6) Emotion 2

Question 1

What prescribes the 2 way process of effective communication through facial expressions

Answer 1

1) Recognition: of emotions is automatic/rapid

2) Display rules: bias recognition in a particular culture or social group/helps modify our expressions

Question 2

Explain Darwin’s principle of serviceable associated habits

Answer 2

These are useful habits reinforced previously, and then later inherited by offspring, given their adaptive function.
(over time behaviour became linked to our internal state i.e. angry (internal state)&raquo_space; so teeth (behaviour)

Question 3

Which of Darwin’s principle’s explains that some expressions are selected as they are the opposite of a serviceable habit i.e. helpless shrug. It has little purpose

Answer 3

The principle of antithesis ( think the ‘opposite’)

Question 4

What was Darwin’s vaguest principle regarding emotional behaviours?

Answer 4

The direct action of the nervous system- resulting in a discharge of excitement in the form of habits/behaviours

Question 5

Outline evidence for the JL theory of emotion from neural mechanisms of facial expressions

Answer 5

Facial mechanisms controlled by: 1) Motor cortex- initiated consciously
2) thalamus/basal ganglia- involuntary emotional expression.

Question 6

In what area of the brain do the 2 neural mechanisms of facial expressions join?

Answer 6

The pons (contralateral control)

Question 7

Describe the cause and the effects of the facial expression disorder ‘volitional facial paresis’

Answer 7

Caused by damage to the face region of the primary motor cortex, which leads to inability to move muscles on the affected side of the face (contralateral to brain lesion).
However they can still express genuine emotions (i.e. both sides of face move when laughing), but cant just move those muscles when they want to

Question 8

Describe the cause and effects of the facial expression disorder ‘emotional facial paresis’

Answer 8

Caused by damage to the insula region of the prefrontal cortex/white matter of thalamus.
They cannot express emotions on the affected side of face (contralateral brain lesion) but can move facial muscles voluntarily

Question 9

What is Ekman’s view of emotional facial expressions of those in developed countries

Answer 9

In these countries there are around 5 labelled facial expressions identified cross culturally

Question 10

Name 3 methods that could be used to measure facial expressions

Answer 10

1) Raters coding: using Facial Action Coding System, which is able to examine exactly which facial muscles move when an expression is made i.e lip tightening
2) Automatic coding- facial recognition/ video software
3) Electromyography- measures differences in muscle potential, detects which muscles move to make an expression.

Question 11

Which muscles are used to make a true smile, and the only one used to make a fake smile?

Answer 11

Several are used (zygomatic major, raised mouth corner) and lateral obicularis occuli (cheeks/crows feet at eye corner).
In a fake smile, only the zygomatic major is typically used

Question 12

What did LaFrance’s meta-analysis of smiling display rules on gender find?

Answer 12

Women smile more than men, which is first learned and then becomes an automatic habit (effect largest in US/UK).
Effect is smaller between people occupying same social role

Question 13

What was found from a study into cultural smile display rules of athletes ?

Answer 13

Athletes from individualistic cultures expressed their emotion more, whilst collectivists masked theirs more.

Question 14

Name the facial disorder that is congenital (from birth) and sees a defective development of facial nerves leading to facial paralysis and inability to make side-to-side eye movement.
Does a study of a sample support/refute JL theory?

Answer 14

Moebius Syndrome.
Refutes JL theory, as a quasi-experiment comparing babies found that those with the syndrome still had equivalent life satisfaction, anxiety level and depression

Question 15

Outline the support for JL theory from a ‘does smiling make you happy’ study

Answer 15

The smile study found that feedback from facial muscle contraction affected people’s subsequent mood + alters ANS activity
(JL theory physiology affects emotional response)

Question 16

Describe simulation hypothesis of decoding, Adolphs, 2000 (somato)

Answer 16

The data showed that the more brain damage to the somatosensory cortex = greater inability to detect emotions

Question 17

What was particularly striking about the simulation hypothesis of decoding somatosensation study?

Answer 17

Patients with more somatosesnory cortex damage in the right hemisphere = more severe inability to detect emotions

Question 18

Explain what mirror neurons do

Answer 18

They are the neural circuit that gives us the feedback to unconsciously imagine the expression of an emotion/map it onto our brain and even imitate the emotion to better understand someone

Question 19

What did another decoding by simulation study involving angry/happy faces? (unconscous processing)

Answer 19

P’s presented with angry/happy faces in subliminal pictures for a few seconds. Those identifying as ‘highly empathetic’ would use the muscles associated with that emotion and also displayed more automatic imitation of that emotion

Question 20

In summary what can we conclude about decoding by simulation

Answer 20

Empathy certainly requires ability to map other’s feelings onto our own system. Mirror neurons are able to do so, mapping observed actions of others onto our premotor cortex, and this is all done as an unconscious mechanism

Question 21

What syndrome gives a challenge to simulation decoding

Answer 21

Simulation decoding assumed a patient with Moebius syndrome wouldn’t be good at emotional recognition, as a study found that in fact a sample with the syndrome had an equivalent accuracy in emotional expression recognition tasks to regular controls, with the recognition accuracy UNrelated to amount of facial impairment