Emotion

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Emotion

Emotions are our body’s adaptive response.

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Theories of Emotion

Emotions are a mix of 1) physiological activation, 2) expressive behaviors, and

3) conscious experience.

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Big Questions

1) Does physiological arousal precede or follow your emotional experience?

2) Does cognition (thinking) precede emotion (feeling)?

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Commonsense View

When you become happy, your heart starts beating faster. First comes conscious

awareness, then comes physiological activity.

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Bob

Sach

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James-Lange Theory

William James and Carl Lange proposed

an idea that was diametrically opposed to the common-sense

view. The James-Lange Theory proposes that

physiological activity precedes the

emotional experience.

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Cannon-Bard Theory

Walter Cannon and Phillip Bard

questioned the James-Lange Theory and proposed that

an emotion-triggering stimulus

and the body's arousal take place

simultaneously.

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Two-Factor Theory

Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer

proposed yet another theory

which suggests our physiology and

cognitions create emotions. Emotions have two factors–physical arousal

and cognitive label.8

Schachter’s Two-Factor (cont.)

Swinging Bridge Study

Would you like my phone

number?

Reviewing the three

Emotion follows (lags behind) arousal

Emotion occurs at the same time as arousal

Arousal + Cognitive label Emotion

Do we always think before we feel? Babies can imitate emotional expressions at

12 days of age Yet do not have the cognitive ability to label an

emotion

Babies respond to situations without taking time to interpret and evaluate them

Some emotions are not clear-cut Sometimes we don’t know what we are feeling!

Challenge to Cognition

Some emotions provide facial movements and body postures that are unlearned Sometimes these are independent of conscious

thought When information about these things reaches

our brain, we automatically experience the emotion

Carol Izard

We know that emotions involve bodily responses. Some of these responses are

very noticeable (butterflies in our stomach when fear arises), but others are more

difficult to discern .

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Embodied Emotion

Emotions and Autonomic Nervous System

During an emotional experience, our autonomic nervous system mobilizes energy in the body that arouses us.

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Arousal and Performance

We perform better under moderate arousal, but optimal performance varies with task

difficulty.

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YERKES-DODSON LAW: Inverted U

Physiological Similarities

Physiological responses related to the emotions of fear, anger, love, and

boredom are very similar.

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Excitement and fear involve a similarphysiological arousal.

M. G

recco/ Stock Boston

Physiological Differences

Physical responses, like finger temperature and movement of facial muscles, change during fear,

rage, and joy.

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The amygdala shows differences in activation during the emotions of anger and rage. Activity of the left hemisphere (happy) is different from

the right (depressed) for emotions.

What is the connection between how we think (cognition) and how we feel (emotion)?

Can we change our emotions by changing our thinking?

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Cognition and Emotion

Cognition Can Define Emotion

An arousal response to one event spills over into our response to the next event.

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Arousal from a soccer match can fuel anger, which may lead to rioting.

AP Photo/ N

ati Harnik

Reuters/ C

orbis

Cognition Does Not Always Precede Emotion

A subliminally presented happy face can encourage subjects to drink more than when

presented with an angry face (Berridge & Winkeilman, 2003).

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Emotions are felt directly through the amygdala (a) or through the cortex (b) for

analysis.

How Many Basic Emotions Are There?

Robert Plutchik – 8 Fear, surprise, sadness,

disgust, anger, anticipation, joy, acceptance

All other emotions are a combination of these

Paul Ekman – 6 Happiness, surprise, sadness,

fear, disgust, and anger What about love?

No corresponding facial expression, but most psychologists agree it is universal

The Biology of Emotion

The Autonomic Nervous System

Review What are its two divisions? What happens when either of these divisions is

activated? Is the ANS more active when we feel positive

or negative emotions? Negative

Why does our body (and our society) put an emphasis on negative emotions?

What Parts of Our Brain Are Active When We Feel Emotion? Amygdala

Helps identify emotional stimuli Begins the arousal response to these stimuli

In 1939 scientists removed the temporal lobes of rhesus monkeys (this includes the amygdala) What do you think happened to the monkeys?

Normally hard to handle After recovery, became tamer with less intense emotions

Amygdala and danger When people look at faces expressing fear, activity

increases in the amygdala When the amygdala is damaged, animals do not respond

appropriately to danger When the amygdala perceives danger it sets off a chain

reaction that activates hormones (pituitary gland), the adrenal glands, and neurotransmission

S.M.

Damage to both amygdalas (from disease) Can recognize happiness, sadness, and

disgust (in photographs) Difficulty in recognizing fear

Struggles to use information from the eyes to read emotion

Insula Region in the cerebral cortex that is found at the

junction of the frontal and temporal lobes Also plays a role in interpreting emotions Experiment:

People with damage to the insula were shown pictures and asked to rate them on a scale of very pleasant to very unpleasant AND how arousing the picture was to them

Result (when compared to the control group): Didn’t rank the pictures as pleasantly or

unpleasantly Showed a decrease in their arousal ratings

Other Brain Structures

Helps process both physical and social pain Social exclusion, etc

Active when processing disgust

Damaged in patients with Huntington’s disease Result?

Cingulate Cortex Basal Ganglia

Cerebral Cortex

Those with damage to their frontal lobe often experience a reduction in fear and anxiety (which can lead to an increase in impulsiveness)

Left hemisphere activity is correlated with the experience of positive emotions; Right hemisphere is correlated with negative emotions

We do not have “happy centers” or “sad centers” in the cerebral cortex

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Dimensions of Emotion

People generally divide emotions intotwo dimensions.

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Fear

Fear can torment us, rob us of sleep, andpreoccupy our thinking. However, fear can

be adaptive – it makes us run away from danger, it brings us closer as groups, and it

protects us frominjury and harm.

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Learning Fear

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We learn fear in two ways, either through conditioning and/or through observation.

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The Biology of Fear

Some fears are easier to learn than others. The amygdala in the brain associates

emotions like fear with certain situations.

Courtesy of N

ational Geographic M

agazine and Laboratory of N

euro Imaging

(LO

NI) at U

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manda H

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NI; spider art by Joon-H

yuck Kim

Catharsis Hypothesis

Venting anger through action or fantasy achieves an emotional release or

“catharsis.”

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Expressing anger breeds more anger, and through reinforcement it is habit-forming.

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Happiness

People who are happy perceive the

world as being safer. They are able to make decisions easily, are more

cooperative, rate job applicants more

favorably, and live healthier, energized, and more satisfied

lives.

Subjective Well-Being

Subjective well-being is the self-perceived feeling of happiness or satisfaction with life. Research on

new positive psychology is on the rise.

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http://web.fineliving.com

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Emotional Ups and Downs

Our positive moods rise to a maximum within 6-7 hours after waking up. Negative

moods stay more or less the same throughout the day.

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Wealth and Well-being

Many people in the West believe that if they were wealthier, they would be

happier. However, data suggests that they would only be happy temporarily.

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Does Money Buy Happiness?

Wealth is like health: Its utter

absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of

happiness.

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Happiness & Satisfaction

Subjective well-being (happiness + satisfaction) measured in 82 countries shows Puerto Rico and Mexico (poorer

countries) at the top of the list.

Nonverbal Communication

Most of us are good at deciphering emotions through non-verbal

communication. In a crowd of faces a single angry face will “pop out” faster than

a single happy face (Fox et al. 2000).

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Emotions are Adaptive

Darwin speculated that our ancestors

communicated with facial expressions in

the absence of language.

Nonverbal facial expressions led to

our ancestor’s survival.

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Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

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Analyzing Emotion

Analysis of emotions are carried on different levels.

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Experienced Emotion

Izard (1977) isolated 10 emotions. Most ofthem are present in infancy, except for contempt,

Shame, and guilt.

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