Lecture 10

Question 1

Emotion

Answer 1

complex phenomena that involve a subjective
feeling, physiological changes, behaviour & cognitive
appraisal

Question 2

Affect

Answer 2

the conscious subjective aspect of emotion (weather)

Question 3

Mood

Answer 3

a relatively long lasting emotional state (season)

Question 4

Temperament

Answer 4

an individual’s consistent pattern or style of
reacting to a broad range of environmental events & situations
as well as their pattern of arousal & emotionality (personality)

Question 5

Psychodynamic theory of emotion

Answer 5

our behaviour & feelings as adults are based in our childhood experiences

Question 6

Behavioural theory of emotion

Answer 6

environmental factors, rather than genetic or
biological differences, make us behave differently
 ‘tabla rasa’

Question 7

Evolutionary theory of emotion

Answer 7

links to natural selection; based on the view that
various psychological mechanisms have evolved
to allow certain adaptive functions to develop

Question 8

Cognitive

Answer 8

emotions arise from appraisals of significant events

Question 9

infancy

Answer 9

Early emotions
 Primary emotions
 over 1st 6 months
 interest, joy, surprise, disgust, anger, sadness, fear

Question 10

infancy- emotion expression

Answer 10

 Crying
 significance: indicates health; attachment behaviour
 in response to other infant crying
 types of cries; basic, protest, pain
 tearless until 4 to 6 weeks

 Smiling
 key social signal
 reflexive smile for the 1st month
 social smile

 Fear
 stranger anxiety

Question 11

Self conscious emotion

Answer 11

 involve self awareness
 most occur after 18 months
 jealousy, empathy, embarrassment, pride, shame, guilt

Question 12

Social referencing

Answer 12

 from approx 9 months
 monitor other’s emotional reactions & use this
information to decide how to feel or behave
 especially in ambiguous situations

Question 13

emotion regulation

Answer 13

the process involved in initiating, maintaining &
altering emotional responses

 self-directed regulatory behaviours: the ability to
regulate one’s own emotional state & expressive
behaviours

 initially reliant on caregivers
 develop over time
 e.g., thumb sucking; look away, distraction ; use of
language
 affected by context, temperament & social expectations

Question 14

Temperament

Answer 14

Thomas & Chess (70’s)
 easy babies (40%)
 difficult babies (10%)
 slow-to-warm babies (15%)
 mixed pattern babies (35%)

• Genetic Bias
• the stability of temperament
• environmental influences–> gender and culture

goodness of fit: the match between a child’s temperament &
the environmental demands the child must cope with
 importance of flexibility in responding to a child’s
individual characteristic

Question 15

Childhood

Answer 15

• growing sense of self –> expanding range of emotions

increased understanding of emotion
 2-4 yrs: increased number of terms to describe emotion
 4-5 yrs : enhanced ability to reflect on emotions

 emotional competence
–> characteristic patterns of emotional expression, greater
understanding of emotion & better emotion regulation
skills
–> predictor of later social competence

 influence of parents
–> emotion coaching Vs emotion dismissing

• more effective in efforts to cope with stress

Question 16

Adolescence

Answer 16

 more mildly negative moods than in childhood

 Riediger et al. (2009)
 more contrahedonic behaviour than adults
 maintain or enhance
bad moods & dampen
good moods

Question 17

Adulthood

Answer 17

 skilled at emotion regulation

 Cartensen et al. (2000, 2011)
–> longer lasting positive emotions & more fleeting negative
emotions
–> socioemotional selectivity theory: more focused on fulfilling current emotional needs