relationships and helps with empathy
Action tendencies
Emotions are associated with predictable patterns of behavior that help us adapt and survive
3 main theories:
- James-Lange Theory
- Cannon-Bard Theory
- Schachter and Singer’s Two Factor Theory
James-Lange Theory
Emotions is our conscious awareness of our physiological response to stimuli (Body before thoughts)
Cannon-Bard Theory
We have conscious experience of an emotion at the same time as our body is responding, not afterwards (Simultaneous body response and cognitive experience)
Schachter and Singer’s Two Factor Theory
Emotions do not exist until we add a label to whatever body sensations we feel (Emotion = body plus a cognitive label)
Cognitive-Mediational Theory
Developed by Richard Lazarus. Cognitive appraisal is a cognitive mediator between environmental stimuli and our reactions to those stimuli
Survival functions of emotions:
- Evolutionary theory: Emotions are innate, passed through generations
- Basic emotions: A group of emotions preprogrammed into all human regardless of culture
Infant emotions
- Emotions of interest, disgust, and contentment present at birth
- Emotions of anger, sadness, joy, surprise and fear emerge between 2-7 months
- In second year for infants, self-conscious emotions emerge such as shame, built, envy
Facial-feedback theory
Subjective experiences of emotion are influenced by sensory feedback from facial muscular activity, or facial efference
Facial efference
Sensory feedback from facial muscular activity
Facial feedback hypothesis
Emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they signify
Amygdala emotion
- Important role in emotion; acts as a threat detector
- Fast (thalamus>amygdala) and slow (thalamus>cortex>amygdala) pathways of fear in brain
Appraisal
Evaluation of the emotion-relevant aspects of a stimulus
Expressive behaviors
People read a great deal of emotional content in the eyes and face
Features that can be exposed as sincere and insincere:
- Morphology (reliable muscles)
- Symmetry
- Duration
- Temporal patterning
Positive feelings
Happiness, optimism
Positive traits
Perseverance, wisdom
Positive abilities
Interpersonal skills
Virtues
Altruism, tolerance
When you’re nervous about something, you may notice your hands sweat and mouth becomes dry. This is produced by your…
Autonomic nervous system (ANS)
Sympathetic nervous system
Triggers fight or flight response
Parasympathetic nervous system
Calms body down
Secondary social sharing
When people talk about emotions, it is hard for them to stop talking and then they share it with another person
Alexithymia
Inability to identify and describe emotions experienced by oneself and have difficulties recognizing angry and fearful faces
4 elements of emotion:
- Feelings
- Bodily response
- Sense of purpose
- Expressive behavior
Measuring emotion (3):
- Behavioural displays of emotion
- Self-reports of emotion
- Physiological reactions
Facial electronyography
Measures contractions of facial muscles to detect emotion
Heart rate
Reduction in heart rate when individuals are presented with unpleasant stimuli. Whereas pleasant stimuli associated with accelerations in heart rate
Skin conductance
Measures galvanic skin response which reflects increased perspiration
FMRI
Measures brain patterns and activity when associated with lying. Not admissible in court yet
Cannnon five points:
- Total separation of the visceral organs from the central nervous system does not alter emotional behavior
- The same visceral changes often occur in different emotional states and in non-emotional states
- The visceral changes are too slow to be the source of emotional feeling
- Artificially inducing visceral changes does not produce strong emotions
