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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Expressing Emotion Culturally universal expressions

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

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

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 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Percentage very happy Personal income

Experiencing Emotion Values and life satisfaction Importance scores Money Love 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 Life satisfaction 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 -0.2 -0.4 Importance scores

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

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)

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)

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)

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

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

Cognition Drives Emotion

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

Behavior Drives Emotion

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