Emotion

Primary Emotions Many believe to be universal and innate JoyDistress AngerFear SurpriseDisgust Limbic system: amygdala Evans (2001)

Primary Emotions Fear: escape Anger: fight Love: community

Primary Emotions Disgust: Surprise:

Cross-cultural research on emotion Are the experience and expression of emotion the same across cultures?

Secondary emotions Emotions that are learned by making connections between situations and primary emotions

Theories of Emotion

James-Lange Theory Situation  Physiological changes  Emotion Lion  Heart races  Frightened “I am frightened because my heart is racing.” What is important is how we label our physical reactions Figure 12.1 The James-Lange theory of emotion Klein/Thorne: Biological Psychology © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Cannon-Bard Theory Emotion  Situation  Physiological changes Frightened  Lion  Heart races Figure 12.2 The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion Klein/Thorne: Biological Psychology © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Schacter’s Cognitive Model Schachter and Singer Situation  Physiological changes  Reasoning  Emotion Figure 12.5 Schachter’s cognitive model of emotion Klein/Thorne: Biological Psychology © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Schacter’s Cognitive Model Epinephrine Study Told male volunteers that this was a vitamin study

Schacter’s Cognitive Model Injected them with either epinephrine or placebo –Epinephrine: increases blood pressure, heart rate, respiration

Schacter’s Cognitive Model Four groups of participants 1) Epinephrine ignorant –Injected with epinephrine, not told about side effects 2) Epinephrine informed –Injected with epinephrine, told about actual side effects

Schacter’s Cognitive Model 3) Epinephrine misinformed –Injected with epinephrine, told about fake side effects (numb feet, headache) 4) Control group –Injected with placebo (saline solution), not told anything

Schacter’s Cognitive Model Participants then sat in a small room with another person (confederate) Happy confederate –Goofed around Angry confederate –Increasingly agitated and angry, was very annoying

Can emotions be faked?

Facial Feedback Hypothesis Read comics with smile vs. without smile –With smile  comics funnier

Faking Emotions Facial EMG –Can detect changes in the face that are too minute to be directly observed The Duchenne smile –High school study

Fear

Fear Conditioning Taking something that is neutral and turning it into something scary Little Albert

Fear Conditioning Experiments on Rats Neutral stimulus: tone Naturally scary thing: electric shock Rat hears tone, then immediately gets a mild electric shock to its feet

Fear Conditioning Experiments on Rats After doing this several times, rat becomes frightened upon hearing the tone –Freezing, easily startled –Increased heart rate and blood pressure Tone used to be a neutral thing, now scary

Fear Pathways Remember: all sensory information (except olfactory) is first relayed by the thalamus to the cortex Ear  Thalamus  Auditory cortex

Pathways of Fear Threatening sound (tone): –Ear  Thalamus  Amygdala Any damage to the amygdala blocks fear conditioning from taking place Evans (2001)

Pathways of Fear Threatening sound (tone): –Ear  Thalamus  Auditory cortex  Amygdala More processing Evans (2001)

Pathways of Fear Other parts of the brain are also involved 1. Hypothalamus –Stress response (e.g., increased heart rate)

Pathways of Fear 2. Hippocampus -Memory -Context

Phobia

Parts of the Nervous System Associated with Emotion

Amygdala –Involved in fear, as well as other emotions –Fear conditioning in rats Figure The amygdala and the detection of emotional facial expressions Klein/Thorne: Biological Psychology © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Hypothalamus –Affects autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic) –Causes physical changes associated with emotion

Falling in Love

Misattribution of Arousal Figure 12.7 Are you in love? Klein/Thorne: Biological Psychology © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Misattribution of Arousal Heart beating fast Sweating Just crossed a suspension bridge Talking to an attractive woman ??

Aggression

Irritable aggression –Pain-elicited aggression –Kluver-Bucy syndrome

Kluver-Bucy Syndrome Removed the temporal lobes of very aggressive people Less able to recognize people Memory problems Socially inappropriate sexual behavior

Aggression Irritable aggression –Pain-elicited aggression –Kluver-Bucy syndrome –Amygdalectomy

Aggression Irritable aggression –Pain-elicited aggression –Kluver-Bucy syndrome –Amygdalectomy –Brain tumor, epilepsy –Brain activity (EEG) –Testosterone and serotonin High testosterone (dominance), low serotonin (frustration and aggression)

Aggression Fear-induced aggression –Reduced after removal of temporal lobe and amygdala

Alexithymia Problems with: 1) Differentiating 2) Describing 3) Expressing emotions