Emotions• Feeling, such as fear, joy, or surprise, that

underlies behavior• Essential Questions:– What causes us to feel emotions, both physically

and psychologically?– Do emotions differ culturally?– Does emotion (happiness, stress) have any

correlates?– How can we be happier?

Defining Emotion

• Emotion includes the following:– A subjective conscious experience or cognitive

component– Bodily or physiological arousal– Overt or behavioral expressions- like?

• Emotional reactions are linked with the Autonomic Nervous System– Sympathetic/parasympathetic NS – Autonomic responses accompanying emotion are

controlled by the brain

Measuring Emotional Responses• Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)

– GSR measures increased electrical conductivity of skin that occurs when sweat glands increase activity

– GSR used to measure autonomic arousal and therefore emotional reactions

• Polygraph/Lie Detector– Assumes there is a link between lying

and emotions– Measures respiration, heart rate,

blood pressure, and GSR– Does not detect lies, but rather

nervousness – Only accurate about 2/3 of the time –

some people do not become nervous when they lie!

Basic Emotions

• Fear• Surprise• Sadness• Disgust

• Anger• Anticipation• Joy• Acceptance

Plutchik proposed that there are eight basic emotions

Other (secondary) emotions are the composites of primary emotions

Surprise + Sadness = Disappointment Fear + Acceptance = Submission

Plutchik’s Basic Emotions

Plutchik

Basic Emotions• Some have criticized Plutchik’s model as applying only to English-

speakers– Other cultures have more socially “helpful” emotions, i.e. more that

describe empathy• Revised model of basic emotions includes:

– Happiness– Surprise– Sadness– Fear– Disgust– Anger

• Which emotion is the most evolutionarily important? Physically important? Psychologically important?

Opponent-Process Theory

• Emotions have hedonic value- either negative or positive (pleasurable)

• When one is aroused, the opposite will appear to allow us to remain even-keeled– when we are elated we may then feel down or

depressed– fear is replaced with elation (or at least relief )– pain with pleasure– anxiety with calm– Boredom with interest

Solomon’s Opponent Process

Theories of Emotion: How do we know when we are excited vs. stressed?

• James-Lange theory– Environmental stimuli bring on physiological

changes that we interpret as emotions– Your heart is beating fast and your breathing rate

has increased. Your palms are sweaty and your hands are shaking. What emotion might this be?

– Based on the contextual cues, the interpretation of this emotion may be:• Excitement before a competitive race• Fear of an intruder in the house• Nervousness before speech, first date, surgery

Nonverbal Communication of Emotion

• Voice quality• Facial expression and Ekman’s work

– Lie to Me

• Body language– Posture– The way we move communicates

information

• Personal space• Explicit acts

– Slamming doors– Destroying stuff

• Emblems– i.e. the bird

Gender, Culture and Emotion

• How do men and women differ in:– Their experience of emotion– Their display of emotion– Their reaction to others’ emotion?

Gender and Emotion

• Men and women feel emotions equally, but express them differently (role of language)

• Men and women may experience different emotions in the same situation

• Anger– Men tend to direct their anger outward– Women tend to direct their anger inward

• Women are more skilled at understanding nonverbal components of emotion

Culture and Emotion

• Expression of emotion can be influenced by cultural norms• Some emotional displays are universal• Display rules

– Culture-specific rules that govern how, when, and why expressions of emotion are appropriate

– Etre et Avoir clip (1:11)• “Display rule” methods:

– Intensification-emphasizing– deintensification – less intense display– masking- expressing one, feeling another– neutralizing- no display

Stress and Health

• Stress is the manner in which we respond to events perceived as threatening or challenging– Stress has an impact on our mood, our behavior

and our health– Behavioral medicine integrates what we know of

human behavior and medicine to better understand health and disease

– Health psychology involves the contribution of psychology’s contribution to behaviorla medicine

Arousal Theory

• People are motivated to seek an optimal level of arousal for a given moment

• Yerkes-Dodson law– States that there is an optimal level or arousal for

best performance on any task– The more complex the task, the lower the level of

arousal that can be tolerated without interfering with performance

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Stress Response• Stress Appraisal (Threat or Challenge)• Cannon’s fight-or-flight response– Epinephrine and norepinephrine released from adrenal glands– Sympathetic nervous system kicks in

• Hypothalamus and pituitary control cortisols released from adrenal cortex

• Withdrawal- pull back and become paralyzed• “Tend and befriend” (Shelley Taylor).. Oxytocin?• Gender and stress

– Women more likely to nurture and band together– Men more likely to withdraw and turn to alcohol

• Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)– Phase 1: Alarm (prepare to cope)– Phase 2: Resistance (actual coping)– Phase 3: Exhaustion (resources depleted)

Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome

Bottom Line: Long-term stress = Body “collapses”

Sources of Stress: Stressors

• Catastrophes and PTSD• Change and the SRRS• Pressure• Frustration• Conflict– Approach-approach– Approach-avoidance– Avoidance-avoidance

Stress and Health

• “Type A” vs. “Type B” (Friedman and Rosenman)– Type A: reactive, competitive, impatient, motivated, aggressive

and easily angered – susceptible to Coronary Heart Disease– Type B: easy going, mellow – much less susceptible to CHD

• Pessimism makes you twice as likely to develop CHD• Depression also increases CHD risk• Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)– Studies relationship between nervous, endocrine and immune

systems– Stress and AIDS– Stress and cancer

Coping with Stress

• Perceived feelings of control• Optimism• Social support• Exercise• Relaxation/Meditation• Biofeedback• Spirituality

Positive Psychology

• How do we move away from stress and focus on being happy?

• How Full Is Your Bucket

• Stress (portrait of a killer)• Happiness (

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLKfTgG_9Ok synthetic happines) http://movies.netflix.com/WiSearch?v1=Happy&raw_query=happy&ac_category_type=movie&ac_abs_posn=1&ac_rel_posn=1&raw_query=happy happy documentary

Journal Questions

• Come up with a list of six universal emotions.• Are emotions physical (heart rate, blood

pressure) or psychological (thought processes)?

• On a scale of 1 to 10, how stressed are you?• What are your “stressors” on a daily basis?

Overall?