Lecture week 8 - Emotion 1 Flashcards
what does emotion involve?
– Reaction to an (external or internal) event
– Bodily responses
– Action tendency or readiness
– (Often, but not necessarily) subjective experience
feeling
internal state, we are aware of something happening
difference between emotion and mood
“emotion” refers to an episodic reaction to a specific event,
“mood” refers to more diffuse and long-lasting affective states not necessarily linked to specific events
Darwin’s (1872) view of emotion - what did he assume?
Darwin assumed that emotions:
1) are a class of mental states;
2) are usually caused by emotion-specific appraisals of events; and
3) often cause emotion-specific bodily changes
Hence, the bodily changes that occur in emotion indicate the presence of the mental states
how did Darwin study emotion? What did he find?
He used a range of research methods: intra- and intercultural studies of facial emotion recognition; observations of emotional expressions in children and in blind-born people, and cross- species comparisons of emotional expressions
Based on the data, Darwin concluded that facial expressions of emotions, as well as recognition of others’ emotional expression, is inherited
Darwin said that emotional expression of humans are the product of what?
evolution
What did James assume about emotions?
subjective emotional experience is caused by changes in the body resulting from perception of an important event. A similar view was outlined simultaneously by Lange (1885)
theory of emotions the James came up with?
James-Lange theory
first theory of emotion
James-Lange theory (1884)
if the James-Lange theory was correct, what would be suggested?
if the James-Lange theory is correct then it would suggest there would be emotional change after everything - e.g. drinking coffee might increase heart rate, this would be expected to induce the emotional response of nervousness - however it doesn’t
what did James say the explanation for why emotions are experienced differently is?
Different emotions are experienced differently because they arise from different constellations of physiological responses
the James-Lange theory was later called what?
the peripheral theory of emotions
why was the James-Lange theory later called the peripheral theory of emotions?
because it emphasizes the importance of bodily responses for the emergence of emotions.
what type of approach is the peripheral theory of emotions?
constructivist approach - assumes there is no separate and specialised emotion centre in the brain
for a theory to be a theory, what must it be?
falsifiable
flow chart of James-Lange theory
stimulus –> bodily responses –> emotion
wha did Cannon and Bard hypothesise?
the subjective experience of emotion occurs simultaneously and independently of autonomous bodily changes
what did Cannon and Bard say about emotional events and their effects on the brain?
Particularly, emotional events have two separate effects on the brain:
1) stimulate the ANS to elicit the physiological arousal that prepares the body to respond to a threat, and simultaneously,
2) cause the cerebral cortex to perceive emotions
another name for Cannon and Bard’s theory
the thalamic theory of emotion
why is Cannon and Bard’s theory also known as the thalamic theory of emotion?
they highlighted the importance of the thalamus in triggering emotion and the 2 separate pathways
explain Cannon and Bard’s theory of emotion (1927)
the physiological arousal, mediated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS), is general and non- discriminatory, and is not causal for emotion
Moreover, the brain is capable of eliciting emotion even without receiving information from the peripheral nervous system
While the thalamus controls experience of emotion, the cerebral cortex controls the expression of emotion
flow diagram of Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
stimulus –> (pathway splits at thalamus) –> bodily responses (physiological arousal, mediated by ANS, general and non-discriminatory)
stimulus –> (pathway splits at thalamus) –> emotion (subjective feelings of emotion is mediated by the cerebral cortex)
what did Schachter and Singer propose emotion is determined by? (1962)
determined by an interaction between two components: a physiological arousal and a cognition regarding the recognition to the situation triggering this physiological arousal
what is physical arousal considered to be in Schachter and Singer theory?
undifferentiated by nature, diffuse and non-specific to an emotion
It is the interpretation of the situation which leads to the identification of the emotion felt
Notably, for an emotion to occur, the person needs to establish a link between the physiological arousal and a relevant explanation for the latter
flow diagram of Schachter and Singers (1962) two-factor theory of emotion
stimulus –> bodily responses –> cognitive interpretation –> emotion
bodily responses - Undifferentiated physical arousal non-specific to an emotion
cognitive interpretation - Interpretation of the situation determines the emotion felt
evidence of two-factor theory
To test their theory, Schachter and Singer (1962) had participants received an injection of a solution which will cause palpitations, tremor, and redness of the face, and gave participants either correct, incorrect, or no information about the effects
Then participants filled out a questionnaire in a separate room where a confederate “participant” pretended to behave either cheerfully or angrily after the injection
Result: participants who did not know correctly what to expect from the injection experienced feelings of either euphoria or anger matching the confederate’s behavior
(according to James-Lange theory there should be no differences between the groups as they all experienced the same bodily experiences)
Matsumoto and Eckman (2009) definition of emotions
“transient, bio-psychological reactions designated to aid individuals in adapting to and coping with events that have implications for survival and well-being”
Matsumoto and Eckman (2009) - what they thought in terms of basic emotions theories
They proposed the existence of a limited number of fundamental universal “basic emotions”, each having an evolutionary function (e.g. Ekman, 1982).
More complex emotions would originate as a mixture of these basic emotions (Ortony & Turner, 1990)
Eckman 1992 characteristics of basic emotions
- present in non-human species, be triggered rapidly and automatically, and appear spontaneously & for a short duration
- have specific trigger conditions for each emotion
- have specific patterns of activity of the autonomic
nervous system - have specific patterns of neural activities
- have specific expressive patterns
Eckman 1992 characteristics of basic emotions
- present in non-human species, be triggered rapidly and automatically, and appear spontaneously & for a short duration
- have specific trigger conditions for each emotion
- have specific patterns of activity of the autonomic
nervous system - have specific patterns of neural activities
- have specific expressive patterns
study on facial expression of basic emotions
Ekman (1971) - universality of emotional facial expressions by showing that western facial expressions were well recognised in a preliterate New-Guinea culture
Ekman 1982 - facial expressions considered as pivot in communication between humans
facial expressions of each basic emotion have distinct adaptive functions
Izard and King 2009 - expressive behaviour suggested to be fundamental in child development
basic emotions (Matsumoto and Ekman 2009)
happiness
surprise
sadness
anger
fear
disgust
problems with basic emotion theories
- no consensus about the precise number of basic emotions
- Evidence of the distinctness of physiological patterns of basic emotions has been inconsistent
–> For instance, the patterns of emotional responses of fear and anger did not overlap, but their differences were better explained by appraisal (Stemmler et al., 2001)
–> While fear has been found to be processed by the amygdala and disgust by the insular cortex, amygdala is better thought of as a “relevance detector”, and the insular cortex is not specifically linked to disgust
Evidence for dimensional approach of emotion
Feldman-Barrett (2006) - emotion is functional and very likely the result of evolution which does not necessarily mean that anger, sadness and fear are useful categories
Wundt’s theory (1897) - three basic dimensions to describe emotional feeling were proposed: pleasure/displeasure, excitement/inhibition, and tension/relaxation
A commonly used model today is Russell’s (1980) circumplex, which represents emotion as a subjective experience on two continuous dimensions: valence and arousal
what type of approach of emotion is the circumflex model of affect (Russell 1980)
dimensional approach
circumplex model of affect
scales of arousal (vertical) and valence (horizontal) crossing each other with valence ranging from unpleasant to pleasant and arousal from activated to deactivated.
emotions are around the outside circle
orthogonal positive and negative affect dimensions and the circumflex model of affect
The orthogonal positive and negative affect dimensions emerge after rotating the pleasantness-arousal circumplex model (Watson & Tellegen, 1985)
evidence that positive and negative affects are linked to what?
different neurobiological networks (Rohr et al., 2013)
suggested positive and negative affect correspond to what?
positive affect corresponds to extraversion
negative affect corresponds to neuroticism
(Meyer and Shack, 1989)
criticisms of dimensional theories of emotion
- ability to differentiate between some emotions, e.g., fear and anger, has been questioned
- As these models are based on verbal reports, the bi-dimensional structure may actually reflect the structure of the language
- no real consensus on the elementary dimensions. –> Different proposals of a third dimension have been raised. And Fontaine et al. (2007) have shown with multi-national data that four dimensions are necessary
- The dimensional approach centres only on subjective feeling; yet the underlying elicitation mechanisms are likely not bipolar
types of theories of emotions
basic
dimensional
appraisal
two central premises of appraisal theories
– emotion is an information processing system
– an evaluative cognitive processing, known as appraisal, determines the elicitation of an emotion
characteristics of the evaluations made in appraisal theories
automatic and unconscious
in terms of appraisal, how can different emotions be described?
by different patterns of appraisal
what essentially happens in appraisal theories of emotion?
when an event occurs, an individual would evaluate the event based on a set of standard criteria
Lazarus’ theory of emotion 1990
appraisal process results in identification of a core relational theme ad each theme results in an emotion
2 global appraisal issues in Lazarus’ theory
primary appraisal and secondary appraisal
primary appraisal
whether and how the encounter is relevant to the person’s wellbeing
secondary appraisal
the persons resources and coping options
what is emotion according to schemers appraisal theory? 2001
emotion is multidimensional and comprises five components:
a) a stimulus or situation appraising component enabling the elicitation and differentiation of emotions
b) a physiological component (bodily changes);
c) a motor expression component both in terms of facial and vocal expression as well as posture and gestures;
d) a motivational component including action tendencies (e.g. approaching or avoiding) and finally
e) a subjective feeling component reflecting felt emotional experience
component process model (CMP) - Scherer 2001
cognitive appraisal as a process where we continuously appraise and reappraise our environment
4 stages of appraisal in CPM
1) relevance check
2) implications check
3) coping potential check
4) normative significance evaluation
what does each stage of the CPM contain?
specific appraisal dimensions called stimulus evaluation checks
problems with appraisal theories
The claim that appraisal is a cause of emotion is incompatible with the claim that appraisal is a part of emotion
That appraisal is a cause of emotion is difficult to test, as it requires manipulation of appraisal independent of other variables (e.g. the event)
whether appraisal and emotion are dissociable is questionable
not all theorists accept the idea of automatic and unconscious appraisal, which is difficult to measure empirically
recent development of emotion psychology
The cognitive approaches to emotion (e.g. appraisal theories) dominated the psychology of emotion from 1980s to 2000s, and go on to be widely accepted today
However, with increasing advancement of neuroscience, the neurobiological basis of emotions have been more and more emphasised
In the past two decades, a group of emotion theorists proposed a constructionist approach: that the experience of emotion is a psychological construction, a perspective which has received considerable attention – as well as debate