introduction to emotion

Question 1

What is emotion?

Answer 1

a strong feeling deriving from circumstances, mood or relationships with others; instinctive or intuitive feeling’ (Ox dictionary)

Question 2

What are the stages of emotional processing according to Phillips et al. 2003?

Answer 2

Meaningful stimulus presentation -> affective state -> appraisal -> regulation

Question 3

What did Darwin propose about emotion?

Answer 3

He argued that emotional responses served a v important socio-communicative function and that these are conserved across species, having evolved over time.

Question 4

What 6 ‘basic’ emotions that exist across cultures did Darwin propose?

Answer 4

Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise

Question 5

What are the individual functions of emotions?

Answer 5

Expressions change information taken in e.g. widening eyes in fear helps to detect a threat. Wrinkling of eyes and nose in disgust helps us to avoid contamination.

Question 6

What is the cognitive theory of emotion? (Oakley and Johnson)

Answer 6

Emotional theories must be accompanied by cognition

Question 7

What are culture specific ‘display rules’?

Answer 7

E.g. gender display rules in school where boys and girls are taught to behave differently. Act of smiling and being polite in some cultures rather than a display of happiness (for example).

Question 8

What evidence suggests that emotions are innate?

Answer 8

In the first few weeks of life, babies show distress and smile expressions which are major forms of communication; some studies also suggest that facial expressions develop in the womb. Flavour sensing in utero and emerging discriminative behaviours in the fetus, e.g. babies show pos reaction to carrots compared to kale

Question 9

What are simple dual system theories?

Answer 9

Categorise emotions in terms of approach and withdrawal

Question 10

What is the valence asymmetry hypothesis?

Answer 10

Left sided prefrontal cortex is approach-related (positive) goals, and right sided PFC- goals requiring inhibition and withdrawal

Question 11

What is the Circumplex model of emotions?

Answer 11

A more dimensional model that describes emotions as a continuum rather than discrete basic emotions- on a scale of valence and arousal

Question 12

What systems and tools can be used to measure emotional expressions?

Answer 12

FACS- all 40 face muscles are coded in the face, can consider fake and genuine expressions
METT tool- breaks down each expression
Facial EMG- measures subtle activity in frown and smile muscles

Question 13

What social functions can emotion have and what studies have been conducted into this?

Answer 13

Wide eyes in fear can portray a threat signal, sadness can elicit caregiving.
Fridlund- ppts viewed pleasant videos in 1 of 4 conditions and maesured EMG- they found similing increased as the settings became more social but not with self reported emotions. Suggests expressions are more shaped by the social contents we find ourselves in rather than emotional states.

Question 14

What can skin conduction responses and changes in electrical conduction across the skin measure?

Answer 14

Patterns in emotions, e.g. some emotions are associated with slowing of HR or speeding; facial expressions can be differentiated on the basis of evoked HR responses.

Question 15

What is the James-Lange theory?

Answer 15

Emotions as a set of bodily responses that occur in response to emotive stimuli. Different patterns of bodily change code different emotions and directly follow the perception of the exciting fact.

Question 16

What is embodied emotion?

Answer 16

Once you have encountered a stimulus in an environment, your brain processes this and it may trigger related areas in the rain when thinking about this later, you may reactivate your bodily state at the time you experienced the emotion- plays a role in emotion

Question 17

What is the two factor theory of emotion? (Schachter and Singer)

Answer 17

Emotion is a function of both cog factors (appraisal) and physiological arousal.

Investigated this when they gave (misinformed) subjects adrenaline injections. 4 different groups were told what side effects they may experience (increase in HR). then had a confederate rate the ppt’s emotional state when another person who was either euphoric or angry appeared. People given adrenaline and misinformed or not told, had more emotional responses due to this unexpected physiological arousal. Those informed ahead of time did not display as strong of an emotional response as they believed their reaction was due to the drug.

Question 18

What did Lazarus (1991) say in relation to emotions and events?

Answer 18

Emotion is rooted in appraisal- emotions are not caused by the events themselves but by person-environmental relationships that can change over time and circumstances.

Question 19

What role does the limbic system play in regulating emotion?

Answer 19

Amygdala- activation- ‘feeling’ pathway which involves the hypothalamus

Question 20

What is Kluver Bucy Syndrome and what studies have been conducted into it?

Answer 20

Amygdala lesions in monkeys led to the syndrome where monkeys showed an absence of emotional and motor vocal reactions to fearful stimuli, suggesting that the amygdala plays a role in the fear response

Question 21

What can lesions of the amygdala lead to in humans?

Answer 21

Emotional blunting, reduced fear conditioning and impaired perceptions of facial expressions of fear

Question 22

What did LeDoux (1986) propose about amygdala pathways in the brain?

Answer 22

Two amygdala pathways- the high road and the low road

High road- stimulus goes into the sensory thalamus and the cortex, which sends a signal to the amygdala and creates a slower but more emotional response that has detailed processing.

Low road- signal from the thalamus that can respond to dangerous stimuli and send very quick messages to the amygdala, triggering an immediate emotional response

Question 23

What did a study by Hariri et al find about labelling emotions to faces in relation to the serotonin transporter gene?

Answer 23

Compared long and short forms of the gene- people asked to label neg emotions to faces. Found that people with the short form of the gene was associated with a stronger amygdala response and were more reactive to emotional expressions, whereas people with longer forms of the gene were more able to regulate expressions and ‘mop up’ serotonin’.

Question 24

What did Caspi et al find about the short form of the serotonin receptor gene and depression?

Answer 24

short (homozygous) gene associated with increased depression as a function of the genotype

Question 25

What have imaging studies found when looking at the role of the amygdala?

Answer 25

There is an increased amygdala response to fearful faces in people with depression but SSRIs can mediate this, although it is difficult to establish causality.

Question 26

What is the role of the insula cortex in disgust?

Answer 26

Secondary taste cortex
In humans, it is associated with the perception of unpleasant tastes, nausea, salivation and swallowing

Question 29

What do lesions within the insula cortex cause?

Answer 29

Decreased subjective experience and recognition of disgust.

Question 30

What are the clinical implications of the insula cortex?

Answer 30

OCD- contamination fears, involved in some phobic responses as it enhances disgust sensitivity. Role of disgust in pregnancy e.g. towards alcohol- immunocompetence response as a result