Emotions Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is an emotion?
- short-lived, feeling-purposive-expressive-bodily responses that help us adapt top the opportunities and challenges we face during important life events
- they are triggered by some significant life event (something that matters to us)
What are the 4 dimensions of an emotion that are coordinated with one another? Give examples for SADNESS (separation from a loved one)
- feelings (ex: aversive)
- bodily responses (ex: decreased heart rate, low energy level)
- expressive behaviours (ex: corners of lips lowered, eyebrows raised)
- sense of purpose (desire to take any action is necessary to overcome or reverse the separation)
How do emotions guide our behaviour?
- they are a type of motive that energizes, directs, and sustains behaviour
- they indicate how well personal adaption is
“I’m really upset with this result so I will try harder next time”
What is the biological theorist view on emotions?
- emotions serve a specific evolutionary purpose, are hardwired and automatic
- there are a limited number of universal emotions that are suited to survival of humans (and animals)
- When an event is important to our survival, the number of emotions are not limitless, there are emotions tied to a specific circumstance
What is the cognitivist theroist view on emotions?
- emotions arise from the meaning given to situations
- there are an unlimited number of possible emotions
- we can’t just look at biological - if we look at jealousy (a valued relationship is under threat) vs. envy (desire to have what someone else has) vs. anger (injustice) these are all associated with similar physiological responses and programming but we feel the different emotions under different circumstances
What are Ekman and Corodo’s criteria for labelling a basic human emotion? What emotions did they identify?
anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise, and contempt
They identified 12 characteristics that, if checked off, mean an emotion is basic
Some examples include:
- Distinct facial expression (specific and stereotyped)
- Distinct pattern of physiology
- Automatic (unlearned) appraisal (no one needs to be taught the emotion)
- Distinct antecedent cause
- Presence in other primates
- Distinct subjective experience (feeling)
- Distinct cognition (thoughts, images, memories)
If all other possible emotions are variations of the basic emotions, how can they be displayed?
As Emotion Families - there is an umbrella emotions that branches out to other emotions part of the same family but that are distinct
Can be distinct by:
- their intensity, the behaviour attached to it, the moment in time, the triggering event, etc…
ex: ANGER, envy, jealousy, vengefullness
what are some examples of learning, socialization and cultural effects on emotion?
- Learning: Values and beliefs around you influence how you learn to behave
- Culture: Cultures that are uncomfortable with displays of anger don’t discuss these feelings (don’t express them, or act out on them) - also sometimes one gender is allowed to express a type of emotion, and the other isn’t
- Socialization: parenting practices - parents demonstrate to their children how to express their emotions
What are the coping funtions of emotions?
- No emotion is fundamentally bad
- they are positive, functional, purposive, and adaptive organizers of behaviour (regulating emotions to avoid aggression)
- i.e. they help us organize behaviours
What are the social funtions of emotion?
- they help us communicate feelings to others/ empathy skills
-they influence how others interact with us - they invite, smooth, and facilitate social interactions
- they create, maintain, and dissolve relationships
What are appraisals?
a cognitive process (thoughts) that evaluates the significance of events in terms of one’s well-being
- Ex: what does this mean for me
They evaluate in terms of
- valence: good or bad
- goal relevance
- coping potential
- goal congruence
- novelty
- agency (who caused it)
Attribution Theory - 2 steps
the reason a person uses to explain an important life outcome or event
- primary appraisal: is it positive or negative?
- secondary appraisal: attribution (why it happened)
- internal (I) or external (they)
- stable or unstable
- controllable or uncontrollable cause
unstable + controllable = motivation
stable + uncontrollable = helpless
what emotions are linked to primary appraisal?
positive: happiness
negative: sadness OR frustration
how can these emotions be described with secondary appraisal? PRIDE, GRATITUDE, HOPE, ANGER, PITY, GUILT, SHAME
pride: positive, internal
gratitude: positive, external
hope: positive, stable
anger: negative, external, controllable
pity: negative, external, uncontrollable
guilt: negative, internal, controllable
shame: negative, internal, uncontrollable
Emotion Regulation: Situation Selection
- Happens before the emotion is triggered
- You pick the situation that are more likely to make you feel good and avoid those that will upset you
Emotion Regulation: Situation Modification
- You can’t avoid the situation, so you change something about it to make it more manageable
- When a situation has started and the emotion hasn’t fully developed
Emotion Regulation: Attentional Focus
- You control your focus—looking away from or toward emotionally charged things.
- As the emotion starts building
Emotion Regulation Reappraisal
- Changing the way you interpret a situation to change its emotional impact.
- After you’ve started reacting emotionally, but before it fully plays out.
Emotion Regulation: Suppression
- Trying to hide or suppress the emotional response after it’s already happening
- After the emotional response has already started.
- LEAST EFFECTIVE STRATEGY
Emotion Knowledge
The ability to differentiate emotional experience into discrete categories and to differentiate one basic emotion into its various shades
- Greater emotion knowledge -> greater psychological well-being
