Psychology of Emotion Exam 1 Flashcards
Plutchik (1982) Definition of Emotion
“An inferred complex sequence of reactions to a stimulus [including] cognitive evaluations, subjective changes, autonomic and neural arousal, impulses to action, and behavior designed to have an effect upon the stimulus that initiated the complex sequence”
Myers & DeWall (2021) Definition of Emotion
A response of the whole organism involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and, most importantly, (3) conscious experience resulting from one’s interpretations
What are Emotions?
- Responses to stimuli (e.g., environmental or cognitive events)
- Functional in that they have a purpose and facilitate action
- Inferred by others rather than objectively observed.
- Four aspects: physiological, cognitive (appraisal), behavioral (expression), and experiential (felt)
What are the four aspects of emotion?
- Physiological
- Cognitive (appraisal)
- Behavioral (expression)
- Experiential (felt)
Classic Theories of Emotion
Focus on how the four aspects relate to each other
James Lange Theory
View that emotions are the labels we give to the way the body reacts in certain situation
1. Stimulus Eliciting Event
2. Physiological Change & Behavior
3. Feelings
- Feelings = awareness of physiological change and behavior
- Emotions instinctive responses to important events in the environment
- Different emotions may have different physiological profiles
- Criticism – You don’t always run away from a snake. The snake cannot be the cause of the running - you see a snake at the zoo, or in toy shop, you don’t run.
James Lange Theory (REVISED)
- Stimulus Eliciting Event
- Initial Appraisal
- Physiological Change & Behavior
- Feelings
- Support for Speedy appraisals
a. Cells in the prefrontal cortex respond differently to pleasant vs. unpleasant visual
stimuli within 120ms (Kawasaki et al., 2001).
b. People subtly mimic happy and angry expressions within 1⁄2 second of seeing the
photo (Cannon, Hayes, & Tipper, 2009; Dimberg & Thunberg, 1998).
c. Photos of fearful expressions can evoke sweating, trembling, even when presented
too briefly for conscious detection (Kubota et al., 2000; Vuilleumeier, Armony, Driver, & Dolan, 2001).
Cannon -Bard Theory
View that the cognitive/appraisal, feeling, and physiological/behavioral aspects of emotion are independent of each other, although they may all be elicited by the same event
1. Simulus Eliciting Event
2. Cognition appraisal, physiological change & behavior
3. Feelings
Two-Factor (Schacter-Singer) Theory
view that physiological arousal is essential for determining how strong an emotional feeling will be, but does not identify the emotion; you identify with which emotion you feel on the basis of all the information you have about a situation
1. Stimulus Eliciting Event
2. Physiological Arousal (Intensity)
3. Cognitive Appraisal (+/- Label)
4. Feelings, Behavior
William James
Different Feelings may be caused by different patterns of physiological changes
Schachter & Singer
Physiological changes are similar across emotions, not specific enough to differentiate them.
** If arousal occurs without obvious stimulus, people will search the environment for explanation
** Still need an initial appraisal to trigger arousal
The Two Factors
Physiological Arousal: Determines emotion intensity
Cognitive Appraisal: Determines type of emotion experienced
Zajonc & Ledoux Theory
- Some Emotions bypass appraisals, especially fear, likes, and dislikes. “Low road” is speedy. Supported with subliminal presentations.
- Stimulus Eliciting event
- cognition appraisal OR Feeling
** If 2 is cognition appraisal then 3 is feelings
**If 2 is feelings it ends there
Emotion Episodes (Emotion and Time)
State that lasts for a limited time
Final Cause and Emotion
Comparative & cross cultural, functional/evolutionary Models
Mood (emotion and time)
State that may last for a few hours, days, or weeks
Disorders (emotions and time)
Weeks, months, sometimes for years (e.g., depression, anxiety)
Personality (Emotions and time)
Once developed can last a lifetime
Motivation
Internal drives, needs, or incentives that energize goal-directed behavior (e.g., hunger, thirst, sex, sensation seeking, rewards)
**Emotion can serve as motivation to engage in behaviors
Basic Emotions Should be…
a. Universal among humans (possibly other animals)
b. Universal innate nonverbal (facial, vocal) expression c. Evident early in life
d. Physiologically distinct brain/body
Causality and Emotion: Aristotle’s Four Causes
- Material
- Formal
- Efficient
- Final
Cause
Explanation for things in the world
Material Cause
“That out of which” the material composition of an object
Formal Cause
“the form” the shape, organization, or design of the object
Efficient Cause
“sources of change” forces that modify the object (e.g. proximate causes)
Final Cause
“That for the sake of which” the purpose of the object (i.e., ultimate cause)
Material Cause and Emotion
Anatomical structures, personality (person is the cause)
Formal Cause and Emotion
Taxonomies of emotions, structure/organization models
Efficient Cause and Emotion
Physiology of emotion, IVs that effect emotions, process models
Humans share a common set of basic discrete emotions. What are they? How/why did they evolve?
Basic discrete emotion are categories of emotional experience, such as fear, anger, and sadness. thought to have evolved in response to specific kinds of threats and opportunities faced by human ancestors…. come back to
Modern Approaches: Formal & Final Causality/ evolutionary and comparative/ James-Lange legacy
come back to
Modern Approach: Emotions are…
- Categorically distinct entities, each serving a different adaptive function
- Coordinate different aspects of emotional responding into a package
- Some emotion categories should be part of universal human nature
Is Appraisal necessary for emotion: The Mere Exposure Effect
a. People consistently form preferences for novel stimuli, simply because of seeing them many times
b. Mere exposure effect has been replicated with Turkish words, random tone sequences, geometric shapes, people, and even with subliminal presentatio
Modern Approaches: Basic and Discrete Emotion Theories
- Stimulus Eliciting Event
- Initial Appraisal
- Cognitive change, physiology change, feelings, action tendencies
- Behavior
Modern Approaches: Core Affect
model for describing the feeling aspect of emotion, emphasizing dimensions of pleasantness and arousal
1. Focus on aspects of experienced “core” emotions
2. Models “map” emotion – e.g., circumplex and evaluative space models
3. Formal causality / multidimensional scaling models / Two-Factor Theory legacy
Modern Approach: Psychological Construction
- Stimulus Eliciting Event
- Valence (Pleasantness), Physiological Arousal
- (Psychological Construction) - Feelings, appraisals, other cognitive changes, action tendencies, observational behavior
- Construction emphasizes feeling as learned interpretations
- Formal causality / Two-Factor Legacy with strong cultural emphasis
- Different aspects of “emotion” are only loosely correlated
- Emotion categories are learned, not innate, universal, or objectively “real”
The Component Process Model
- Stimulus Eliciting Event
- (Appraisals): Expectedness, pleasantness, goal obstruction, certainty, control
- (Emotion): Cognitive Change, physiology change, feelings, action tendencies & behaviors
- Component appraisals combine to determine physiological, behavioral, and cognitive responses
- Formal and efficient causality / Draws on multiple classic theories
- Continuous environmental interpretation using series of generic appraisals, NOT
categorical appraisals like “danger” - Each appraisal has independent effects on cognition, physiology, etc.
- The combined effects across appraisals produce “emotion.”
Appraisal Processes Defined
Subjective interpretation/cognitive evaluation of what a stimulus means for goals, concerns, well-being
Magda Arnold (1960) definition of appraisal
the defining feature of emotion, and cause of emotional behavior
Richard Lazarus (1991)
Appraisals are the cause of emotions but are not the emotions, which also include physiological, motivational, and behavioral elements
Appraisals as an ongoing relationship with the environment
- Appraisals, and thus emotions, are about “ongoing relationships with the environment” (Lazarus, 1991a, p. 5).
- It’s not always possible to describe an emotion as “right” or “wrong,” as appraisals are inherently subjective.
Content of Appraisal: Core relational Themes (Lazarus, 1991)
a. A basic, prototypical kind of problem or benefit that people can encounter in their transactions with the environment
b. Each core relational theme elicits a specific emotion
c. Closely linked to basic/discrete emotion theory
Content of Appraisal: Appraisal Dimensions (Scherer, 2009)
a. A common set of questions used to evaluate the meaning of every stimulus or situation we encounter
b. Appraisal profiles across dimensions are associated with specific emotions
c. Closely linked to component process model
Evolutionary Psychology
the study of behavior, thought, and feeling as viewed through the lens of evolutionary biology. Evolutionary psychologists presume all human behaviors reflect the influence of physical and psychological predispositions that helped human ancestors survive and reproduce
What do emotions involve from the evolutionary aspect of psychology?
- physical and psychological predispositions that
- at one time were functional in that
- they helped our ancestors adapt to environment to survive and reproduce
**Ultimate causes may increase probability of proximate psychology
**Probabilistic rather than deterministic
Charles Darwin’s Major Books on Evolution
- The Voyage of the Beagle (1839)
- On the Origin of Species (1859)
- The Descent of Man (1871)
- The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
a. Expressions similar among human adults, children, non-human animals
b. Emotional expressions are part of human evolutionary heritage
What did Dawin’s theory of Evolution involve?
- Hostile Forces of Nature
- Adaptations
- Natural Selection
- Sexual Selection
Hostile Forces of Nature
impede survival/reproduction (e.g., food shortage,
predators, disease)
Adaptations
Inherited solutions to hostile forces of nature
Natural Selection
Characteristics that help organism to survive/reproduce lead
to more descendants and survive in the species
Sexual Selection
Selection based specifically on benefits to mating rather than
generally for survival
** Involves Intrasexual competition and intersexual selection
Intrasexual Competition
Traits provide advantage members of same
sex competing for mates (e.g., males competing for females)
Intersexual Selection
Traits provide advantage by being desirable to
potential mates – increasing probability of being selected to mate
Gene
Gene – strand of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) provides code for assembling
specific protein used to construct the body and keep it working
Alleles
Different versions of a gene serving the same function; gene combinations associated with traits
Chromosome
Long strand of DNA with many genes, that direct speed, timing of protein construction
Gene Pool
Total allele sites in species (limited, so “competition” for these sites)
Reproduction
For each chromosome (and gene), one copy is inherited from
mother, and one from father
Replication
To make sperm and eggs for reproduction, genes must replicate,
making a copy of themselves
Mutation
A copying error can occur during replication
Adaptation
Beneficial mutations become species-typical through natural
selection; new alleles become a stable part of the gene pool
Bad Mutations
Disrupt important processes, threatening survival or
reproduction; lower reproduction = alleles absent (or rare) eliminated
from gene pool
Good Mutations
Changes in morphology or behavior increase survival
or reproduction; higher reproduction = increased frequency in gene pool
Aspects of adaptive/functional traits
- Increases probability organism lives long enough to have offspring
- Increases number and/or viability of offspring (or offspring’s offspring)
- Increases probability that genetic relatives will survive to have offspring and
increases the number/viability of their offspring - Enhance “fitness”– ability to replicate alleles in the gene pool (i.e., to reproduce)
Personal Fitness
Replication resulting from own offspring
Inclusive Fitness
Sum total of replication achieved through own offspring and offspring of relatives
With Gene pool evolution…
There is no difference between natural selection and sexual selection. Survival is contingent on genes surviving in future generations
Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA)
The time/place in past where/when natural selection favored a mutation - i.e., adaption
Evolutionary Mismatch Theory
Our minds were adapted to he hunter-gatherer Pleistocene, not the modern urban world.
Traits may no longer be adaptive, or may even be harmful (e.g., hygiene hypothesis - allergies, autoimmune disease = lack of exposure to antigens
Evolution of Emotion
- Genes provide us with the capacity to experience emotions
- The genes needed for emotions began as random mutations
- Ancestors with emotions had more viable offspring than those without, and/or
aided relatives so they had more viable offspring - Genes for emotions spread through generations to become typical in humans
If Emotions are Adaptions
a. they are part of human nature
b. other animals may have them as well
c. they were functional for ancestors most of the time, on average, but not necessarily in every situation
d. Emotional mechanisms should work in similar ways throughout the world – exact results may differ, depending context (e.g., culture)
Functions of Emotions: Intrapersonal
“within the person” – Ways in which emotions directly benefit the personal fitness of the individual experiencing them
E.g., Fear promotes escaping from predators and other threats
Functions of Emotions: Interpersonal
“between people” – Ways emotions benefit personal or inclusive fitness by supporting interdependent relationships
E.g., Embarrassment lets others know we value their opinion after an error, making them like us more
The Signal Value of Emotional Feelings
- Affect Infusion Model (Forgas, 1995)
- Emotions signal what is going on in the environment
a. Positive feelings = safety, things in environment are good or valuable
b. Negative feelings = problems, need to slow down to detect and correct it - Aligns with Core Affect model since emotions prime clusters of cognitions
Approach Motivation
Instinctive impulse to move toward a stimulus and take
action (positive emotions, but also anger)
Avoidance Motivation
Instinctive impulse to move away from a stimulus (most
negative emotions)
Emotions as Superordinate Neural Programs
- Human brain includes many information-processing programs or subroutines each
with a specific purpose - Emotions coordinate activity among programs, activating needed programs and
inhibiting others to cope with specific eliciting situations - Most consistent with Basic/Discrete Emotions model
A phylogeny of Emotions
- Phylogenesis refers to the “evolutionary development and diversification of a
species or group of organisms, or of a particular feature of an organism” - Most ancient emotions responded to food (excitement) and danger (apprehension)
- Evolution introduced a wider range of fitness-relevant opportunities, threats
- Emotions became partially differentiated and fine-tuned to address each new
situation - Emotional complexity evolved with us; we share more basic emotions with more
distantly related animals
Methodological Considerations: If you cannot experimentally manipulate experimental conditions, how to test hypotheses based on evolutionary theorizing?
- Demonstrate cross-cultural universality of some aspect of emotion, or at least the psychological mechanism that produces emotional responding.
- Demonstrate that the aspect of emotion is present in non-human animals.
- Use theorized adaptive function to generate hypotheses that would NOT be predicted based on learning, culture.
- Avoid post hoc theorizing – proposing a theoretical explanation for an already-
known phenomenon, rather than using theory to predict a phenomenon in advance.
Nature and Nurture (Evolution AND Culture)
Evolution creates opportunities for environmental influences
Open Behavior Programs
- Imprinting is a simple example – (of a young animal) come to recognize (another animal, person, or thing) as a parent or other object of habitual trust.
Interactionist Perspective
B = f(P,E); Behavior is a function of the Person and the Environment
Epigenetics
the study of how environmental factors and aging can cause changes to gene expression without altering the DNA sequence
Defining Culture
Culture is the “meanings, conceptions, and interpretive schemes that are activated, constructed, or brought ‘on-line’ through participation in normative social institutions and practices (including linguistic practices) … giving shape to the psychological processes in individuals in a society” (Shweder, 1993, p. 417)
System of Meaning in Culture
Cultures are ways of interpreting, understanding, and explaining what is going on in the world around us
a. Reflected in language, rituals, objects with culturally defined meaning
Social Participation in Culture
Appropriate behavior is defined and cued based on cultural
norms in social interactions
Psychological Processes
How we think, feel and behave depends, to some
degree, on the concepts we have learned from social interactions
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Humans require language to think, and therefore
only have those experiences, thoughts, and perceptions for which they have words
a. Implication: People should not be able to experience emotions for which their language has no word
b. Not supported – for example, people around the world can differentiate colors, even when their language does not make the distinction
c. However, language may reflect cultural variations in how emotion is experienced or expressed
Hypercognized Emotions
those for which a culture has an elaborate network of associations and distinctions, leading to increased vocabulary
Hypocognized Emotions
Those for which a culture/language have little
cognitive elaboration or detail
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Emphasis on social vs. unique identity
Independent/Individualism
“the self is an entity that is distinct, autonomous, self-
contained, and endowed with unique dispositions.”
a. Emotions based more on individual actions
Interdependent/Collectivism
“the self is part of a larger social network that includes one’s family, co-workers, and others….”
a. Emotions generalize to actions of family/in-groups
Power Distance: Vertical Society
a. People attend closely to social hierarchy, encouraging emotions and behaviors that respect status differences.
b. More likely to show pride and dominance when winning in sports, bosses/coaches can show anger but not subordinates, etc.
Power Distance: Horizontal Society
People typically minimize attention to status differences, seldom acknowledge status differences publicly.
Horizontal Collectivist
Emphasize connectedness, status not central
e.g., Brazil, Israeli, Kibbutz
Horizontal Individualistic
Emphasize independence, status not central
e.g., denmark, australia
Vertical Collectivist
Emphasize Connectedness, Status important/Hierarchy
e.g., India, Japan, Korea
Vertical individualistic
Emphasize independence, status important/hierarchy
e.g., France, UK, US
Linear Epistemology
Believes that “knowing” something means…
a. knowing what is constant and unchanging about it, how it differs from other things, what is true vs. false about it
b. Common in Western thinking – influenced by Aristotle
c. Emotions are more consistent in valence – all positive or all negative
Dialectical Epistemology
believes that “knowing” something means…
a. reality is always changing, all things are interrelated, not separate, a proposition can be both true and false, depending on perspective
b. Common in Eastern thought – influenced by Confucianism, Taoism,
Buddhism
c. Emotions can be mixed – simultaneously positive and negative
Methodological Considerations: Most studies have compared people in two countries, or people of two ethnicities within one country. Limitations?
- Most research has compared people in the United States or Canada with another country, usually Japan or China.
- Cultures do not always follow national boundaries.
- Culture may influence how people interpret, use rating scales in questionnaires;
same number may have different meaning. - Studying group differences is not the same as studying culture.
Neurocultural Theory of Emotion (Ekman, 1972)
Some emotions are universal – Innate, biological, involve automatic processes
(e.g., arousal, expression)
Display Rules
a. Culture teaches members to suppress or dampen emotional displays b. Eventually, with practice, these responses become habitual (Neurocultural, ekman)
Socially Constrcuted Scripts (Russell, 1991)
- Scripts are cultural beliefs about events, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are
supposed to go together in an episode of experience - Some aspects of scripts may reflect universal, biological human nature
- Other aspects are culturally learned and psychologically constructed – e.g.,
perceived causes of emotion, emotional behaviors
Levels of Analysis (Keltner & Hadit, 1999)
- Emotions have functions at many levels of analysis; functions at some levels are
likely universal, at other levels, more culturally variable - We don’t disagree, we are talking about (studying) different things
Cultural Priming
an experimental manipulation that makes one of a bicultural person’s cultural identities especially salient for a short period of time
Confederate
a member of the research team who pretends to be another participant or unrelated bystander
Culture of Honor
a culture in which reputation for strength, self-reliance, pride, personal integrity, and toughness is an important basis for social standing
By-product
a genetically based characteristic that is neutral, but is the result of a mutation that also causes some beneficial trait and becomes species-typical as that mutation spreads through the population
Social Functions of Emotion
ways in which emotions support committed, interdependent, and complex relationships among people that in turn help us to survive and pass on our genes
Affect Infusion Model
a theoretical model explaining several ways in which affective valence influences judgment and decision making
Behavioral Activation System
a hypothesized system of neural structures thought to support approach toward opportunities and important resources
Behavioral Inhibition System
a hypothesized system of neural structures thought to support avoidance of threats
Superordinate Neural Program
a hypothesized neural “program” that coordinates the activities of many smaller programs, activating those that will be useful for the function of the program and inhibiting those that will interfere
Post Hoc Theorizing
generating a theoretical explanation for information that is already known, rather than using the theory to generate a new hypothesis in advance
Evaluative Space Model
a model of attitudes, proposing that evaluations of some target’s goodness and badness are independent rather than opposites
Psychological Construction
process by which people develop mental concepts linking different aspects of emotion to each other and to eliciting situations; an alternate explanation for the emotion categories used in basic/ discrete emotion theory
Experience sampling
research method in which participants are asked to report on their experience at random intervals throughout the day
Reliability
the repeatability of the results of some measurement, expressed as a correlation between one score and another
validity
whether a test measures what it claims to measure
parasympathetic nervous system
branch of the nervous system that increases maintenance functions, conserving energy for later use and facilitating digestion, growth, and reproduction
sympathetic nervous system
the fight-flight branch of the autonomic nervous system that readies the body for intense physical activity
electroencephalography (EEG)
method in which a researcher attaches electrodes to someone’s scalp and measures momentary changes in the electrical activity under each electrode
Hormones
molecules that carry instructions from the brain to other bodily organs by way of the blood supply
Ecological Validity
extent to which what happens in a study reflects what really happens in everyday life
emotional response coherence
extent to which self-reports of emotion, physiological changes,
and simple behaviors (such as facial expressions) are correlated with each other
appraisal dimensions
appraisal dimensions: a common set of questions used to evaluate the meaning of every stimulus or situation we encounter; appraisal profiles, rather than individual themes, are associated with specific emotion
core relational theme
a basic, prototypical type of problem or benefit that people can encounter in their transactions with the environment (p. 100)
emotion blend
in basic/discrete emotions theory, the simultaneous experience of more than one emotion (p. 102)
primary appraisal
In Richard Lazarus’s theory, the way in which some event is relevant to the individual’s needs and well-being (p. 103)
secondary appraisal
In Lazarus’s theory, the individual’s appraisal of his or her ability to cope with the situation, including who caused the situation, how much control one has over the situation, and the extent to which the situation is expected to change
challenge
a state in which one’s coping resources are appraised as adequate for dealing with the threat posed by a situation; associated with increased cardiac activity, but reduced vascular resistance
Threat
contrasted with challenge; a state in which the threat posed by a situation is appraised as exceeding one’s ability to cope; associated with increased cardiac activity and overall vascular constriction
cognitive-neoassociationistic (CNA) model of anger
theory that anger and reactive aggression are enhanced by any unpleasant event or aversive condition
