What is Emotion? Emotion is a 4 part process consisting of physiological arousal, cognitive interpretation, subjective feelings, and behavioral expression. While our emotions are very different, they all involve a state of mental and physical arousal focused on some event of importance.

Emotion Basics Emotion and motivation are complimentary process. The concept of emotion emphasizes arousal, both physical and mental, while motivation emphasizes how this arousal becomes action. Emotions help us respond to important situations and to convey our intentions to others.

Origins of Emotions The biggest breakthrough in the study of emotions was the discovery of two distinct emotional pathways in the brain. One of the pathways is fast, and operates mainly at an unconscious level where it screens incoming stimuli and helps us respond quickly to stimuli even before they reach consciousness. These cues seem to have a built-in, innate sensitivity to certain cues-explains why we have more fears of spiders, heights and lightening than cars or electricity.

Origins of Emotion The other pathway is much slower and linked to explicit memory. While it generates emotions more slowly, it delivers more complex information to our consciousness. This system relies heavily on the cerebral cortex, which is why we can feel fear, despite knowing there is no real basis for that feeling.

Experienced Emotion  The ingredients of emotion

The Limbic System While the two pathways differ, they do have some things in common. Both rely heavily on the limbic system. The amygdala plays an especially important role in both emotion pathways. In the past it was thought that the amygdala was simply involved in negative emotions. Recently it has been discovered that it plays a role in positive emotions as well.

 Physiological differences among specific emotions  Body Temp (finger temps) and hormone secretions differ  Facial expressions differ

 Emotions activate different areas of the brain’s cortex ▪ Negative emotions linked to right hemisphere and positive to the left hemisphere ▪ Disgust triggered activity in right prefrontal cortex ▪ Positive people show more activity in the left hemisphere and left prefrontal cortex ▪ Brain damage to right hemisphere can also affect emotional mood  May be due to left hemisphere’s high level of dopamine receptors

Expressed Emotion  People more speedily detect an angry face than a happy one (Ohman, 2001a)

Why We Have Emotions Emotions are the result of genetics and learning, especially early in life. Emotions serve as arousal states that help organisms cope with important recurring situations. Learned emotional responses, along and genetics are both important components of many psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders and phobias.

Universality of Emotions Despite different languages, cultures and social norms, studies suggest that people “speak and understand substantially the same ‘facial language’ the world around.” Essentially, people share a set of universal emotion expressions that give support to the idea of a biological heritage of the human species.

Seven Basic Emotions Paul Ekman, a leading psychologist in emotions, suggests humans everywhere can recognize seven basic emotions: sadness, fear, anger, disgust, contempt, happiness and surprise. Anger Happiness Disgust Surprise Sadness Fear

Expressed Emotion  Culturally universal expressions

Experienced Emotion  Infants’ naturally occurring emotions

Display Rules According to Ekman, the seven emotions are universal, but the display rules vary greatly, depending on the culture. He defines display rules as the permissible ways of displaying emotions in a given society.

Anger

Contempt

Disgust

Fear

Happiness

Sadness

Surprise

Reading Emotion In addition to being universal, the ability to read facial expressions is nearly ageless. Psychologists think that children as young as 5 years old have the same ability to recognize emotion on a person’s face as an adult does.

Expressing Emotions Emotions also give off involuntary movement which are difficult to conceal Lifting inner part of your eyebrows reveals distress or worry Eyebrows raised and pulled together show fear What is the difference between a fake and real smile?

Expressing Emotions Genuine smiles last, typically, less than 5 seconds and are activated by the muscles under the eyes

More Emotions While we can recognize Ekman’s seven emotions, most of us can think of others like greed, envy, regret, optimism, etc. Robert Plutchik suggests that rather than seven, we have eight primary emotions and eight secondary emotions. He depicts this in his “Emotion Wheel.” More complex emotions occur when pairs of adjacent emotions combine. Ex: love is a combination of joy and acceptance.

Emotion in Men and Women In our culture, on average, women are viewed as far more emotional than men. This may be the result of two factors. 1. Biology, and the genetic make-up of men and women do lead to women “having more emotion.” Higher levels of certain hormones 2. Culture, may be the bigger of the two causes. Boys and girls learn different lessons about emotion and emotional control. Boys are largely taught to hide emotions that may be seen as weaknesses and are praised for emotions that show strength and dominance. Girls are taught the exact opposite. Display rules of emotion

 Do females have “women’s intuition”?  Judith Hall said that when women are given “thin slices” they generally surpass men at reading people’s emotional cues  Women also have in edge in spotting lies  Women tend to express more complex emotions than men

 Women tend to have extremely strong perception of emotionality  With the exception of anger ▪ Anger is seen as a masculine emotion ▪ If a gender neutral face is smiling it is seen as female, but if it is an angry face it is seen as a male

 Women are more likely to experience empathy  You identify with others and imagine what is must be like to walk in their footsteps  Physiological measures shows a much smaller gap than surveys show

Expressed Emotion  Gender and expressiveness Men Women Sad Happy Scary Film Type Number of expressions

Experienced Emotion  Catharsis  emotional 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

Experienced Emotion  Subjective 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

Experienced Emotion  Moods across the day

Experienced Emotion  Does money buy happiness? 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, Percentage very happy Personal income

Lateralization of Emotion Different parts of our brain deal with different emotions. In the cerebral cortex, the right hemisphere generally specializes in negative emotions and the left hemisphere generally processes more positive and joyful emotions. The idea that each hemisphere specializes in different classes of emotion has been called lateralization of emotion.

Psychological Theories of Emotion There are multiple theories on how our emotions affect out behavior and mental processes. James-Lang Theory: An emotion provoking stimulus a physical response, that then leads to emotion. Emotion follows behavior “We feel sorry because we cry; angry because we strike; afraid because we tremble.”-William James Cannon-Bard Theory: A theory that an emotional feeling and an internal physiological response occur at the same time. Emotion and behavior happen simultaneously

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)

Physiology of Emotions zWith knowledge of physiological response and emotions, does this information support James-Lange Theory? yPsychologist George Homann (1966) xStudied observations of 25 soldiers with severed spinal cords Found that those with lower spine injuries reported little change in emotions Those with high spinal cord injuries experience emotions above the neck –Some researchers feel that our feelings are shadows of bodily repsonse

The Effects of Facial Expressions yA study used botox injections to paralyze frowning muscles on ten depressed patients xTwo months after treatment, 9 out of 10 were no longer depressed

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion  =Subjective experience of emotion Sight of oncoming car (perception of stimulus) Pounding heart (arousal) Fear (emotion)

Theories on Emotions zCannon-Bard Theory yTheory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1a) physiological response and (1b) the subjective experience of emotions xEmotion and physical experience happen at the same time

Psychological Theories of Emotion Two-Factor Theory: This theory suggests that the emotions we feel depend on two things: 1) our internal physical state 2) the external situation we find ourselves in. Attractive female researcher study (pg 308)

Schachter’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)

Physiology of Emotions zCognition and Emotion ySpill over effect xSchachter and Singer aroused college men with injections of epinephrine Found that in a stirred up state can be experienced as one emotion or another very different emotion depending on how we interpret and label it –Ex. Insult someone who has just been aroused by pedaling an exercise bike or watching rock videos and they will misattribute their arousal to the provocation

Physiology of Emotions zCognition does not always precede emotions yRobert Zajonc has stated that we actually have many emotional reactions apart from our interpretations of a situation yWe are acutely sensitive to emotionally significant responses ySubliminally flashed stimulus can prime a mood or specific emotion and lead us to feel better or worse about a follow-up stimulus

Emotion fear Cognitive interpretation “I feel afraid!” Physiological arousal trembling increased heart rate James- Lange theory Cannon- bard theory Two- factor theory Stimulus: snake Stimulus Emotion fear Physiological arousal trembling increased heart rate Emotion fear

Psychological Theories of Emotion Cognitive Appraisal Theory: The thought that we look back on a situation and consciously decide how we should feel about the situation. Ex. Grades, Papers, Projects, Tests Opponent-Process Theory: Theory that we trigger one emotion by suppressing its opposite emotion. Ex. Drugs-the highs experienced by some drugs are replaced with lows (withdrawals). Eventually people take drugs not for the highs, but to avoid the lows.