emotions Flashcards
(33 cards)
3 functiosn of emotions
- intrapersonal
- interpersonal
- cultural
intrapersonal function of emotiosn
they influence how we think and behave
interpersonal funmction of emotions
they guide social behaviour and how others behave towards us
cultural function of emotiosn
theyre shaped by culture imn a way that reinforeces social order
what are emotions
Motivated states with various components:physiological arousal (e.g. autonomic nervous systemand hormones), expressive behaviors (e.g. facialexpressions, postures), and conscious experience(feeling a certain way)
‘emotion’ as to define an emotional state
intense, short-lived, specific feelinsg about something
‘mood’ as to define an emotional state
less intense, longer lasting, more general, not clearly linked to an evfent ot cause
‘affect’ as to define an emotional state
generic term covering both ‘emotion’ and ‘mood’. often just means feeling good or bad
why do we have emotions
Evolutionary perspective: emotions promote the “right” response to recurring situations of adaptive significance in our evolutionary past, such as fighting, falling in love, escaping predators, losing status (Loewenstein, 2010)
how do Emotions influence the judgments we make about ourselves
- We often tend to make more positive judgments about ourselves than other people (e.g., the fundamental attribution error, the better than average effect).
- Emotions can influence these judgments; e.g., depressive realism describes the finding that mildly depressed people tend to make more accurate (and thus less positive) self-ratings.
Alloy & Abramson, 1988; Moore & Fresco, 2012
Emotions influence judgements we make about other people
study
“Misattribution of arousal” (Dutton & Aron, 1974)
* Participants who’d just crossed the bridge, and thus had higher physiological arousal, seemed to misattribute that arousal and interpret it as attraction for the experimenter
* We seem to use our emotions as a source of information when we make judgements, whether or not the emotions are relevant
* on the high bridge, 39% called the female researcher
* on the low bridge, 9% called the female researcher
(Feelings As Information model; Schwarz & Clore, 1983)
would people make better judgements if they had no emotions ?
Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex impairs emotional processing, but this doesn’t make people more rational; instead, it impairs their ability to make decisions and learn from mistakes (e.g., Bechara et al., 1994)
what are emotions and why do we have them
Emotions are co-ordinated physiological, behavioural andcognitive states, which influence thoughts and behaviour in waysthat might have helped us to survive as we evolved
how do emotions influence our judgements and decisions?
We are influenced both by our current emotion, and the predicted emotional consequences of our actions. Decision making is impaired without them, suggesting these effects are functional
self-conscious emotions seem to be especially important
- Tracy & Robins (2004) suggest the function of these emotions is to regulate the self in the context of social groups and relationships
- Pride reinforces and motivates socially valued behaviours, and shame, guilt and embarrassment are felt in response to transgressions of norms
‘emotions are social’ [parkinson, 1996]
- emotions are often caused by social factors, they have consequences for other people and they serve interpersonal and cultural functions
- emotions are essentially communicatiev
emotions as social infomation model [EASI]
- Other people’s emotional expressions change how we feel and how we interpret the situation, and thus trigger changes in our behaviour.
- This process is influenced by factors such as our relationship with the other person.
- We use other people’s expressions of emotions to make sense of social situations
mood/emotion contagion
- individuals living with a depressed roommate are more likely to become depressed themselves - joiner [1994]
- this can also happen on a much shorter timescale; just hearing someone talk in a depressed tone of voice can cause contagion - Neumann & Starck [2000]
controversial study on contagion by Kramer et al.,2014]
- Researchers at Facebook reduced the amount of positive or negative emotional content in N = 700k people’s news feeds
- Their manipulation influenced the emotions their ‘participants’ expressed in their own statuses
facial feedback hypothesis [Strack, Martin & Strepper, 1988]
- Strack et al. (1988) found that participants were more amused by cartoons when holding a pen with their teeth (i.e., smiling) than when holding the pen by their lips
- Their facial feedback hypothesis states that people’s facial activity influences their affective responses
- Debate about this theory is ongoing at the moment, as some research has failed to replicate this original study (Wagenmakers et al., 2016)
who did the study on botox and its relation to emotions
Neal et al. (2011), Davis et al. (2011)
what was Neal et al. (2011), Davis et al. (2011)study
Getting Botox reduces your ability to understand other people’s emotional expressions, as well as reducing your own emotional responses
do emotions have a social function
Theories have suggested that emotions evolved to guide social behaviour, and this is supported by various evidence (e.g. on how social functioning is negatively affected when emotions are absent)
how do our emotions influence other people ?
Emotions influence both how we behave in social interactions, and how others behave towards us. They also influence others’ emotions, through processes such as mood contagion
