1. Emotions and Emotional Intelligence
Aj. Sittichai Thongworn

2. Overview What is Emotion? Functions of Emotion Basic Emotions
Theories of Emotion
Emotion & Decision Making
Emotional Intelligence

3. What is emotion? Emotion has the root of Latin word means ‘movement’
Emotions are feelings that generally have both physiological and cognitive elements and that influence behavior. (Feldman, 1996)
Emotions are composed of a subjective component, a physiological component, and an expressive component.

4. Functions of Emotion Motivate us to take action
There is an action urge connected to specific emotions that is an automatic, built-in part of our behavior.
We also tend to take certain actions in order to experience positive emotions and minimize the probability of feeling negative emotions.

5. Functions of Emotion (Cont.)
Help us survive, thrive, and avoid danger
Charles Darwin believed that emotions are adaptations that allow both humans and animals to survive and reproduce.
Emotions serve an adaptive role in our lives by motivating us to act quickly and take actions that will maximize our chances for success.

6. Functions of Emotion (Cont.)
Help us make decisions
Our emotions have a major influence on the decisions we make.
Researchers have found that people with certain types of brain damage that impairs their ability to experience emotions also have an decreased ability to make good decisions.

7. Functions of Emotion (Cont.)
Allow other people to understand us
When we interact with other people, it is important to give cues to help them understand how we are feeling.
These cues might involve emotional expression through body language, such as various facial expressions connected with the particular emotions we are experiencing

8. Functions of Emotion (Cont.)
Allow us to understand others
Social communication is an important part of our daily lives and relationships
Allows us to respond appropriately and build deeper, more meaningful relationships with others
Also allows us to communicate effectively in a variety of social situations

9. Are human emotions universal?

10. Universal Emotions
Margaret Mead believed that facial expressions and the emotions are determined by culture
Charles Darwin argued that human expressions of emotion were both innate and universal across cultures.
Ekman set out to test this notion and found that facial expressions are cross-cultural
Ekman's research revealed that there is a universal set of certain facial expressions used in both the Western and Eastern worlds.

12. Six Basic Emotions

13. Theories of Emotion The James-Lange Theories of Emotions
The Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotions
Schachter & Singer’s Theories of Emotions

14. The James-Lange Theories of Emotions
Proposed by psychologist William James and physiologist Carl Lange
Emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events
Our brains interpret specific physiological changes as feelings or emotions and that there is a different physiological pattern underlying each emotion.

15. The James-Lange Theories of Emotions

16. Criticisms
Different emotions are not necessarily associated with different patterns of physiological responses
Some complex emotions may require a considerable amount of interpretation or appraisal of the situation.
People whose spinal cords have been severed at the neck are deprived of most of the feedback from their physiological responses, still experience emotions.
Emotions alter more rapidly than those physiological reactions.

17. James- Lang Theory Is Not Totally Wrong
I’m very happy.
I’m really sad.

18. The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
The facial feedback hypothesis states that facial movement can influence emotional experience.

19. The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Strack, Martin, & Stepper devised an ingenious way to get the subjects to flex certain muscles of their face without knowing why.
They told participants that the experiment related to how people learn to write after amputation or paralysis of their arms.
They had subjects hold a pencil in one of three ways.

20. The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
The first group held the pencil widthwise between their teeth, forcing a smile.
The second group held the pencil in their lips lengthwise, which means they couldn’t smile, and were actually making kind of a frown.
The control group held the pencil in their hand.
Then the subjects looked at some cartoons, and rated how funny they were.

21. The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
The “smile” group gave the cartoons much higher “funny” ratings than the “frown” group, while the control group was somewhere in the middle.

22. The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Andreas Hennenlotter and colleagues, asked participants to perform a facial expression imitation task in an fMRI scanner before and two weeks after receiving botox injections.

23. The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
During imitation of angry facial expressions, botox decreased activation of brain regions implicated in emotional processing and emotional experience relative to activations before botox injection.
These findings show that facial feedback modulates neural processing of emotional content, and that botox changes how the human brain responds to emotional situations.

24. The Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotions
Developed by Walter Cannon and Philip Bard.
We feel emotions and experience physiological reactions such as sweating, trembling and muscle tension simultaneously.
Emotions result when the thalamus sends a message to the brain in response to a stimulus, resulting in a physiological reaction.

25. The Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotions

26. Schachter & Singer’s Theories of Emotions
Proposed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer known as the two-factor theory of emotion.
There are two key components: physical arousal and a cognitive label.
Focuses on the interaction between physical arousal and how we cognitively label that arousal.

27. Schachter & Singer’s Theories of Emotions

28. Biological Basis of Emotion
Any stimulus that arouses an emotion alters the activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS)
The autonomic nervous system consists of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which sometimes act in opposing ways and sometimes cooperate.
The sympathetic nervous system readies the body for emergency action; the parasympathetic nervous system supports digestive and other nonemergency functions.

30. Biological Basis of Emotion
Researchers often measure activity of the sympathetic nervous system as an indicator of emotional arousal.
Physiological measurements do not tell us which emotion someone is feeling.
Neuroscientists use brain scanning or imaging techniques to identify structures and neural activities in the living brain.

31. Brain and Emotion
Researchers aroused emotions in various ways and then used PET (Positron Emission Tomography) or fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ) scans to identify which brain areas became aroused.
No brain area appears specific to one type of emotion.

32. Brain and Emotion: The Case of Whitman
Charles Whitman served as a Marine before enrolling in the University of Texas.
Whitman killed his mother and wife and on August 1, 1966, went atop a 300-foot tower, targeting people in the vicinity.
He killed 16 and injure many others before he was killed by police, who stormed the tower.
Charles Whitman

33. Charles had left a note. It read: “If my life insurance policy is valid please pay off my debts... donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type”.
Post-mortem autopsy of his brain revealed a glioblastoma multiforme tumor the size of a walnut, erupting from beneath the thalamus, impacting the hypothalamus, extending into the temporal lobe and compressing the amygdaloid nucleus

35. Limbic System and Emotion
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Thalamus
Hypothalamus

36. Amygdala
Plays an important role on the mediation and control of major affective activities like friendship, love and affection, on the expression of mood and, mainly, on fear, rage and aggression

37. Hippocampus
Plays an important role in consolidating information from short-term memory into long-term memory.
Damage to both sides of the hippocampus can impede the ability to form new memories, known as anterograde amnesia.

38. Thalamus Processes and transmits movement and sensory information.
Essentially a relay station, taking in sensory information and then passing it on to the cerebral cortex.
The cerebral cortex also sends information to the thalamus, which then sends this information to other systems.

39. Hypothalamus
Connects with many other regions of the brain and is responsible for controlling hunger, thirst, emotions, body temperature regulation, and circadian rhythms.
The hypothalamus also controls the pituitary gland by secreting hormones, which gives the hypothalamus a great deal of control over many body functions.

40. Emotion and Decision Making: The Case of Elliot
Elliott excelled in college and rose rapidly through the ranks of a building firm to become comptroller at the age of 32.
At the age of 35, doctors diagnosed Elliot with a brain tumor.
Elliot had undergone a radical personality change after an operation to remove a brain tumor on the surface of his frontal lobes.
Testing of Elliot revealed that his intelligence, attention and memory were unaffected.
Elliot, however, had lost the ability to experience emotion.

41. Emotion and Decision Making: The Case of Elliot
Antonio Damasio found that the operation to remove the tumor was successful, but the surgery left Elliot with bilateral damage to his orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).
OFC extensively connects with the limbic system.
It can also influence the autonomic nervous system through its connections with the hypothalamus and other brainstem structures.
Neuroscientists believed that OFC might use autonomic signals to guide decision-making.

42. Emotion and Decision Making: The Case of Elliot
Bodily states corresponding to the emotions produced while evaluating different courses of action help to facilitate normal decision-making.
The role of OFC is to store associations between patterns of environmental inputs and the somatic states that those inputs produce.
Damage to OFC destroys patients’ ability to activate the somatic states so that the patient must rely on a cognitive appraisal of a decision.

43. Emotional Intelligence: EI
The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those in others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.
(Daniel Goleman)

44. Why Emotional Intelligence Matters?
It has been said that your IQ can land you a job but your lack of EQ can get you fired.
EQ predicts higher work performance better than IQ.
Your emotional intelligence and social intelligence are much greater determinants of the success you will achieve in life.

45. Why Emotional Intelligence Matters?
It has been estimated that over 80% of our health problems are stress related.
Our emotional skills have a direct and important bearing on our relationships with others.
There is a direct connection between poor emotional skills and mental disorders
EI is one of the best predictors of divorce and marital satisfaction.

46. The 4 Branches of Emotional Intelligence
Perceiving Emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.
Reasoning With Emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.

47. The 4 Branches of Emotional Intelligence
Understanding Emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean.
Managing Emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional intelligence. Regulating emotions, responding appropriately and responding to the emotions of others are all important aspect of emotional management.

48. Gender and Emotional Intelligence
Women experience positive and negative emotions more intensely than men.
Women are more expressive of sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, happiness or smiling and anger.

49. Gender and Emotional Intelligence
Women are more capable of decoding nonverbal emotional information, have greater emotional understanding, are more sensitive to the emotions of others, and are more expressive and show greater interpersonal competencies .

50. Gender and Emotional Intelligence
Men serving as hunter-gatherers needed to take more risks and be more dominating, while women who stayed home and cared for young needed to be more nurturing and cautious.
Social and culture provides structure, guidelines, expectations, and rules to help people understand and interpret emotions.

51. Emotional and Physical Pain Activate Similar Brain Regions
When people feel emotional pain, the same areas of the brain get activated as when people feel physical pain: the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex.
These regions were activated when people experienced an experimental social rejection from peers.
The same regions were activated when people who had recently broken up with romantic partners viewed pictures of the former partner.

52. Why Emotional Pain Is Worse Than Physical Pain?
Memories trigger emotional pain
Physical pain garners far more empathy from others than emotional pain
Emotional pain echoes in ways physical pain does not
Emotional pain can damage our self-esteem and long-term mental health

53. How to Improve Emotional Intelligence?
Observe how you react to people.
Do you rush to judgment before you know all of the facts?
Try to put yourself in their place, and be more open and accepting of their perspectives and needs.

54. How to Improve emotional intelligence
Do a self-evaluation.
- What are your weaknesses?
- Are you willing to accept that you're not perfect and that you could work on some areas to make yourself a better person?

55. How to Improve emotional intelligence
Examine how you react to stressful situations.
- Do you become upset every time there's a delay or something doesn't happen the way you want?
- Do you blame others or become angry at them, even when it's not their fault?

56. How to Improve emotional intelligence
Take responsibility for your actions. If you hurt someone's feelings, apologize directly – don't ignore what you did or avoid the person.
People are usually more willing to forgive and forget if you make an honest attempt to make things right.

57. How to Improve emotional intelligence
Examine how your actions will affect others
If your decision will impact others, put yourself in their place.
- How will they feel if you do this?
- Would you want that experience?