Emotion

Let’s think about this:

Take out a scrap sheet of paperMake a list of all of the emotions you

can think of in 2 minutesOn your mark…get set…goNow group similar emotions into

categories

Emotion

Emotion a response of the whole organismphysiological arousalexpressive behaviorsconscious experience

Basic EmotionsPrimaryemotion

Secondary emotion

Tertiary emotions

Love

AffectionAdoration, affection, love, fondness, liking, attraction,

caring, tenderness, compassion, sentimentality

Lust Arousal, desire, lust, passion, infatuation

Longing Longing

Joy

Cheerfulness

Amusement, bliss, cheerfulness, gaiety, glee, jolliness, joviality, joy, delight, enjoyment, gladness, happiness, jubilation, elation, satisfaction, ecstasy, euphoria

Zest Enthusiasm, zeal, zest, excitement, thrill, exhilaration

Contentment Contentment, pleasure

Pride Pride, triumph

Optimism Eagerness, hope, optimism

Enthrallment Enthrallment, rapture

Relief Relief

More Basic Emotions

Surprise Surprise Amazement, surprise, astonishment

Anger

IrritationAggravation, irritation, agitation, annoyance,

grouchiness, grumpiness

Exasperation Exasperation, frustration

RageAnger, rage, outrage, fury, wrath, hostility,

ferocity, bitterness, hate, loathing, scorn, spite, vengefulness, dislike, resentment

Disgust Disgust, revulsion, contempt

Envy Envy, jealousy

Torment Torment

More Basic Emotions

Sadness

Suffering Agony, suffering, hurt, anguish

SadnessDepression, despair, hopelessness, gloom, glumness, sadness, unhappiness, grief, sorrow, woe, misery, melancholy

Disappointment Dismay, disappointment, displeasure

Shame Guilt, shame, regret, remorse

NeglectAlienation, isolation, neglect, loneliness, rejection, homesickness, defeat, dejection, insecurity, embarrassment, humiliation, insult

Sympathy Pity, sympathy

FearHorror

Alarm, shock, fear, fright, horror, terror, panic, hysteria, mortification

NervousnessAnxiety, nervousness, tenseness, uneasiness, apprehension, worry, distress, dread

Theories of EmotionEmotions are a mix of 1) physiological activation, 2) expressive behaviors, and

3) conscious experience.

Theories of Emotion

Does your heart pound because you are afraid... or are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding?

Controversy

Does physiological arousal precede or follow your emotional experience?

Does cognition (thinking) precede emotion (feeling)?

When you become happy, your heart starts beating faster. First comes conscious

awareness, then comes physiological activity.B

ob

Sach

a

Common Sense View

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

Fear(emotion)

Poundingheart

(arousal)

Sight of oncoming

car(perception of

stimulus)

Cannon-BardTheory of Emotion

Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger: physiological

responses subjective

experience of emotion

Sight of oncoming

car(perception of

stimulus)

Poundingheart

(arousal)

Fear(emotion)

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

To experience emotion one must: be physically

aroused cognitively

label the arousal

Cognitivelabel

“I’m afraid”

Fear(emotion)

Sight of oncoming

car(perception of

stimulus)

Poundingheart

(arousal)

Opponent-Process Theory of Emotion

Strong

Neutral

StrongFirst experience

(a)

Strong

Neutral

StrongAfter repeated experiences

(b)

Embodied Emotion

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 (neurons activated in the brain).

Emotion and PhysiologyAutonomic nervous system controls

physiological arousal

Sympatheticdivision (arousing)

Pupils dilate

Decreases

Perspires

Increases

Accelerates

Inhibits

Secrete stresshormones

Parasympatheticdivision (calming)

Pupils contract

Increases

Dries

Decreases

Slows

Activates

Decreasessecretion of

stress hormones

EYES

SALIVATION

SKIN

RESPIRATION

HEART

DIGESTION

ADRENALGLANDS

Arousal and Performance

Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks

Compare to motivation

Physiological SimilaritiesPhysiological responses related to the

emotions of fear, anger, love, and boredom are very similar.

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.

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.

More dopamine receptors: nucleus accumbens

Cognition and Emotion

What is the connection between how we think (cognition) and how we feel (emotion)?

Can we change our emotions by changing our thinking?

Cognition Can Define EmotionAn arousal response to one event spills

over into our response to the next event.

Arousal from a soccer match can fuel anger, which may lead to rioting.

AP Photo/ N

ati Harnik

Reuters/ C

orbis

Cognition and Emotion The brain’s shortcut for emotionsSensory input may be

routed directly to the amygdala (via the

thalamus) for an instant emotional

reaction or to the cortex for analysis

Cognition and Emotion

Emotion and cognition feed on each other

Experiencedemotion

Cognition

Emotion: Lie Detectors

Polygraph machine commonly used in

attempts to detect lies measures several of the

physiological responses accompanying emotion perspiration cardiovascular breathing changes

Emotion--A Polygraph Examination

Emotion—Lie Detectors

Control Question Aim to make anyone nervous

(baseline) Up to age 18, did you ever physically

harm anyone? Relevant Question

Did [the deceased] threaten to harm you in any way?

Relevant response greater than control response Lie

Emotion--Lie Detectors

Control question

Relevantquestion

Control question

Relevantquestion(a) (b)

Respiration

Perspiration

Heart rate

Emotion--Lie Detectors

50 Innocents 50 Theives

1/3 of innocent declared guilty

1/4 of guilty declared innocent (from Kleinmuntz & Szucko, 1984)

Percentage

Innocentpeople

Guiltypeople

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Judged innocent by polygraphJudged guilty by polygraph

Emotion--Lie Detectors

Is 70% accuracy good? Assume 5% of 1000 employees actually

guilty test all employees 285 will be wrongly accused

What about 95% accuracy? Assume 1 in 1000 employees actually

guilty test all employees (including 999 innocents) 50 wrongly declared guilty 1 of 51 testing positive are guilty

Lab

Expressed Emotion

How do we decipher people’s emotions? body language tone of voice facial expressions

Are these behaviors culture, gender bound?

How good are we in detecting true or false emotions?

Expressing Emotion

Smiles can show different emotions:

A) Mask angerB) Overly politeC) Soften

criticismD) Reluctant

compliance

Nonverbal Communication People more speedily detect an angry

face than a happy one

Nonverbal Communication We read fear and anger mostly from

eyes, happiness from the mouth Experience influences how we perceive

emotions physically abused children are quicker to pick

out the angry face than non abused children At what point does the person morph into

fear?

Gender Differences

Women generally surpass men at reading people’s emotional cue Spotting lies Greater emotional literacy Greater emotional responsiveness to

positive and negative situations More empathic…more likely to express

empathy

Expressed Emotion: Gender Differences

Gender and expressiveness

Men Women

Sad Happy ScaryFilm Type

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

Numberof

expressions

UNIVERSAL FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

Definition 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

Detecting Emotions

Facial muscles reveal signs of emotion. Difficult to detect

expression of deceit

Absence of verbal or emotional cues makes detection difficult

Which smile is feigned, which is natural?How can you tell?

Expressed Emotion

Culturally universal expressions

Emotions are AdaptiveDarwin speculated that our ancestors

communicated with facial expressions in

the absence of language.

Nonverbal facial expressions led to

our ancestor’s survival.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Analyzing EmotionAnalysis of emotions are carried on different levels.

Feedback Hypotheses

Facial feedback hypothesis Expressions amplify our emotions by

activating muscles associated with specific statesIf we smile, we’ll feel happier

Behavior feedback hypothesis If we move our body as we would when

expressing some emotion we are likely to feel that emotion to some degreeShuffling feet with downcast eyes feel sad

Experienced Emotion

Infants’ naturally occurring emotionsa. Joy

b. Anger

c. Interest

d. Disgust

e. Surprise

f. Sadness

g. Fear

Dimensions of EmotionPeople generally divide emotions into

two dimensions.

Experienced Emotions: Fear

We learn specific fears through conditioning and observational learning

Biologically prepared to learn certain fears but not others Snakes, spiders, heights Self

preservation shared with prehistoric ancestors

Fast driving, bombs, electricity not conditioned in “genetic” makeup future generations??

Experienced Emotion

The Amygdala--a neural key to fear learning

Experienced Emotion: Anger

Frustrations, insults…evoke angerCatharsis

emotional releasecatharsis hypothesis

“releasing”, or venting, aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

Temporary relief may actually amplify anger

Reconciliation better than retaliation in reducing anger and its symptoms

Experienced Emotions: Happiness

Feel-good, do-good phenomenon people’s tendency to be helpful

when already in a good mood More helpful to strangers, give

money and time

Experienced Emotion

Subjective Well-Beingself-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life

used along with measures of objective well-beingphysical and economic indicators to evaluate people’s quality of life

Experienced Emotion

Moods across the day

Experienced Emotion

Changing materialism

Experienced Emotion

Does money buy happiness?

Year

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Averageper-person

after-tax incomein 1995 dollars

Percentagedescribingthemselves asvery happy

$20,000$19,000$18,000$17,000$16,000$15,000$14,000$13,000$12,000$11,000$10,000

$9,000$8,000$7,000$6,000$5,000$4,000

1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Percentage very happy

Personal income

Experienced Emotion Values and life satisfaction

MoneyLove

1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00Life satisfaction

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

-0.2

-0.4

Importancescores

Experienced Emotion Adaptation-Level Phenomenon

tendency to form judgments relative to a “neutral” level brightness of lights volume of sound level of income

defined by our prior experience Current level of happiness/satisfaction after

awhile may not be enough May want to increase level so strive to do something

a little more challenging (tied in with motivation) Relative Deprivation

perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

Happiness is...Researchers Have Found ThatHappy People Tend to

Have high self-esteem (in individualistic countries)

Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable

Have close friendships or a satisfyingmarriage

Have work and leisure that engagetheir skills

Have a meaningful religious faith

Sleep well and exercise

However, Happiness Seems Not MuchRelated to Other Factors, Such as

Age

Gender (women are more often depressed, but also more often joyful)

Education levels

Parenthood (having children or not)

Physical attractiveness