Functions of Emotion Overview Flashcards
(12 cards)
Define (Social) Function
Something that maintains a (social) system.
What does the social functionalist account assume and propose as properties of emotions?
Assumes that humans are social by nature. Proposes that emotions are relatively automatic, involuntary, and rapid responses that help humans to regulate, maintain, and utilise different social relationships.
How can emotions be functional at the individual level?
- Inform of specific social events/conditions that need to be acted upon or changed.
- Emotion-related physiological responses prepare the individual to respond to problems/opportunities in social interaction (EVEN in the absence of awareness of the eliciting event).
How can emotions be functional at the dyadic level?
- Communicate internal states, helping individual’s know each other’s emotions/beliefs/intentions, enabling rapid coordination of social interactions.
- Evoke complementary/reciprocal emotions that are beneficial to the individual, the other, or the dyad (e.g. anger elicits fear)
- Serve as deterrents/incentives for another’s social behaviour.
How can emotions be functional at the group level?
- Define group boundaries, identify group members.
- Define & negotiate within-group roles & status, e.g. embarrassment marks lower status.
- Help group members negotiate problems, e.g. chimpanzees exhibit exuberant celebratory affiliative behaviour prior to allocation of valuable resources- may serve to solidify social bonds that may be threatened by conflict related to distributing these resources (de Waal, 1996).
How can emotions be functional at the cultural level?
- Role in processes by which individuals assume cultural identities, e.g. emotional reactions to within-culture deviance (e.g. contempt, embarrassment) negotiate culturally appropriate behaviours, thus can reifying and perpetuating appropriate behaviour.
Main problem with social-functionalist theory.
Low falsifiability. Teleological (assumes mental category designed by evolution to serve a function- but INFER physical causes, not explain them, e.g….). A priori stipulated definition.
What is the alternative to saying that some emotions may be “dysfunctional” (Oatley & Jenkins, 1992).
Emotional disorders may be adaptations to abnormal circumstances.
How does “accuracy of appraisal” factor into dysfunctionalism.
If realistic/accurate, the emotional response should be adaptive. Can go wrong: people imagine non-existent insults, have unrealistic expectations of others, ignore some aspects of situations while exaggerating others. Role of cognitive biases/error.
How does “appraisal of importance/how much we care” factor into dysfunctionalism?
Aberrant assignment of care wastes resources while neglecting what needs attention.
How does “suitability of the emotion to the situation at hand” factor into dysfunctionalism?
Emotions create action tendencies (heightened propensities for certain types of behaviour”. Anger can destroy friendships that could have been preserved, panic has caused people to overlook something that could have saved their lives.
How can processes related to, but conceptually distinct from, emotion factor into dysfunctionalism?
e.g. adaptivity of anxiety depends on how well the anxiety is modulated by self-regulation, so that it is neither too strong nor too weak, and what form of coping response is engaged.
