Theory of Knowledge EMOTION

1. What is Emotion?

Turn to your partner, and answer the following questions together: How are emotions triggered? How long do emotions last? What determines the strength or weakness of an emotion? Is it possible to exert control over emotions? If so, how? Do you make emotions happen, or do they happen to you? How do emotions make you think differently? Share your ideas with the class.

2. Theories of Emotion

The James-Lange Theory Perception of emotion-arousing stimulus Specific physiological changes Interpretation of specific physiological changes as the emotion The James-Lange theory of emotion states that different emotion-arousing external stimuli will produce specific physiological changes that in turn directly cause specific emotional feelings. Thus, the external stimuli of a dangerous object will cause the physiological response of adrenaline release / increased heart rate, which in turn is felt as the emotion of fear. According to this theory, you are afraid because you run.

The Schachter-Singer Theory Perception of emotion-arousing stimulus Physiological responses Physiological responses can be interpreted in different ways – different people may label the same response as a different emotion. Cognitive identification of feedback from physiological responses as a particular emotion According to this theory, I feel my heart beating fast because I’m afraid. He feels his heart beating fast because he’s excited…

The Cannon-Bard Theory Perception of emotion-arousing stimulus Conscious experience of emotion General physiological changes The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion states that conscious feelings of emotion and physiological changes occur as separate but simultaneous reactions to external emotion-arousing stimuli. According to this theory, you feel fear at the sight of a bear even before you run away from it.

In review – Theories of Emotion… Theory Source of Emotions Evidence for Theory James-Lange The Central Nervous System generates specific physical responses; observation of the physical responses constitutes emotion. Different emotions are associated with different physical responses. Schachter-Singer The CNS generates non-specific physical responses; interpretation of the physical responses in light of the situation constitutes emotion. Excitation generated by physical activity can transfer to increase emotional intensity. Cannon-Bard Parts of the CNS directly generate emotions; experiencing physiological responses is not necessary. Direct brain stimulation can produce feelings of pleasure or discomfort associated with emotion.

“According to most psychologists in Western cultures…” Emotion is usually temporary. Moods, by contrast, tend to last longer. Emotional experience is either positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant. Emotion is triggered partly by a mental assessment of how a situation relates to your goals. Emotional experience alters thought processes, often by directing attention toward some things and away from others. Emotional experience elicits an action tendency, a motivation to behave in certain ways. Emotional experiences are passions that happen to you, usually without willful intent. You can exert some control over emotions, since they depend partly on how you interpret situations. (Bernstein, p. 310)

3. Emotion & Reason - Emotional Hijacking

Reflection: How many times in your life have you done something that was triggered by an emotion, but without thinking? Note some thoughts in your TOK notebook, then share them with a partner.

Can Emotion bypass the reasoning brain? “A friend tells of having been on vacation in England, and eating brunch at a canalside café. Taking a stroll afterward along the stone steps down to the canal, he suddenly saw a girl gazing at the water, her face frozen in fear. Before he knew quite why, he had jumped in the water – in his coat and tie. Only once he was in the water did he realize that the girl was staring in shock at a toddler who had fallen in – whom he was able to rescue. What made him jump in the water before he knew why? The answer, very probably, was his amygdala” (Goleman p. 17).

The James-Lange Theory 1. The person perceives the stimulus (snake). 2. Information about the snake is processed in the visual cortex (in the neo-cortex, the reasoning part of the brain). 3. An emotional response occurs in the amygdala. 4. The emotional response triggers a physical reaction, such as fighting or running away.

Counterclaim: Le Doux’s Theory thalamus Le Doux’s work revealed how the architecture of the brain gives the amygdala a privileged position as an emotional sentinel, able to hijack the brain. His research has shown that sensory signals from eye or ear travel first in the brain to the thalamus, and then to the amygdala; a second signal from the thalamus is routed to the neocortex – the thinking brain. This branching allows the amygdala to begin to respond before the neocortex, which mulls information through several levels of brain circuits before it fully perceives and finally initiates a more finely tailored response (Goleman, p. 17). amygdala visual cortex Therefore, impulsive feeling does sometimes override the rational part of the brain.

When else might this happen? when we speak without thinking when we react on impulse (positive: to save someone’s life; negative: to hit someone) when we act on a ‘hunch’ (and turn out to be right…or very wrong) when we have irrational fears (phobias), such as a fear of that spider, even though it’s tiny! when we are filled with jealousy because our girlfriend / boyfriend is talking very sweetly (or so it seems) to someone else.

4. Emotion & Values

Elliot’s Tumour Elliot’s tumour was the size of an orange. It was removed successfully, but after the operation Elliot was a changed man. Although he was as bright as ever, he used his time terribly, getting lost in minor details and losing all sense of priority. He was fired from a succession of legal jobs, his wife left him, and he was reduced to living in a spare room at his brother’s home. Elliot’s neurologist, Antonio Damasio, found that although nothing was wrong with his logic, memory, attention or any other cognitive ability, Elliot was virtually oblivious to his feelings about what had happened to him. Most strikingly, he could relate the tragic events of his life with complete dispassion, as though he were an onlooker to the losses and failures of his past. His own tragedy brought him no pain. Damasio concluded that Elliot’s surgery, while successfully removing the tumour, had also severed ties between the lower centres of the emotional brain, especially the amygdala and related circuits, and the thinking abilities of the neocortex. As a result, Elliot was unable to assign values to differing possibilities (Goleman, p. 53).

thalamus amygdala visual cortex Conclusion: Too little awareness of his own feelings about things made Elliot’s reasoning faulty.

5. Are Emotions learned or are they innate?

Are these expressions the same in every culture?

Activity: look at the facial expressions, A to K, on the right Activity: look at the facial expressions, A to K, on the right. Write down a word or short phrase describing the emotion that is being expressed. This is a secret activity -do not let anyone see what you are writing! Now share your words with your group. Did you all see the same emotions, or were there some differences? What conclusions can you draw from this?

Claim: Ray Birdwhistell, anthropologist / linguist ‘When I first became interested in studying body motion I was confident that it would be possible to isolate a series of expressions, postures and movements that were very denotative of primary emotional states... As research proceeded… it became clear that this search for universals was culture-bound... There are probably no universal symbols of emotional state... We can expect them [emotional expressions] to be learned and patterned according to the particular structures of particular societies.’ Birdwhistell, R. (1970). Kinesics and Context. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Counterclaim: Paul Ekman, psychologist humans have 42 facial muscles using these, they are capable of pulling about 10,000 expressions about 3,000 of these are relevant to emotion most people around the world use similar expressions for similar emotions this suggests that expressions of emotions are innate, and not learned but this does not mean that people in different cultures have the same emotions for the same reasons

Paul Ekman: Basic Emotions = emotions associated with fundamental life tasks, e.g. fear, anger, disgust, sadness, joy, excitement, love basic emotions are goal-related these goals are linked to our evolution as a species and the behaviour of our ancestors Example: I am happy that my girlfriend messaged me because it confirms that she loves me – and my goal is to marry her and have children. Or: I am angry that my girlfriend didn’t message me, because it goes against this goal. Ekman, P. (1973). Cross-cultural studies of facial expression. In P.Ekman (ed.), Darwin and Facial Expression: A Century of Research in Review.New York: Academic Press, pp. 169- 222.

According to Paul Ekman: “Each emotion thus prompts us in a direction which, in the course of evolution, has done better than other solutions in recurring circumstances that are relevant to goals. Stein & Trabasso (1992) say that in happiness a goal is attained or maintained, in sadness there is a failure to attain or maintain a goal, in anger an agent causes a loss of a goal, and in fear there is an expectation of failure to achieve a goal. Tooby & Cosmides (1990) tell us that emotions… deal with recurrent “adaptive situations…fighting, falling in love, escaping predators, confronting sexual infidelity, and so on, each [of which] recurred innumerable times in evolutionary history . . .” (pp. 407—408). Tooby & Cosmides emphasize what I consider the crucial element which distinguishes the emotions: our appraisal of a current event is influenced by our ancestral past.” Ekman, P. In T. Dalgleish and M. Power (Eds.). Handbook of Cognition and Emotion. Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 1999.

Summary: What have we learned, so far, about emotion? Without curiosity – the feeling that knowing something is important – and a desire for knowledge, most knowledge would be impossible. Without certain emotions, such as the ability to feel that one action or decision is more valuable that another, we cannot reason effectively Emotions can sometimes lead us towards knowledge, even before we have found a rational basis for that knowledge Emotions often override rational thought, leading to false beliefs and inappropriate action based on those beliefs basic emotions may be goal-oriented the way we express emotions is probably universal; why we express them is probably cultural emotions allow us to prioritise our goals

Activity DANCE, STOP, SHARE When the music plays move about the room. Feel free to dance, this is a natural response to music. When the music stops turn to the person closest to you and discuss the prompt given on the ppt slide.

One thing I didn’t know before about emotion…

I think the most interesting thing about emotion (as a way of knowing) so far has been…

I think intuition is…