Download Theory of Emtions and interpersonal Functions of Emotions and more Lecture notes Social Psychology of Emotion in PDF only on Docsity! THEROY OF EMOTION An emotion is a feeling such as happiness, love, fear, anger, or hatred, which can be caused by the different situation that we are in or the people we are with. But in psychology, emotion is a complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioral, and physiological elements, by which an individual attempts to deal with a personally significant matter or event. Psychologist Paul Eckman suggested (in 1972) that the six emotions fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, and sadness are universal to human cultures. Key elements of emotion includes the subjective experience, the physiological response, and the behavioral response. Emotions play a crucial role in our lives because they have important functions. James-Lange Theory The James-Lange theory of emotion was proposed by psychologists William James and Carl Lange. According to this theory, as we experience different events, our nervous system develops physical reactions to these events. Examples of these reactions include increased heart rate, trembling, upset stomach, etc. These physical reactions in turn create emotional reactions such as anger, fear and sadness. For example, imagine sitting in a dark room all by yourself. Suddenly you hear breathing sound behind you. Your heart rate increases and you may even begin to tremble. You interpret these physical responses as you are scared and so you experience fear. Cannon-Bard Theory The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion was developed by physiologists Walter Cannon and Philip Bard. According to this theory, we feel the emotions and experience the physiological reactions such as sweating, trembling and muscle tension simultaneously. For example, you are in a dark room all by yourself and suddenly you hear breathing sound nearby. According to the Cannon-Bard theory, your heart rate increases and you begin to tremble. While you are experiencing these physical reactions, you also experience the emotion of fear. Schachter-Singer Theory The Schachter-Singer theory of emotion was developed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome E. Singer. According to this theory, the element of reasoning plays an important role in how we experience emotions. The Schachter-Singer theory suggests that when an event causes physiological arousal, we try to find a reason for this arousal. Then we experience and label the emotion. For example, you are sitting in a dark room all by yourself and all of a sudden you hear breathing sound behind you. Your heart rate increases and you begin to tremble. Upon noticing these physical reactions, you realize that they come from the fact that you are all alone in a dark room. You think that you may be in danger, and you feel the emotion of fear. Schachter-Singer’s Two-Factor Theory This theory focuses on the role of physiological arousal as a primary factor in emotions. However, it also suggests that physical arousals alone cannot be responsible for all the emotional responses. Therefore, it takes into account the cognitive aspect of the emotional reaction. For example, you are sitting in a dark room all by yourself and all of a sudden you hear breathing sound behind you. Your heart rate increases and you begin to tremble. You notice the increased heart rate and realize that it is caused by fear. Therefore, you feel frightened. The whole process begins with an external stimulus (breathing sound in a dark room), followed by the physiological arousal (increased heart rate and trembling). The cognitive labels come into action when we associate the physiological arousals to fear, which is immediately followed by the conscious experience of the emotion of fear. The James-Lange Theory of Emotion The James-Lange theory is one of the best-known examples of a physiological theory of emotion. Independently proposed by psychologist William James and physiologist Carl Lange, the James-Lange theory of emotion suggests that emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events.1 This theory suggests that when you see an external stimulus that leads to a physiological reaction. Your emotional reaction is dependent upon how you interpret those physical reactions. For example, suppose you are walking in the woods and you see a grizzly bear. You begin to tremble, and your heart begins to race. The James-Lange theory proposes that you will interpret your physical reactions and conclude that you are frightened ("I am trembling. Therefore, I am afraid"). According to this theory of emotion, you are not trembling because you are frightened. Instead, you feel frightened because you are trembling.1 James-Lange Theory of Emotion Emotions Prepare the Body for Immediate Action Figure 11.8 The emotion of disgust serves to protect us from toxins and contamination, of the physical and moral variety. Emotions prepare us for behavior. When triggered, emotions orchestrate systems such as perception, attention, inference, learning, memory, goal choice, motivational priorities, physiological reactions, motor behaviors, and behavioral decision making (Cosmides & Tooby, 2000; Tooby & Cosmides, 2008). Emotions simultaneously activate certain systems and deactivate others in order to prevent the chaos of competing systems operating at the same time, allowing for coordinated responses to environmental stimuli (Levenson, 1999). For instance, when we are afraid, our bodies shut down temporarily unneeded digestive processes, resulting in saliva reduction (a dry mouth); blood flows disproportionately to the lower half of the body; the visual field expands; and air is breathed in, all preparing the body to flee. Emotions initiate a system of components that includes subjective experience, expressive behaviors, physiological reactions, action tendencies, and cognition, all for the purposes of specific actions; the term “emotion” is, in reality, a metaphor for these reactions. One common misunderstanding many people have when thinking about emotions, however, is the belief that emotions must always directly produce action. This is not true. Emotion certainly prepares the body for action; but whether people actually engage in action is dependent on many factors, such as the context within which the emotion has occurred, the target of the emotion, the perceived consequences of one’s actions, previous experiences, and so forth (Baumeister, Vohs, DeWall, & Zhang, 2007; Matsumoto & Wilson, 2008). Thus, emotions are just one of many determinants of behavior, albeit an important one. Emotions Influence Thoughts Emotions are also connected to thoughts and memories. Memories are not just facts that are encoded in our brains; they are colored with the emotions felt at those times the facts occurred (Wang & Ross, 2007). Thus, emotions serve as the neural glue that connects those disparate facts in our minds. That is why it is easier to remember happy thoughts when happy, and angry times when angry. Emotions serve as the affective basis of many attitudes, values, and beliefs that we have about the world and the people around us; without emotions those attitudes, values, and beliefs would be just statements without meaning, and emotions give those statements meaning. Emotions influence our thinking processes, sometimes in constructive ways, sometimes not. It is difficult to think critically and clearly when we feel intense emotions, but easier when we are not overwhelmed with emotions (Matsumoto, Hirayama, & LeRoux, 2006). Emotions Motivate Future Behaviors Because emotions prepare our bodies for immediate action, influence thoughts, and can be felt, they are important motivators of future behavior. Many of us strive to experience the feelings of satisfaction, joy, pride, or triumph in our accomplishments and achievements. At the same time, we also work very hard to avoid strong negative feelings; for example, once we have felt the emotion of disgust when drinking the spoiled milk, we generally work very hard to avoid having those feelings again (e.g., checking the expiration date on the label before buying the milk, smelling the milk before drinking it, watching if the milk curdles in one’s coffee before drinking it). Emotions, therefore, not only influence immediate actions but also serve as an important motivational basis for future behaviors. Interpersonal Functions of Emotion Figure 11.9 Emotions can act as signals to our friends and partners, conveying information about the quality of the relationship. Emotions are expressed both verbally through words and nonverbally through facial expressions, voices, gestures, body postures, and movements. We are constantly expressing emotions when interacting with others, and others can reliably judge those emotional expressions (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002; Matsumoto, 2001); thus, emotions have signal value to others and influence others and our social interactions. Emotions and their expressions communicate information to others about our feelings, intentions, relationship with the target of the emotions, and the environment. Because emotions have this communicative signal value, they help solve social problems by evoking responses from others, by signaling the nature of interpersonal relationships, and by providing incentives for desired social behavior (Keltner, 2003). Emotional Expressions Facilitate Specific Behaviors in Perceivers Because facial expressions of emotion are universal social signals, they contain meaning not only about the expressor’s psychological state but also about that person’s intent and subsequent behavior. This information affects what the perceiver is likely to do. People observing fearful faces, for instance, are more likely to produce approach-related behaviors, whereas people who observe angry faces are more likely to produce avoidance-related behaviors (Marsh, Ambady, & Kleck, 2005). Even subliminal presentation of smiles produces increases in how much beverage people pour and consume and how much they are willing to pay for it; presentation of angry faces decreases these behaviors (Winkielman, Berridge, & Wilbarger, 2005). Also, emotional displays evoke specific, complementary emotional responses from observers; for example, anger evokes fear in others One of the important functions of culture is to provide this necessary coordination and organization. Doing so allows individuals and groups to negotiate the social complexity of human social life, thereby maintaining social order and preventing social chaos. Culture does this by providing a meaning and information system to its members, which is shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life (Matsumoto & Juang, 2013). Culture is what allowed the banana from southeast Asia to appear on your table. Figure 11.11 The Role of Emotions in the Function of Culture Cultural transmission of the meaning and information system to its members is, therefore, a crucial aspect of culture. One of the ways this transmission occurs is through the development of worldviews (including attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms) related to emotions (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013; Matsumoto et al., 2008). Worldviews related to emotions provide guidelines for desirable emotions that facilitate norms for regulating individual behaviors and interpersonal relationships. Our cultural backgrounds tell us which emotions are ideal to have, and which are not (Tsai, Knutson, & Fung, 2006). The cultural transmission of information related to emotions occurs in many ways, from childrearers to children, as well as from the cultural products available in our world, such as books, movies, ads, and the like (Schönpflug, 2009; Tsai, Louie, Chen, & Uchida, 2007). Figure 11.12 Cultural display rules teach us how to manage our emotions. For example, in many Asian countries children are taught to mute their emotions, especially negative emotions like anger. Cultures also inform us about what to do with our emotions—that is, how to manage or modify them—when we experience them. One of the ways in which this is done is through the management of our emotional expressions through cultural display rules (Friesen, 1972). These are rules that are learned early in life that specify the management and modification of our emotional expressions according to social circumstances. Thus, we learn that “big boys don’t cry” or to laugh at the boss’s jokes even though they’re not funny. By affecting how individuals express their emotions, culture also influences how people experience them as well. Because one of the major functions of culture is to maintain social order in order to ensure group efficiency and thus survival, cultures create worldviews, rules, guidelines, and norms concerning emotions because emotions have important intra- and interpersonal functions, as described above, and are important motivators of behavior. Norms concerning emotion and its regulation in all cultures serve the purpose of maintaining social order. Cultural worldviews and norms help us manage and modify our emotional reactions (and thus behaviors) by helping us to have certain kinds of emotional experiences in the first place and by managing our reactions and subsequent behaviors once we have them. By doing so, our culturally moderated emotions can help us engage in socially appropriate behaviors, as defined by our cultures, and thus reduce social complexity and increase social order, avoiding social chaos. All of this allows us to live relatively harmonious and constructive lives in groups. If cultural worldviews and norms about emotions did not exist, people would just run amok having all kinds of emotional experiences, expressing their emotions and then behaving in all sorts of unpredictable and potentially harmful ways. If that were the case, it would be very difficult for groups and societies to function effectively, and even for humans to survive as a species, if emotions were not regulated in culturally defined ways for the common, social good. Thus, emotions play a critical role in the successful functioning of any society and culture.