Lecture 9: Emotions and Personality Flashcards
1
Q
What was the case study covered in class?
A
Elliot case study- Had a tumour and part of the tissue was removed in his frontal lobe during surgery. Memory and intelligence in tact but was no longer able to experience emotion. Therapist would have conversation and show stimuli intended to evoke emotion (Elliot knew he was supposed to feel emotions when presented with stimuli, but can’t)
2
Q
What are the 3 components of emotions?
A
- Emotions include 3 components:
1) Distinct subjective feelings or affects (Happy, sad, angry)
2) Bodily changes, mostly in NS (HR, sweating, heavy breathing, Autonomic NS very strongly associated with experiences of emotion)
3) Distinct action tendencies, or increases in probabilities of certain behaviour (probability, not all emotions guarantee a reaction. People learn and regulate their emotions and reactions)
3
Q
What are the issues in emotions research?
A
- Emotional states vs. emotional traits
- – State: is current emotional experience, momentary (measured with self-report)
- –Traits: refers to a general or stable tendency or average over time
- Categorical vs. dimensional approach to emotions
- – Distinct categories of emotions
- – Dimensional approach (empirical view)
4
Q
What is the categorical approach?
A
- Small number of primary and distinct emotions
- Which emotions are primary?
- Lack of consensus is attributable to different criteria used for defining an emotion as primary
- – Facial expression,
- – Motivational property (Approach/avoidance)
5
Q
What is the dimensional approach
A
- Based on empirical data
- Ratings and factor analysis (statistical software distills emotions based on similarity)
- Consensus on two basic dimensions:
- Pleasant/unlpeasant and high arousal/low arousal
6
Q
What is the content of emotional life?
A
- If people experience more positive emotions we would say that the content of their emotional life is positive
- What is experienced?
7
Q
Who’s Happy?
A
- Age (no differences on average. However, recent research has found that older adults experience a boost in SWB)
- Gender (women twice as likely to experience depression and men are more likely to self medicate. Women are happier, on average, than men)
- Marital status (research shows married people are slightly happier but bad marriages are much more detrimental than being single)
- Religion (religious people are slightly happier on average bc it provides social support and meaning to their lives)
- Ethnicity (no specific ethnic group that seems happier however, in specific nations social determinants can make life more difficult)
- Income (only makes you happy to a certain extent)
- Hedonic Treadmill
8
Q
Does money make people happy?
A
- Wealthy country vs. poor countries (it seems strongly associated to happiness)
What about within countries? In very poor countries, economic status predicts happiness; however, once people can afford necessities, increasing financial status isn’t related to well-being. Within affluent societies, economic growth not accompanied by rise in life satisfaction. - Threshold of income
- Absence of health and wealth bring misery but the presence of health and wealth does not guarantee happiness
- Hedonic treadmill (not level of income that makes you happy but how you perceive yourselves relative to others)
- Not linear relationship
9
Q
What were the two different models of the relationship between personality and well-being by Costa & Mcrae?
A
- Costa & McCrae: extraversion & neuroticism
- Two different models of relationship between personality and well being. Their model was supported but correlational.
- Causal models:
- Indirect model: personality causes a person to create a certain lifestyle, and lifestyle causes emotion reactions
- Direct model: personality causes emotional reactions (being extraverted causes happiness)
10
Q
What is the relationship between neuroticism and biology?
A
- Eysenck’s biological theory (tendency of the nervous system to be easily activated)
- Neuroticism and the limbic system
- Limbic system = emotion and “fight-flight” reaction
- Neuroticism is highly stable over time
- A major dimension of personality
11
Q
What are the cognitive theories and how do they relate to anxiety and neuroticism?
A
- Cognitive theories (Beck’s theory of Depression = neuroticism reflects a tendency to evaluate things from a negative prism)
- Reflective of overall cognitive system
- Preferential processing of negative information
- Report more symptoms of illness (influences perceptions of health but not health itself)
12
Q
What is the diathesis-stress model?
A
- Diathesis stress model (some people have a predisposition/vulnerability to be depressed thus, when they are faced with a troubling circumstance they are more likely to develop it)
- Predisposition + highly stressful event
13
Q
What is Beck’s theory of depression?
A
- Vulnerability lies in cognitive schemas
- Dark Triad: Self (negative appraisal about self), World (generalization that everything is bad) and future (nothing will ever be good)
- Leads to self fulfilling prophecy
14
Q
What is the biology of depression?
A
- Don’t know as much as we’d like about the etiology of depression
- Something that is disrupting communication between post synaptic cells and NT’s.
- 3 main NT’s are implicated in depression: Norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine. Idea is that if we replenish levels of NT’s then depressive symptoms will improve. However, there are about 30% who don’t respond to medication.
15
Q
What makes one aggressive?
A
- Underneath aggressiveness, there is hostility
- Hostility and heart disease (Hostiliy predicts coronary heart disease)
