Unit 5.2: Emotions

Question 1

Which are the components of emotions

Answer 1

feelings
bodily changes
action tendencies

Question 2

Why are emotions important for personality psychology?

Answer 2

emotions are useful to distinguish among people
understanding why people differ in emotional reactions is part of understanding personality

Question 3

What are emotional states?

Answer 3

transitory
specific cause (usually originating outside the person)

Question 4

What are emotional traits?

Answer 4

Pattern of emotional reactions that a person consistently experiences across a variety of life situations

Question 5

categorical approach

Answer 5

emotions as a small number of primary and distinct emotions
different criteria for defining emotions as primary

Question 6

Is the concept of primary emotions equally accepted as the big 5 or HEXACO models?

Answer 6

no, there’s no scientific consensus on primary emotions as there is with traits

Question 7

Dimensional approach

Answer 7

empirical research
subjects rate themselves on variety of emotions, researchers apply statistical techniques to identify basic dimensions
two primary dimensions: pleasantness & arousal

Question 8

content of emotional life

Answer 8

specific kind of emotion
pleasant vs unpleasant

Question 9

style of emotional life

Answer 9

the way in which emotions are experienced
high vs low activation

Question 10

two components of emotions

Answer 10

cognitive/ life-satisfaction component: judgments that one’s life has meaning
affective/ hedonic component: ratio of positive vs negative emotions averaged over time

Question 11

Easterlin paradox

Answer 11

happiness varies with income across nations, but over time happiness doesn’t tend to increase with income

Question 12

What conclusion can we draw from the easterlin paradox?

Answer 12

being able to meet basic needs of life appears crucial

Question 13

indirect pathway between personality and well-being

Answer 13

personality predisposes an individual toward particular life events
-> experience creates emotional response
-> influences level of well being

Question 14

direct link between personality and well-being

Answer 14

traits immediately influence experienced affect
-> personality traits amplify life events
-> stronger positive or negative emotions for high extraversion/ neuroticism subjects

Question 15

What is anxiety?

Answer 15

an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes, like increased blood pressure

Question 16

What can be said about the effects of low vs severe anxiety?

Answer 16

low: adaptive function, warning signal for impending harm
severe: anxiety disorders, interfere with daily functioning

Question 17

state anxiety

Answer 17

unpleasant emotional arousal in face of threatening demands
transient feelings of anxiety at given moment

Question 18

trait anxiety

Answer 18

predisposition to respond with anxiety in anticipation of threatening situations
tendency to appraise situations as threatening

Question 19

Which dimension of the big 5 influences anxiety the most?

Answer 19

neuroticism

Question 20

What are the styles of information processing that cause neuroticism?

Answer 20

attending, thinking and remembering

Question 21

Depression

Answer 21

involves feelings of sadness, hopelessness and apathy
depressed person loses interest in almost everything
everybody has those feelings at one point or another

Question 22

diathesis-stress model

Answer 22

the stressful event and a pre-existing vulnerability have to be present to evoke depression

Question 23

Beck’s cognitive theory

Answer 23

vulnerability lies in particular cognitive schema
-> depressive cognitive schema related to self-fulfilling prophecy (e.g. everything will fail; confirmation bias)

Question 24

What are core aspects of Beck’s cognitive theory?

Answer 24

cognitive triad (self, world, future)
overgeneralization

Question 25

Affect intensity as an emotional style

Answer 25

to characterize a person’s emotional style we must inquire about typical intensity of emotional experiences

Question 26

How do people differ?

Answer 26

relative amounts of positive and negative emotional content
stylistic intensity of emotional experience

Question 27

What is the self-concept and how long does it take to be formed?

Answer 27

basis for self understanding and answer to the question “what am I?”
takes years

Question 28

Which schemas are involved in the self-concept?

Answer 28

self-schema: cog. representation of self-concept
possible selves: ideas people have about who they might become

Question 29

Self-esteem

Answer 29

general (affective) evaluation of self-concept elements along good-bad and like-dislike dimensions

Question 30

Social identity

Answer 30

self that is shown to others
help others build an impression on us

Question 31

What’s the difference between self-concept and identity

Answer 31

identity involves socially observable expression of the self