Emotion, p A response of the whole organism, involving Physiological arousal by the autonomic nervous system Expressive behaviors Conscious experience

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 LowArousalHigh Difficult tasksEasy tasks Yerkes-Dodson Law

Expressing emotion Nonverbal language and verbal language helps to express emotion. Nonverbal communication can be universal

Cultural Emotion and Expression Gestures are sometimes culturally determined Facial expressions for the basic emotions are universal: Joy, anger, interest, disgust, surprise, sadness, and fear

Ekman universal emotions

If I smile will it make me happy? Paul Ekman found expressions amplify the felt emotion and signal the body to respond accordingly Soooooo smile!

Emotion--A Polygraph Examination

Emotion- Lie Detectors  Polygraph  machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies  measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion  perspiration  cardiovascular  breathing changes

Emotion-- Lie Detectors  50 Innocents  50 Theives  1/3 of innocent declared guilty  1/4 of guilty declared innocent (from Kleinmuntz & Szucko, 1984) Percentage Innocent people Guilty people Judged innocent by polygraph Judged guilty by polygraph

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

Theories of Emotion, p Does your heart pound because you are afraid... or are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding?

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)

James-Lange (cont.) Subjects report feeling more sad when viewing scenes of war, sickness, and starvation if their “sad face” muscles are activation. They also find comic strips funnier if their “happy face” muscles are activated.

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger: physiological responses subjective experience of emotion

Schachter’s Two Factor Theory of Emotion To experience emotion one must: be physically aroused cognitively label the arousal 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.

Schachter’s Two-Factor (cont.) InjectionToldEmotion Group 1 EpinephrineWill increase arousal Mild Group 2 EpinephrineWill have no effect Strong Epinephrine Study:

Schachter’s Two-Factor (cont.) Swinging Bridge Study Would you like my phone number?

Reviewing the three Emotion follows (lags behind) arousal Emotion occurs at the same time as arousal Arousal + Cognitive label  Emotion

Opponent Process Theory Feel one intense emotion, then leads to the opposite emotion. →

Quiz question After being physically aroused by his daily 3-mile run, Casper finds that he experiences resentment if his wife asks for an unexpected favor and more intense romantic feelings if she kisses him. Casper’s experience can best be described by the: a. Cannon-Bard theory b. James-Lange theory c. Two-factor theory d. Opponent-process theory