w5 - Functions of Emotions in Everyday Life (FEEL)

Question 1

What evidence is there that our emotions span both time and space?

Answer 1

Time: contemporay particiapnts were able to correctly identify the emotion assoicated with an activity grouping of historic statues from facial expressions
Space: cross-cultural correlation of colour assoications with emotion-words

Question 2

What effect does the inclusion of a negative, or a positive emotion, have on the receiver?

Answer 2

Neg: felt sense the sender is in a negative mood, despite content of message
Pos: increase sense of warmth of sender

Question 3

Izard (2010)

What trends were found when analysing contemporary definitions of emotion

Answer 3

• It is valenced (pos/neg)
• A response to event / situations relevant to current goals
• Involved changes across many dimensions

Question 4

Scherer (1984, 2001)

What three components of an emotions are well agreed upon

Answer 4

1. Subjective experience (feelings)
2. Psysiological reactions (bodily sensations)
3. Expression (face, body, voice)

Question 5

What two components of emotion are more contested?

Answer 5

1. Cognition (appraisals)
2. Action tendencies (motivation to act)

Question 6

Do the 5 components of emotion fit together (cohere)? What is the evidence ?

Answer 6

No. There is only small to moderate correlations between emotional components.
There is also large individaul differences in how each component expresses itself.

Question 7

Is higher emotional coherence linked with well-being ?

Answer 7

Higher coherence is associated with increased life satisfaction.

Question 8

Affect is thought of as umbrella. What processes come under it?

Answer 8

• Stress
• Emotion
• Mood
• Impulses

Question 9

Emotion v. Mood

Both directed toward a specific object?

Answer 9

Only emotions are directed at a specfic object?

Question 10

Emotion v. Mood

Are there physiological changes in both ?

Answer 10

Emotion: YES
Mood: not necessarily

Question 11

Core tenent

**Basic Emotion Theory **

Answer 11

There are a finite number of emotions which are hard wired in us

Question 12

What are the five emotions in basic emotion theory ?

extra points for + 2 emotions left out

Answer 12

1. Anger
2. Fear
3. Sadness
4. Disgust
5. Happiness / joy

*Surpise and contempt

Question 13

Ekman’s Theory

Name 5 theory components for basic emotion

Answer 13

1. Distinct uniiversal signals (facial expressions)
2. Presence in other primates (evolved)
3. Distinctive physiology
4. Distinctive universal antecedent events (e.g., evolved fears
5. Coherence among components

Question 14

Ekaman’s Theory

Name 4 contested features of basic emotion.

Answer 14

1. Quick onset (pre-concious)
2. Brief duration (seconds / minutes)
3. Automatic appraisal
4. Unbidden occurrence (can’t choose when they occur)

Question 15

What is one piece of evidence against basic emotion theory

Answer 15

Quite small effect sizes of the differences between negative emotions

Should be clearer differences between emotions if valid

i.e small effect between sadness vs anxiety

Question 15

What is an appraisal?

Answer 15

How we evaluate our environment and whether it will be good or bad for us

Question 16

What are some of the core tenents of Appraisal theory

Answer 16

• Variability is the rule rather than the expection for emotion
• Emotion varies between-persons
• Emotions varies for an individual in different situations, even from the same category (within-persons)
• Appraisals cause emotions (appraisal are based on current goals)

Question 17

What are the six key appraisal dimensions?

Answer 17

1. Goal relevance
2. Goal congruence (is it advan or disadvantagious to you)
3. Self vs. other responsibility
4. Control / power (do you have any?)
5. Coping potential
6. Future expectancy

emotions are based on a mixture of these

Question 18

Psychological Construction Theories is all about …

Answer 18

How we construct our world based on context cues that we are given

Question 19

Core tenents of Psychological Construction Theory

Answer 19

• Ingredients that make up emotions are not unique to specific emotion
• Emotions are* products of the human mind*, rather than things in nature
• Variation is the norm

Question 20

What do emotion theories agree upon ?

Answer 20

• Emotions have functions
• These are functional for specific situations

Question 21

What is the smoke detector principle ?

Answer 21

The cost of a ‘false alarm’ is much lower than the cost of missing a threat.
Therefore a bias toward false alarms is adaptive

Question 22

What are three functional groups of emotions ?

Answer 22

1. Intrapersonal : individually
2. interpersonal : relationships
3. social and cultural: functioning of our societies and cultures at large

Question 23

More heterogeneous societies are more likely to …

Answer 23

Express their emotions