1. Module 16
Emotion

2. INTRODUCTION
Emotional experience
Four components of emotion
First, interpret or appraise some stimulus in terms of your well-being
Second, experience a subjective feeling, such as fear or happiness
Third, experience physiological responses, such as changes in heart rate or breathing
Fourth, show observable behaviors, such as smiling or crying

3. PERIPHERAL THEORIES Studying emotions Peripheral theory
emphasizes how physiological changes in the body give rise to emotional feelings
Cognitive appraisal theory
emphasizes how interpretations or appraisals of situations result in emotional feelings
Affective neuroscience approach
studies the underlying neural bases of mood and emotion by focusing on the brain’s neural circuits that evaluate stimuli and produce or contribute to experiencing/expressing different emotional states

4. PERIPHERAL THEORIES (CONT’D)
James-Lange theory
Says that our brain interprets specific physiological changes as feelings or emotions and that a different physiological pattern underlies each emotion
Facial-feedback theory
Says that the sensations or feedback from the movement of your facial muscles and skin are interpreted by your brain as different emotions

5. PERIPHERAL THEORIES (CONT’D)

6. COGNITIVE APPRAISAL THEORY
Says that your interpretation, appraisal, thought, or memory of a situation, object, or event can contribute to, or result in, your experiencing different emotional states

7. COGNITIVE APPRAISAL THEORY (CONT’D)

8. AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACH
Four qualities of emotions
First expressed in stereotypical facial expressions, such as showing a fearful expression (open mouth, raised eyebrows), and accompanied by distinctive physiological responses
Second less controllable than we might like and may not respond to reason
Third influences many cognitive processes, such as making decisions, developing personal relationships, and selecting goals
Fourth hard-wired in the brain

9. AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACH (CONT’D)
Studies the underlying neural bases of mood and emotion
Focuses on the brain’s neural circuits that evaluate stimuli and produce or contribute to experiencing and expressing different emotional states

10. AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACH (CONT’D)
Emotional director and memorizer
Physical survival depends on a brain structure about the size and shape of an almond called the amygdala
Amygdala
Located in the tip of the brain’s temporal lobe and receives input from all the senses
Monitors and evaluates whether stimuli have positive or negative emotional significance for our well-being and survival
Involved in storing memories with emotional content

11. AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACH (CONT’D)

12. AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACH (CONT’D)
Brain circuits for emotion
Thalamus
functions as a major relay station for all the senses (except smell)
Amygdala
recognizes threats almost immediately
Prefrontal cortex
involved in complex cognitive functions, such as making decisions, planning, and reasoning

13. AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACH (CONT’D)

14. UNIVERSAL FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
Universal emotional expressions
Number of specific inherited facial patterns or expressions that signal inherited facial patterns or expressions that show specific feelings or emotional states, such as a smile signaling a happy state
Number of expressions (seven)
Cross culture
Anger, sadness
Happiness, fear
Surprise, disgust
Contempt

15. FUNCTIONS OF EMOTIONS Social signals Facial expressions
accompany emotions
may send social signals about how we feel as well as provide social signals about what we’re gong to do
Survival, attention, and memory
Evolutionary theory of emotions
says that one function of emotions is to help us evaluate objects, people, and situations in terms of how good or bad they are for our well-being and survival

16. FUNCTIONS OF EMOTIONS (CONT’D)
Arousal and motivation
Yerkes-Dodson law
says performance on a task is an interaction between the level of physiological arousal and the difficulty of the task
difficult tasks
low arousal results in better performance
most tasks
moderate arousal helps performance
easy tasks
high arousal may facilitate performance

17. HAPPINESS Positive emotions Happiness
indicated by smiling and laughing
can result from
momentary pleasures, such as funny commercials
short-term joys, such as, a great date
long-term satisfaction, such as an enjoyable relationship

18. HAPPINESS (CONT’D) Positive emotions Reward/pleasure center
includes several areas
nucleus accumbens
ventral tegmental area
several neurotransmitters, especially dopamine

19. HAPPINESS (CONT’D)

20. HAPPINESS (CONT’D) Long-term happiness Adaptation level theory
says that we quickly become accustomed to receiving some good fortune (money, job, car, degree)
we take the good fortune for granted within a short period of time
impact of good fortune fades and contributes less to our long-term level of happiness

21. HAPPINESS (CONT’D) Long-term happiness Happiness set point
each person has a set point for experiencing a certain level of happiness
some more and some less
personal level for being happy is half genetic and half environmental

22. CULTURAL DIVERSITY Display rules
specific cultural norms or rules regulate how, when, and where a person expresses emotions and how much emotional expression is appropriate
Perceiving emotions
depends on culture
five emotions
surprise
anger
happiness
disgust
sadness

23. CULTURAL DIVERSITY (CONT’D)

24. RESEARCH FOCUS What is emotional intelligence?
Ability to perceive emotions accurately
Take feelings into account when reasoning
Understand emotions
Regulate or manage emotions in oneself and others

25. APPLICATION Lie detector (polygraph) tests
based on theory that, if a person tells a lie, he or she will feel some emotion, such as guilt or fear
guilt or fear will be accompanied by involuntary physiological responses
difficult to suppress or control; can be measured
Galvanic skin response
changes in sweating of the fingers (or palms)
accompany emotional experiences and are independent of perspiration under normal temperature

26. APPLICATION

27. APPLICATION Control question technique
Lie detection procedure in which the examiner asks two kinds of questions designed to elicit large emotional responses
Person answers only “yes” or “no”
If guilty, expected to show a greater emotional response to critical questions than neutral questions

28. APPLICATION