Week 11 - Emotions

Question 1

What are the 4 components that make up an emotional response? (Use the emotion of fear to describe each).

Answer 1

(1) Cognition - having the understanding that we are in a dangerous situation
(2) Feeling - the actual feeling of fear
(3) Behaviour - the act of running away from the dangerous situation
(4) Physiological Reaction - sympathetic nervous system reacts in ways like our heart rate increasing

Question 2

Who coined the term homeostasis and the fight-or-flight response?

Answer 2

Walter Cannon

Question 3

Which theory of emotion places emphasis on the thalamus and describes the physiological arousal and the emotional response as two independent reactions to a situation?

Answer 3

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

Question 4

Which theory of emotion suggests that the physiological arousal we experience paired with giving a cognitive label to a situation leads to an emotion response?

Answer 4

The Schachter-Singer Theory of Emotion

Question 5

Which theory of emotion suggests that we don’t experience physiological reactions because we feel fear, but rather that we feel fear because we experience physiological reactions?

Answer 5

The James-Lange Theory of Emotion

Question 6

What does the Facial Feedback Hypothesis? Which theory of emotion does this hypothesis support?

Answer 6

The Facial Feedback Hypothesis suggests that our facial experiences can determine or play a role in our emotions. This supports the James-Lange theory of emotion because it holds that the physiological feeling occurs first (facial expression), to which the emotion comes after (anger, sadness, disgust, etc.)

Question 7

What syndrome contradicts the Facial Feedback hypothesis?

Answer 7

Moebius syndrome, which is a congenital neurological disorder that involves underdeveloped cranial nerves (VI and VII / 5 and 6), impacting one’s facial expressions. Despite having this disorder, people report feeling emotions like happiness that don’t reflect their face.

Question 8

What are the 3 problems with James Lange’s Theory of Emotion?

Answer 8

(1) physiological responses do not happen fast enough to be acknowledged by the brain to result in feeling an emotion
(2) People can still feel emotions with the physiological activity to pair with it
(3) we experience similar physiological changes in different emotional states, so one physiological experience cannot cause the feeling of a specific emotion

Question 9

What are the 2 problems with Cannon-Bard’s theory of emotion?

Answer 9

(1) doesn’t consider cognition and perception in how we interpret and experience

(2)

Question 9

What is the problem with Cannon-Bard’s theory of emotion, according to Schachter and Singer?

Answer 9

It doesn’t consider cognition and perception in how we interpret and experience events

Question 10

What are the 3 components to Schachter & Singer’s Cognitive Attribution Model?

Answer 10

(1) If there is an appropriate explanation for one’s feeling of arousal, the person is unlikely to find label that arousal with something else (eg. if someone feels arousal while near a bear, it is reasonable to associate that arousal with fear and nothing else)
(2) If there is no appropriate explanation for the feeling or arousal, person will label their arousal according to the available options they have (eg. if there are other people in the room, they will look to how they are feeling and react the same way as them)
(3) Under identical “cognitive circumstances”, a person will only respond to an emotional experience to the degree that that person is physiologically excited (eg. When crossing a wobbly bridge with an attractive woman at the end of it, male participants were more likely to attribute their highly aroused state to being attracted to the woman, demonstrating excitation transfer. If the bridge was not wobbly, they were not as likely to be attracted to the woman. Therefore, the male participants only responded more to the woman by calling her later if they were more physiologically aroused by the bridge. Male participants who were not that physiologically aroused did not feel the need to respond to their emotional experience)

Question 11

Which theory by Jeffery Gray suggests that emotions lie on a continuum?

Answer 11

The Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

Question 12

Which behavioral system is characterized by the tendency to have “approaching” behavior (extraversion personality trait), low to moderate autonomic arousal, left hemisphere activation in frontal and temporal lobes, and higher dopamine levels?

Answer 12

Behavioral Activation System (BAS)

Question 13

Which behavioral system is characterized by increased attention and arousal, social withdrawal, right hemisphere activation of frontal and temporal lobes, as well as higher norepinephrine (NE)? What personality trait is this system associated with?

Answer 13

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), associated with neuroticism.

Question 14

In a PET functional imaging scan, where would activation most likely occur if one were to listen to tone of a speaker’s voice? What about if they were the listen to the actual words?

Answer 14

Tone of voice –> right prefrontal cortex

Words –> left prefrontal cortex

Question 15

True or false: Lesioning the amygdala would create more intense emotional reactions.

Answer 15

False. Lesioning the amygdala impairs the ability to identify the feeling of fear, and activating the amygdala would induce fear.

Question 16

Describe the Wada procedure experiment. What does this experiment emphasize?

Answer 16

This experiment involved putting the right hemisphere to sleep, and found that individuals were able to remember events, but were unable to remember to emotional experience during that event. This emphasized the lateralization of the right hemisphere for emotion.

Question 17

True or false: Observational studies have found that the left side of our faces tend to be more expressive than the right side.

Answer 17

True.

Question 18

Which atypical disorder is associated with the inability to express the feeling of emotions? How might they describe how they feel when feeling anger?

Answer 18

Alexithymia. When angry, they may say “My stomach hurts” instead of explaining they are angry.

Question 19

Differentiate between absolute stressors and relative stressors? What are their respective responses?

Answer 19

Absolute stressors refer to universal stressors that may stress anybody out, like being chased by a bear, and is an unlearned behaviour.

Relative stressors are stressors individual to the person, and may be learned, such as fear of dogs, worrying about one’s homework, etc.

Absolute stressors would elicit a startle reflex. Relative stressors would elicit a conditioned emotional response (CER) specific to their fear.

Question 20

What would happen if we were to lesion the central nucleus of the amygdala in rats? What if we were to stimulate the amygdala?

What syndrome is associated with a lack of fear in animals? What about in humans?

Answer 20

Lesioning the amygdala…

• abolishment of fear
• no CER
• decreased cortisol

Activating the amygdala…

• increased fear and agitation
• stress induced illnesses and chronic stimulation

Kluver-Bucy Syndrome is associated with a lack of fear in animals, Urbach-Wiethe Disease for humans.

Question 21

What would happen if we were to stimulate the hypothalamus in humans? What about stimulating the amygdala in humans?

Answer 21

Stimulating the hypothalamus causes autonomic responses to fear, such as the physiological fight-or-flight response.

Stimulating the amygdala causes humans to actually report the feeling of fear.

Question 22

What area of the brain gets activated when looking at a disgusting picture? What would damage to this area result in?

Answer 22

The Insular Cortex.

When damaged, it results in the inability to experience and recognize the feeling of disgust.

Question 23

What 3 areas of the brain are important players in aggression? Explain each of their contributions.

Answer 23

(1) The Amygdala
- activation of amygdala triggers intense fear, lesion/damage to amygdala leads to lack of fear

(2) The Serotonergic System
- less serotonin = more aggression, more serotonin = less aggression

(3) vmPFC (ventromedial prefrontal cortex)
- frontal cortex is responsible for decision making and executive functioning
- this area becomes active when making moral decisions, specifically choosing between a utilitarian approach vs. an emotional approach, and those who have damage to their vmPFC are more likely to disregard their emotional approach and choose utilitarian
- also inhibits overactivity of the amygdala