Mood Flashcards
1
Q
Emotion
A
- Neural and physiological states in response to internal or external events (associated with particular thoughts and behaviours)
→ accompanied by by feelings, defined as our conscious perception of these states (can be pleasant or unpleasant)
2
Q
Mood
A
- Also known as “affect”
- longer duration than emotion (less intense and less directly related to external stimuli)
- bipolar model: two poles of a single dimension, positive and negative emotion/mood being on opposite poles
3
Q
Basic emotion theory
A
- Classifies emotion into a small number of basic categories (happiness, anger, etc.)
→ more specific feelings (contempt, rage, pain etc. as variations of anger) are clustered within one of these categories - basic emotions map onto specific facial expressions and body language
→ emotions are perceived by comparing expressions to prototypes
4
Q
Valence-arousal theory
A
- Believes emotion can be divided into two dimensions: valence and arousal
→ valence (affect): whether the emotion is positive or negative - specific emotions are categorized by their level of each dimension (tense = high arousal, low valence)
- many different relationships between valence and arousal are possible
→ independent: linear, v-shaped (biased or unbiased), closest to reality
→ very high or low valence is associated with high arousal
→ neutral valence is associated with low arousal - it is possible for positive and negative affect to be treated as independent (often measured separately)
→ Quasi-independent: small negative correlations between ratings of positive and negative emotions within specific time-periods
5
Q
Explanation for emotions
A
- Linking the body to the world to create meaning: a cognitive interpretation of bodily states and its relation to events in the world around us
- regulation action: affect helps us self-regulate our physiology and behaviour
- communication: emotions provide a means for describing our state to others and being able to perceive their states
- social influence: emotions allow us to regulate other people
6
Q
What makes mood “disordered”
A
- When you make incorrect conclusions about what things mean
- failure to regulate your body (becomes dysregulated)
7
Q
Emotion-cognition interactions
A
- Lots of evidence that emotion affects cognition and that cognition can regulate emotion
- regions of the brain responsible for emotion and cognition overlap and interact (shared resources, effects on motivation and learning)
8
Q
Dual-competition theory
A
- If emotion and cognition share neural resources and these resources are limited, then they will compete for use of these resources
- emotion can enhance or impair performance depending on now it interacts with cognitive control processes
9
Q
Broaden and build
A
- People are biased towards processing positive information
→ negative stimuli are aversive (we avoid them) and positive stimuli are attractive (we prefer them) - emotions affect our “thought-action repertoire”
→ people experiencing positive affect are more flexible, creative, and accepting in terms of thinking and behaviour (can imagine more opportunities and consider more options)
→ positive emotions help people build and maintain resilience to averse events or situations (positive reframing of circumstances)
10
Q
Shielding-shifting dilemma
A
- Shielding: the ability to shield a cognitive process or task from distraction
- shifting: the ability to respond to new information and switch processes/tasks
- positive emotions seem to weaken shielding (greater distractibility) but allow for easier shifting
11
Q
Importance of emotion-cognition interactions
A
- Emotions have many implications for our thinking and behaviour (vice versa)
- deviance and dysfunction in how our brain processes emotion or experience mood will affect cognition and behaviour (attention, motivation, concentration, reactivity to stimuli, overall activity levels etc.
