1. Emotion Lesson Objectives
Describe how arousal and expressive behaviors interact in emotion
Explain whether we can experience emotion without consciously interpreting and labeling them.

2. Emotions Let’s create a list of emotions:
Think about sometime when you’ve had an intense emotional experience (for use later).

3. Emotions Emotion: A pattern of feelings that includes:
Physiological arousal
(heart pounding, perspiration, breathing changes)
Expressive behaviors
(smiles, crying, laughing, facial expressions)
Cognitive awareness
(thoughts, expectations, interpretations)

4. Emotions Chicken & egg debate: which comes first?
Does bodily arousal come before, after, or during time of feelings?
Do feelings occur, causing the body to respond?
How does thinking and feeling interact?

5. Historical Emotion Theories
Common Sense theory:
First comes conscious awareness of a situation, then the feeling.
Cry because of sadness
Lash out because of anger
We tremble because we are afraid

6. Historical Emotion Theories
James-Lange theory:
First comes the body’s response to a stimulus, followed by the feeling of fear.
Notice heart racing, then shaking with fright, then felt the whoosh of emotion.

7. Historical Emotion Theories
Cannon-Bard theory:
Arousal and emotion occur simultaneously
Emotion-filled stimulus travels to sympathetic nervous system causing my body’s arousal, at the same time it travels to my brain causing awareness of emotion.

8. Historical Emotion Theories
Criticisms Cannon-Bard
Lower spine injuries
Little change in emotion’s intensity
High spinal cord injury
Some change in emotion’s intensity
Bodily responses seem to feed our experienced emotions.

9. Contemporary Emotion Theory
Most researchers now agree that our emotions also involve cognition.
Our emotions are based on how we interpret our situation.
Think of the emotion attached to the following statements:
“I’m pregnant”
“I’m going to leave now”

10. Contemporary Emotion Theory
Schachter-Singer
Emotional experience requires a conscious interpretation of the arousal
Two-factor theory: physical reaction and thoughts together create emotion

11. Contemporary Emotion Theory
Schachter-Singer
Emotional experience requires a conscious interpretation of the arousal
Two-factor theory: physical reaction and thoughts together create emotion
Spillover effect
Arousal spills over from one event to the next
Conclusion: Arousal fuels emotion;
cognition channels it.

12. Contemporary Emotion Theory
Some believe cognition may not precede emotion
Perhaps you remember liking something or someone immediately without knowing why.

13. Contemporary Emotion Theory
Some believe cognition may not precede emotion
Emotional responses can follow different pathways: Bottom-up and Top-down
Related to that is the “High Road” and “Low Road” pathways of emotion

14. The Brain’s Pathway for Emotion

15. Contemporary Emotion Theory
Zajonc & LeDoux promote the idea that much of our emotional life operates on the “low road” without any thinking.
Summary:

16. Page 425

17. Detecting Emotion in Others
We convey emotion through facial expressions and body movement.
Facial expressions appear to be universal across cultures.

18. Detecting Emotion in Others
Most people are pretty good at interpreting facial expressions.
Researchers have found evidence for seven basic universal emotions
Anger
Fear
Disgust
Contempt
Happiness
Surprise
Sadness

19. Culture and Emotional Expression
Happiness
Surprise
Fear
Sadness
Anger
Disgust

20. Detecting Emotion in Others
Which is the fake smile?
Duchenne smile
Real smile

21. Detecting Emotion in Others
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Based on the Darwinian idea that facial expression gives feedback to the brain about the emotions expressed.
Facial Feedback activity

22. Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior

23. Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior
Men and women interpret and express emotions differently.
Women generally are better at reading non-verbal cues than men.
Women have greater emotional responsiveness than men.
EXCEPTION:
Anger

24. Nonverbal communication
How important is nonverbal communication?
Have you ever misinterpreted a text from a lack of nonverbal communication?

25. Culture & Emotional Expression
The meaning of gestures vary with culture

26. Come back to the emotional experience I asked you to remember – write a brief account about it. Try to identify, did the emotions come first, or the thinking. Can you separate them, or did they happen together?