Module 12.1 Flashcards
What is the role of the sympathetic nervous system?
prepares the body for brief, rigorous, “fight or flight” responses
What is the role of the parasympathetic nervous system?
prepares the body for vegetative non-emergency responses
Describe the James-Lange theory of emotions.
theory that an event first provokes autonomic and skeletal responses and that emotion is the perception of those responses
Is physiological arousal necessary for emotions?
No, but it is necessary for strong emotions
Describe pure autonomic failure.
a condition in which output from the autonomic nervous system to the body fails completely or almost completely
Describe the experiment in which people held a pencil between their teeth and lips.
People who hold a pen in their teeth and were forced to smile, were more likely to report amusement or humor than people who just held it between their lip, so they were not smiling.
Summarize the current understanding of the importance of physiological arousal for emotions.
Our perceptions of our body’s actions contributes to our emotions, but the effects of the autonomic system contributes more.
What seems to the functions of the insular cortex?
it is the primary taste cortex and it also is an area that is responsible for disgust
What are the roles of the right and left hemispheres in the detection and expression of emotion?
The right hemisphere expresses and detects emotion; the right is more important for negative emotion
Should you pay attention to your gut feelings? What evidence suggest that they are useful guides to behavior?
Yes; students were shown slides of either snakes or spiders, but were unrecognizable and then were given a shock after either the snake or spider slide. Most of those shocked after spider pictures developed a bigger heart rate increase after spider pictures and people shocked after snake pictures learned and increased heart rate after snale pictures, even though neither group could consciously identify the pictures. And those who were accurate at reporting their heart rate increase, were good at predicting whether they were about to get a shock.
Describe the behavior of people with damage to the prefrontal cortex.
They are often emotionless except for some outbursts of anger and impulsive in their decision making.
