Motivation, Emotion, and Stress Unit 8 Motivation, Emotion, and Stress

Unit 8 Day 1 – The Basis of Motivation (Module 37) Day 2 – Hunger and Sex (Modules 38 & 39) Day 3 – The Need to Belong (Module 40) and Week 1 Vocabulary Quiz Day 4 – Theories of Emotion and Detection (Modules 41 & 42) Day 5 – Stress and Unit 8 Review (Modules 43 & 44) Day 6 – CUA 8!

Module 41: Emotion – Theories and Physiology

Cognition (the mind) and Emotion Emotions A response of the WHOLE organism, involving (a) arousal, (b) expressed behaviors, and (c) experience of emotion

Questions Emotion Theories Answer Chicken-and-egg debate: Does physical arousal happen before, after, or during the feeling of emotion? Cognition: How do thinking and feeling interact? Which comes first? Five Theories: James-Lange Cannon-Bard Schachter-Singer Zajonc and Ledoux Lazarus How to Remember: A Guide S = stimulus, what causes emotion A =arousal E = emotion C = cognition, or thought

One: James-Lange Theory How to Remember: Arousal comes before Emotion (S->A->E) William James believed that we become aware of our physical responses to stimuli Ex: Our heart is racing (to speed up oxygen and blood flow), then we feel afraid.

Two: Cannon-Bard Theory How to Remember: Arousal and emotion happen together. (S->A+E) The emotion-triggering stimulus (1) travels to the brain causing fear (2a) and at the same time to the nervous system, speeding up heart beat (2b). Key Point #3: Give the PRIMARY DIFFERENCE between the two historical theories of emotion – James-Lange and Cannon-Bard. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Three: Two-factor Theory How to Remember: Arousal AND cognitively labeling the emotion allow you experience it. (S->A+C=E) Emotional experience requires conscious awareness of the arousal you experience. Spillover effect: imagine you come back from an invigorating run or a great date, and find a letter saying you’re accepted to your first choice. Would you feel differently if you had just woken up from a nap instead?

Four: Zajonc and LeDoux How to Remember: Some emotions don’t need labels to be felt. (some S->E, bypassing other steps) We automatically detect emotionally significant notions High and low-roads High-road: some complex emotions or stimuli – love, hate – get analyzed before they are distinctly labeled Low-road: other stimuli – for survival, such as fear – result in instant reactions

Five: Lazarus How to Remember: We process emotion consciously and unconsciously. (S- >C->E, even without noticing arousal) Agrees, with Zajonc and LeDoux, but argues that we might appraise an event as harmless or dangerous whether we know it is or not. Modern theories:

Embodied Emotion Autonomic Nervous System controls the arousal we feel Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) Yerkes-Dodson Law: It pays to be moderately aroused on an exam, for example; too high and you get stressed out, too low and you are sleepy and unmotivated.

Affect and Polygraphs Affect is how you express emotions – a wide affect means an appropriate range of emotions; limited affect is usually a sign of depression. Polygraphs Machines that measure physical responses to see if a person is lying in response to a question Why would these be flawed?