Lecture 12: What is emotion

Question 1

What is emotion?

Answer 1

‘Emotions’ is a commonsense term and not scientific, so we do not aim to define what emotion is.

Question 2

Mood vs Emotions

Answer 2

the difference between emotions and moods is that moods can last for a long period of time whereas emotions fall on a shorter time scale

Question 3

Emotions are intentional states:

Answer 3

When experiencing fear, there is often something that caused it - same w other emotions

Question 4

James - Lange hypothesis

Answer 4

Different emotions are the product of different autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to stimuli

Question 5

Schachter and singer hypothesis

Answer 5

Emotion is physiological arousal with a label derived from the circumstances in which it is occurring - - Emotion = state of arousal and cognitive label

Question 6

Reserach: schachter and signer (1962)

Answer 6

When injected with adrenaline/placebo when in a room with angry confederate, they felt angry - shows physiological and cognitive input

Question 7

Levinson et al 1990 - coluntary facial action generates emotion

Answer 7

Wired them up also to sensors to report physiological states (measure ANS) to test Schachter’s theory. They found that there was a specific pattern of physiological responses with every muscle movement for specific facial expression and therefore the emotion

Question 8

Levenson et al 1992 - emotion and ANS activity

Answer 8

Against Schachter hypothesis - - Tested a sample of people with little previous contact with western cultures, asking them to relive past emotion experience and achieved the same kind of responses as they did in western cultures

Question 9

Siegal et al 2018 - emotion finger prints or emotion populations

Answer 9

• there is substantial variation amongst each emotion making it hard to maintain the hypothesis
• there is a lot of overlap between the different emotions

Question 10

Constructionist view of emotion

Answer 10

Emotion is a construct in the brain based on physiological, cognitive, and social factors.

Question 11

Averille 1983 - Studies on anger and aggression: implications for theories of emotion

Answer 11

emotion also depends on a level of understanding of behavior in a social setting – our emotional response is key to understanding the social event