1. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 17 Why Emotions Are Necessary Jaime A. Pineda, Ph.D.
Part 1
Jaime A. Pineda, Ph.D.

2. Emotions Responses of the whole organism, involving...
physiological arousal (autonomic/hormonal)
expressive behaviors (behavioral)
conscious experience (cognitive)

3. Evolutionary Advantage to Emotion
For example:
Fight or flight response
but can basic emotions help or overwhelm rational thinking?
Antonio Damasio, in Descartes’ Error, asserts that concerted activity at all levels of the cortex assist rational decision making. For a reference citation, see your Reference list in the syllabus.

4. A Biological Purpose for Emotion?
Signaling function (that we might take action)
Provide strong impulse to take action
Promote unique, stereotypical patterns of physiological change and behavior

5. Emotions
Negative
Fear
Anger
Grief
Hate
Positive
Love
Empathy
Caring
Joy
useful as motivation for moving away from what one doesn't want
useful as motivation for moving towards what one does want

6. Psychological Reasons for Experiencing Emotion
Catharsis
energy 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

7. Psychological Reasons for Experiencing Emotion
Subjective State of Well-Being
self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life
used along with measures of objective well-being
physical and economic indicators to evaluate people’s quality of life

8. Are Emotions Universal?
Basic Emotions--presumed to be hard wired and physiologically distinctive
Joy
Surprise
Sadness
Anger
Disgust
Fear

9. Expressing Emotion
Culturally universal expressions

10. Expressing Emotion Smiles can show different emotions: a) Mask anger
(b)
(c)
(d)
Smiles can show different emotions:
a) Mask anger
b) Overly polite
c) Soften criticism
d) Reluctant compliance

11. Expressing Emotion Gender and expressiveness Number of expressions
Men
Women
Sad Happy Scary
Film Type 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Number of
expressions

12. Experiencing Emotion Does money buy happiness? Average per-person
Year
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10% 0%
Average
per-person
after-tax income
in 1995 dollars
Percentage
describing
themselves as
very happy
$20,000
$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
Percentage very happy
Personal income

13. Experiencing Emotion Values and life satisfaction Importance scores
Money
Love
Life satisfaction
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
-0.2
-0.4
Importance
scores

14. Theories of Emotion Appraisal Event Emotional response Physiological
activation
Expressive
behavior
Subjective
experience

15. James-Lange Theory of Emotion
Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
Fear
(emotion)
Pounding
heart
(arousal)
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)

16. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger:
physiological responses
subjective experience of emotion
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)
Pounding
heart
(arousal)
Fear
(emotion)

17. Schacter’s Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
To experience emotion one must:
be physically aroused
cognitively label the arousal
Cognitive
label
“I’m afraid”
Fear
(emotion)
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)
Pounding
heart
(arousal)

18. Autonomic nervous system controls physiological arousal
Physical Arousal
Autonomic nervous system controls
physiological arousal
Sympathetic
division (arousing)
Pupils dilate
Decreases
Perspires
Increases
Accelerates
Inhibits
Secrete stress
hormones
Parasympathetic
division (calming)
Pupils contract
Dries
Slows
Activates
secretion of
stress
EYES
SALIVATION
SKIN
RESPIRATION
HEART
DIGESTION
ADRENAL
GLANDS

19. Arousal and Performance
Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks
Performance
level
Low
Arousal
High
Difficult tasks
Easy tasks

20. Cognition Drives Emotion

21. Cognition-Emotion Relationship
Cognition: “I’ve
been treated less
than my worth”
Emotion:
Anger

22. Behavior Drives Emotion

23. Behavior Drives Emotions
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Activation of “sad face” muscles makes subject feel sadder (from Larsen, et al., 1992)