Lecture 15: emotion and emotional regulation Flashcards
What do emotions represent?
A signalling system of phenomenal sophistication:
E.g. Children and adults play considerable attention to the expression of others.
We raise our children to express and not express certain emotions
What does the absence of appropriate emotion index?
Often, it indexes dysfunction
What are emotions reflected in?
Our thoughts, physiology and behaviour
What do emotions inspire?
Our most important decisions
They form the core of our experience of ourselves in this world
Ultimately emotions act as an interface between personal and interpersonal and social and biological spheres of functioning
What is the (brief) history of emotions research?
Emotion = latin for “to move”
Research only systematic since 1970s
Emotions research Was subordinate to behaviour and cognition in the history of psychology
Attempts to characterise, understand and control emotions have occurred throughout history (plato, aristotle, descartes, spinota, hume)
What are historical western thoughts on emotion?
It has historically contrasted emotions with reason:
the degree of ones emotions varies inversely with ones knowledge of the facts
What does modern emotions theory suggest.
Thinking and feeling are less separable, and has become increasingly functionalist
Why is there no concrete definition for emotions?
Emotions are complex and include many components
We also have experiences which may be emotional, but may not actually be emotions per se e.g. Moods are emotional but are not emotions.
There are also other things which are emotional like anxiety disorders or depression, but these are also not emotions
What are the 5 key components of emotions?
Physiology Phenomenology (experiences) Expression/signalling Cognitive change Ovet behaviour
Why are moods distinguished from emotions?
They do not have to reflect responses to a particular event
They are typically less intense
They may last a long time
What is a working definition of emotion?
A heritable set of adaptive mechanisms that function systematically to inform, motivate and organise an organisms responses to the perception of a change in goal- environmental relationships
Why do we get emotional?
From observation, we know that people don’t have the same emotional responses to a particular event
Feelings are elicited by perceived changes in the status of the tjings that matter to the person
What idea is central to modern theory?
The idea that specific ways of thinking about events (appraisal) are the proximate cause of emotions
In this view different patterns of evaluation/appraisal lead to the experience of different emotions
What is the evaluation (appraisal) process?
The stimulus or event occurs,
This event is then evaluated for meaning
An emotional response is generated
Why do we have emotions?
They are a biological phenomena that have analogues in other species
Evidence for emotions in other species was a key influence on evolutionary theory
What are some similarities between modern theory and darwins theory?
Like darwin, modern theory views human emotion as less evolved than bipedalism and opposable thumbs
Emotions exist and were shaped as they facilitated adaptation to events
As a result, the human repertoire is larger. This is due to our capacities and the specific ways in which we live
What is the relationship between emotions and cultures?
A biological view of emotions does suggest a likely similarity across cultures.
Early evidence suggested similarity in expression/recognition across cultures
However there are variations in other aspects of the emotions systems
We assume people just want to be happy, but different cultures have preference for different states e.g. Asians prefer lower arousal states like contentment
Other cultures appear to have emotion experiences that have no clear analogues in western culture
What is the relationship between emotion and development.
Development is an area of evidence which confirms the evolved view of emotions
Infants show patterns of response which appear to be analogous to adult emotions e,g, restraint produces frustration, startling produces fear
Infants are highly attuned to emotions in the social environment. They gain information from other peoples expressions.
Infants are competent with emotions - can discrimminate from the age of 4 months
How do emotions change across the lifespan?
Basic emotions are seen early in life
People come from a particular place developmentally,
There is often a gaining of a Larger emotional repertoire with development
There is evidence of decoupling among the components of emotions with age
There is also a great ability to regulate emotions across the lifespan.
What is emotion regulation?
The ability to regulate emotions.
The processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them and how they are experienced and express them.
This is one of the most important and sophisticated abilities we possess (among adults, emotions are rarely evident in a non regulated state.)
What is emotion regulation like in infants and small children?
Infants and small children show poor regulatory ability so much that most regulation is conducted by someone else, usually the mother
Why is emotion regulation so hard for infants and small children?
It is a complicated skill which depends on the acquisition of considerable knowledge/ability
What are some emotion regulation strategies?
Re-appraisal Distraction Suppression Dissociation Avoidance Enhancement Disclosure Use of drugs,Smoking Studying Sex Masturbation
What are the two broad classes of emotion regulation?
Antecedent focused emotion regulation
Response focused emotion regulation
What is antecedent focused emotional regulation?
This is where situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, and cognitive change occur before an emotional response is fully generated
What is response focused emotion regulation?
This is where response modulation occurs after an emotional response is fully generated.
What are emotion regulation links to health?
Research has discovered and continues to concentrate on 6 pathways which links emotion regulation to health outcomes
What are the links of emotion regulation to health outcomes before diagnoses?
Primary causative and preventative
Secondary causative and preventative
Symptom, attention sensitivity and reporting
Medical contact, detection and screening behaviours,
What are the links of emotion regulation to health after formal diagnosis?
Treatment decision making
Treatment adherence
Which diseases have negative emotions linked to them?
Heart disease Cancer Arthritis Diabetes Common cold
Which disease processes have well researched emotions like anger, anxiety, and depression been linked to.
Basic disease processes Immunological functioning SAM activation Catecholamine secretion Heart muscle damage Changes in clotting processes Ohysiological arousal
Which beneficial health outcomes have positive emotions been linked to?
Laboratory: facilitated return to physiological baseline
Mortality
Reduced readmission rates
Survival time in cancer
Mortality among academy award nominated actors vs. Non nominees from the same film
What health behaviours do negative emotions promote?
Smoking initiation, cessation, relapse
Diet, overeating, comfort food consumption
Exercise
Drug and alcohol use
There is some dispositional positive emotion associated with greater exercise and super nutritional profiles, what are some issues with these dispositions?
Positive emotion is often a mixed bag
The drive to be excited involves a promotion of risk
What is the dangerous side of positive effect?
…
What is symptom sensitivity?
The impact on health by negative emotions due to promoting either awareness or ability to detect health symptoms.
Negative effects are associated with elevated symptom reports and depressive realism e.g. Depressives have more accurate breast cancer risk assessment
Positive emotions are associated with fewer aches and pains, and an increased attention to self relevant health information
What are the positive and negative emotions which affect the help seeking and screening part of the disease?
Positive emotions occur when a negative diagnosis is received,
Positive emotions may have key roles in sustaining behaviour over time or in motivating report screening
Negative emotions have been linked to elevated help seeking and screening for various conditions, particularly cancer
May present with malingering and medically unexplained symptoms,
Cancer screening
May also result in Medical avoidance
Why is treatment for diseases and symptoms complex for both patient and physicians?
There is a proliferation in the number of treatment combinations
There is also an increased focus on patient involvement and responsibility
How do emotions influence decision making?
Emotions can affect decision making particularly if the decision is made under stress
Decisions become highly complex or uncertain
Anxiety predicts initiation of hormone treatment on men previously treated for prostate cancer who have biochemical reccurence.
How do positive emotions facilitate health decision making?
Positive emotions improve diagnostic reqsoning, reduces confirmation bias, results in more efficient and integrative processing
Why is adherence important?
The possible health savings associated with earlier interventions have now hit a plateau. So adherence reduces the chance of relapse of the disease.
Adherence is generally very poor
What are some negative emotions linked to adherence?
Depression- associated with poorer dialysis, diabetes treatment, hypertension, HIV medications
Anxiety
Side effect management - and the potential role of digust
