PSY331 - 2. What Are Emotions and How Do We Study Them?

Question 1

What is Emotion?

Answer 1

Reaction to specific event
cf. drives are internal states
Requires cognitive appraisal of situation
Emotions are a guide to our drive

Question 2

What is Emotion?

Answer 2

Can tell us we are tired, but are distinct
Moods have no source
Don’t last indefinitely, moods persist

Question 3

Components of Emotion

Answer 3

Valence – positive/negative
Eliciting Object – response to
Enables Goal Pursuit
Multi-Component Response

Question 4

Multi-Component Response

Answer 4

Subjective experience (phenomenology): experience it
Core affect
Outward behavioural expression – sweating, bodily responses
Physiological

Question 5

What is Emotion?

Answer 5

emotion is a component process
that’s why it’s hard to define
all can influence emotions we feel
both as antecedent + consequence

Question 6

What is Emotion?

Answer 6

Keltner & Gross
episodic, relatively short term, biologically based patterns of perception, experience, physiology, action + communication that occur in response to specific physical + social challenges and opportunities

Question 7

Theories of Emotion

A. Evolutionary Theories

Answer 7

Evolutionary theories - emotions biologically based
™Darwin - natural selection
animals showed similar expression as humans when reacting

Question 8

Theories of Emotion

A. Evolutionary Theories

Answer 8

Communication: served communication role
anger: bore our teeth to bite as animals
animal signals to our advantage

Question 9

Evolutionary Theories

Answer 9

Emotions help us solve environmental problems:
Evolutionarily recognizable, adaptive problems
Activate adaptive bodily/physiological responses
disgust: recoil, to avoid, shut our mouth + nose
problem back in the day led to disgust

Question 10

Evolutionary Theories

Answer 10

we don’t eat toxins, we survive
first trimester - sensitive to bitterness - adapted to avoid tetragens
we get joy from fruit to get our vitamins
tells us what stimuli will result in what emotion
limited in what causes the emotion, the process, what leads to it

Question 11

B. Social Constructionist Theories

Answer 11

Social constructionist theories = cultural rules of emotion
Driven by societal goals
Reject biological nativism

Question 12

B. Social Constructionist Theories

Answer 12

women allowed to cry

roles ppl are trying to fulfill

Question 13

Emotions are a Component Process

Answer 13

[™Subjective experience]
[Expressive reactions] may be diff
[Psychological reactions] - indication of importance

Question 14

Emotions are a Component Process

Answer 14

[Coping responses] - More influenced by culture

“no single response or subset of responses, which is essential to an emotional syndrome”

Question 15

Emotions are a Component Process

Answer 15

both solve problems - make attachment
functional + adaptive
biological - hardwired
constructionist - current problems in society

Question 16

C. The James-Lange Theory: William James (1884) and Carl Lange (1885)

Answer 16

stimulus-physical-emotion/reaction

“perception of bodily states, as they occur, is emotion” (James, 1884)

Question 17

C. The James-Lange Theory

Answer 17

everything is going to be intellectual state without it
common sense - happens so fast - hard to figure out process
initial reaction + emotion is from interpreting physical reaction

Question 18

C. The James-Lange Theory

Answer 18

bear in circus - changes in physical reaction
recognizing changes is the emotional experience
taking away bodily responses takes away emotions
emotion is the pattern of bodily responses

Question 19

The Cannon-Bard Theory: Walter Cannon (1927) + Philip Bard (1934)

Answer 19

™Subcortical input/categorization of stimulus
stimulus - reaction + emotion
animals even more emotional without connection to body
no need to hear signals from body

Question 20

The Cannon-Bard Theory

Answer 20

Feelings causally independent of physiological arousal + behaviour
brain controls emotion - regulation of emotion

Question 21

The Cannon-Bard Theory

Answer 21

™Simultaneous: physical reaction + appraisal + reaction separate + simultaneously
emotion experienced as all these things happen
take components into consideration to interpret emotion
most think appraisal is missing
adds a predictive value

Question 22

Schachter-Singer’s Two-Factor Theory: Stanley Schachter + Jerome Singer (1962)

Answer 22

™Label our emotions using:
1. Basic level of physiological arousal
2. Cognitive interpretation of label
physical response + cognition = emotion

Question 23

The Schachter-Singer (1962) Experiment

Answer 23

IV1: 2 groups injected with epinephrine + 1 placebo group
IV2: 1 group forewarned about arousal
IV3: Confederate acted euphoric/angry
DV: Ps’ emotional state

Question 24

The Schachter-Singer (1962) Experiment

Answer 24

have to feel arousal first
1 epinephrine group told it was placebo
in euphoric - confederate had fun
angry - confederate getting angry + annoyed
look to environment for explanation for arousal

Question 25

The Schachter-Singer (1962) Experiment Results

Answer 25

Placebo Ps: Same ratio of happiness/anger
Unwarned Ps: Rated own emotions the same as
confederate’s
emotional state matched so used confederate to match
Warned Ps: Contrasted from confederate’s emotions
not matching so they correct

Question 26

The Schachter-Singer Theory

Answer 26

Unspecific arousal - Come up with reasonable explanation
™Cognitive labeling- Experiencing emotion
™Cognitive appraisal, not feeling/physiologies, determines
difference between emotions

Question 27

The Schachter-Singer Theory

Answer 27

misattribution of arousal - misattribute arousal to attraction

Question 28

Cognitive Appraisal Theories

Answer 28

Appraisals - “psychological representations of
emotional significance”
link emotions to immediate cognitive processes:
Evaluation of meaning: good/bad
Causal attribution: why it happened

Question 29

Cognitive Appraisal Theories

Answer 29

Assessment of coping capabilities: determined it’s threatening, i’m rich so i can buy a new car or i’m poor now i’m screwed
can i control it, can i reasonably react, is it actually happening

Question 30

Cognitive Appraisal Theories

Arnold; Lazarus

Answer 30

stimulus-appraisal-physiological changes + action tendencies - emotion
if you don’t think the bear is threatening you won’t feel fear
no emotion without cognition

Question 31

Cognitive Appraisal Theories

Answer 31

intuitive appraisal - subcortical activation - quick impulsive
survival purposes
rational appraisal - consciously thinking about what’s appropriate, how else can i deal with it

Question 32

Cognitive Appraisal Theories

Answer 32

reflective appraisal: not as imperative as intuitive appraisal
attraction/repulsive reaction to object leads to positive/negative schemas
physiologically respond to pictures within seconds
even if shown only to subconscious (millisecond)

Question 33

III. How Can we Study Emotions?

Answer 33

Never observe emotions, only infer them
Emotions = private
internal: relatively diff physiology even if similar (resting heart rate)

Question 34

III. How Can we Study Emotions?

Answer 34

we can only observe signals + brain activation
ppl can fake their emotions
experimental manipulation

Question 35

A. Naturally Occurring Emotions

Answer 35

Correlational research
Use multiple methods:we need to use many methods to convince that it’s real
Problems?

Question 36

Manipulating Emotions

Answer 36

Valenced photographs: pretested photograph repository
Movie scenes: repository of films
Music (tonality/pitch)

Question 37

Manipulating Emotions

Answer 37

™In vivo emotional situations: real life situations - in the emotion
imagining isn’t the same as real life
™Read scenarios

Question 38

Manipulating Emotions

Answer 38

™Memories: more invested in memories, but not the same level of emotion
reflection unlikely the same as in the moment feeling

Question 39

Manipulating Emotions - Memories

Answer 39

Bower’s (1981) associative network model of emotion -
emotions stored as nodes in memory + link to other
info associated with the emotion

Question 40

Manipulating Emotions - Memories

Answer 40

Memories of past events producing same emotion
Verbal labels/descriptions of emotion
Behaviour/physiological reactions

Question 41

Manipulating Emotions - Memories

Answer 41

code in our memory - schemas for each emotion - link experience to each emotion node
link our reactions
Memories include information about one’s emotional state at the time

Question 42

Measuring Emotions

Answer 42

Self-reports - Ps describe emotional feelings, cognitions, behaviours…
subjective experience

Question 43

Measuring Emotions

Answer 43

Physiological measurements - measures of blood pressure,
heart rate, sweating, brain activity, cortisol, hormones…
could be diff causes for increases in heart rate

Question 44

Measuring Emotions

Answer 44

Behaviours - observable actions like facial/vocal
expressions, running away, or attacking
within subject design can alleviate some of the bias on scale

Question 45

Measuring Emotions

Answer 45

facial expressions: quick so hard to get data

use a bunch and use the one that best suits study