1

2

• Emotions are our body’s

adaptive response

• Emotions are a mix of

1) physiological activation

(heart pounding)

2) expressive behaviors

(quickened pace)

3) conscious experience

(thoughts and feelings)

3

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

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

*Does your heart pound because you are afraid... or are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding?

4

• First comes conscious

awareness, then

comes physiological

activity

• When you become sad,

you start to cry

5

• 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

6

• Walter Cannon and

Phillip Bard

questioned the

James-Lange Theory

• They proposed that an

emotion-triggering

stimulus and the

body's arousal take

place simultaneously

7

• Stanley Schachter and

Jerome Singer

proposed a theory

which suggests our

physiology and

cognitions create

emotions

• Emotions have two

factors–physical

arousal and cognitive

label

Emotion follows

(lags behind)

arousal

Emotion occurs

at the same

time as arousal

Arousal +

Cognitive label

Emotion

Fig. 12.21 Theories of emotion.

• Opponent process theory suggests that any given

emotion also has an opposed emotion

(Fear/Relief or Sadness/Happiness)

• Activation of one member of the pair

automatically suppresses the opposite emotion

•

• But the opposing emotion can serve to diminish

the intensity of the initial emotion

• For 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.

Strong

Neutral

Strong

First experience

(a)

Strong

Neutral

Strong

After repeated experiences

(b)

12

• 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

(neurons activated in the

brain)

13

• During an emotional experience, our autonomic nervous system

mobilizes energy in the body that arouses us

14

• Physiological responses related to the emotions of fear, anger,

love, and boredom are very similar

Excitement and fear involve a similar physiological arousal

15

• Physical responses, like finger temperature and

movement of facial muscles, change during fear, rage,

and joy

• 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

16

• What is the connection between how we think (cognition) and how

we feel (emotion)?

• Can we change our emotions by changing our thinking?

17

• An arousal response to one event spills over into our

response to the next event

• Arousal from a game 7 Stanley Cup loss can fuel anger, which may

lead to rioting

18

• Zajonc and LeDoux

(1984) emphasize that

some emotions are

immediate, without

conscious appraisal

• Lazarus, Schachter, and

Singer (1998)

emphasize that

appraisal also

determines emotions

19

• People’s expressive behavior reveals their emotion

• Emotions are expressed on the face, by the body, and by the

intonation of voice

20

• Most of us are good at

deciphering emotions through

non-verbal communication

• We can usually detect anger in

another language

• We read anger and fear in the

eyes and happiness in the mouth

• In a crowd of faces a single angry

face will “pop out” faster than a

single happy face

21

• Women are much

better at discerning

nonverbal emotions

than men

• When shown sad,

happy, and scary film

clips women

expressed more

emotions than men

22

• Most people find it difficult to detect deceiving emotions

• Even trained professionals like police officers, psychiatrists,

judges, and polygraphists detected deceiving emotions only 54%

of the time

Which of Paul Ekman’s smiles is genuine?

Polygraph

machine commonly used

in attempts to detect lies

measures several of the

physiological responses

accompanying emotion

perspiration

cardiovascular

breathing changes

Control Question

Up to age 18, did you ever physically harm anyone?

Relevant Question

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

Relevant > Control --> Lie

Control

question

Relevant

question

Control

question

Relevant

question(a) (b)

Respiration

Perspiration

Heart rate

50 Innocents

50 Theives

1/3 of innocent declared guilty

1/4 of guilty declared innocent (from Kleinmuntz & Szucko, 1984)

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%)

Percentage

Innocent

people

Guilty

people

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Judged innocent by polygraph

Judged guilty by polygraph

26

• When culturally

diverse people

were shown

basic facial

expressions,

they did fairly

well at

recognizing

them (Ekman &

Matsumoto,

1989)

27

•Analysis of emotions are carried on different levels

28

• If facial expressions are manipulated, like furrowing

brows, people feel sad while looking at sad pictures

• Attaching two golf tees to the face and making their tips touch

causes the brow to furrow

29

• Izard (1977)

isolated 10

emotions

-joy

-interest/excitement

-surprise

-sadness

-anger

-disgust

-contempt

-fear

-shame

-guilt

• Most of them are present in infancy, except for contempt, shame, and guilt

Fig. 12.13 Primary and mixed emotions. In Robert

Plutchik’s model there are eight primary emotions, as

listed in the inner areas. Adjacent emotions may

combine to give the emotions listed around the

perimeter. Mixtures involving more widely separated

emotions are also possible. For example, fear plus

anticipation produces anxiety. (Adapted from Plutchik,

2001.)

31

•People generally divide emotions into two dimensions

Positive

valence

Negative

valence

High

arousal

Low

arousal

pleasant

relaxationjoy

sadnessfear

anger

32

• Fear can torment us, rob us of sleep, and

preoccupy our thinking

• However, fear can be adaptive – it makes us run

away from danger, it brings us closer as groups,

and it protects us from injury and harm

• We learn fear in two ways, either through

conditioning and/or through observation

33

Anger can be caused by a few

things:

1. People generally become angry

with friends and loved ones who

commit wrongdoings, especially

if they are willful, unjustified,

and avoidable.

2. People are also angered by foul

odors, high temperatures, traffic

jams, and aches and pains.

• Anger can harm us as chronic

hostility can lead to heart

disease

34

• Venting anger through action

or fantasy achieves an

emotional release or

“catharsis”

• Expressing anger can be

temporarily calming if it does

not leave us feeling guilty or

anxious

• Often times, Expressing anger

breeds more anger, and

through reinforcement it is

habit-forming

35

• 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

36

•When we feel happy we are more willing to

help others

• Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love: Love is made up of intimacy, passion, and commitment

• Intimacy: Affection, sharing, support, and communication in a relationship

• Passion: High levels of physical arousal in a relationship, especially sexual

• Commitment: Decision to love and stay with another person

• Infatuation: Passion without commitment or intimacy

Fig. 12.24 Sternberg’s triangular theory of love.

• Companionate Love: Intimacy

and commitment without

passion

• Empty Love: Commitment without

intimacy or passion

• Consummate Love: Passion,

intimacy, and commitment

• Liking: Intimacy without passion

or commitment

• Romantic Love: Intimacy plus

passion

• Fatuous Love: Passion with

commitment, but lacking

intimacy

• Infatuation: Passion without

commitment or intimacy 38

39

• 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

• Over the long run, our

emotional ups and

downs tend to balance

40

• 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

41

1. In affluent societies, people with more money are

happier than people who struggle for their basic

needs.

2. People in rich countries are happier than people

in poor countries.

3. A sudden rise in financial conditions makes

people happy.

However, people who live in poverty or in slums are also

satisfied with their life.

42

• Wealth is

like health:

Its utter

absence

can breed

misery, yet

having it is

no

guarantee

of

happiness

43

• Subjective well-being (happiness + satisfaction)

measured in 82 countries shows Puerto Rico and Mexico

(poorer countries) at the top of the list

44

• Adaptation-Level

Phenomenon: Like

the adaptation to

brightness, volume,

and touch, people

adapt to income

levels

45

• Happiness is not only

relative to our past,

but also to our

comparisons with

others

• Relative Deprivation

is the perception

that we are relatively

worse off than those

we compare

ourselves with

46

• Why are some people generally more happy than others?