EMOTION

1. EMOTION AP Psychology Myers

2. Emotion • A response of the whole organism, involving: • physiological arousal • conscious experience of emotion • expressive behaviors • Myers recalls an experience during which his son left his side in a mall… • Physiological arousal – quickened heartbeat • Conscious experience of emotion –emotions (fear, later joy) and thoughts (kidnapping?) • Expressive behaviors – quickened pace, worried facial expression

3. THEORIES OF EMOTION Which comes first? Physiological arousal or conscious experience of emotion?

4. Common Sense Perspective • The conscious experience of emotion causes physiological arousal. • I am sad, so I cry. • I am happy, so I smile. • I am scared, so I tremble. • PROBLEMS: • Very narrow – sometimes the body reacts quicker than our conscious awareness of emotion

5. James-Lange Theory • A physiological arousal occurs before the conscious emotion • The heart races BEFORE the feeling of fear is recognized. • PROBLEMS • Your body’s physiological symptoms can be associated with all kinds of emotions. • A racing heart doesn’t always indicate fear! • The body often reacts slower than the feeling of emotions. • You feel sad before you cry.

6. Cannon-Bard Theory • Simultaneous experience of physiological arousal and conscious emotion. • Your heart races AS you experience fear. • PROBLEMS • How can it happen at the same time all the time? • What about physiological symptoms that do not have a felt emotion? • Or a felt emotion that doesn’t present a physiological response at the same time?

7. Two-Factor Theory (Schachter-Singer) • Physiological arousal occurs and the brain appraises (judges) the arousal and the context (surroundings) to label the conscious emotion felt. • Emotions are context-dependent • Racing heart can mean fear or happiness depending on the context. • Physiology + Cognition = Emotion • PROBLEMS • What if the context is ambiguous?

8. Theories of Emotion • Scenario: An on coming car is in your lane! AHHHH!! You experience a pounding heart. The emotion experienced is fear. • For each theory, sketch the sequence of events. (hint: each theory starts with the stimulus) • James-Lange • Cannon-Bard • Two-Factor

9. EMBODIED EMOTION Emotions are not felt by the mind, but by the entire body.

10. Emotions and the Autonomic Nervous System • Autonomic nervous system – mobilizes body for action • Sympathetic nervous system – AROUSES • Parasympathetic nervous system – CALMS • “para” as in paralyzed or slowed

11. What is Stress? Stress:is the process by which we respond to events we appraise as threatening or challenging. Stressors: are the events/things that stress us out!

12. GAS... Hans Selye discovered the responsive cycle for how we react to stress which he named the: General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) Phase 1: Alarm: activation of sympathetic nervous system.Phase 2: Resistance: arousal remains high as you attempt to cope with the stressor. “Fight or Flight.”Phase 3: Exhaustion: body becomes run down with constant stress which can leave you more vulnerable to illness or even death.

13. Stress and Heart Disease Coronary Heart Disease: when vessels of heart are clogged which stops heart muscles from being nourished. Many behavioral factors help contribute to this disease but stress is also a major factor.

14. Personality Type and Heart Disease Type A Personality: competitive, hard driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger prone people.Type B Personality: easy-going and relaxed people.

15. Personality Type and Heart Disease Psychophysiological Illnesses: “mind-body” illnesses. Physical illnesses caused by stress.Ex: Hypertension,some headaches, increase BP Are also referred to as psychosomatic disorders

16. Physiological Similarities and Differences of Emotions

17. Lie Detection • Polygraph – a machine, commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion • PROBLEMS • Physiological arousal is the same for many emotions • Increased stress level due to accusations made • Savvy criminals could possibly passby manipulating their arousal • Guilty knowledge test – monitor responses to questions using info that only the criminal would know • The untrained eye can detect lying only 50% of the time → essentially by chance.

18. EXPRESSED EMOTION Expressed behaviors (nonverbal cues) can reveal emotions. Vary with culture? Can expressions influence our experienced emotions?

19. Nonverbal Communication • Most people can detect nonverbal emotional cues like facial expressions and body language, especially those that indicate a threat. • Recognize many emotions in the eyes • NEED to be aware that some nonverbal cues can be multiple things (ex: crossed arms)

20. Nonverbal Communication • Experiences can sensitize us to recognizing certain emotions… • Abused children will recognize an angry face quicker AND assume more faces portray anger.

21. Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior • Women… • Increased emotional literacy (better at reading nonverbal cues) • Greater emotional responsiveness in + or - situations • More empathy (self-reported) • More likely to express emotion physically

22. Detecting and Computing Emotion • Hard to “fake” some emotions due to innate microexpressions • Worry/distress – lifting just the inner part of eyebrows • Fear – eyebrows pulled together • Natural smile – activated muscles under the eyes and raised cheeks

23. Culture and Emotional Expression • Evolutionary - adaptive to enhance survival • Behaviors (including emotional expressions) occur to serve a purpose – survival. • Members of a species who did not produce or recognize certain expressions/behaviors did not survive to pass on genes. • SAME - Facial expressions carry the same meanings across cultures • Universal infant behavior, blind person’s expressions • Must learn expressions convey certain emotions • DIFFERENT - Gesture meaning varies; intensity of display varies • Thumbs-up, middle finger • Display rules – a culture’s informal rules/norms about when/where/how to express emotions

24. The Effects of Facial Expressions • Facial feedback hypothesis - making certain facial expressions can make you feel the conveyed emotion to an extent • Behavior feedback hypothesis - moving your body as if you were experiencing an emotion can cause you to feel the emotion to an extent

25. Spot the Fake Smile! • Spot the fake smile • 20 faces with 2-3 second videos • Can only watch video once • Genuine or fake? • Gender differences? • Other variables that influenced results?

26. Lie To Me – importance and universality of facial expressions Crash Course - Emotion

27. EXPERIENCED EMOTION “An emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.” - Mark Twain

28. What Do Emotions Look Like? • “Emotionally Vague” • 35 countries • 250 participants • 6-75 yrs old • Anger • Joy • Fear • Sadness • Love

29. How Many Emotions? • Paul Ekman – 6 basic emotions based on cross-cultural studies • Carroll Izard – 10 basic emotions based on studies of infant expression • Two dimensions of emotion • Arousal (high/low) • Valence (pleasant/unpleasant)

30. Fear • Can be contagious and fatal • Mobilizes fight/flight • Evolutionary – fear certain things that enhance survival • Learned • Conditioning (Little Albert) • Observed (monkey experiment) • Both learned and observed: Sandy Hook shooting

31. Fear • Amygdala • Limbic system – emotions • Associates fear with certain situations • Phobia – an intense fear of objects or situations that disrupts the ability to cope • Social, agoraphobia, specific

32. Anger • Usually a response to an act by another person OR “blameless annoyances” (traffic, weather, etc) • Can lead to aggression, prejudice, and illness. • Western cultures encourage catharsis (emotional release) through aggression • Venting (aggressive, verbal) • Can actually lead to MORE anger (behavior feedback) • Contradicts “rage room,” and The Purge • How should we handle anger? • Wait, let simmer. • Find appropriate cathartic outlets (exercise, talking with friend, etc) • Non-accusatory statements (“I get irritated when you...”)

33. Happiness • Happier people… • Perceive the world as safer, make decisions easier, are more cooperative, and live healthier and more energized and satisfied lives • Experience the feel-good-do-good phenomenon – tendency to be more helpful when happy • Determined by studying subjective well-being - self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life • Used along side of objective well-being (data based research) • Money/wealth ≠ happiness

34. Evaluating Happiness • Adaptation-level phenomenon • The tendency to form judgments about situations relative to previous experiences. • Ex: You are happy with your spouse and think that you could never live without them. After your divorce, you are upset, but eventually adapt to single-life and establish happiness in your new situation. • Relative deprivation • The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself. • Ex: You are a well-paid professional athlete, but feel that you are not making as much as your competitors. You feel shafted and demand more money (despite being a millionaire).

35. Emotional Ups and Downs • Positive emotions – peak mid-day • Negative emotions – after waking, before sleeping • Moods triggered by everyday events (good/bad) tend not the last beyond the day. • Tend to rebound from bad days with better than average days • Significant bad events can cause prolonged sadness, but we adapt and can return to average levels of happiness.

36. How to be Happier! • Realize wealth ≠ happiness • Set goals, manage your time wisely • Act happy • Exercise • Sleep • Seek work/leisure that engages your skills • Form and value close relationships • Do good → feel good • Be grateful • Nurture your spiritual self

37. Studying the Effects of Stress on Health Behavioral Medicine: combines knowledge of biomedical perspective and behavioral perspective to study and treat health and illness. Term is often used interchangeably with Psychiatry (M. D.).Health Psychology: subfield of psychology contributes to behavioral medicine.Looks at psychological causes of illness and stress (cognitive, environment, social, biological, etc.)

38. SYSK – Does smiling make you happy? • What did Duchenne discover? • What is distinctive in detecting a genuine smile? • Why did Zajonc study the effects of smiling by using vowel sounds? (Hint: why couldn’t he invoke smiles with funny jokes or simply asking participants to smile?) • What kind of effects did Zajonc find in the participants that produced the “eee” sound? • What suggestion did researchers propose for why the group that smiled AND looked in the mirror felt the more positive? • What is Zajonc’s physiological hypothesis for why physiological expressions can induce emotions? • What effect does Botox have on the experience of emotions? Why? • Does a fake smile invoke positive emotions?