S2 L1 - Emotions

Question 1

What are emotions?

Answer 1

A short lived complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioural, and physiological elements, by which an individual attempts to deal with a personally significant matter or event

Display of feelings that are evoked when important things happen to us
brief and occur in responses to events
distinct from moods that are longer lasting and not tied to a specific event

Question 2

What is Affect?

Answer 2

Any mental state involving an evaluative relationship with the environment. Important subcategories are emotion and mood

Question 3

What is emotion?

Answer 3

Usually relatively intense and short-lived affective condition which involves taking an evaluative position with respect to an intentional object

eg anger

Question 4

What is mood?

Answer 4

less intense and longer lasting affective state which isnt directed at any specific object, reflecting more diffuse and generalised evaluative processes

calm
tense
drowsy

Question 5

What is Affective Well-being?

Answer 5

generalised evaluation of affect that is more enduring than mood. Severely impaired affective well-being is a feature of affective disorders eg depression, anxiety

Question 6

What are the components of an emotion?

Answer 6

Reaction to stimulis - physiological response; attentional orientation

Appraisal - relevance to goals , evaluation of meaning

Organisation of response

Question 7

What are the 2 models of how emotions relate to each other?

Answer 7

Discrete/Categorical
Dimensional

Question 8

What are discrete or categorical models?

Answer 8

a set of basic and fundamental emotions
basic as theyre innate, universal and ireeducible and correspond to specific neurophysiological systems

facial expression of the emotion is universally recognisable
though the number of basic emotions and which emotions this includes varies
Ekman’s 6 basic emotions (now 7)
Plutchik (1980) also includes acceptance, trust, expectancy, anticipation

In South Fore tribe in New Guinea who hadnt been exposed to western culture they were asked to imagine how they would feel in certain situations and their facial expressions were video taped
these were then shown to us students who could accurately identify the emotions 86% of the time
context in which emotions are presented is important
so universality in the facial expression of the valence of the emotion chosen (pos or neg) but less so on the individual basic emotions in the Himba cultural group

Question 9

What is a dimensional model of emotion?

Answer 9

The Circumplex Model of Affect

Question 10

What is the Circumplex Model of Affect?

Answer 10

emotions arise from 2 dimensions: Pleasure and Arousal

Each emotion is the linear combination of these two dimensions
Happiness = high pleasure and moderate arousal
Anxiety = Low pleasure and high arousal

Question 11

What is Darwin’s theory of emotion?

Answer 11

Emotions are innate biological responses consisting of complex movements _not learned)

emotions evolved bc they allow humans/animals to survive and reproduce

eg fear > fight/flight, love > seek mates & reproduce

emotion expression is consistent within and across species (universal)

Question 12

What is the James-Lange Theory?

Answer 12

emotions are the experience of the physiological responses from emotive cues in the world
emotion
events elicit physiological responses and behaviours
brain receives sensory feedback from muscles and organs producing these responses
emotions consist of this feedback

Question 13

What is the Cannon bard Thalamic theory of emotion?

Answer 13

autonomic activity does not differentiate all emotion states
same bodily changes occur in non emotional states eg fever
emotion + physiological

hypothalamus is the brain region involved in emotional response to stimuli
physiological changes in the body and the subjective experience of emotion occur at same time
responses are inhibited by neocortical regions- removal of cortex allows uncontrolled emotion displays

Question 14

What is the two factor theory?

Answer 14

stimulis > physiological response > cognitive assessment > emotional response/subjective exp

physiological arousal needs cog assessment to detrmine wether the state or arousal correponds to anger happiness fear
emotions determined jointly by perception of physiological responses and cognitive appraisal

interplay remember

Question 15

What is the Modal Model of Emotion?

Answer 15

Shows how emotions are generated

situation > attention > appraisal (thinking ab it) > response

situation = real or imagined
attention towards the emotional situation
appraised (evaluated/interpreted) either consciously or unconsciously in terms of what it means in relation to an individuals goals
generates an emotional response which leads to changes in experiential, behavioural and physiological response systems

Question 16

Emotions can vary in their?

Answer 16

Valence - extent to which emotion is positive or negative

Arousal - strength of the emotion

Question 17

People can vary in their?

Answer 17

Affectivity - degree to which they experience emotions
Hedonic capacity - capability to feel good
Affective style- Dispositional way of emotionally responding to an event
Emotional Reactivity - the threshold magnitude rise time, recovery function and duration of an emotional reaction

Question 18

How do complex emotions form?

Answer 18

The element of basic emotion combines

Definition - any emotion that is an aggregate of two or more others
comprise the majority of our emotional experiences
vary greatly in how they are expressed and dont have easily recognisable expressions

Question 19

What are mixed emotions?

Answer 19

Co-occurrence of two or more positive and negative affects (emotions)

Question 20

How are emotions social?

Answer 20

emotions have a social direction
eg anger towards someone who insulted you

the appraisal of emotions depend on social factors
insult may be taken more seriously in the presence of others who express shock

our emotions affect other people
anger may lead to counter anger from the person who insulted you

emotions elicit social sharing of emotions
share w others what mde us angry

we regulate our emotions due to their impact on other people
anger may be suppressed to maintain a positive relationship

Question 21

What is Emotion Contagion?

Answer 21

automatically mimicking and synchronising expressions, vocalisations, postures and movements with those of another person’s and consequently to converge emotionally

function -
enable emotional understanding and identification with others
provide a proto-organising state that enables or prevents cooperative responses

Question 21

What is Reactive process?

Answer 21

automatic processes that occur w/out awareness
aka primitive emotional contagion

Question 21

What are the 2 processes emotion contagion occurs through?

Answer 21

Reactive

Inferential

Question 22

What is inferential?

Answer 22

conscious process that occurs through social appraisal of other ppls emotions or by social comparison
eg mates are happy mybe i am too

Question 23

What is Motor Mimicry?

Answer 23

perceiving a behaviour can be enough to make others behave similarly ppl mimicking the gestures of people around them automatically emotions communicated through unintentional imitation of expressive gestures motor mimicry followed by facial feedback results in emotion contagion < the observer experiences the same emotion as the person observed so PRIMITIVE EMOTION CONTAGION = mimicry + interoceptive feedback from facial expressions

Question 24

What are the two mechanisms for primitive emotion contagion?

Answer 24

Cognitive - ppl make inferences ab what theyre feeling based on their facial expression Physiological - the physical position of the muscle in ur face can influence emotion

Question 25

What is Social Appraisal?

Answer 25

we understand the implications of others emotional expressions which affects our appraisal of the same objects and events jada angry will understand she angy bc she offended byjoke then will is angry will smith

Question 26

What are the 2 processes behind the influence of peoples behaviour from emotional expressions provided to observers?

Answer 26

Inferential processes - observers infer info about other's feelings, attitudes, intentions based on their emotional expression Affective reaction - emotions may spread directly from expresser to observer (via emotion contagion processes) processes may compete depending on observers info processing (ability to process the info) and relational factors eg cultural norms, the way the emotion is expressed

Question 27

What is social sharing (of emotions)?

Answer 27

Individuals communicating openly with one or more persons about the circumstances of the emotion eliciting event and about their own feelings an emotional reaction occurs shortly following an emotion eliciting event repetitive and shared with multiple people consistent across gender, age and culture the valence (positive/negative0 or type of basic emotion does not affect sharing but more intense emotions are shared mor people share emotions with close others - parents, friends, siblings, spouse

Question 28

What are the consequences of sharing emotions with others?

Answer 28

leads to interpersonal dynamic (similar to self-disclosure) social sharing leads to - strengthen social bonds between individuals eg people who share emotions are liked better distribute knowledge about important events in a community - sharing anger let others know that something significant occurred

Question 29

how do we measure emotion?

Answer 29

self report scales eg basic emotion scale number of items for each dimension or category of affect to enhance reliability response format - need to choose timescale, nature of experience, and format can also use faces. less culture-specific, but also more ambiguous and restricted set Diary studies high eco validity bc context of daily life minimises memory recall problems examine changes over time but biased towards highly motivated and conscientious samples and response rate may be low Neuroimaging - emotions are complex so bad and they involve networks of brain regions restrictive env in which emotions can be elicited needs validation by self report

Question 30

What is the Affect grid?

Answer 30

based on pleasure and arousal continuums single item scale to measure emotions easy and rapid administration advantageous over multiple item questionnaires that are time consuming and not appropriate for repeated administration requires training of respondent

Question 31

What are limitations of self-report scales?

Answer 31

requires self-awareness and understanding of emotion alexithymia - deficiency in processing and understanding of emotions only captures one point in time (may depend on when you administer the scale) social desirability may lead to lower reporting of negative emotions

Question 32

What is IAPS?

Answer 32

INTERNATIONAL AFFECT PICTURE SYSEM LIBRARY OF PHOTOGRAPHS THAT HAVE BEEN NORMATIVELY RATED ON DIMENSIONS OF PELASURE, AROUSAL AND DOMINANCE