Cognition and Emotion

Emotions consist of 3 components Physiological changes that are not conscious (autonomic, sympathetic, parasympathetic and endocrine system activation); fight or flight response

2. The person’s subjective feeling/interpretation of the emotion also known as APPRAISAL 3. Associated behavior as a result of the emotion Lazarus and Folkman: emotion less important than the appraisal and behavior that follows

Lazarus’s Appraisal Theory Definition: evaluations related to how a situation will impact one’s well being (Lazarus) Benefit appraisal = positive emotion (aka Primary) Harm appraisal = negative emotion (aka Secondary) Active interpretation (appraisal) is the psychological (cognitive) aspect to emotion (aka Outcome) (Lazarus, 1975)

Lazarus and Folkman’s Research on Appraisals (1984, 1988) One’s experience of stress can be influenced by: Threat vs. Challenge appraisal Belief in one’s coping abilities Hardiness (Kobasa) Motivation, self efficacy, locus of control Social networks/connections/support

2 Strategies for Dealing with Stressful Situations 1. Problem focused coping: aimed at changing/solving the problem

2. Emotion focused coping: aimed at dealing with the emotional responses Coping Styles Approach Avoidance Problem Focused Analyze reasons for errors and correct them Try again and don’t worry about it Emotion Focused Use relaxation techniques to reduce stress Ignore the situation as if it didn’t really bother you

Biological Factors in Emotion LeDoux (1999) describes two biological pathways for emotion in the brain Short route: from Thalamus to Amygdala (aka Direct Pathway) Long route: from Thalamus to Sensory cortex to Hippocampus to Amygdala to Brain stem to body for response (aka Indirect Pathway)

Long route accounts for the appraisal portion of an emotional response Existence of both long and short routes allows for greater flexibility/efficiency of responses

The Two Factor Theory: Combining Cognition and Physiology Schachter and Singer (1962) emotion is a function of both cognitive factors and physiological arousal people search the immediate environment for emotionally relevant cues to label and interpret unexplained physiological arousal

Emotion and a Cognitive Process: Flashbulb Memories Why are some events so hard to forget, even if we would like to?

Flashbulb memory: vivid and detailed memories of highly emotional events that are effortlessly encoded (Brown and Kulik, 1977) 73 of 80 subjects reported flashbulb memories of personal events VS

Role of the Amygdala is critical in flashbulb formation, adding an emotional cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters that assign a significance to the event that separate it from other events While emotion can strengthen memories, emotion does not necessarily make memories more accurate

Neisser (1982) Questions Validity/Reliability of Flashbulb Memories Flashbulb accuracy can be influenced by the following: Narrative Convention (the need to make the memory a coherent story) Place, setting, context and audience Our own personal Schemas Media coverage (see 9/11 research from APA article) Neisser’s Study Questioned subjects 24 hours after the Challenger explosion, then again 2 years later 40% had distorted/different memories at second reporting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHULrCMRLUg