Module 40 - Introduction to Emotion

Question 1

What are emotions?

Answer 1

• emotions are conscious experiences that are expressed in response to biologically significant stimuli (life threatening or promoting)
• thoughts and feelings

Question 2

What is the purpose of emotions?

Answer 2

• produce action

- highly adaptive

Question 3

3 components of emotions

Answer 3

1. Physiological Arousal
2. Expressive Behaviour
3. Experienced change in consciousness (thinking and feeling)

Question 4

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

Answer 4

• when exposed to an emotion provoking stimulus there is a bodily response and arousal
• conscious experience(feeling) we have is a results from out behaviour and physiological response
• theory assumes there is a unique pattern of responses for each experienced feeling

Question 5

Cannon-Bard Theory

Answer 5

• argues experienced feeling and the physiological response occur simultaneously
• also thought some physiological responses were too slow
• brain simultaneously directs information to cortex(conscious experience) and to sympathetic nervous system (arousal)

Question 6

Implausible

Answer 6

Thought body responses were not distinct enough to evoke different emotions (feelings)

Question 7

Schachter and Singer Two-Factor Theory

Answer 7

• emotions involves arousal (non-specific) and cognitive label
• agreed with Cannon-Bard: isn’t a separate pattern physiological responses for each emotion
• agreed with James-Lange: particular experience (feeling) requires awareness of the arousal and cognitive interpretation

Question 8

Oder of events

Answer 8

General Arousal > Thinking (cognitive appraisal) > Particular Feeling

Question 9

Do different emotions have distinct physiological patterns? (negative evidence)

Answer 9

• recordings of the body fail to determine different emotions (anger, fear, sexual)
• heat rate
• breathing rate (respiration)
• Galvanic Skin Response (respiration)

Question 10

Lie Detectors (evidence against specific response)

Answer 10

Measures: heart rate, galvanic skin response. breathing rate
Procedures: control questions asked to establish baseline
Problem: assumes arousal is specific to lying

Question 11

Do different emotions have distinct physiological patterns? (positive evidence)

Answer 11

• facial expressions vary with emotions, muscles in face change due to the type of emotion
• temperature of finger tips shown to distinguish joy and fear

Question 12

Brain Circuits (vary with emotions)

Answer 12

• amygdala selectively activated when expressing fear not anger (face)
• frontal cortex:
  1. negative emotions in right (disgust); positive in left (happy/joy), depressed and negative personality types show more activity in right
• left cortex rewards area of brain

Question 13

Is awareness of bodily responses necessary for feeling of emotion?

Answer 13

High spinal cord injury: reported decrease in emotion

Low spinal cord injury: reported little change in emotion

Question 14

Support of Cannon-Bard

Answer 14

Lie detector fail to distinguish emotion

Question 15

Support of James-Lange

Answer 15

• peripheral differences for different emotion (fingertips)

- detection of peripheral arousal is perceived feeling (spinal cord)

Question 16

evidence of Schachter-Singer

Answer 16

• Thinking determines “feeling” is true with certain emotions, some of the time