1. Psychology of Emotions
Department of Psychology
Post Graduate Govt. College
Sector-11, Chandigarh
Prepared by: Dr. Sudhir K Samantaray

2. Overall Course Outline
Section I: General Background
Section II: Historical Perspectives
Section III: Types of Emotions
Section VI: Changes during Emotions
Section VII: Theories of Emotions
Section VIII: Models of Emotions
Section IV: Summary & Conclusions

3. Detailed Course Outline Continuing…..
Approaches to understanding emotions
Evolution of emotions
Culture and emotions
Defining emotion
Development and emotion
Physiology of emotion

4. Detailed Course Outline Continuing…..
Emotions and health
Emotions and learning and memory
Emotions and reasoning
Emotions and social judgment
Empathy
Emotions and gender

5. Detailed Course Outline Continuing…..
Positive emotions
Love and passion
Anger and hostility
Fear and anxiety
Emotions and Perception
Disgust
Managing Emotions
Traumatic events
Emotional Broadcaster

6. Historical Perspectives Neglect of Emotions in Psychology
25 yrs ago, experimental psychology silent on emotions
Emotions addressed in early days, but then disappear
Psych wants to be a science, emotions too flakey
Mesmerism
Freud – cigars, sex, bad mommies
Emotions make people nervous: Taboo impulses: sex, anger, desire Reminds people of animal natures
How do you even study emotion?

7. Rediscovery of Emotions
Dominance of Behaviorism ( ish)
BF Skinner: Humans do no have minds
Cognitive revolution ( )
R. Sheppard: Humans have minds! Minds affect
behavior.
Emotional revolution (1990 – and ongoing)
R. Zajonc: Humans have emotions! Emotions affect
thinking and behavior.

8. Darwin’s Taxonomy of Emotions

9. Darwin’s Approach to Emotions
Not interested in Emotions, per se. Uses Emotions to show humans evolved from more primitive critters.
Human emotions are VESTIGIAL
Human emotions reflect animal signals
Sneering – revealing teeth – bite threat
Eye raise – forehead pulled back – flat ears on dogs
Uselessness of emotions … phone call hand gestures
Darwin a Victorian.

10. Definitions
A complex pattern of changes, including physiological arousal, feelings, cognitive processes, and behavioral reactions, made in response to a situation perceived to be personally significant. The mainstream definition of emotion refers to a feeling state involving thoughts, physiological changes, and an outward expression or behavior. 

11. Emotions: Types & Nature
‘Official’ classification Emotion: Anger, sadness, fear, joy etc.
Mood: Cheerful, gloomy, irritable, listless, depressed, etc.
Interpersonal stance: Distant, cold, warm, supportive, contemptuous etc.
Attitudes: Liking, loving, hating, desiring etc.
Personality traits: Reckless, nervous, anxious, hostile etc.

12. Changes during Emotions
Physiological arousal
Motor expression
Conscious feelings
Action tendencies
Cognitive processing
All of these components may be important (and defining) elements of an emotional episode

13. What is emotion? A feeling? Then what is a feeling?
Difficult to define and even more difficult to understand completely.  People have been attempting to understand this phenomenon for thousands of years, and will most likely debate for a thousand more.  This section will present the various theories related to the acquisition of emotion.

14. Psychological Models of Emotion
Aims and Objectives
To understand Psychological Models of Emotion
Intended learning outcomes
To define what constitutes emotions and other affect states
Know the historical roots of current emotion debates
Know the main features of current emotion models

15. Current Models Dimensional models
Categories determined by valence dimensions
Discrete emotion models
A number of discrete emotions are represented in the brain
Meaning oriented models
Emotions are socio-cultural
Componential models
Components are important, but emotion eliciting depends on cognitive appraisal

16. Continuing….. Dimensional Models
Emotions can be displayed along some dimension, they can be determined by:
Pleasantness -unpleasantness dimension
Rest-activation dimension
Relaxation-attention dimension
Discrete Emotion Models
Discrete emotion circuits exist in the brain
e.g. fear circuit
Meaning Oriented Models
Meaning of emotion is generally constructed by socio-culturally determined behaviour and value pattern.

17. Continuing….. Componential Models
Basic assumption: Emotions are elicited by a cognitive (but not necessarily conscious or controlled) evaluation of the situation. This evaluation determines how the different components (Physiological arousal, Motor expression, Conscious feelings, Action tendencies, Cognitive processing) are affected.

18. Emotions in Simpler Way
General agreement exists that:
Emotions are of episodic nature
They are triggered by some event (external or internal)
They last for a while and then gradually fade away time

19. Theories of Emotions James-Lange Theory Cannon-Bard Theory
Schachter-Singer Theory
Lazarus Theory
Facial Feedback Theory

20. Continuing….
But what comes first?  The thought?  The physiological arousal?  The behavior?  Or does emotion exist in a vacuum, whether or not these other components are present?  There are five theories which attempt to understand why we experience emotion.

21. James-Lange Theory
The James-Lange theory of emotion argues that an event causes physiological arousal first and then we interpret this arousal.  Only after our interpretation of the arousal can we experience emotion.  If the arousal is not noticed or is not given any thought, then we will not experience any emotion based on this event.

22. Continuing….. Exciting event  bodily response  emotion
Ties emotions to bodily states
Our bodies “know” meaning of events, automatically
Greater intensity of feeling state (bodily arousal) more intense is the felt emotion.
Emotions give color, warmth to experience
But, emotions still passive

23. Example
You are walking down a dark alley late at night.  You hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens.  You notice these physiological changes and interpret them as your body's preparation for a fearful situation.  You then experience fear.
 Event—Arousal—Interpretation—Emotion

24. Cannon-Bard Theory
The Cannon-Bard theory argues that we experience physiological arousal and emotional at the same time, but gives no attention to the role of thoughts or outward behavior.  

25. Example
You are walking down a dark alley late at night.  You hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens.  At the same time as these physiological changes occur you also experience the emotion of fear.
Event---Arousal
---Emotion

26. Schachter-Singer Theory
According to this theory, an event causes physiological arousal first. 
You must then identify a reason for this arousal and then you are able to experience and label the emotion.

27. Example
You are walking down a dark alley late at night.  You hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens.  Upon noticing this arousal you realize that is comes from the fact that you are walking down a dark alley by yourself.  This behavior is dangerous and therefore you feel the emotion of fear.
Event—Arousal—Reasoning—Emotion

28. Lazarus Theory
Lazarus Theory states that a thought must come before any emotion or physiological arousal.  In other words, you must first think about your situation before you can experience an emotion.

29. Example
You are walking down a dark alley late at night.  You hear footsteps behind you and you think it may be a mugger so you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens and at the same time experience fear.
Event—Thought—Emotion
Arousal

30. Facial Feedback Theory
According to the facial feedback theory, emotion is the experience of changes in our facial muscles.  In other words, when we smile, we then experience pleasure, or happiness.  When we frown, we then experience sadness.  it is the changes in our facial muscles that cue our brains and provide the basis of our emotions.  Just as there are an unlimited number of muscle configurations in our face, so to are there a seemingly unlimited number of emotions.

31. Example
You are walking down a dark alley late at night.  You hear footsteps behind you and your eyes widen, your teeth clench and your brain interprets these facial changes as the expression of fear.  Therefore you experience the emotion of fear.
Event—Facial Changes—Emotion

32. Conclusions
Emotions play very significant role in the life of humans. With our emotions life is just like with out motions.

33. Summary
Emotions: episodic, external/internal trigger, reaction triad, relevance detectors.
Emotions vs. Moods, intra-personal stance, attitudes etc.
Theories: •James-Lange •Cannon-Bard• Schacter etc.

34. Readings
Understanding Emotions, Oately & Jenkins, 2004