Emotion

1. Emotion

2. What is Emotion? • A conscious feeling of pleasantness/unpleasantness accompanied by biological activation and expressive behavior • Includes both biological and cognitive components • Two Dimensions: • Arousal (intensity) • The greater the arousal the more intense the emotion • Valence (positive/negative quality) • Basic Inborn Emotions: • Joy, fear, anger, sadness, surprise and disgust (Ekman’s Research; Microexpressions)

3. Biology of Emotions • Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): Hormonal secretion • Amygdala: influences aggression and fear which interacts with the hypothalamus • Hypothalamus: sets emotional states such as rage • Cerebral cortex & frontal lobe: interpretation of emotions • Left hemisphere: Positive emotions • Right hemisphere: Negative emotions • Body language & vocal qualities change for different emotions

4. Theories of Emotions • Evolutionary Theory • James-Lange Theory • Cannon-Bard Theory • Opponent-Process Theory • Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory • Cognitive Appraisal Theory

5. Evolutionary Theory • Emotions are developed because of adaptive values, allowing the organism to survive by avoiding danger • Animals/humans showing expressions of anger allows us to avoid conflict with them • Knowing how we feel before we know what we think

6. Paul Ekman’s 6 Micorexpressions

7. James-Lang Theory (William James & Karl Lange) • Proposed that our awareness of our physiological arousal leads to our conscious experience of emotion • Believe that we can change our feelings by changing our behavior • Facial-feedback hypothesis: our facial expressions affect our emotional experiences • Smilingpositive moods • Frowningnegative moods • External stimuli activate our automatic nervous systems, producing specific patterns of physiological changes for different emotions that create different emotional experiences • See a mean dogwe run (SNS kicks in)then we realize we are afraid

8. Cannon-Bard Theory (Walter Cannon & Phillip Bard) • Disagreed with James-Lang Theory • Conscious experience of emotion accompanies physiological responses because the thalamus sends information to the limbic system & the cerebral cortex simultaneously interact • See a mean dogrun because we recognize are afraid (happened at the same time) • *the thalamus does not directly cause emotional responses, it relays sensory info. to the amygdala and hypothalamus

9. Opponent-Process Theory • When we experience an emotion, an opposing emotion will counter the first emotion, lessening the experience of that emotion • During repeated occasions, the opposing emotion becomes stronger • When we go bungee jumping the first time, we feel extreme fear and high levels of a “rush”…after multiple jumps, we become less fearful & don’t experience as strong of a “rush”

10. Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory (Stanley Schachter & Jerome Singer) • We infer emotion from arousal and then label it according to our cognitive explanation of the arousal • If we feel aroused and someone is yelling at us, we must be angry

11. Cognitive-Appraisal Theory (Richard Lazarus) • Our emotional experience depends on our interpretation of the situation we are in • Primary appraisal: Assess potential consequences of the situation • Secondary appraisal: We decide what to do • We can change our emotions if we learn to interpret the situation differently • Counter Arguments: • Evolutionary Psychologists: Disagree that emotions depend on evaluation of the situation (emotional response is developed before complex thinking) • Robert Zajonc: thinks we often know how we feel before we know what we think about the situation