Transcript Emotion - AP Psychology

EMOTION
Emotions and Mood
• Emotions, often called feelings,
include experiences such as love,
hate, anger, trust, joy, panic, fear,
and grief.
• Emotions are related to, but
different from, mood.
• Emotions are specific reactions to
a particular event that are usually
of fairly short duration.
• Mood is a more general feeling
such as happiness, sadness,
frustration, contentment, or
anxiety that lasts for a longer
time.
James-Lange Theory of
Emotion.
• We feel emotion
because of biological
changes caused by
stress.
• The body changes and
then our mind
recognizes the feeling.
• So body feels it
first…then our mind
recognizes the feeling.
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
• Say James-Lange theory
is full of crap.
• How can that be true if
similar physiological
changes correspond with
drastically different
emotional states.
• They believe that the
thalamus send a message
to autonomic nervous
system to feel
physiological arousal and
also to brain to feel
emotion.
• One does not cause the
other.
Discuss to what extent cognitive
and biological factors interact with
emotion.
You will answer this question using two
currently used theories of emotion
1. Two-Factor Theory
2. Appraisal Theory
1. Two-Factor Theory of Emotion (TFT)
Schachter and Singer (1962)
Emotion depends on two
factors…
1. Physiological arousal
2. Cognitive interpretation
of that arousal (their
mind labels it).
Example….
If a person finds herself near an angry mob of
people when she is physiologically aroused,
she might label that arousal “anger.” On the
other hand, if she experiences the same
pattern of physiological arousal at a music
concert, she might label the arousal
“excitement.”
Two-Factor Theory of Emotion (TFT)
Schachter and Singer (1962)
• While the strength of the
physiological arousal
determines the intensity of
the emotional experience,
its interpretation
determines which
particular emotion is
experienced.
Aron and Dutton (1974)
Misattribution of Emotion
• Their experiment
helped proved TFT.
Procedure:
• Had male participants
walk across two
different style bridges
(scary and stable).
Aron and Dutton (1974)
Misattribution of Emotion
• At the end of each bridge an
attractive female
experimenter met the
participants.
• Half the participants were
approached immediately
and half 5 minutes after
they crossed.
• They were given a Thematic
Apperception Test.
• Then the girl gave them her
number and asked to call if
they had questions.
TAT Test
Thematic Apperception Test
• Giving the subject a picture that is
ambiguous (can have several meanings)
and ask them what is occurring.
• Their answers reveal the manifest
content (storyline of their
thoughts/dreams).
• They can then discover the Latent
Content (underlying meaning of their
thoughts/dreams).
Aron and Dutton (1974)
Misattribution of Emotion
Results
For the men who walked across
the scary bridge and were
interviewed immediately:
1. Men walking across the
scary bridge were more
likely to have a manifest
content that was sexual in
nature (when talking to the
woman).
2. The men who walked across
the scary bridge were most
likely to call the woman,
asking for a date.
Aron and Dutton (1974)
Misattribution of Emotion
• The men who walked
across the safe bridge
or were interviewed 5
minutes after they
crossed the scary bridge
were much less likely to
talk sexually about the
TAT or call the woman
interviewer.
Aron and Dutton (1974)
Misattribution of Emotion
Discussion
• This was most likely due
to the arousal they felt
from walking across the
scary bridge.
• They had misattributed
their arousal from the
bridge towards the
woman, making her
seem more attractive.
Kind of like emotional beer goggles
Aron and Dutton (1974)
Misattribution of Emotion
• none of the participants
attributed their feelings to
the bridge causing
arousal, therefore causing
the experimenter to
become more attractive.
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2. Appraisal Theory of Emotion
Lazarus 1975 or 1982 or 1991
• A theory of emotion
which implicates that
people's personal
interpretations of an
event determining their
emotional reaction.
• Event ==> thinking ==>
Simultaneous arousal and
emotion.
• So the way you interpret
a situation (cognitive) can
effect your physiological
response (biology)
Appraisal Theory of Emotion
Lazarus 1975 or 1982 or 1991
hint: replace the term appraisal with evaluation
Two ways that we think
about it….
1. Primary Appraisal: we
consider how the
situation affects our
personal well-being.
2. Secondary Appraisal:
we consider how we
might cope with the
situation (or who is to
blame)
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=DuIQJl16b4
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=h_ZHKf0FU
BA
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=cAqPQs0Uf
CQ
Speisman et al (1964)
Experimental manipulation of emotions through
cognitive appraisal
Aim
• To investigate the extent
in which manipulation of
cognitive appraisal could
influence emotional
experience.
• In other words, if they
change the way you look
at an experience, will that
change your emotion
towards it.
Speisman et al (1964)
Procedure:
• In this laboratory
experiment,
participants saw anxiety
provoking films.
• Basically, a film of an
aborigine initiation
ceremony where
adolescent boys were
subjected to unpleasant
genital cutting.
Speisman et al (1964)
• The film was shown
with three different
soundtracks intended to
manipulate emotional
reactions.
Speisman et al (1964)
• The “trauma condition”
has a soundtrack with
emphasis on mutilation
and pain.
Speisman et al (1964)
• The “intellectual”
condition had a
soundtrack that gave an
anthropological
interpretation of the
initiation ceremony.
Speisman et al (1964)
• The “denial condition”
showed adolescents as
being willing and happy
in the ceremony.
Speisman et al (1964)
• During each viewing of
the film various
objective physiological
measures were taken,
such as heart rate and
galvanic skin response.
Speisman et al (1964)
Results:
• Participants in the
“trauma condition”
showed much higher
physiological measures
of stress than
participants in the other
two conditions.
• How does this support
appraisal theory or
emotion?
Speisman et al (1964)
Evaluation
• In lab…so it was
controlled.
• Ecological validity?
How does emotion affect cognition?
Evaluate one theory of how emotion
may affect one cognitive process.
Flashbulb Memories
• Highly accurate and vivid
memory of a moment a
person first hears a
shocking event.
• Types of episodic
memories (explicit)
• It is assumed that they
are highly resistant to
forgetting because of the
emotional arousal at the
time of encoding.
• It is a controversial idea.
Flashbulb Memories
• The term “flashbulb”
indicates the event
registers like a
photograph (great detail).
• It is often rehearsed
because the event is
important to us.
Flashbulb Memories
6 features that people will remember…
1. Place
2. Ongoing activity (what
they were doing)
3. Informant (who learned
it from)
4. Own Affect (how you
felt)
5. Other Affect (how
others felt)
6. Aftermath (the
importance of the
event)
Brown and Kulik (1977)
Research on Flashbulb Memories (FM)
Aim:
• To investigate whether
shocking events are
recalled more vividly and
accurately than other
events.
Procedure:
• Questionnaire asked 80
participants to recall
circumstances where they
have learned of shocking
events.
Brown and Kulik (1977)
Research on Flashbulb Memories (FM)
Results
• Participants had vivid
memories about where
they were and what
they were doing when
the event occurred (like
JFK Assassination).
• Results indicated that
FM is more likely when
the event is unexpected
and personal.
Brown and Kulik (1977)
Research on Flashbulb Memories (FM)
• They suggest it is
caused by physiological
emotional arousal
(amygdala).
• However, these ideas
have been challenged….
Neisser and Harsch 1992
Aim:
• To see if FM really exists
after a big ass event.
• Would they really
remember it.
Procedure:
• 106 Intro to Psych
students were given
questionnaire less than
24hrs after the Challenger
disaster and asked 7
questions.
Neisser and Harsch 1992
• Then 44 of the students
were contacted 2 ½ years
later.
Results
• Only 11 of the 44 even
remembered they
answered a survey.
• The mean score of the 7
questions was 2.95 out of 7.
• 11 of them scored a 0, and
for 22 of them it was 2 or
less out of 7.
Neisser and Harsch 1992
Evaluation:
• It had high ecological
validity (real event).
• Really challenges FM
theory.
• BUT…maybe the
challenger disaster was
not personal enough.
Happiness Theories
• Social comparison
theory (Festinger): Ppl
learn about & assess
themselves in
comparison to others
• Level of aspiration
theory (Rotter): Action
= based on potential
gain; never truly happy
How does cognition affect happiness?
• Social comparison theory  belief that our
happiness is affected by others
• Aspirational  people can never truly be
happy bc they always set new goals
How does cognition affect happiness?
• Social comparison theory: ppl are unhappy bc
they compare themselves to others
• Aspirational theories: ppl are unhappy bc
they always have a new goal to meet