EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY EIGHTH EDITION IN MODULES David Myers PowerPoint Slides Aneeq Ahmad Henderson State University Worth Publishers, © 2011

2 Emotions, Stress, and Health

Expressing and Experiencing Emotion Module 28 3

4 Expressed Emotion  Detecting Emotion  Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior  Culture and Emotional Expression  The Effects of Facial Expressions

5 Experienced Emotion  Anger  Happiness  CLOSE-UP: How to Be Happier

6 Expressed Emotion Emotions are expressed on the face, by the body, and by the intonation of voice. Is this nonverbal language of emotion universal? Hindi classic dance conveys 10 different emotions through the face and body.

7 Detecting Emotion Most of us are good at deciphering emotions through nonverbal communication. Experience can sensitize us to particular emotions, as shown by experiments using a series of faces. Physically abused children are much quicker than other children to spot the signals of anger.

8 Detecting Emotion Hard-to-control facial muscles reveal signs of emotions you may be trying to conceal. A feigned smile may continue for more than 4-5 seconds while a genuine smile will have faded by then. Which of Paul Ekman’s smiles is genuine? Dr. Paul Elkman, University of California at San Francisco

9 Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior Women are much better at discerning nonverbal emotions than men. When shown sad, happy, and scary film clips women expressed more emotions than men.

10 Culture and Emotional Expression When culturally diverse people were shown basic facial expressions, they did fairly well at recognizing them (Matsumoto & Ekman, 1989). Elkman & Matsumoto, Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expression of Emotion

11 Culture and Emotional Expression Darwin speculated that our ancestors communicated with facial expressions in the absence of language. Nonverbal facial expressions led to our ancestor’s survival. In fact, people blind from birth spontaneously exhibit the facial expressions associated with joy, sadness, fear, and anger. All children cry when distressed and a smile is a universal symbol of happiness.

12 Analyzing Emotion Analysis of emotions are carried on different levels.

13 The Effects of Facial Expression Expressions not only communicate emotion, they also amplify and regulate it. If facial expressions are manipulated, like furrowing brows, people feel sad while looking at sad pictures.

14 Experienced Emotion Izard (1977) isolated 10 emotions. Most of them are present in infancy, except for contempt, shame, and guilt. Lew Merrim/ Photo Researchers, Inc. Nancy Brown/ The Image Bank Tom McCarthy/ Rainbow Patrick Donehue/ Photo Researchers, Inc. Marc Grimberg/ The Image Bank Bob Daemmrich/ The Image Works Michael Newman/ PhotoEdit

15 Anger Anger “carries the mind away,” (Virgil, B.C.), but “makes any coward brave,” (Cato B.C.). What makes us angry? It can be anything from a friend’s perceived misdeed to a foul odor or being stuck in a traffic jam.

16 Anger Venting anger through action or fantasy achieves an emotional release or catharsis. Indeed, sometimes, releasing anger can have a calming effect. But more often, an angry response serves only to increase rage. Angry outbursts and temporary calm are also dangerous in that they can be habit forming.

17 Anger Gender and cultural differences in anger: Boys respond to anger by moving away from that situation, while girls talk to their friends or listen to music. Anger breeds prejudice. The expression of anger is more encouraged in cultures that do not promote group behavior than in cultures that do promote group behavior.

18 Happiness People who are happy perceive the world as safer, feel more confident, make decisions more easily,, rate job applicants more favorably, are more cooperative and live healthier, energized, and more satisfied lives. And happiness doesn’t just feel good, it does good. The feel-good, do-good phenomena shows that people are more likely to be helpful when already in a good mood.

19 Happiness Despite psychology’s historical focus on negative feelings, researchers are becoming more focused on subjective well-being, the self-perceived feeling of happiness or satisfaction with life. Research on new positive psychology is on the rise.

20 Emotional Ups and Downs Our positive moods rise to a maximum within 6-7 hours after waking up. Negative moods stay more or less the same throughout the day.

21 Emotional Ups and Downs Over the long run, our emotional ups and downs tend to balance. Although grave diseases can bring individuals emotionally down, most people adapt. We tend to overestimate the duration of our emotions and underestimate our capacity to adapt.

22 Wealth and Well-being Many people in the West believe that if they were wealthier, they would be happier. However, data suggests that they would only be happy temporarily.

23 Wealth and Well-being In affluent societies, people with more money are happier than people who struggle for their basic needs. People in rich countries are somewhat happier than people in poor countries. A sudden rise in financial conditions makes people happy. However, people who live in poverty or in slums are also satisfied with their life.

24 Does Money Buy Happiness? Wealth is like health: Its utter absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of happiness.

25 Two Psychological Phenomena: Adaptation and Comparison Adaptation-level phenomenon: We judge certain stimuli relative to those we have already experienced. Like the adaptation to brightness, volume, and touch, people adapt to income levels. Happiness is not only relative to our past, but also to our comparisons with others. Relative deprivation is the perception that we are relatively worse off than those we compare ourselves with.

26 Values & Life Satisfaction Students who value love more than money report higher life satisfaction.

27 Predictors of Happiness Why are some people generally more happy than others?

How to be Happier Some research-based tips on being happier. -Realize that enduring happiness may not come from financial success. -Take control of your time -Act happy -Seek things that engage your skills -Exercise -Get more sleep -Give priority to close relationships -Focus beyond self -Count your blessings -Nurture your spiritual self 28