Title: General Psychology: Emotion
1EmotionChapter 11
William G. Huitt
Last revised May 2005
2Summary
- A human being is inherently
- biological.
- conditioned by the environment.
- gathering data about the world through the senses
and organizing that data
3What and Why of Emotions
- A subjective sensation experienced as a type of
psycho-physiological arousal - Result from the interaction of
- perception of environmental stimuli
- neural hormonal responses to perceptions
(feelings) - a cognitive appraisal of the situation arousing
the state - an outward expression of the state
4What is the Value of Emotion?
- Emotions
- determine personal viability
- prepare us for action
- shape our behavior (emotions are reinforcing)
- regulate social interaction
- facilitate communication nonverbally
- facilitate adult-child relations and thus
development - make life worth living by adding value to
experience - allow us to respond flexibly to our environment
(approaching good, avoiding bad)
5What is the Value of Emotion?
- Emotions
- largely a conscious phenomena
- involve more bodily manifestations than other
conscious states - vary along a number of dimensions intensity,
type, origin, arousal, value, self-regulation,
etc. - are reputed to be antagonists of rationality.
- have a central place in moral education and moral
life through conscience, empathy, and many
specific moral emotions such as shame, guilt, and
remorse inextrictably linked to moral virtues
See de Sousa, R. (2003). Emotion. The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy at http//plato.stanfor
d.edu/entries/emotion/
6Theories of Emotions
- Theories of emotion
- James-Lange theory of emotion
- The theory that emotional feelings result when an
individual becomes aware of a physiological
response to an emotion-provoking stimulus
7Theories of Emotions
8Theories of Emotions
- Theories of emotion
- James-Lange theory of emotion
- The theory that emotional feelings result when an
individual becomes aware of a physiological
response to an emotion-provoking stimulus - Requires separate and distinct physiological
activity for each emotion
9Theories of Emotions
- Theories of emotion
- Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
- The theory that an emotion-provoking stimulus is
transmitted simultaneously to the cortex,
providing the feeling of emotion, and to the
sympathetic nervous system, causing the
physiological arousal
10Theories of Emotions
11Theories of Emotions
- Theories of emotion
- Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
- The theory that an emotion-provoking stimulus is
transmitted simultaneously to the cortex,
providing the feeling of emotion, and to the
sympathetic nervous system, causing the
physiological arousal - Cognitive labeling and action would follow
consciousness of feeling and physiological arousal
12Theories of Emotions
- Theories of emotion
- Schachter-Singer theory of emotion
- A two-stage theory stating that for an emotion to
occur, there must be (1) physiological arousal
and (2) an explanation for the arousal
13Theories of Emotions
14Theories of Emotions
- Theories of emotion
- Schachter-Singer theory of emotion
- A two-stage theory stating that for an emotion to
occur, there must be (1) physiological arousal
and (2) an explanation for the arousal - Accounts for subjective interpretation
- Does not account for specific physiological
states associated with some emotions
15Theories of Emotions
- Theories of emotion
- Lazarus theory of emotion
- The theory that an emotion-provoking stimulus
triggers a cognitive appraisal, which is followed
by the emotion and the physiological arousal - Three aspects of appraisal
- Primary (relevance)
- Secondary (options)
- Reappraisal (anything changed)
16Three Ways to Measure Emotion
- Body/Physical
- blood pressure
- heart rate
- adrenaline levels
- muscle activity when smiling, frowning, etc.
- neural images
- posture
- tears,
- perspiration
- lie detector readings
17Three Ways to Measure Emotion
- Thoughts (observed indirectly through)
- spoken and written words on rating scales
- answers to open-ended questions on surveys and
during interviews - responses to projective instruments, sentence
stems, etc. - self-assessments or perceptions regarding the
behavior and intentions of others - other cognitive operations such as
rational/logical thinking
18Three Ways to Measure Emotion
- Behavior
- facial expressions
- activity level
- alertness
- screaming
- laughing
- smiling
- aggression
- approach/avoidance
- attention/distraction
- insomnia
- anhedonia
19Emotion and the Brain
- Emotion associated with the limbic system
- The brain structure most closely associated with
fear is the amygdala - When the emotion of fear first materializes, much
of the brains processing is nonconscious
20Emotion and the Brain
- Researchers using electro-encephalographs to
track mood changes have found that reductions in
both anxiety and depression are associated with a
shift in electrical activity from the left to the
right side of the brain
21Basic Emotions
- Paul Ekman and Carroll Izard
- Insist that there are a limited number of basic
emotions - Basic emotions
- Emotions that are found in all cultures, that are
reflected in the same facial expressions across
cultures, and that emerge in children according
to their biological timetable - Ekman
- Suggested considering emotions as families
- The anger family might range from annoyed to
irritated, angry, livid, and, finally, enraged - If perceived as a family, anger should also
include various forms of its expression
22Plutchik Three-dimensional Circumplex Model
23Protypical Behavior
24Expression of Emotion
- Range of emotion
- Ekman and Friesen
- Claim there are subtle distinctions in the facial
expression of a single emotion that convey its
intensity - Development of facial expressions
- Like the motor skills of crawling and walking,
facial expressions of emotions develop according
to a biological timetable of maturation - Consistency of emotional development across
individual infants and across cultures supports
the idea that emotional expression is inborn
25Expression of Emotion
- Universality of facial expressions
- Charles Darwin
- First to study the relationship between emotions
and facial expressions - Believed that the facial expression of emotion
was an aid to survival because it enabled people
to communicate their internal states and react to
emergencies before they developed language - Maintained that most emotions, and the facial
expressions that convey them, are genetically
inherited and characteristic of the entire human
species - Concluded that facial expressions were similar
across cultures
26Expression of Emotion
- Universality of facial expressions
- Scherer and Wallbott
- Found very extensive overlap in the patterns of
emotional experiences reported across cultures in
37 different counties on 5 continents - Also found important cultural differences in the
ways emotions are elicited and regulated and in
how they are shared socially
27Expression of Emotion
- Cultural rules for displaying emotion
- Display rule
- Cultural rules that dictate how emotions should
be expressed and when and where their expression
is appropriate - Often, a societys display rules require people
to give evidence of certain emotions that they
may not actually feel or to disguise their true
feelings - Cole
- Found that 3-year-old girls, when given an
unattractive gift, smiled nevertheless - They had already learned a display rule and
signaled an emotion they very likely did not feel
28Expression of Emotion
- Cultural rules for displaying emotion
- Davis
- Found that among first to third graders, girls
were better able to hide disappointment than boys
were - Not only can emotions be displayed but not felt,
they can also be felt but not displayed - Most of us learn display rules very early and
abide by them most of the time
29Experiencing Emotion
- Facial-feedback hypothesis
- Sylvan Tomkins
- Claimed that the facial expression itself that
is, the movement of the facial muscles producing
the expression triggers both the physiological
arousal and the conscious feeling associated with
the emotion - Facial-feedback hypothesis
- The idea that the muscular movements involved in
certain facial expressions trigger the
corresponding emotions
30Experiencing Emotion
- Facial-feedback hypothesis
- Ekman and colleagues
- Documented the effects of facial expressions on
physiological indicators of emotion using 16
participants - Reported that a distinctive physiological
response pattern emerged for the emotions of
fear, sadness, anger, and disgust, whether the
participants relived one of their emotional
experiences or simply made the corresponding
facial expression - Researcher found that both anger and fear
accelerate heart rate, but fear produces colder
fingers than does anger
31Experiencing Emotion
- Facial-feedback hypothesis
- Izard
- Believes that learning to self-regulate emotional
expression can help in controlling emotions - Proposes that this approach to the regulation of
emotion might be a useful adjunct to
psychotherapy - Gender differences in experiencing emotion
- David Buss
- Has reported that women are far more likely to
feel anger when their partner is sexually
aggressive - Men experience greater anger than women when
their partner withholds sex
32Experiencing Emotion
- Gender differences in experiencing emotion
- Research by evolutionary psychologists also
suggests clear and consistent differences between
the sexes concerning feelings of jealousy - Men, more than women, experience jealousy over
evidence or suspicions of sexual infidelity - A women is more likely than a man to be jealous
of her partners emotional attachment and
commitment to another and over the attention,
time, and resources diverted from the relationship
33Experiencing Emotion
- Emotion and cognition
- Emotion allows us to detect risk more quickly
than we could with rational thought alone - It is possible that the anger-optimism link
arises from confidence, whether justified or not,
in concrete measures directed towards people who
are perceived as potentially threatening
34Fostering Emotional Functioning
- Emotional understanding
- discern ones own emotional states
- discern others emotional states
- properly use emotional vocabulary.
35Fostering Emotional Functioning
- Emotional expression
- use of gestures to display emotional messages
nonverbally - demonstrate empathy by connecting ones emotions
to those of others - display both self-conscious as well as complex
social emotions - Distinguishing between experiencing an emotion
and action
36Fostering Emotional Functioning
- Emotional regulation and management
- coping with both pleasurable and
aversive/distressing emotions - regulation of those situations that elicit
emotions - ability to use an experience to strategically
organize the experience in terms of setting goals
and learning to motivate oneself and others
37Triangular Theory of Love
- Robert Sternbergs theory that three components
intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment
singly and in various combinations produce seven
different kinds of love - Liking (I)
- Infatuated love (P)
- Empty love (C)
- Romantic love (I, P)
- Fatuous love (C, P)
- Companionate love (C, I)
- Consummate love (I, C, P)