EMOTIONS, STRESS, AND

HEALTH Emotion =

a response of the whole organism physiological arousal expressive behaviors

conscious experience

Primary•fear•anger•happiness•sadness•surprise•disgust

Find the red dot then click on it to move on...

THEORIES OF EMOTION

Does your heart pound because you are afraid...

or Are you afraid because you

feel your heart pounding?

JAMES-LANGE THEORY OF EMOTION

Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

Fear(emotion)

Poundingheart

(arousal)

Sight of oncoming

car(perception of

stimulus)

CANNON-BARDTHEORY OF EMOTION

Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger:

physiological responses

subjective experience of emotion

Sight of oncoming

car(perception of

stimulus)

Poundingheart

(arousal)

Fear(emotion)

Think – C and B in the alphabet at the

same time

So now, you might be asking yourself which one is it?Does the emotion come after, before, or at the same time of physiological arousal?

SCHACHTER’S TWO-FACTOR

THEORY OF EMOTION

To experience emotion one must:

be physically aroused

cognitively label the arousal

babies?

Cognitivelabel

“I’m afraid”

Fear(emotion)

Sight of oncoming

car(perception of

stimulus)

Poundingheart

(arousal)

COGNITION AND EMOTION

The brain’s shortcut for emotions

THE BRAIN & EMOTION 1) Limbic system

the amygdala-

-a neural key to fear learning

thalamus

- switchboard

hypothalamus

- hunger, thirst, sex, _______ (4 F’s)

frontal cortex- organize/process

2) Hemispheric speciality

Right = negativeLeft = positive

left frontal lobe +++

So which system mobilizes your body for action and which one for calming afterward?

EMOTION AND PHYSIOLOGY

Autonomic Nervous System controlsphysiological arousal

Sympathetic (arousing)

Pupils dilate

Decreases

Perspires

Increases

Accelerates

Inhibits

Secrete stresshormones

Parasympathetic (calming)

Pupils contract

Increases

Dries

Decreases

Slows

Activates

Decreasessecretion of

stress hormones

EYES

SALIVATION

SKIN

RESPIRATION

HEART

DIGESTION

ADRENALGLANDS

AROUSAL AND PERFORMANCE

Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks

Yerkes-Dodson

EMOTION-LIE DETECTORS

Polygraph machine commonly

used in attempts to detect lies

measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion perspiration cardiovascular breathing changes

Control QuestionUp to age 18, did you ever physically harm anyone?

Relevant QuestionDid [the deceased] threaten to harm you in any way?

Relevant > Control --> Lie

EMOTION--LIE DETECTORS

Is 70% accuracy good?

Assume 5% of 1000 employees actually guilty

test all employees

285 will be wrongly accused

What about 95% accuracy?

Assume 1 in 1000 employees actually guilty

test all employees (including 999 innocents)

50 wrongly declared guilty

1 of 51 testing positive are guilty (~2%)

OPPONENT PROCESS THEORY

Preserve homeostasis We are motivated to seek stimuli

that makes us feel emotion, after which an opposing motivational force brings us back in the direction of a baseline.

After repeated exposure, we begin to habituate,

i.e., thrill-seeking, fear=rush=calm

EXAMPLE

If you are frightened by a “mean” dog, the emotion of fear is expressed and relief is suppressed. If the fear-causing stimulus continues to be present, after a while the fear decreases and the relief intensifies. If the dog doesn’t move, your fear would decrease and relief that the dog didn’t attack would increase. If the stimulus is no longer present, then the first emotion disappears and is replaced with the second emotion. If the dog turns and runs away, you are no longer afraid, but rather feel very relieved.

Emotions and Physiology

Fear and rage do evoke similar increased heart rate, but different facial muscles.

Fear and joy have differing finger temperatures and hormone secretions.

So, who’s right? James-Lange? Cannon-Bard?

FURTHER RESEARCH

Zajonc & LeDoux

Some responses are immediate without any appraisal.

Lazarus, Schachter, Singer

It’s often our “interpretations” that evoke emotion.

EXPRESSED EMOTION

People more speedily detect an angry face than a happy one. (Ohman, 2001a)

EXPRESSED EMOTIONGender and

expressiveness

Women better than

men in understanding

non-verbal cues

. Sensitivity increases

with age

Men Women

Sad Happy ScaryFilm Type

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

Number of Expressions

EXPRESSED EMOTION

Nature Nurture

. temperament . shyness of Orientals

. genes . boisterousness of Irish

. Eskimos almost never express anger

EXPRESSED EMOTION Culturally universal expressions

A smile’s a smile the world around!

EXPERIENCED EMOTION

FEARANGER HAPPINESS

How many emotions are there?

Carroll Izard

10

JoyInterest-Excitement

SurpriseSadnessAnger

DisgustContempt

FearShameGuilt

?

EXPERIENCED EMOTION

Infants’ naturally occurring emotions

joy anger interest

disgust surprise sadness fear

FEARFUNCTION

poisonous, adaptive, protects from harm/injury, helps focus, real/imagine enemies, improve sensory input

LEARNED?

BIOLOGY

conditioning, observation

. amygdala

. sympathetic nervous system . genes

Subjective Well-Being self-perceived happiness or

satisfaction with life (optimist vs. pessimist)

used along with measures of objective well-being physical and economic indicators to

evaluate people’s quality of life

So does money buy happiness?

HAPPINESS

EXPERIENCED EMOTION

Catharsis emotional release catharsis hypothesis

“releasing” aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

Feel-good, do-good phenomenon people’s tendency to be

helpful when already in a good mood

HAPPINESS

Does money buy happiness?

Year

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Averageper-person

after-tax incomein 1995 dollars

Percentagedescribingthemselves asvery happy

$28,000$19,000$18,000$17,000$16,000$15,000$14,000$13,000$12,000$11,000$10,000

$9,000$8,000$7,000$6,000$5,000$4,000

1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2005

Percentage very happy

Personal income

So Why Doesn’t Money Buy Happiness?

Adaptation-level Phenomenon

Like an addiction, once we have more we want more; as we adjust to that new lifestyle, we want a newer, better one!

Relative deprivation

HAPPINESS IS...Researchers Have Found That Happy People Tend toHave high self-esteem (in individualistic countries)

Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable

Have close friendships or a satisfyingmarriage

Have work and leisure that engagetheir skills

Have a meaningful religious faith

Sleep well and exercise

However, Happiness Seems Not Much Related to Other Factors, Such as

Age

Gender (women are more often depressed, but also more often joyful)

Parenthood (having children or not)

Physical attractiveness

EMOTION & STRESS

Stress the process by

which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

Catastrophes, Significant Life Changes, Daily Hassles

STRESS AND ILLNESS

General Adaptation Syndrome Selye’s concept

of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three stages

A

R

E

Stressresistance

Phase 1Alarm

reaction(mobilize

resources)

Phase 2Resistance(cope with stressor)

Phase 3Exhaustion(reservesdepleted)

The body’s resistance to stress canlast only so long before exhaustion sets in

Stressoroccurs

STRESS AND THE HEART

Type A

Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people

Type B Friedman and Rosenman’s term for

easygoing, relaxed people

STRESS AND DISEASE

Negative emotions and health-related consequences

Unhealthy behaviors(smoking, drinking,

poor nutrition and sleep)

Persistent stressorsand negative

emotions

Release of stresshormones

Heartdisease

Immunesuppression

Autonomic nervoussystem effects

(headaches,hypertension)

HOW DO YOU SPELL RELIEF?

1) exercise

2) social support groups

3) meditation

4) tend & befriend

5) rehearse forgiveness

VOCABULARY REVIEW

___emotion a. easy-going relaxed people

___stress b. emotion is experienced by physiologic arousal and labeling that arousal

___g.a.s. c. hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, anger-prone

___Cannon-Bard d. emotion = awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

___James-Lange e. Hans Seyle’s concept of the body’s response to stress – alarm, resist, exhaust

___Schachter-Singer 2-factor f. process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, threatening/challenging

___Type A g. a response of the whole organism involving physiology, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience

___Type B h. emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously triggers physiologic and subjective experience of emotion

VOCABULARY REVIEW

___emotion a. easy-going relaxed people

___ stress b. emotion is experienced by physiologic arousal and labeling that arousal

___ g.a.s. c. hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, anger-prone

___ Cannon-Bard d. emotion = awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

___ James-Lange e. Hans Seyle’s concept of the body’s response to stress – alarm, resist, exhaust

___ Schachter-Singer 2-factor f. process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, threatening/challenging

___ Type A g. a response of the whole organism involving physiology, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience

___ Type B h. emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously triggers physiologic and subjective experience of emotion

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!