Introduction to emotion - CE1 Flashcards
What is the thing that differs humans and computers?
emotional experience
What do cognitive theories often lack and why is this a problem?
they ignore emotion when explaining basic systems like memory
cognition and emotion often interact so they should be considered together
What kind of emotions can we feel and how can we define them?
on a continuum from strong and overwhelming to subtle or ambiguous
What is special about moral emotions?
they are communicative and can help to regulate social behaviour
they are powerful but not necessarily logical or rational
What roles does emotion play? (4)
- guide our lives and we learn from them
- provide meaning to life
- related to mental health
- monitor our current state and adjust behaviour accordingly
what are the 3 ways of defining emotion?
- the cognitive component/conscious experience
- overt expression of internal state
- physiological experience
What happens when comparing facial expressions and judgements of these expressions cross-culturally?
they are similar
What did cross-cultural studies of facial expressions help to develop?
the 6 basic emotional expressions
What are the 6 basic emotional expressions?
anger, disgust, fear, happy, neutral, sad, surprise
What happened when the emotional expressions of blind athletes was compared to sighted athletes? What can we conclude from this?
They were the same
Emotional expressions are innate
how can facial expressions and body language interact?
they can be congruent or incongruent, which can provide more nuanced detail into what someone is really feeling
What are the uses of facial expressions for others? (3)
- helps us to infer how others are feeling and what they may be thinking about us
- relevant to whether or not we want to approach others
- significant to attracting friends and intimate partners
What are emotions usually accompanied by?
arousal of the autonomic nervous system
How does a polygraph test work?
most people find lying stressful so they will sweat more and their heart rate will raise
a baseline is established then the state when answering the questions is compared to this
In what order do things happen in the James-Lange theory of emotion?
stimulus –> autonomic response –> experience of emotion
What was found when participants had to hold a pen in their mouth to make them smile or not smile? What does this evidence suggest?
- They thought jokes were funnier when already smiling
- Suggests that physiological experiences come before the experience of emotion and cause them to happen
What was found when participants wore a gel mask on their face when judging facial expressions?
they were worse at perceptual discrimination of facial expressions, but not nonface stimuli
What can botox injections do?
inhibit muscles associated with anxiety/worry so reduce feelings of depression
How do beta-blockers work and what theory of emotion do they support?
They suppress signals from the body to stop the autonomic response, then you don’t feel the fear
Support the James-Lange theory
Why can’t the James-Lange theory explain emotion by itself?
the autonomic responses can be ambiguous so how do we interpret them as different emotions?
What order do things happen according to the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion?
stimulus –> emotional experience –> autonomic response
What happened when an attractive woman approached men on a scary or safe looking bridge? Why could this happen?
- they were more likely to call her back on the scary bridge than the safe bridge
- they may be mistaking the autonomic fear response from the bridge with sexual attraction
How can James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories work together?
- JLT gives a quick autonomic response that is ambiguous
- CBT provides the context of what the stimulus is
- All this information is used together to decide on a behavioural response
What is the amygdala mainly involved in?
fight or flight as a fear response
After the stimulus, where does the information travel to?
- to the thalamus
- then either to the cortex for slower, conscious processing (then to the amygdala) (CBT)
- or straight to the amygdala for rapid, autonomic processing (JLT)
- these happen simultaneously
- then you get the emotional response
What happens in monkeys after bilateral lesions of the amygdala? (3)
Kluver-Bucy syndrome
- unusual tameness
- blunting of emotional responses
- impaired learning from emotional stimuli
What happens in humans after amygdala lesions? (2)
- impair the recognition of fear in others’ faces
- deficit of emotions such as anger and distrust
What is the anterior cingulate cortex involved in? (3)
- processing the emotional aspects of pain
- empathy
- detecting errors so you can avoid emotions in the future
What does the insula do? (3)
- involved in emotional aspects of disgust
- empathy for when others feel disgust
- involved in bodily sensations
Which disease can cause insula damage and what is the result?
- huntington’s
- deficits in recognising expressions of disgust
What does the orbitofrontal cortex do? (2)
- computes the motivational value of rewards
- associated with regret if expected reward > actual reward
What does the ventral striatum do? (2)
- pleasure and reward
- part of the dopamine network
