1. Arousal and Emotion What’s their use?? Assist in decision making Readiness

2. Easy task Quality of performance Moderately difficult task Very difficult task Degree of arousal Yerkes-Dodson Law

3. Some arousal is necessary High arousal: helpful on easy tasks As level of arousal increases, quality of performance decreases with task difficulty Too much arousal: harmful

4. Concept of Emotion • subjective feelings elicited by stimuli that have high significance to an individual • stimuli that produce high arousal generally produce strong feelings • are rapid and automatic • emerged through natural selection to benefit survival and reproduction

5. Common-Sense Theory Stimulus (Tiger) Perception (Interpretation of stimulus-- danger) Emotion (Fear) Bodily arousal (Pounding heart) Theories of Emotion • Common sense might suggest that the perception of a stimulus elicits emotion which then causes bodily arousal

6. James’s Theory Stimulus (Tiger) Perception (Interpretation of stimulus-- danger) Bodily arousal (Pounding heart) Emotion (Fear) James’s Peripheral Feedback Theory • perception of a stimulus causes bodily arousal which leads to emotion • support: spinal cord injuries, locked-in syndrome

7. Stimulus (Tiger) Perception (Interpretation of stimulus-- danger) Bodily arousal (Pounding heart) Emotion (Fear) Type Intensity Schachter’s Cognition-Plus-Feedback Theory • Perception and thought about a stimulus influence the type of emotion felt • Degree of bodily arousal influences the intensity of emotion felt

8. Schachter’s Cognition-Plus-Feedback Theory • Degree of bodily arousal influences the intensity of emotion felt • Support: experiments with norepinepherine injections

9. Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory • Each basic emotion is associated with a unique facial expression • Sensory feedback from the expression contributes to the emotional feeling • Support: hold pen between teeth, and world seems funnier!

10. Average happiness score Average anger score Facial expression Facial expression Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory Facial expressions have an effect on self-reported anger and happiness

11. Temperature change (degrees C) Heart rate change (beats per minute) (a) (b) Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory Facial expressions can produce effects on the rest of the body

12. Brain-Based Theory of Emotions • Amygdala • evaluate the significance of stimuli and generate emotional responses • generate hormonal secretions and autonomic reactions that accompany strong emotions • damage: “psychic blindness”, inability to recognize fear in facial expressions and voice • stimulation: feeling of fear

13. Frontal Parietal Occipital Temporal Brain-Based Theory of Emotions • Frontal lobes • influence people’s conscious emotional feelings and ability to act in planned ways based on feelings (e.g., effects of prefrontal lobotomy, Phineas Gage) left frontal lobe may be most involved in processing positive emotions right frontal lobe involved with negative emotions