Lecture 16 - Human Emotion Flashcards
What are emotions
There is no unified definition
States
Come with physiological and psychological changes
What do emotions do
- Signals for motivations
- Help us mange the “push” of biological processes and the “pull” of socio-cultural forces
Positive emotions
Signal the satisfaction of our motivational states
Negative emotions
Signal the frustration of our motivational states
Is there a correlation between emotion and motivation
Emotion = Motivation
What happens when we feel
- Bodily arousal
- Concious experience
- Expressive Behaviour
James-Lange theory
Body before thoughts
(Arousal —> Heart Pounding, sweating —> Fear)
Cannon-Bard Theory
Simultaneous body response and cognitive experience
(Arousal —> Heart pounding, sweating and fear)
Schachter-Singer Theory
Emotion = Body plus a label
(Arousal —> Heart pounding, sweating and cognitive label —> Fear)
Robert Zajonc
Emotional reactions develop in a “low road” through the brain and skip conscious thought
Emotion Valence
Positive or negative quality of an emotion
Arousal
Level of energy or activation associated with an emotion
Eckman
Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise
Secondary or Social Emotions
- Complex emotional state that humans experience following socialization
- typically displayed with a combination of facial and body expression
Guilt
Typically occurs when we think a moral transgression occurred because of our “bad behaviour” (motivates reparation)
Shame
Typically occurs when we think a moral transgression occurred because we are a bad person (Motivates withdrawal)
Are you controlled by your emotions
No you are not but it requires effort and practice to improve
How to regulate emotions?
- Awareness
- Appraisal
- Coping Strategies
Awareness in emotions
- Recognize the motions you are experiencing (label them)
- emotional intelligence
Appraisal emotions
- The start of an emotion is a life event, how you view that event affects how you will feel about it
- Remember hormones are slower to affect your system and their action is typically longer
Emotion Management Strategies
Meditating and Mindfulness
Alcohol Myopia
- Using alcohol to regulate anxiety and stress
- Using alcohol to feel better about one’s self
- Using alcohol to lower inhibition to do things that other waive they would not be able to experience
The catharsis myth
Reduce anger by acting aggressively to release it
Counterproductive
Teaches to act aggressively and often leads to feelings of guilt
