Emotion

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Emotion

• Emotion
• Though emotions comprise a significant and
  crucial part of our individual and social
  experience, emotion is an elusive concept,
  difficult to define and measure.
• Through scientific research psychologists have
  learned much about nature of emotions, but some
  interesting and important questions remain
  unanswered.

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The Crucial Importance of Emotion

• It is by no means true that we would make better
  decisions if we could keep our emotions in check,
  despite the pop culture lore that promotes this
  idea.
• Brain damaged people with impaired emotions are
  generally inferior decision-makers.
• Emotions are a powerful informer of our
  decisions, closely related to motivation, as
  almost any motivation has an emotion tied to it.

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Excitement and Physiological Arousal

• The role of the autonomic nervous system
• The autonomic nervous system is the division that
  controls the functioning of the internal organs.
• The ANS has two subdivisions, the sympathetic and
  parasympathetic nervous systems.

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The Autonomic Nervous System

• The Opponent-Process Principle of Emotions
• After sympathetic nervous system activity slows
  down, the body responds with increased
  parasympathetic activity
• Removal of a stimulus that excites one emotion
  causes a swing to an opposite emotion. The
  initial emotion is referred to as the A state,
  and the rebound emotion as the B state.
• With repetition of the cycle, the A state
  becomes weaker, and the B state becomes stronger
  and more prolonged.

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Emotion and Perceived Arousal

• The James-Lange theory of emotions
• Two nineteenth century psychologists, working
  independently, came up with a different
  interpretation of how emotion and physiological
  reactions are related.
• The James-Lange theory states that a persons
  interpretation of a stimulus evokes the autonomic
  changes directly.
• The psychological experience of emotion is the
  individuals perception of those physiological
  changes.

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Emotion and Perceived Arousal

• The James-Lange theory of emotions
• You decide that you are happy because you are
  smiling, sad because you are frowning and tears
  are forming in your eyes.
• According to the James-Lange theory, the
  reactions are not enough to produce the emotions,
  but you will not have the full experience of the
  emotions without them.

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Emotion and Perceived Arousal

• Schachter and Singers theory of emotions
• Another theory proposes that the physiological
  state is not the same thing as the emotion.
• According to the Schachter and Singer theory of
  emotions, the intensity of the physiological
  reaction determines only the intensity of the
  emotion, not the type of emotion.

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Emotion and Perceived Arousal

• Schachter and Singers theory of emotions
• A persons cognitive appraisal of the situation
  that determines the emotion that we experience.
• Research studies based on the Schachter and
  Singer theory leave some unanswered questions
  about the role of physiological arousal in
  contributing to the intensity of the emotional
  states.

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The Usefulness of Emotions

• If emotions were not informative in some way, we
  probably would not have evolved them.
• Emotions adjust our priorities and focus our
  attention on important information.
• The broaden-and-build hypothesis of positive
  emotions the function of happy moods is to
  increase our readiness to explore new ideas and
  opportunities.
• Mildly sad moods seem to increase the accuracy of
  our judgment and decision-making.

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Emotions and Moral Decisions

• Emotions may influence our moral decisions.
• Research studies using the Trolley Dilemma and
  Footbridge Dilemma, problems that involve making
  decisions about letting a small number of people
  die to save a larger number of people, have
  provided evidence that emotions play a powerful
  role in deciding the most moral course of action.

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Emotions and Decision-Making

• In fact, a number of case studies of patients
  with brain damage suggest that the ability to
  experience and express emotions plays a key role
  in important life and moral decisions.
• The case of Phineas Gage and more recently,
  Antonio Damasios case study of Elliot both
  provide evidence that feeling distinctly good or
  bad is crucial in making decisions of major
  importance in our lives so that the best outcome
  is achieved.

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Figure 12.18

• Figure 12.18 In the 1990s researchers used modern
  technology to reconstruct the path that an iron
  bar must have made through the brain of Phineas
  Gage, who survived this injury in 1848. The
  damage impaired Gages judgment and
  decision-making ability.

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Fear and Anxiety

• Fear and anxiety feel the same but can be
  distinguished
• Fear is a response to an immediate danger.
• Anxiety is an increase in the startle reflex,
  usually accompanied by a sense of dread.

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Figure 12.19

• Figure 12.19 Structures in the pons and medulla
  control the startle response to a sudden loud
  sound. The amygdala sends information to the pons
  and medulla. This drawing is of a human brain,
  although the relevant experiments were conducted
  with rats.

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Figure 12.20

• Figure 12.20 The polygraph operator (a) asks a
  series of non-threatening questions to establish
  base-line readings of the subjects autonomic
  responses, (b) then asks questions relevant to an
  investigation.

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Figure 12.21

• Figure 12.21 Polygraph examiners correctly
  identified 76 of guilty suspects as lying.
  However, they also identified 37 of innocent
  suspects as lying. (Based on data of Kleinmuntz
  Szucko, 1984)

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Health Psychology

• Health psychology examines how peoples behavior
  can improve health and prevent illness, and how
  human behavior influences the course of recovery
  from illness.

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Health Psychology

• Stress
• Selyes Concept of Stress
• A variety of experiences can cause stress.
• The physician Hans Selye defined stress as the
  nonspecific response of the body to any demand
  made upon it.
• Selyes definition emphasizes the role that
  changes in ones life play in causing stress.
• It does not consider the effects of more chronic
  problems such as poverty or discrimination.

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How Stress Affects Health

• Stress has indirect effects and direct effects on
  physical health
• Indirect effects include any changes in behavior
  loss of sleep, use of substances or anxiety
  generated by negative suggestion that can
  damage health in the long-term.
• Direct effects stem from prolonged activation of
  the SNS, leading to prolonged exposure to
  cortisol, which can damage memory and inhibit
  immune system functioning.

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How Stress Affects Health

• Heart disease
• In the 1970s a physician hypothesized a link
  between an impatient, success-driven personality
  and heart disease.
• Type A personality describes a highly
  competitive, impatient, hurried person who
  typically has an angry and hostile temperament.
• Type B personality designates those who are
  easygoing, less hurried and less hostile.

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Coping with Stress

• Psychologists have developed two major categories
  for classifying how people handle their stress.
• Problem-focused Attending carefully to the
  stressful event and trying to take effective
  action.
• Emotion-focused The strategy involving attempts
  to avoid thinking about or focusing on a
  stressful situation.