Emotion

Definition of Emotion An evaluative response involving physiological arousal, subjective experience, and behavioral expression

Emotion and the Brain Amygdala seems responsible for evaluating sensory information for emotional importance. Cerebral cortex incorporates other information and can override the amygdala

Historical Perspectives William James & Carl Lange (1885) Cannon and Bard (1927) Schachter and Singer (1962) Charles Darwin (1872)

James-Lange Theory (1885) James (1884) –Thought emotion was embedded into bodily experience –The physical experience leads to a subjective experience of diverse emotions James-Lange Theory –What one does physically can impact emotion e.g., smiling can make one happy This theory also was proposed by Lange (1885) and became the James-Lange Theory of emotion

Cannon-Bard Theory (1927) Life situations can simultaneously elicit both an emotional experience and bodily responses

Schachter & Singer Theory (1962) First there is a state of physiological arousal and then there is cognitive interpretation –Context may determine the interpretation of that physiological arousal e.g., The Singer and the chessboard

Similarities of Emotional Experience Darwin (1872) Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals –Basic human emotional expressions are similar and adaptive –Izard (1977) Fear/anger facilitate fight/flight Disgust prevents others from eating toxic food –Ekman (1980) Facial expressions are similar between wester and non-industrialized countries

The Varieties of Emotion Primary Emotions: –Emotions that are considered to be universal and biologically based; they generally include fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust, (Brandt & Boucher, 1985) and contempt. Secondary Emotions: –Emotions that are specific to certain cultures. Schadenfreude Ijirashi ganas

Universal Emotions Western and non-western cultures show a high degree of significant resemblance in emotional expression (Ekman, 1980) Emotion recognition – the process of identification, description and explanation of an emotional expression (Ekman, 1980; Ozard, 1971)

Preceding Events Agreement over situations resulting in universal emotions e.g., birth, death, relationships, separations, music, sexual experiences, success/failure (Scherer & Colleagues,1988; and others) Similar events may be interpreted differently so will lead to different emotions –Liem (1997) guilt and shame between Asian Americans and European Americans

Emotion as Evaluation Words have different meanings for different cultures Stipek (1998) Chinese studied were more likely to experience pride and other positive emotions for outcomes benefitting others than that expressed by European Americans

Communicating Emotion Display/Feeling Rules –Social and cultural rules that regulate when, how, and where a person may express (or suppress) emotions. Learned through socialization process E.g., if know more about the events, then freer to feel; Chinese American students similar to European American college students in emotional display

Emotion Work Expression of an emotion, often because of a role requirement, that a person does not really feel.

Gender and Emotion Little evidence that one sex feels any of the everyday emotions more often than the other. Major difference between the sexes is more related to how & which emotions are expressed. –Women are allowed to be sad, but not angry and men are the opposite

Emotional Assessment Criteria –Frequency of expression –Intensity of expression E.g., saying “I love you” Permissable expressions of joy and sadness

Assessing Emotion Emotion is based (Ellsworth, 1994; Matsumoto et., al, 1988; Wallbott & Scherer, 1986; Frijda, 1986) –Caused by familiar/unfamiliar events –Suggest the existence of an obstacle –Create a sense of being in control –Increase or decrease self-esteem –Cause praise, reproach, or mockery by one’s group –E.g., Markham & Wang (1996) compared Chinese and Australian children on ability to recognize emotion in others and Chinese children were a little more successful (small family size and clear demonstrative rules?)

Historical Perception of Emotion Expression Confucius (5 th century B.C. and Plato (4 th century B.C.) emotion is disruptive in human affairs and in rational thinking Aristotle & Democritus (4 th century B.C.) thought emotions were in the lower part of the soul, thinking is in the higher level Greek and Roman Stoicism thought humans should be free of passion to deal w/ fortune & misfortune –This was echoed by Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, & Christianity to address destructive emotional forces like envy, pride, vanity, & jealousy (Smith, 1991)

Cultural Differences in Emotional Expression Tahitians report feeling tired instead of sad at losses (Levy, 1973) Crying for Bedouins is a sign of weakness AbuLoghod, 1986) but is appropriate for Turkish in specific situations Different emotions elicity different kinds of behavior