L6 - Emotions Flashcards
Paul Ekman’s theory of 6 basic patterns of expression includes
Happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise
What facial expressions are influenced by?
Facial expressions are influenced by both genetics and social contexts, suggesting a blend of innate and learned components.
3 main methods of measuring emotions (advantages + disadvantages)
Facial Action Coding System (FACS):
Developed by Ekman, it categorizes facial expressions into action units, aiding in identifying basic emotions.
Time-consuming but precise for analyzing static images or videos.
Electromyography (EMG):
Measures muscle activity in the face using electrodes.
Effective for subtle emotional expressions but limited to controlled experimental settings.
Automatic Face Recognition:
Uses real-time technology like SHORE™ for analyzing expressions in natural settings.
Promising for applications in wearable devices and clinical assessments. Less precise compared to other 2 methods
How is facial expressiveness affected in individuals with schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia patients exhibit reduced facial expressiveness, particularly for positive emotions like joy, correlating with negative symptoms.
Mimic disintegration, a difficulty in organizing facial expressions, is commonly observed.
What is the relationship between depression and facial expressiveness?
Depressed individuals show diminished facial expressiveness despite reporting intense emotional experiences.
What future directions are proposed for the study of facial expressions in mental health?
Advances in real-time automated systems and emotion theories, like Lungwitz’s emotion sequence framework, are expected to provide deeper insights into emotional regulation and clinical applications.
What is the Late Positive Potential (LPP), and what does it indicate in emotional processing?
LPP is a brainwave pattern that reflects sustained attention to motivationally salient stimuli. It is enhanced during emotional videos (positive and negative) compared to neutral ones, indicating prolonged neural engagement with emotionally arousing content.
How do positive and negative videos affect facial-muscular responses?
Positive Videos: Increase activity in the zygomaticus major muscle (smiling-related), supporting mimicry and emotional contagion.
Negative Videos: Show no clear differentiation from neutral videos, possibly due to regulated or context-dependent mimicry of negative emotions.
How do individual differences in social anxiety affect responses to social evaluations?
Higher fear of negative evaluation (BFNE-R) leads to greater arousal during negative videos.
Higher fear of positive evaluation (FPES) results in reduced pleasantness ratings for positive videos.
Social anxiety influences subjective ratings more than physiological responses.
What are the findings on autonomic measures (SCR and HR) in response to emotional videos?
SCR (Skin Conductance Responses): Show rapid habituation and no significant differences across video conditions due to moderate stimulus intensity.
HR (Heart Rate): Displays deceleration but does not vary by emotional valence, contrasting with stronger HR effects seen in highly arousing stimuli.
What challenges are associated with using dynamic videos for ERP analysis?
The temporal variability of stimuli, such as differences in sentence onset and emotional unfolding, makes precise ERP measurements difficult. However, dynamic videos offer high ecological validity and capture complex real-life emotional interactions.
What are the strengths and limitations of this study (Wiggert et al.)?
Strengths: Multimodal approach (neural, facial-muscular, experiential) and high ecological validity of dynamic stimuli.
Limitations: Moderate emotional intensity of videos and challenges with temporal alignment in ERP analyses.
Why are dynamic videos useful for studying social evaluations?
Dynamic videos effectively probe neural, muscular, and experiential systems, providing ecologically valid insights into social interaction processes. They are especially valuable for understanding individual differences in social anxiety and related mental health conditions.
What is emotional expressive flexibility, and how is it related to physical health?
Emotional expressive flexibility is the ability to enhance and suppress emotional expressions based on situational demands. It is associated with better physical health outcomes, such as lower symptom interference and higher heart rate variability (HRV).
What health benefits are linked to the ability to enhance joy and sadness?
Enhancing joy is associated with lower interference from physical symptoms.
Enhancing sadness is linked to higher heart rate variability (HRV), which indicates better cardiovascular health.
How does expressive flexibility differ from trait emotion in influencing health outcomes?
Expressive flexibility affects health outcomes even when controlling for personality traits or baseline emotional tendencies, suggesting that health benefits are tied to emotional regulation skills rather than innate emotional characteristics.
Why is a discrete-emotions approach recommended for assessing expressive flexibility?
Different emotions involve distinct regulatory skills. For example:
Expressing sadness improves HRV.
Regulating anger has mixed effects.
This highlights the complexity of links between emotions and health, which a valence-based approach might oversimplify.
What are some potential mechanisms linking expressive flexibility to better health?
Social factors: Improved social interactions reduce stress.
Physiological mechanisms: Regulating facial expressions (e.g., smiling) influences autonomic functions, improving stress recovery.
Behavioral flexibility: Reflects adaptability in achieving goals, promoting well-being.
What are the main limitations of the study on expressive flexibility and health?
Cross-sectional design cannot establish causation.
Predominantly white sample limits generalizability.
Self-reported symptoms may not fully reflect physical health.
Modest effect sizes due to sample diversity and temporal separation of assessments.
What future directions are suggested for research on expressive flexibility?
Investigating expressive flexibility in real-world contexts and clinical health outcomes.
Using naturalistic settings to study social and physical health impacts.
Developing interventions to improve expressive flexibility for better health outcomes.
What are the differences between emotion, feeling, mood, and affect?
Emotion: Intense, short-term reactions to a specific stimulus, often accompanied by physical responses (e.g., fear, joy, anger).
Feeling: The conscious experience of emotions, shaped by personal interpretation and lasting longer than emotions (e.g., love, contentment).
Mood: Prolonged, less intense states of mind with no specific cause, lasting hours or days (e.g., gloomy, upbeat).
Affect: Observable behaviors expressing emotions or feelings, such as facial expressions or tone of voice, ranging from flat to vivid.
What are the key characteristics of emotions?
Biologically-based responses to situations seen as personally relevant.
Shaped by learning over time.
Includes evaluation of the ability to respond to situations.
Reflects the status of ongoing adjustments to environmental demands.
Involves changes in peripheral physiology, expressive behavior, and subjective experience.
What are the key components of the conceptual perspective on emotions?
Valenced responses: Reactions to external stimuli or internal mental representations.
Multi-system involvement: Includes physiological, behavioral, and experiential systems.
Triggered: Emotions are reactive, unlike moods.
Learned or innate: Can be automatic or shaped by experience.
Appraisal processes: Involves assessing the significance of stimuli.
Neural systems: Emotions rely on distinct neural pathways.
What is arousal and valence?
Arousal can be defined by high and low arousal, whereas valence says something about the type of emotion so positive or negative.
What is the key distinction between the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories?
James-Lange: Physiological responses come first, followed by emotions.
Cannon-Bard: Emotions and physiological responses occur simultaneously and independently.
What do classical and constructionist views tell us about the patterns of activity of emotions?
Classical view: All instances of the same emotion category involve a consistent and specific pattern of ANS activity.
Constructionist view: Autonomic patterns are expected to be highly variable within an emotion category and to have some similarity across categories.
What are the key characteristics of the emotional brain?
- Massive anatomical connectivity: Extensive neural connections across regions.
- Connectivity to and from the body: Links brain activity with bodily responses.
- High functional interactivity: Interacts dynamically with most brain areas.
- Network approach: Emotions are processed by interconnected networks rather than isolated regions.
What are the key components of Ekman’s theory of basic emotions?
Basic Emotions: Ekman identified six universal emotions—happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise. He later expanded this list to include others like contempt and embarrassment.
Facial Expressions: Each emotion corresponds to a universal facial expression (e.g., a smile for happiness).
Cross-Cultural Universality: Emotions and their expressions are innate and recognized across all cultures.
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Response: Emotions like fear trigger physiological responses, such as increased heart rate.
Evolutionary Adaptive: Basic emotions evolved to help humans survive (e.g., fear responds to threats).
Microexpressions: Brief facial expressions reveal true emotions, even when hidden.
What are the key points of Feldman-Barrett’s constructivist theory of emotions?
Emotions as Constructions: Emotions are not innate but built in the moment by the brain based on sensory input, past experiences, and cultural knowledge.
Role of the Brain: The brain interprets bodily sensations and predicts emotions based on past experiences.
Context Matters: Emotions depend heavily on the situation and context.
Variability of Emotion: Emotions vary widely across people and situations due to different predictions and cultural influences.
Emotions as Concepts: Emotions are like categories that the brain uses to make sense of sensations.
Cultural Influence: Cultural knowledge shapes how emotions are constructed and experienced.
What are the similarities between Ekman’s and Feldman-Barrett’s theories of emotion?
- Both agree that emotions are deeply tied to human behavior and decision-making.
- Emotions involve interactions between the brain and body.
- Both acknowledge that emotions are influenced by evolution, though their mechanisms differ.
- Each theory highlights the importance of understanding emotions for practical applications like mental health and communication.
What are the differences between Ekman’s and Feldman-Barrett’s theories of emotion?
Ekman: Emotions are universal, innate, and tied to specific facial expressions.
Feldman-Barrett: Emotions are constructed, context-dependent, and shaped by culture and learning.
Ekman: Emotions are discrete categories (e.g., happiness, sadness).
Feldman-Barrett: Emotions are dimensional, built from valence (positive/negative) and arousal (high/low).
Ekman: Focuses on cross-cultural universality.
Feldman-Barrett: Emphasizes cultural variability in emotional experience and expression.
Theories of emotion expression
Neurocultural theory
Darwin’s intercultural comparisons > Ekman’s 6 basic emotions
Behavioral ecology theory
Fridlund’s biological behavior-based mimic theory (facial behavior originates from social contexts and is used more or less indiscriminately)
Frijda’s compromise
Phylogenetic expressions related to types of emotions represent basic emotions which are influenced by lifetime experience.
Facial feedback hypothesis
Emotions originating from facial behavior are identical to those derived from emotional experience
What are the roles of the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles in facial expressions?
Zygomaticus Major: Responsible for smiling, associated with positive emotions like happiness.
Corrugator Supercilii: Responsible for frowning, associated with negative emotions like anger or sadness.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of FaceReader for analyzing facial expressions?
Advantages:
Easy to use.
Saves time.
Disadvantages:
Difficult to detect subtle changes in expressions.
What are the advantages and challenges of using EMG (Electromyography) for facial expression analysis?
Advantages:
Better at detecting subtle changes.
Measures endpoint CNS activity, linked to ANS responses.
Challenges:
EMG signals are small and require amplification.
Electrode placement is difficult and highly specific.
How does EMG activity differ in depressed versus non-depressed individuals?
Depressed individuals show reduced EMG activity, including:
Less smiling in response to positive stimuli.
More frowning in response to neutral stimuli.
Reduced zygomaticus major muscle reactivity to rewards.
Impaired mimicry of positive stimuli (both automatic and effortful).
What is the affect-related shift in facial expressions observed in depression?
Depressed individuals often show a shift in expression, such as:
From an initial smile to a more negative expression during stimuli.
What mechanism underlies the negative bias in depression?
The negative bias is linked to dysfunction in:
Amygdala
Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex
and their connections, affecting perception, attention, and memory.
How does depression impair the mimicry reflex?
The mimicry reflex is impaired due to negative thinking patterns and difficulties in social functioning.
This contributes to challenges in processing and mimicking facial expressions.
What facial expression characteristics are observed in individuals with schizophrenia?
- Lack of facial expressiveness and occasional bizarre facial movements.
- Impaired rapid facial mimicry, especially for emotional stimuli, linked to negative symptoms (e.g., emotionlessness).
- Hyperactive levator muscle activity (associated with disgust and aggression), linked to positive symptoms (e.g., movement differences).
What is mimic disintegration in schizophrenia?
Mimic disintegration is the inability to organize specific facial muscle movements into an integrated whole, leading to:
Undefined mimic reactions.
Lack of mimic consistency.
How do individuals with schizophrenia respond to emotional facial stimuli compared to non-facial stimuli?
They are capable of motor responses to non-facial emotional stimuli but struggle with facial emotional stimuli.
This breakdown affects their ability to display socially advantageous facial expressions.
What symptoms in schizophrenia are associated with negative and positive facial expression features?
Negative Symptoms: Lack of expressiveness, impaired mimicry, emotionlessness.
Positive Symptoms: Hyperactive facial movements, bizarre or inconsistent expressions.
