1. Motivation and Emotion

2. Emotion physiological activation expressive behaviors
conscious experience

3. Theories of Emotion Does your heart pound because you are afraid...
or are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding?

4. Controversy
Does physiological arousal precede or follow your emotional experience?
Does cognition (thinking) precede emotion (feeling)?

5. Common Sense View
When you become happy, your heart starts beating faster. First comes conscious awareness, then comes physiological activity.
Bob Sacha

6. The Elements of Emotional Experience
Cognitive component
Subjective conscious experience
Physiological component
Bodily (autonomic) arousal
Behavioral component
Characteristic overt expressions

7. The Elements of Emotional Experience
Cognitive component involves subjective feelings that have an evaluative aspect
a cognitive appraisal of an event is an important element in emotional experience
“new” Positive psychology -- increasing research on contentment, well-being, human strength, and positive emotion.

8. The Elements of Emotional Experience
Physiological component - arousal associated with emotion occurs through the autonomic nervous system.
fight-or-flight response
The galvanic skin response (GSR) measures autonomic activation
a polygraph or lie detector measures autonomic fluctuations
Polygraph tests are sometimes inaccurate and not reliable enough to be submitted as evidence in most types of courtrooms.

9. The Elements of Emotional Experience
Physiological component –
In the brain, the limbic system is the emotional circuit (the
hypothalamus, the
amygdala, and
adjacent structures);
Joseph LeDoux (1996) - amygdala plays a particularly central role in modulating emotions.

10. The Elements of Emotional Experience
Behavioral component - Characteristic overt expressions
body language and facial expressions
Research indicates considerable cross-cultural similarities in the ability to differentiate facial expressions of emotion
The facial-feedback hypothesis holds that facial muscles send signals to the brain that help it recognize the emotion being experienced…smile and feel better.

11. The Elements of Emotional Experience
Behavioral component - Characteristic overt expressions
Cross-cultural similarities have also been found in the cognitive and behavioral components, although display rules, or norms for regulating appropriate expression of emotion, vary from culture to culture.

12. Theories of Emotion
James-Lange (body, then emotion)
Feel afraid because pulse is racing
Cannon-Bard (simultaneous)
Thalamus sends signals to both the cortex and the autonomic nervous system
Schacter’s Two-Factor Theory
Look to external cues to decide what to feel
Evolutionary Theories
Innate reactions with little cognitive interpretation

13. James-Lange Theory of Emotion
Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
We feel emotion because of biological changes in our body caused by stress.
our mind recognizes the feeling
you see a snake, your pulse races, and you feel afraid because your pulse is racing.

14. James-Lange Theory Fear (emotion) Pounding heart (arousal) Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)

15. Cannon-Bard Theory
Similar physiological changes correspond with drastically different emotional states.
The physiological change and cognitive awareness must occur simultaneously in the thalamus
you see a snake, the information is sent to the thalamus, relayed to the cortex and autonomic nervous system at the same time

16. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)
Pounding
heart
(arousal)
Fear
(emotion)
Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger:
physiological responses
subjective experience of emotion

17. Schachter–Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
Physiological responses and cognitive awareness happen at the same time but…
when two groups are exposed to the same stimuli, those who are already physiologically aroused experience more intense emotions than those not aroused
Biology and Cognition interact with each other to increase the experience.
you feel autonomic arousal and look around to see why…if there’s a snake you feel fear.

18. Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
Cognitive
label
“I’m afraid”
Fear
(emotion)
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)
Pounding
heart
(arousal)
To experience emotion one must:
be physically aroused
cognitively label the arousal

20. Misattribution of arousal
Evolutionary theories of emotion assume that emotions are innate reactions that require little cognitive interpretation
Misattribution can occur when people misinterpret their autonomic arousal

21. Dutton and Aron (1974)
Men divided into two groups were assigned to cross one of two bridges -- one bridge was 10 feet above a stream, the other was a swaying, 230 foot suspension bridge;
as each crossed, he was met by an attractive female with a questionnaire in hand…. The suspension bridge men called the woman for a date significantly more often than the low bridge men,
This suggests misattribution of arousal as attraction rather than fear.

22. Embodied Emotion Emotions involve bodily responses.
Some of these responses are very noticeable (butterflies in our stomach when fear arises)
others are more difficult to discern (neurons activated in the brain)

23. Robert Plutchik (1984, 1993) devised a model of how primary emotions blend together to form secondary emotions.

24. Figure 10.24 Primary emotions

25. Emotion and Physiology
Autonomic nervous system controls
physiological arousal
Sympathetic
division (arousing)
Pupils dilate
Decreases
Perspires
Increases
Accelerates
Inhibits
Secrete stress
hormones
Parasympathetic
division (calming)
Pupils contract
Dries
Slows
Activates
secretion of
stress
EYES
SALIVATION
SKIN
RESPIRATION
HEART
DIGESTION
ADRENAL
GLANDS

26. Arousal and Performance
Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks
Compare to motivation

27. Physiological Similarities
Physiological responses related to the emotions of fear, anger, love, are very similar.
Excitement and fear involve a similar physiological arousal.

28. Physiological Differences
Physical responses, like finger temperature and movement of facial muscles change during fear, rage, and joy.
The amygdala shows differences in activation during the emotions of anger and rage.
Activity of the left hemisphere (happy) is different from the right hemisphere (depressed) for emotions
More dopamine receptors:
nucleus accumbens

29. Cognition and Emotion
What is the connection between how we think (cognition) and how we feel (emotion)?
Can we change our emotions by changing our thinking?
Can arousal response to one event spill over into our response to the next event.
Arousal from a soccer match can
fuel anger, which could lead to rioting

30. The brain’s shortcut for emotions
Sensory input may be routed from the thalamus directly to the amygdala for an instant emotional reaction or to the cortex for analysis

31. Emotion: Lie Detectors
Polygraph machine commonly used to detect lies
measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion
perspiration
cardiovascular
breathing changes

32. Emotion— Lie Detectors
Control Question
Aim to make anyone nervous (baseline)
Up to age 18, did you ever physically harm anyone?
Relevant Question
Did [the deceased] threaten to harm you in any way?
Relevant response greater than control response  Lie

33. But even at 95% accuracy . . .
If 1 in 1000 employees is actually guilty and all employees are tested, 50 will be wrongly declared guilty

34. Expressed Emotion How do we decipher people’s emotions?
body language
tone of voice
facial expressions
Are these behaviors cultural? gender bound?
How good are we in detecting true or false emotions?

35. Nonverbal Communication
People more speedily detect an angry face than a happy one

36. We read fear and anger mostly from the eyes, happiness from the mouth
Experience influences how we perceive emotions
physically abused children are quicker to pick out the angry face than non-abused children
At what point does the person morph into fear?

37. Gender Differences
Women generally surpass men at reading people’s emotional cues
Spotting lies
Greater emotional literacy
Greater emotional responsiveness to positive and negative situations
More empathic…more likely to express empathy

38. Gender and expressiveness
Men
Women
Sad Happy Scary 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Number of
expressions
Film Type

39. Universal Facial Expressions
The number of specific inherited facial patterns or expressions that signal specific feelings or emotional states [such as a smile signaling a happy state]
Cross cultural
fear
Surprise
disgust
Contempt
Anger
sadness
Happiness

40. Culturally universal expressions

41. Figure Cross-cultural comparisons of people’s ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions

42. Infants’ naturally occurring emotions
Joy
Anger
Interest
Disgust
Surprise
Sadness
Fear
Infants’ naturally occurring emotions

43. Detecting Emotions Facial muscles reveal signs of emotion.
Difficult to detect expression of deceit
Absence of verbal or emotional cues makes detection difficult
Which smile is feigned, which is natural?
How can you tell?

44. Detecting Emotions Facial muscles reveal signs of emotion.
Difficult to detect expression of deceit
Absence of verbal or emotional cues makes detection difficult
Which smile is feigned, which is natural?
How can you tell?

45. Emotions are Adaptive
Darwin speculated that our ancestors communicated with facial expressions in the absence of language. Nonverbal facial expressions led to our ancestors’ survival.
Charles Darwin ( )

46. Analyzing Emotion

47. Feedback Hypotheses Facial feedback hypothesis
Expressions amplify our emotions by activating muscles associated with specific states
[If we smile, we’ll feel happier]
Behavior feedback hypothesis
If we move our body as we would when expressing some emotion we are likely to feel that emotion to some degree
[If we shuffle our feet with downcast eyes, we’ll
feel sad]

48. Dimensions of Emotion People generally divide emotions into
two dimensions.

49. Fear
We learn specific fears through conditioning and observational learning
We are biologically prepared to learn certain fears but not others
Fear of snakes, spiders, heights shared with prehistoric ancestors  Self preservation
Fast driving, bombs, electricity  not conditioned in “genetic” makeup

50. The Amygdala
a neural key to fear learning

51. Figure 10.20 The amygdala and fear

52. Anger Frustrations, insults… evoke anger Catharsis … emotional release
Catharsis hypothesis
“releasing” or venting aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
Temporary relief  may actually amplify anger
Reconciliation better than retaliation in reducing anger and its symptoms

53. Happiness Feel-good, do-good phenomenon
people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood
More helpful to strangers, give money and time

54. Happiness
Research on happiness indicates that common sense notions about what makes people happy are largely incorrect.
Research indicates that subjective rather than objective reality is what is important in deciding happiness.

55. Happiness
Income, age, parenthood, intelligence, and attractiveness largely uncorrelated to happiness
Physical health, good social relationships, religious faith, and culture modestly are correlated to happiness
Love, marriage, work satisfaction, and personality strongly correlated to happiness

56. Subjective Well-Being
self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life
used along with measures of objective well-being
physical and economic indicators to evaluate people’s quality of life

57. Be able to: Compare James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories of emotion
Explain how Schachter-Singer reconciled these conflicting views
What is the evolutionary perspective on emotion?
Describe the cognitive, physiological, and neural components of emotion
Explain the facial feedback hypothesis