Emotion, Stress, and Health

1. Emotion, Stress, and Health

2. Concept of Emotion Definition: a class of subjective (personal) feelings elicited by stimuli that have high significance to an individual • stimuli that produce high arousal generally produce strong feelings • are rapid and automatic • emerged through natural selection to benefit survival and reproduction

3. Theories of Emotion Emotions are a mix of • physiological activation (heart pounding) • expressive behaviors (quickened pace) • conscious experience (is this a kidnapping?!?!)

4. Common-Sense Theory Stimulus (Tiger) Perception (Interpretation of stimulus-- danger) Emotion (Fear) Bodily arousal (Pounding heart) Theories of Emotion 1. Common sense - perception of a stimulus elicits emotion which then causes bodily arousal Perception (Uh, oh, I’m getting the “look”)

5. Stimulus (Jason) Perception (Interpretation of stimulus-- danger) Bodily arousal (Pounding heart) Emotion (Fear) 2. James-Lange Theory of Emotion • William James and Carl Lange. • We feel emotion because of biological changes caused by stress. • The body changes and our mind recognizes the feeling. Perception (Most people die Friday the 13th movies)

6. 3. Cannon-Bard Theory • In conflict with James-Lange, Walter Cannon-Phillip Bard stated that similar physiological changes correspond with drastically different emotional states such as love, fear, and anger. Fear Love

7. 3. Cannon-Bard Theory • The physiological change and cognitive awareness must occur simultaneously. • They believed it was the thalamus (switch board operator) that helped this happen.

8. 4. Two-Factor Theory of Emotion • Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer • They happen at the same time but… • People who are already physiologically aroused experience more intense emotions than unaroused people when both groups are exposed to the same stimuli. • Biology and Cognition interact with each other to increase the experience.

9. Stimulus (Tiger) Perception (Interpretation of stimulus-- danger) Bodily arousal (Pounding heart) Emotion (Fear) Type Intensity 4.Two-Factor Theory of Emotion • Perception and thought about a stimulus influence the type of emotion felt • Degree of bodily arousal influences the intensity of emotion felt

10. Theories of Emotion Summary • Common sense • James Lange • Cannon Bard • Two Factor (Schachter and Singer)

11. Emotions and Autonomic Nervous System • Emotional experience (tiger attack) • Autonomic nervous system mobilizes energy in the body that arouses us. • Gets us moving when “the going gets tough”.

12. The Nervous System

13. Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Sympathetic Nervous System: Division of the ANS that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations. “Fight or Flight” Parasympathetic Nervous System: Division of the ANS that calms the body, conserving its energy.

14. Sympathetic NS “Arouses” (fight-or-flight) Parasympathetic NS “Calms” (rest and digest)

15. High Arousal • Arousal response - pattern of physiological change that helps prepare the body for “fight or flight”. • muscles tense, heart rate and breathing increase, release of endorphins, focused attention • can be helpful (instinctive, well-practiced or physical tasks) • harmful novel, creative, or careful judgment tasks

16. Easy task Quality of performance Moderately difficult task Very difficult task Degree of arousal Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908) • Some arousal is necessary • High arousal is helpful on easy tasks • As level of arousal increases, quality of performance decreases with task difficulty • Too much arousal is harmful

17. Arousal and Performance Arousal in short spurts is adaptive. We perform better under moderate arousal, but optimal performance varies with task difficulty.

18. Physiological Similarities and Difference among Specific Emotions Similar: emotion responses fear, anger, and love. Differences: amygdala shows in activation during the emotions of anger and rage. • Activity of the left hemisphere (happy) is different from the right (depressed) for emotions. • Physical responses, like finger temperature and movement of facial muscles, change during fear, rage, and joy.

19. Cognition Can Define Emotion An arousal response to one event “spillover” into our response to the next event (Schachter and Singer). Arousal from your team winning the championship can fuel excitement, which may lead to rioting.

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

21. Cognition Does Not Always Precede Emotion Fearful eyes were presented subliminally fMRIscans revealed higher levels of activity in the amygdala (Whalen et al. 2004). Courtesy of Paul J. Whalen, PhD, Dartmouth College, www.whalenlab.info

22. Dual Processing of Emotion: Zajonc/LeDoux – some responses are immediate, before any conscious appraisal. Lazarus/Schachter-Singer – appraisal allows us to label our emotions

23. Expressed Emotion Emotions are expressed on the face, by the body, and by the intonation of voice. Most of us are good at deciphering emotions through non-verbal communication. Example: In a crowd of faces a single angry face will “pop out” faster than a single happy face (Fox et al. 2000).

24. Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory • Each basic emotion is associated with a unique facial expression • Sensory feedback from the expression contributes to the emotional feeling

25. Lie to Me

26. Average happiness score Average anger score Facial expression Facial expression Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory Facial expressions have an effect on self-reported anger and happiness

27. Temperature change (degrees C) Heart rate change (beats per minute) (a) (b) Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory Facial expressions can produce effects on the rest of the body

28. Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior Women are much better at discerning nonverbal emotions than men. When shown sad, happy, and scary film clips women expressed more emotions than men.

29. Detecting and Computing Emotion 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. Dr. Paul Elkman, University of California at San Francisco Which of Paul Ekman’s smiles is genuine?

30. Hindu Dance In classical Hindu dance, the body is trained to effectively convey 10 different emotions. Network Photographers/ Alamy

31. Culture and Emotional Expression When culturally diverse people were shown basic facial expressions, they did fairly well at recognizing them (Ekman & Matsumoto, 1989). Elkman & Matsumoto, Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expression of Emotion

32. 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. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

33. Analyzing Emotion Analysis of emotions are carried on different levels.

34. The Effects of Facial Expression If facial expressions are manipulated, like furrowing brows, people feel sad while looking at sad pictures. Courtesy of Louis Schake/ Michael Kausman/ The New York Times Pictures Attaching two golf tees to the face and making their tips touch causes the brow to furrow.

35. Experienced Emotion Izard (1977) isolated 10 emotions. Most of them are present in infancy, except for contempt, Shame, and guilt. Bob Daemmrich/ The Image Works Patrick Donehue/ Photo Researchers, Inc. Tom McCarthy/ Rainbow Lew Merrim/ Photo Researchers, Inc. Marc Grimberg/ The Image Bank Nancy Brown/ The Image Bank Michael Newman/ PhotoEdit

36. Dimensions of Emotion People generally divide emotions into two dimensions.

37. Fear 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.

38. Learning Fear We learn fear in two ways, either through conditioning and/or through observation. Watson (1878-1958) By Monika Suteski

39. 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 National Geographic Magazine and Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) at UCLA. Art and brain modeling by Amanda Hammond, Jacopo Annese, and Authur Toga, LONI; spider art by Joon-Hyuck Kim

40. Anger Anger “carries the mind away,” (Virgil, 70-19 B.C.), but “makes any coward brave,” (Cato 234-149 B.C.).

41. Causes of Anger • People generally become angry with friends and loved ones who commit wrongdoings, especially if they are willful, unjustified, and avoidable. • People are also angered by foul odors, high temperatures, traffic jams, and aches and pains.

42. Catharsis Hypothesis Venting anger through action or fantasy achieves an emotional release or “catharsis.” Expressing anger breeds more anger, and through reinforcement it is habit-forming.

43. Cultural & Gender Differences • Boys respond to anger by moving away from that situation, while girls talk to their friends or listen to music. • Anger breeds prejudice. The 9/11 attacks led to an intolerance towards immigrants and Muslims. • The expression of anger is more encouraged in cultures that do not promote group behavior than in cultures that do promote group behavior. Wolfgang Kaehler

44. 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.

45. Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon When we feel happy we are more willing to help others.

46. 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. http://web.fineliving.com

47. 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.

48. Emotional Ups and Downs Over the long run, our emotional ups and downs tend to balance. Although grave diseases can bring individuals emotionally down, most people adapt. Courtesy of Anna Putt

49. 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.

50. Wealth and Well-being In affluent societies, people with more money are happier than people who struggle for their basic needs. People in rich countries are happier than people in poor countries. A sudden rise in financial conditions makes people happy. However, people who live in poverty or in slums are also satisfied with their life.