Chapter 12 - Part 1: Emotion Flashcards
1
Q
emotion
A
- a mix of physiological activation, expressive behaviours, and conscious experiences
- more than just a feeling - a physiological activation, a behavioural mobilization
2
Q
functions of our emotions
A
- enhance survival
- focus our attention and energize our action
- strongest when we have strong want/need to avoid or obtain something
3
Q
6 theories of emotion
A
- common-sense view
- James-Lange theory
- Cannon-Bard theory
- 2-factor theory
- Zajonc/Ledoux theory
- Lazarus theory
4
Q
common sense view
A
thought (am I safe in this dark alley?) leads to emotion (fear) leads to physiological response (heart racing)
5
Q
James-Lange theory
A
- physiological arousal comes before emotion
- ex. heart races, then we feel afraid
6
Q
Cannon-Bard theory
A
- physiological arousal and emotion happen simultaneously
- ex. your heart begins pounding as you begin to experience fear
7
Q
2-factor theory
A
- emotion = physical arousal + cognitive label
- ex. you may interpret arousal as fear or excitement depending on the context
- supported by the misattribution to the 2-factor theory of arousal (ie. Capilano Suspension bridge examples)
8
Q
embodied emotion
A
emotions involve bodily responses (ex. butterflies in our stomach, racing heart, neurons activated in the brain)
9
Q
autonomic nervous system
A
- mobilizes us for action (ex. by pumping blood to major muscle groups)
- 2 main branches: sympathetic (arousing, stress hormones) and parasympathetic (calming, inhibition of stress hormones)
10
Q
emotions can have both physiological ____ and physiological ____
A
- similarities (ex. difficult to distinguish between fear vs. anger vs. love vs. boredom)
- differences (ex. different facial muscles used in fear vs. joy; amygdala activity in fear vs. anger; frontal lobe activity in depression vs. happiness)
11
Q
Lie detector tests
A
- liars vs. truth-tellers experience different emotions when asked questions
- problem: different emotions don’t have distinct physiological signatures -> results in huge inaccuracies
12
Q
cognition and emotion
A
many assume cognition comes first, and that it’s required for emotion, but that’s not always true (ex. spillover phenomena; subliminal messages triggering activity)
13
Q
Spillover Phenomena
A
- arousal from previous event influences reaction to next event, or “catching” the emotions of people near you
- ex. being angry right before something happens will have a large effect on the way you react to it; being around angry people will make you angrier
14
Q
2 routes to emotion
A
- with conscious appraisal
- without conscious appraisal
15
Q
Zajonc/Ledoux Perspective
A
- instant emotion without cognition/appraisal
- neural shortcut that bypasses cortex (‘thinking’ part of brain) to create fear (ex. we automatically fear a sound in a forest before labeling it as a threat; fearing a spider even though we know it’s harmless)
16
Q
perceiving facial expressions
A
- emotions expressed in many ways (face, body, voice)
- angry faces “pop out” faster than happy ones (more adaptive for us to recognize unhappy faces -> helps us perceive potential threats faster)
17
Q
gender and expressive emotion
A
- women better at reading non-verbal emotion
- women more often express emotion non-verbally
- ex. when men and women watched happy, sad, or scary movies, both men and women were more expressive during the happy movies (but women were more expressive than men)
18
Q
origins of emotional expression
A
- Darwin speculated that facial expressions preceded spoken language
- survival value -> helps us better identify potential threats
19
Q
effects of facial expression
A
- seeing facial expression affects how we feel
- detecting deception -> experts are only 54% accurate
20
Q
2 types of emotions
A
- expressed emotions
- discrete emotions
21
Q
discrete emotions
A
- Izard isolated 10 emotions (joy, anger, interest, disgust, surprise, sadness, fear, etc.)
- all observable in infancy (except contempt, shame, and guilt)
- Eckman discovered that discrete emotions are real, universal, and biologically driven (not just socially learned)
22
Q
3 levels of emotion
A
- mood (happiness, sadness, anger, etc.)
- trait (people who tend to be happier, more sad, more angry, etc.)
- Disorder (depression, anxiety, etc.)
23
Q
2 dimensions of emotion
A
- positive-negative (aka: valence)
2. low arousal-high arousal
24
Q
fear
A
- adaptive -> helps us run away from danger, brings us closer to others, protects us from harm
- clear biological piece and conditioning piece that interact
25
learning fear
- not just instinctive
- fear driven by conditioning (learning fear by something scaring you) and observation (learning fear by watching others be afraid of things)
- can also uncondition fear through exposure therapy
26
biology of fear
- amygdala
- some fears easier to learn than others -> we're biologically predisposed to be more afraid of certain things than others (ie. more likely to fear spiders or snakes rather than kittens)
27
anger
- we are angered by...
- friends/loved ones who commit wrongdoings (especially if wrongdoing was willful, unjustified, and avoidable)
- foul odors, high temperatures, traffic jams, aches and pains, etc.
28
happiness
- when we're happy, we...
- see the world as safer; make decisions easily; are more cooperative; rate others more favourably; have better health, energy, and satisfaction, etc.
29
feel-good, do-good phenomenon
when we're happy, we're more willing to help others
30
mood and time of day
- we experience more positive emotions about 6-8 hours after we wake up (for most people, in middle of the day)
- negative emotions stay pretty consistent throughout the day, but are lower towards the start of the day and higher towards the end of the day
31
happiness is relative
- adaptation-level phenomenon: like adaptation to brightness, volume, and touch, people adapt to income levels
- relative deprivation: perception that we are worse-off than those we compare ourselves with (ie. feeling smart in high school, feeling average at UBC)
32
does money = happiness?
- small correlation
- sudden increase in money -> temporary increase in happiness (consistent with adaptation-level phenomenon)
- having very little money -> less happiness
33
valuing love vs. money
- the more people value money, the lower their life satisfaction
- the more people value love, the higher their life satisfaction
34
spending on self vs. others
- people who spend more on others are happier
- people who spend more on others are happier in the future
- people randomly assigned to spend $5 on others (rather than themselves) happier afterwards
35
Lazarus theory
- cognitive appraisal (sometimes without our awareness) defines our emotions
- ex. once you label the sound in the forest as "just the wind" your fear decreases
36
2 pathways in the brain for emotion
1. cortex (then amygdala) -> used to analyze more complex feelings like hate and love
2. directly to amygdala -> creates immediate emotional reaction for simpler emotions like fear
37
facial feedback effect
- tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness
- ex. smiling can make you feel happier
38
behaviour feedback effect
- tendency of behaviour to influence our own and other's thoughts, feelings, and actions
- ex. walking with your head down can make you feel sad, whereas walking with your head up can make you feel happier
39
catharsis hypothesis
- releasing aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
- not necessarily true -> may be helpful only if it doesn't leave us feeling guilty of anxious
40
positive psychology
study of human flourishing, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities thrive
41
subjective well-being
- self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life
| - used along with objective well-being (ex. physical and economic indicators) to evaluate quality of life
42
happiness isn't really related to
- age
- gender
- physical attractiveness
