Lecture 7 - Emotion and Motivation

Question 1

What is the difference between mood, emotions, and an emotional episode?

Answer 1

Mood

• Not intentional
• Longer lasting
• Relatively mild

Emotion

• Intentional (linked to object or person -> you know what triggered it)
• Relatively short
• Relatively strong

Emotional episode
- Emotional chain reaction

Question 2

What is a discrete view on emotions?

Answer 2

All emotions are seen as separate models:

Joy, pride, happy, hate, pride, shame, sadness, etc

Question 3

What is the OCC model?

Answer 3

A cognitive structure of emotions.

It is sort of a branching scheme, there is an emotion, and that emotion gives rise to something

Question 4

OCC model has good and bad outcomes branching on the basis of …. ?

Answer 4

• Events, agents or objects
• Self or other? -> does it do with yourself or with another person
• Desirability/relevancy in future -> also decide what emotion you are getting
• (dis)Confirmation -> fear can be confirmed or disconfirmed -> gives either relieved or stressed

Question 5

What is the dimensional view on emotions? Explain it.

Answer 5

The circumplex model of affect, by Russel (1980).
It has a valence (neg - pos) and arousal (low - high) dimension.
It can show many variations and can present quite some detail.

Question 6

What is meant with the banana in affect?

Answer 6

Lower arousal for neutral stimuli, and high arousal for either very pleasurable things, or for really not pleasurable things

Question 7

What other affect variations are there that you can see in graphs
?

Answer 7

You have the banana, so not much arousal for neutral stimuli.
But also: there is a steeper gradient for bad/unpleasant things

Question 8

Explain sympathetic in emotions

Answer 8

‘emotional together’

Fight or flight (action)
Long, connected nerves
Slow nor-adrenaline as a neurotransmitter (adrenergic) -> slow sustained reaction

Question 9

Explain the parasympathetic system in emotions

Answer 9

Parasympathetic

• Rest and digest
• Shorter and parallel nerves
• Fast acetylcholine as neurotransmitter (cholinergic) -> fast, shorter-lasting (phasic reaction)

Question 10

Exception to the fast/slow responses of the (para)sympathetic system is:

Answer 10

The sweat glands! Only sympathetic, but cholinergic activated, so skin conductance reacts quickly!

Question 11

Name the four emotion-induction types that influence psy/phy that you can use in studies

Answer 11

1. Perception
   - Intense physical stimuli -> defensive reactions
   - Symbolic (conditioned) -> weaker reactions
   - Can be done with: viewing pictures, listening to sounds, reading words, etc
2. Imagery
   - Action, personal relevance -> stronger reactions
   - Can be done with: emotional reliving, text-driven imagery
3. Anticipation
   - Classical conditioning studies
   - Can be done with: cued reward, threat of shock, gambling tasks
4. Action
   - Ambulatory monitoring in real life
   - Can be done with: giving a speech, driving a car

Question 12

Reactions during aversive perception differ for SCL and HR. Explain this further:

Answer 12

If something is more arousing, skin conductance level goes up.
This is not completely the same for HR.
Initially, heart rate decelerates at low arousal for sensory processing (for imagery and anticipation for example), but later accelerates at high arousal for classic fight-or-flight

Question 13

What are the three sources of emotion information in studies? And what might be the fourth?

Answer 13

1. Observations of behaviour
2. Physiology
3. Self-reports
4. Conscious awareness

Question 14

The biphasic model has 2 components:

Answer 14

Arousal

• emotion intensity
• strength of activation
• of motivational systems

Valence

• motivational direction
• hedonic valence (desirability)