Study unit 8.1 Emotion Flashcards
Emotion
1) subjective conscious experience ( cognitive) accompanied by
2) bodily arousal (physiological)
3) characteristics overt expressions (behavioral)
Cognitive component
Depend on individual’s highly subjective report of what they are experiencing.
Cognitive appraisals of events are key determinants of emotions experienced.
Includes evaluative aspect - characterize as pleasant or unpleasant (automatic/subconscious)
Affective forecasting
Efforts to predict one’s emotional reactions to future events.
Accurate in antisipating whether events will generate positive/negative emotions, not the intensity or duration.
Inacurate:
1) Do not fully appreciate how effective people rationalize, discount and overlook failures + mistakes
2) Based on memories of the past
3) Anticipating event, focus on aspects that will change, while ignoring those that stay the same
Autonomic arousal (physiological)
ANS regulates the activity of glands, smooth muscles and blood vessels, fight or flight (release of adrenal hormones)
Polygraph
Device that records autonomic fluctuations while a subject is questioned. Monitors key indicators of autonomic arousal (heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate)
Galvanic skin response (GSR)
An increase in the electrical conductivity of the skin that occurs when sweat glands increase their activity
Neural circuits (physiological)
Hypothalumus, amygdala and adjacent structures in limbic system - seat of emotions.
Amygdala - acquisition of conditioned fears
Sensory inputs capable of eliciting emotions arrive in thalamus, simultaneously routes the information along two seperate pathways: to nearby amaygdala and areas in cortex. The amygdala processes the infor very quickly, if it detects a threat it triggers activity in the hypothalamus, leading to autonomic arousal and hormonal responses.
Behavioral component
Emotions are expressed through “body language” or nonverbal behavior. Facial expressions can reveal a variety of basic emotions.
Paul Ekman & Wallace Friesen
Identify what emotion a person is experiencing on the basis of facial cues in photographs
Facial-feedback hypothesis
Facial muscles send signals to the brain and that these signals help the brain recognize the emotion experienced
Display rules
Norms that regulate the appropriate expression of emotions
William James
Urged psychologists to explore the functions of consciousness. Developed theory of emotion over 130 years, still influential today
James-Lane theory
The conscious experience of emotion results from one’s perception of autonomic arousal.
Different patterns of autonomic activation lead to the experience of different emotions.
Walter Cannon
Physiological arousal can occur without the experience of emotion
Visceral changes are too slow to precede the conscious experience of emotion.
People experiencing very different emotions, exhibit patterns of autonomic arousal that are too similar to be readily distinguished.
Cannon-Bard theory
Emotion occurs when the thalamus sends signals simultaneously to the cortex (creating a conscious experience of emotion) and to the autonomic nervous system (creating visceral arousal)
Stanley Schachter
People look at situational cues to differentiate between alternative emotions. The experience of emotion depends on two factors: autonomic arousal and cognitive interpretation
Schachter’s two-factor theory
When experiencing physiological arousal, search environment for an explanation.
People look to external rather than internal cues to differentiate and label specific emotions
Charles Darwin
evolutionary theories
Emotions developed because of their adaptive value.
Emotions are largely innate reactions to certain stimuli and should be immediately recognizable under most conditions, without much thought.
Emotions evolved before thought. Emotions originate in subcortical brain structures that evolved before the higher brain areas associated with complex thought.
Natural selection has equipped humans with a small number of innate emotions with proven adaptive value.
