Lecture 15 Flashcards
Do animals have emotions?
It is hard to tell. There needs to be a genetic basis and the emotions should occur early in development and be cross-cultural. It can be argued that apes laugh, as when they are tickled, they make similar vocalisations to humans.
Discuss the phylogeny of laughter in primates
It has been found that laughter has a pre-human basis. It has also been found that our vocal expressions have emerged from ancestral apes, such as regular voicing, vibration regimes and egressive airflow. Furthermore, humans have gone on to develop both voiced and unvoiced laughter to highlight the degree of positivity in response to the other speaker.
It has been found that animals do have emotions, for example empathy. Discuss empathy in animals
Emotions are an important part of animal communication. Thus, empathy has the function of rebuilding relationships. In order for one to empathise, they must have emotional contagion, cognitive empathy and theory of mind. This is essential as empathy involves the perception of someone’s emotional state which then generates a similar emotional state in you. The perception action model claims that we empathise because when we perceive an emotion in someone, we automatically imagine the state of the individual; this is cognitive empathy. Thus, a kind of emotional contagion occurs. The model examines empathy as an overall process. There are three distinct abilities involving empathy according to the model; emotional contagion consolation and perspective taking. Each showing a progressively larger distinction between self and others. It is believed that empathy develops during mother-infant interactions and this development evolved prior to human existence. However, the perception action model states that imitation and mimicry are not related to empathy as they don’t involve the understanding of someone’s emotional state.
Discuss mimicry in relation to empathy in animals
Mimicry can happen when we share emotions with others. For example, there is the chameleon effect which is the unintended copying of others. According to the perception action model, mimicking movements does not suggest empathy, as it is does not involve the conscious thought about others’ emotional experience. Furthermore, some claim that yawn contagion could be an example of an empathetic response. People with ASD have empathetic deficits and do not show yawn contagion but still yawn spontaneously. This contagion is predicted to have deep evolutionary roots as it is present in chimps and dogs (Joly-Mascheroni, 2008). However, it is important to note that this does not necessarily signify empathy as it could just be pure imitation.
Discuss emotional contagion and imitation
Emotional contagion is when one imitates or mimics another, causing them to have the same emotional state. It is the lost rudimentary form of empathy and involves automatic responses. For example, EMG tests have shown that facial mimicry is rapid, automatic and unconscious.
In terms if imitation, children and chimps imitate others. For example, it can help them solve problems. On top of this, the skill of goal emulation is also present in both. This is when one replicates the intended goal of someone’s action instead of copying the action itself. Thus, if the individual fails to achieve the goal, chimps and infants can still emulate and complete the desired goal.
Furthermore, primates also understand when someone is imitating them. They have 2 distinct responses; implicit recognition where they have increased attention (in macaques and infants) and explicit recognition where they show testing behaviours to see if the other will copy them (in great apes and infants). It is believed that imitation has developed as it promotes affiliation, this has been found in capuchin monkeys. The monkeys spent more time gazing at the imitator, interacted more with them and chose to be in closer proximity compared to the non-imitator.
List 3 social learning mechanisms present in animals
Mimicry, imitation and goal emulation
List 6 mechanisms of empathy related phenomena
Emotional contagion
Consolation - a helping behaviour
Reconciliation
Theory of mind
Discuss Allport’s claim
Allport claimed that originally empathy was developed into the English language as elementary motor mimicry that is not employed as an ability to understand people. Thus, one could argue with this definition that motor mimicry is a form of empathy, but since, the definition has been updated to ‘attending the perception of another’s state which causes you to have a similar state’. Therefore, there has to be an understanding of what the other person is feeling rather than unconscious copying. This supports the PAM.
Discuss Custance’s study
They found that dogs oriented to their owners more often when they were pretending to cry as opposed to humming or talking. The raters were blind to the study. It was also found that the dogs’ behaviour was submissive in this context as opposed to being playful, suggesting that they understood how their owner was feeling. This is an example of emotional contagion. However, it could be argued that this behaviour is a conditioned response as they have been rewarded for acting this way in the past, meaning that they are not actually understanding how the owner is feeling
