Midterm 1 Flashcards
Definition of emotion
A temporary state that includes unique subjective experiences and physiological activity, and that prepares people for action
What are the two ways we measure how feelings vary (multidimensional scaling)
Valence- how positive a feeling is
Arousal- how energetic the feeling is
How can we explain emotions
In relation to other emotional experiences
James Lange theory
Stimulus triggers activity in the body that triggers an emotional experience
What problems did Walter Cannon and Phillip Bard find with James Lange theory
1) emotions can be quicker than physiological responses
2) all sorts of things cause bodily responses without causing emotions
3) to work, every human emotion would have to be associated with a unique set of bodily responses.
Cannon-Bard theory
Stimulus simultaneously triggers bodily activity and emotional experience
What did Stanley Schacter and Jerome Singer observe about JL theory and CB’s observations
Agreed with JL theory that emotions are based on bodily responses
Agreed with cannon and bard that JL theory faltered b/c not enough unique bodily reactions for all possible unique experiences
Two factor theory of emotion
Stimuli trigger a general state of physiological arousal, which is then interpreted as a specific emotion
What type of brain damage did aurora the macaque have and how did this cause her to act
Aurora had amygdala damage. Nucleus in the limbic node responsible for making appraisals. Caused her to become fearless and become less discriminative regarding sex and food.
Appraisals
Evaluations of the emotion relevant aspects of a stimulus
What are the two pathways for amygdala to signal fear
Fast pathway-> from eye to thalamus, then to amygdala
Slow pathway-> from eye to thalamus, then to cortex, then to amygdala
Amygdala recognized if stimulus is relaxant or survival
Cortex conducts slow full scale investigation
What are the two different types of strategies we use to regulate our emotions?
Behavioural strategies: avoid trigger situations
Cognitive strategies: recruiting memories that trigger desired emotions
Examples of cognitive strategies
Suppression: inhibiting the outward signs of emotion
Affect labeling: putting feelings into words
Reappraisal: changing the way you think about an emotion eliciting stimulus to change your emotional experience
Definition of emotional expression and examples
Observable sign of emotional state
Ex. Speech changes
Direction of gaze
Rhythm of gait
What are action units and action units and what were there purpose
Ekman and Friesen catalogue of 46 unique possible muscle movements in the human face. Used to identify emotional state
Which action units create the smile
Zygotic major- pulls corners of lips up
Obicularis oculi- muscle that crinkles outside edges of the eye
Universality hypothesis (Darwin)
Emotional expressions have the same meaning for everyone.
Some evidence of cultural variation against hypothesis. At least 5 emotional expressions are universal
Why do many members of different cultures express emotions in the same ways?
Because worlds are merely symbols whereas facial expressions are signs (signified by emotion)
Facial feedback hypothesis
Emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they signify (smiling because you feel happy)
What are the four ways we regulate our facial expressions
Intensification- exaggerating expressions
Deintensification- muting expressions
Masking- expressing different emotion than you feel
Neutralizing- showing no expression
Display rule
A norm for the appropriate expression of emotion under certain conditions or in certain contexts (cultural norm)
Micro expressions
Very short bursts of facial expressions portraying true emotions during maskin
Facial indicators of emotional sincerity
Morphology- easier to control zygotic major but not obicularis oculi
Symmetry- sincere expressions more symmetrical
Duration- sincere expressions last between .5 and 5 seconds
Temporal patterning- sincere expressions appear and disappear smoothly
Counterfactual thinking
Tendency to imagine an alternative outcome to what actually happened (second place winners less happy than third place winners)
How to spot lying?
-slow speaking
-long time to respond
-respond with little detail
-less fluent and engaging
-more uncertain and tense
-less pleasant
-a “little too good”
Motivation
Psychological cause of an action
(People are motivated toward emotions)
Capgras syndrome
Delusional belief that a person had been replaced by an imposter caused by hippocampus damage or white matter atrophy
Hedonic principle
Claim that people are motivated to experience please and avoid pain
Instinct
Natural tendency to seek a particular goal, without foresight of the end, or previous education in performance
Drives
Internal states caused by physiological needs. Explained why some behaviours onset without the presence of an external stimulus
Drive production theory(Hull)
Organisms are motivated to reduce their drives
Homeostasis
Tendency for a system to take action to keep itself in an optimal state
Hierarchy of Needs(Maslow)
-Most pressing human needs at the bottom and least pressing needs at the top
-people do not experience a need until the needs below are met
-people feel good when needs are met
Hunger
Drive to eat
What are the two signals that control hunger
Orexigenic signal: switches hunger on when insufficient energy
Anorexigenic signal: switched huber off when sufficient energy
-grelin: hormone produced in stomach that switched hunger on
-leptin- chemical secreted by fat cells that switches hunger off