Understanding Emotion: Arousal, Expressive Behavior, and Cognition, Slides of Social Psychology of Emotion

Download Understanding Emotion: Arousal, Expressive Behavior, and Cognition and more Slides Social Psychology of Emotion in PDF only on Docsity! 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 a4 MODULES Motivational Concepts Hunger Motivation Sexual Motivation Affiliation and Achievement Theories and Physiology of Emotion Expressing Emotion Stress and Illness Health and Happiness Motivation, Emotion, and Stress eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee ee eee F = i 8 2 i Module 41 Theories and Physiology of Emotion Learning Targets 41-1 Describe how arousal, expressive behavior, and cognition interact in emotion. 41-2 Explain whether we can experience emotions without consciously interpreting and labeling them. 41-3 Describe the basic emotions, and the link between emotional arousal and the autonomic nervous system. 41-4 Discuss whether different emotions activate different physiological and brain- pattern responses. 41-5 Discuss the effectiveness of polygraphs in using body states to detect lies. Emotion research considers two big questions: !  Does your bodily arousal come before or after your emotional feelings? !  How do thinking (cognition) and feeling interact? Does cognition always come before emotion? Historical emotion theories, as well as current research, have sought to answer these questions. How do the three pieces fit together? What is the James-Lange theory of emotion? the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to an emotion-arousing stimulus: stimulus leads to arousal which leads to emotion “We feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble.” (William James, 1890, p. 1066) How did Walter Cannon disagree with the James-Lange theory of emotion? Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon and his graduate student Philip Bard disagreed with the James-Lange theory. They asked: “Does a racing heart signal fear or anger or love?” The body’s responses—heart rate, perspiration, and body temperature—are too similar, and they change too slowly, to cause the different emotions. How does the Cannon-Bard thalamic theory explain emotion? The Cannon-Bard theory suggests that stimulation/ arousal and emotion are a combined response to a stimulus. After exposure to a stimulus, sensory signals are transmitted to the thalamus. Once the thalamus receives the signal, it relays the information to two structures: the amygdala and the brain cortex. How are the amygdala and the sympathetic nervous system involved in emotion? The amygdala is responsible for the instantaneous emotional response (fear, rage, etc.) and the cerebral cortex directs the response. Simultaneously, the sympathetic nervous system sends signals to muscles and other parts of the body, causing them to tense or prepare for fight-flight or freeze. How do the two theories differ? James-Lange theory Physiological responses occur first and are the cause of emotions. Cannon-Bard theory The emotional and the physical response occur simultaneously - one is not dependent upon the other. How do thinking and feeling interact? The James-Lange theory and the Cannon-Bard theory both take into account physiological responses and the interplay with emotion. But how does cognition factor in to the theory of emotion? Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer demonstrated that how we appraise (interpret) our experiences also matters. What is the Schachter-Singer Two-Factor theory of emotion? Our physical reactions and our thoughts (perceptions, memories, and interpretations) together create emotion. In Schachter and Singer’s two-factor theory, emotions have two ingredients: physical arousal and cognitive appraisal. An emotional experience, they argued, requires a conscious interpretation of arousal. What is the spillover effect? Arousal spills over from one event to the next. For instance, arousal from a soccer match can fuel anger, which can descend into rioting or other violent confrontations. So, does cognition matter? This discovery—that a stirred-up state can be experienced as one emotion or another, depending on how we interpret and label it—has been replicated in dozens of experiments and continues to influence modern emotion research. (MacCormack & Lindquist, 2016; Reisenzein, 1983; Sinclair et al., 1994) AP® Exam Tip Be prepared for at least a multiple choice question that tests your ability to compare and contrast the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, and Schachter-Singer Two-Factor theories of emotion. Does cognition have to precede emotion? Must we always interpret our arousal before we can experience an emotion? Psychologist Robert Zajonc didn’t think so. He contended that we actually have many emotional reactions apart from, or even before, our conscious interpretation of a situation. What is the “low road”? Some simple emotions such as likes, dislikes, and fears take what Joseph LeDoux called the more direct “low road,” a neural shortcut that bypasses the cortex. Following the low road, a fear- provoking stimulus would travel from the eye or ear, via the thalamus, directly to the amygdala How do the Schachter-Singer and Zajonc- LeDoux theories of emotion compare? Schachter-Singer Our appraisal and labeling of events also determine our emotional responses. Zajonc-LeDoux Some emotional responses are immediate, before any conscious appraisal. How did Richard Lazarus contribute to the discussion of emotion? Emotion researcher Richard Lazarus conceded that our brain processes vast amounts of information without our conscious awareness, and that some emotional responses do not require conscious thinking. But he wondered: How would we know what we are reacting to if we did not in some way appraise the situation? With a partner, create an example from your life that illustrates each of the five theories of emotion. What are the basic emotions? When surveyed, most emotion scientists agreed that anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and happiness are basic human emotions. (Ekman, 2016) Carroll Izard isolated 10 basic emotions (joy, interest- excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, and guilt), most present in infancy. (1977) Others believe that pride and love are also basic emotions. (Shaver et al., 1996; Tracy & Robins, 2004) TRY IT Can you identify the basic infant emotions below? Maciir Cocrik/Getty rages ) ae lina aidukak Getty | Samual Borges Photagraphy/Shutterstock bendav Getty images <?) How does the parasympathetic division of the ANS calm the body in a crisis? The PNS gradually calms your body, as stress hormones slowly leave your bloodstream. Respiration, heart rate and blood pressure decrease, pupils constrict, salivation and digestion activate. Can one brain region be responsible for different emotions? Yes. Consider the insula, a neural center deep inside the brain. The insula is activated when we experience various negative social emotions, such as disgust, lust and pride. In brain scans, it becomes active when people bite into some disgusting food, smell disgusting food, think about biting into a disgusting cockroach, or feel moral disgust over a sleazy business exploiting a saintly widow. (Sapolsky, 2010) Do different emotions trigger different brain circuits? Observers watching fearful faces showed more amygdala activity than did other observers who watched angry faces. (Whalen et al., 2001) Depression-prone people, and those with generally negative perspectives, have shown more right frontal lobe activity. (Harmon-Jones et al., 2002) People with positive personalities have shown more activity in the left frontal lobe than in the right. (Davidson, 2000; Urry et al., 2004) What does the research show? The CIA and other U.S. agencies have spent millions of dollars testing tens of thousands of employees. Yet the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has reported that “no spy has ever been caught [by] using the polygraph.” (2002) 3. What Would You Answer? Roger is about to ride a roller coaster. He is afraid of heights and is nervous about the ride. How would each of the following theories explain Roger’s experience of fear on the roller coaster? !  James-Lange Theory !  Cannon-Bard Thalamic Theory !  Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory Learning Target 41-1 Review Describe how arousal, expressive behavior, and cognition interact in emotion. !  Emotions are psychological responses of the whole organism involving an interplay among physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience. !  Theories of emotion generally address two major questions: (1) Does physiological arousal come before or after emotional feelings, and (2) how do cognition and feeling interact? Learning Target 41-2 Review cont. Explain whether we can experience emotions without consciously interpreting and labeling them. !  Lazarus agreed that many important emotions arise from our inferences. Zajonc and LeDoux, however, have contended that some simple emotional responses occur instantly, not only outside our conscious awareness but before any cognitive processing occurs. This interplay between emotion and cognition illustrates our two-track mind. Learning Target 41-3 Review Describe the basic emotions, and the link between emotional arousal and the autonomic nervous system. !  Caroll Izard’s 10 basic emotions are joy, interest/ excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, and guilt. !  The arousal component of emotion is regulated by the autonomic nervous system’s sympathetic (arousing) and parasympathetic (calming) divisions. !  In a crisis, the fight-or-flight response automatically mobilizes your body for action. Learning Target 41-4 Review Discuss whether different emotions activate different physiological and brain-pattern responses. !  The large-scale body changes that accompany fear, and anger, and sexual arousal are very similar (increased perspiration, breathing, and heart rate), though they feel different. Emotions may be similarly arousing, but some subtle physiological responses, such as facial muscle movements, distinguish them. !  More meaningful differences have been found in activity in some brain pathways and cortical areas.