Theories of Emotion
Emotions are a mix of 1) physiological activation, 2) expressive behaviors, and
3) conscious experience.
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Big Questions
1) Does physiological arousal precede or follow your emotional experience?
2) Does cognition (thinking) precede emotion (feeling)?
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Commonsense View
When you become happy, your heart starts beating faster. First comes conscious
awareness, then comes physiological activity.
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Bob
Sach
a
James-Lange Theory
William James and Carl Lange proposed
an idea that was diametrically opposed to the common-sense
view. The James-Lange Theory proposes that
physiological activity precedes the
emotional experience.
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Cannon-Bard Theory
Walter Cannon and Phillip Bard
questioned the James-Lange Theory and proposed that
an emotion-triggering stimulus
and the body's arousal take place
simultaneously.
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Two-Factor Theory
Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer
proposed yet another theory
which suggests our physiology and
cognitions create emotions. Emotions have two factors–physical arousal
and cognitive label.8
Reviewing the three
Emotion follows (lags behind) arousal
Emotion occurs at the same time as arousal
Arousal + Cognitive label Emotion
Do we always think before we feel? Babies can imitate emotional expressions at
12 days of age Yet do not have the cognitive ability to label an
emotion
Babies respond to situations without taking time to interpret and evaluate them
Some emotions are not clear-cut Sometimes we don’t know what we are feeling!
Challenge to Cognition
Some emotions provide facial movements and body postures that are unlearned Sometimes these are independent of conscious
thought When information about these things reaches
our brain, we automatically experience the emotion
Carol Izard
We know that emotions involve bodily responses. Some of these responses are
very noticeable (butterflies in our stomach when fear arises), but others are more
difficult to discern .
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Embodied Emotion
Emotions and Autonomic Nervous System
During an emotional experience, our autonomic nervous system mobilizes energy in the body that arouses us.
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Arousal and Performance
We perform better under moderate arousal, but optimal performance varies with task
difficulty.
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YERKES-DODSON LAW: Inverted U
Physiological Similarities
Physiological responses related to the emotions of fear, anger, love, and
boredom are very similar.
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Excitement and fear involve a similarphysiological arousal.
M. G
recco/ Stock Boston
Physiological Differences
Physical responses, like finger temperature and movement of facial muscles, change during fear,
rage, and joy.
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The amygdala shows differences in activation during the emotions of anger and rage. Activity of the left hemisphere (happy) is different from
the right (depressed) for emotions.
What is the connection between how we think (cognition) and how we feel (emotion)?
Can we change our emotions by changing our thinking?
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Cognition and Emotion
Cognition Can Define Emotion
An arousal response to one event spills over into our response to the next event.
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Arousal from a soccer match can fuel anger, which may lead to rioting.
AP Photo/ N
ati Harnik
Reuters/ C
orbis
Cognition Does Not Always Precede Emotion
A subliminally presented happy face can encourage subjects to drink more than when
presented with an angry face (Berridge & Winkeilman, 2003).
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Emotions are felt directly through the amygdala (a) or through the cortex (b) for
analysis.
How Many Basic Emotions Are There?
Robert Plutchik – 8 Fear, surprise, sadness,
disgust, anger, anticipation, joy, acceptance
All other emotions are a combination of these
Paul Ekman – 6 Happiness, surprise, sadness,
fear, disgust, and anger What about love?
No corresponding facial expression, but most psychologists agree it is universal
The Autonomic Nervous System
Review What are its two divisions? What happens when either of these divisions is
activated? Is the ANS more active when we feel positive
or negative emotions? Negative
Why does our body (and our society) put an emphasis on negative emotions?
What Parts of Our Brain Are Active When We Feel Emotion? Amygdala
Helps identify emotional stimuli Begins the arousal response to these stimuli
In 1939 scientists removed the temporal lobes of rhesus monkeys (this includes the amygdala) What do you think happened to the monkeys?
Normally hard to handle After recovery, became tamer with less intense emotions
Amygdala and danger When people look at faces expressing fear, activity
increases in the amygdala When the amygdala is damaged, animals do not respond
appropriately to danger When the amygdala perceives danger it sets off a chain
reaction that activates hormones (pituitary gland), the adrenal glands, and neurotransmission
S.M.
Damage to both amygdalas (from disease) Can recognize happiness, sadness, and
disgust (in photographs) Difficulty in recognizing fear
Struggles to use information from the eyes to read emotion
Insula Region in the cerebral cortex that is found at the
junction of the frontal and temporal lobes Also plays a role in interpreting emotions Experiment:
People with damage to the insula were shown pictures and asked to rate them on a scale of very pleasant to very unpleasant AND how arousing the picture was to them
Result (when compared to the control group): Didn’t rank the pictures as pleasantly or
unpleasantly Showed a decrease in their arousal ratings
Other Brain Structures
Helps process both physical and social pain Social exclusion, etc
Active when processing disgust
Damaged in patients with Huntington’s disease Result?
Cingulate Cortex Basal Ganglia
Cerebral Cortex
Those with damage to their frontal lobe often experience a reduction in fear and anxiety (which can lead to an increase in impulsiveness)
Left hemisphere activity is correlated with the experience of positive emotions; Right hemisphere is correlated with negative emotions
We do not have “happy centers” or “sad centers” in the cerebral cortex
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Fear
Fear can torment us, rob us of sleep, andpreoccupy our thinking. However, fear can
be adaptive – it makes us run away from danger, it brings us closer as groups, and it
protects us frominjury and harm.
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Learning Fear
Watso
n (1
878-1
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)
We learn fear in two ways, either through conditioning and/or through observation.
By
Mo
nik
a S
ute
ski
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The Biology of Fear
Some fears are easier to learn than others. The amygdala in the brain associates
emotions like fear with certain situations.
Courtesy of N
ational Geographic M
agazine and Laboratory of N
euro Imaging
(LO
NI) at U
CL
A. A
rt and brain modeling by A
manda H
amm
ond, Jacopo A
nnese, and Authur T
oga, LO
NI; spider art by Joon-H
yuck Kim
Catharsis Hypothesis
Venting anger through action or fantasy achieves an emotional release or
“catharsis.”
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Expressing anger breeds more anger, and through reinforcement it is habit-forming.
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Happiness
People who are happy perceive the
world as being safer. They are able to make decisions easily, are more
cooperative, rate job applicants more
favorably, and live healthier, energized, and more satisfied
lives.
Subjective Well-Being
Subjective well-being is the self-perceived feeling of happiness or satisfaction with life. Research on
new positive psychology is on the rise.
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http://web.fineliving.com
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Emotional Ups and Downs
Our positive moods rise to a maximum within 6-7 hours after waking up. Negative
moods stay more or less the same throughout the day.
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Wealth and Well-being
Many people in the West believe that if they were wealthier, they would be
happier. However, data suggests that they would only be happy temporarily.
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Does Money Buy Happiness?
Wealth is like health: Its utter
absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of
happiness.
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Happiness & Satisfaction
Subjective well-being (happiness + satisfaction) measured in 82 countries shows Puerto Rico and Mexico (poorer
countries) at the top of the list.
Nonverbal Communication
Most of us are good at deciphering emotions through non-verbal
communication. In a crowd of faces a single angry face will “pop out” faster than
a single happy face (Fox et al. 2000).
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Emotions are Adaptive
Darwin speculated that our ancestors
communicated with facial expressions in
the absence of language.
Nonverbal facial expressions led to
our ancestor’s survival.
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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Experienced Emotion
Izard (1977) isolated 10 emotions. Most ofthem are present in infancy, except for contempt,
Shame, and guilt.
Lew
Merrim
/ Photo R
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Nancy B
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