Week 5 Flashcards
How to characterize emotions
- brief, specific psychological and physiological responses that help people meet goals
Give 3 characteristics of emotions
- SPECIFC - respond to specific stimuli
- BRIEF
- PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE
Define moods
- things that may not have a clear or specific reason.
What are emotional disorders?
- often stem from biological underpinnings that have little to do with a specific target.
Why do we have emotions
- help us interpret our environment
- a situation can be construed in different ways and elicit different behaviours
How do emotions prompt us to act? (3)
- gratitude motivates us to reward other for good actions
- anger motivates us to right social wrongs
- guilt motivates us to make amends.
How have emotions changed throughout history?
- society used to be wary of emotions around 2000 years ago
- attitudes have shifted toward viewing emotions as opportunities to respond effectively to situations.
Describe the evolutionary approach to emotion
- human emotional experience comes from patterns of behavior that are beneficial for our evolutionary predecessors.
What is the difference between universality vs cultural specificity?
- idea that some emotions are universal and innate
- but some emotions are specific - cultures have emotional accents or display rules
What are the 6 universal emotions?
- happiness
- sadness
- surprise
- anger
- fear
- disgust
How are our emotional expressions similar to those of other animals?
- expressions of anger resemble threat displays and attack posturing used by other mammals
- ‘open mouth pant-hoot’ in chimps - predecessor of human laughter
- non human primates showing a silent bared teeth similar to our smile.
Describe the conclusion made by Tracy and Robins
- people who are blind from birth show the same expressions as sighted people
How do emotions come to be?
- they are encoded, not learned
Define focal emotions
- emotions that are especially common in a given culture
- eg Japan: modesty
- interdependant cultures: shame and embarrassment
What are idea emotions?
- cultures differ in the emotions they value more.
- Eg in the US: excitement
What are display rules?
- cultural rules that govern how, when, and to whom people express emotion.
Which 2 muscles can stimulate an actual smile?
- zygomatic major
- orbicularis oculi
What is the role of emotions in social relationships?
- non verbal language that helps in social interactions
- help soothe a crying child, reconcile, flirt etc.
- promote commitment through motivation and signaling
Describe study by Hertenstein et al
- 2 pps sat at a table with a black curtain was in front of both
- the pps put their hands through the curtains to a common area
- one pp was instructed to convert a particular emotion by touching the other pps forearm for 1 second
- other pp had to identify which emotion was being represented, by selecting it from a list
How can emotions help us socially?
- can help us feel a part of larger social groups
- rely of emotional expression to signal status in hierarchies, eg anger can signal dominance
Give a few examples in how emotions can help us in social relationships.
- non verbal language, eg soothing a crying child, promoting commitment (signaling, motivation)
How can emotions promote commitment?
- parts of the nervous system (eg oxytocin), related to love, relationships, child bonding etc
What is the finding by Ditzen et al
- couples solved their conflicts more constructively when they inhaled oxytocin.
How can emotion promote confidence and cooperation? (Study example)
- students who were touched we more likely to go to the blackboard to solve a difficult problem
- pro basketball teams that high fives, fist bumped cooperate better and played better)