Transcript Introducing Psychology - Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Emotion
Chapter 11
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Chapter Outline
• Elements of Emotion 1: The Body
• Elements of Emotion 2: The Mind
• Elements of Emotion 3: The Culture
• Putting the Elements Together:
Emotion & Gender
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Defining Emotion
• Emotion is a state of arousal involving:
– Facial and bodily changes
– Brain activation
– Cognitive appraisals
– Subjective feelings
– Tendencies toward action
• All of the above are shaped by cultural rules
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Elements of Emotion: The Body
• Primary emotions
– Emotions considered to be universal and
biologically based
– Generally include fear, anger, sadness, joy,
surprise, disgust, and contempt
• Secondary emotions
– Emotions that develop with cognitive maturity
and vary across individuals and cultures
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Elements of Emotion: The Body
• Neuroscientists & researchers study three
major biological aspect of emotion:
– Facial expressions
– Brain regions and circuits
– Autonomic nervous system
• Primary emotions associated with distinctive
physiological patterns & facial expressions
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The Face of Emotion
• Evolutionary explanations say that emotions
are hard-wired and have survival functions
– Evidence for the universality of 7 facial
expressions of emotion (Ekman, 1997)
• Anger, happiness, fear, surprise, disgust,
sadness, and contempt
• Emotions recognized cross-culturally
• Genuine versus fake emotions can be
distinguished
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Can You Spot the Emotion?
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Functions of Facial Expressions
• Facial expressions reflect our internal feelings, but
can also influence them
• Facial feedback
– The process by which the facial muscles send messages
to the brain about the basic emotion being expressed
• Emotions help us communicate emotional states &
signal others (survival value)
– Begins in infancy, babies convey emotions & can
interpret parental expressions
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Functions of Facial Expressions
• Facial expressions of emotion can generate
emotions in others
• Mood contagion
– A mood spreading from one person to another, as facial
expressions of emotion in the first person generate
emotions in the other
– Nonverbal signals can cue emotional responses in
others as well
• E.g., studies of conversational synchrony
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Facial Expressions in Context
1. Familiarity affects the ability to read facial
expressions
2. Facial expressions can mean different things
at different times, depending on the social
context and the expresser’s intentions
3. Cultures differ in the attention they pay to the
context of emotional expression
4. People often use facial expressions to lie
about their feelings as well as to express them
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The Brain & Emotion
• Hemispheres of the brain associated with
different emotional jobs:
– Right: Recognizing emotional expressions &
processing emotional feeling
– Left: Processing emotional meaning
• Some neurons may be involved in imitation
& empathy (mirror neurons)
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The Brain & Emotion
• Amygdala
– A brain structure
involved in the arousal
and regulation of
emotion and the initial
emotional response to
sensory information
– Assesses threat
– Damage results in
abnormality in
processing fear
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The Brain & Emotion
• Prefrontal cortex
– The most forward part of the frontal lobes of
the brain
• Left prefrontal cortex: involved in motivation to
approach others; damage results in loss of joy
• Right prefrontal cortex: Involved in withdrawal and
escape; damage results in excessive mania &
euphoria
– Linked to emotional regulation: modifying and
controlling what we feel
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Hormones & Emotion
• When experiencing intense emotions or under
stress, two hormones are released from adrenal
glands:
– Epinephrine & norepinephrine
– Results in increased alertness and arousal
– At high levels, it can create the sensation of being out of
control emotionally
• Different patterns of autonomic nervous system
activity for basic emotions
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Lies & Emotion
• Polygraph machine
– Machine used to measure emotional arousal of
a person who is guilty and fearful of being
found out
– Detects increased autonomic nervous system
activity while responding to incriminating
questions
– Typical measures: galvanic skin response;
pulse, blood pressure; breathing; fidgeting
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Lies & Emotion
• Problems with Lie
Detectors?
• May end up falsely
indicating that truthful
people are lying
• Not admissible in court
• Better test called Guilty
Knowledge Test (GKT)
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Elements of Emotion: The Mind
• Experience of emotion depends on two
factors:
– Physiological arousal & cognitive interpretation
– We feel emotions when we can label the
physiological changes … but may not always
be accurate
• E.g., Capilano Bridge study (1974)
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Attributions & Emotions
• Attributions
– The explanations that people make of their own and
other people’s behaviour
– Your interpretation of behaviour generates the emotional
response (e.g., how you explain outcome of winning
silver medal instead of gold?)
– Relates to upwards & downwards social comparisons,
complex emotions, and our ability to feel conflicting
emotions at the same time
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Cognitions & Emotional Complexity
• Cognitions affect emotions, and emotional states
affect cognitions
• Some emotions require only simple cognitions or
may involved conditioned responses (e.g., infants)
• Cognitive and emotional developments occur
together, become more complex with age and
experience
• Cognitive therapy attempts to change emotions by
changing cognitions
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Elements of Emotion: The Culture
• Some researchers say individuals may differ
in likelihood of feeling secondary emotions
– Primary emotions considered prototype of the
concept emotion
– Young children express prototypical emotions
first through words
– As children age, emotional distinctions specific
to their language & culture emerge
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Elements of Emotion: The Culture
• Other researchers argue that no aspect of emotion is
untouched by culture or context
• Some cultures have words for specific emotions
unknown to other cultures (e.g., schadenfreude,
hagaii)
• Some cultures lack words for emotions that seem
universal (e.g., Tahitians lack word for sadness)
• Culture may influence which emotions are defined as
basic or primary
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Culture & Emotional Expression
• Display rules
– Social & cultural rules that regulate when, how,
and where a person may express (or must
suppress) emotions
• Emotion work
– Expression of an emotion that the person does
not really feel, often because of a role
requirement
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Culture & Emotional Expression
• Body language
– Nonverbal signals of body movement, posture,
gesture, and gaze
– Some signals of body language may be
universal (e.g., movements that reflect
displeasure, tension, grief, anger)
– Discomfort when body language &
conversations are mismatched
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Emotion & Gender
• Little evidence that one sex feels any of the
everyday emotions more often than the other
• But … people see what they expect to see
(stereotypes guide expectations)
– Study of gender differences in emotionality is
complicated
– Involves emotional reactivity, cognitions, and
expressiveness
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Emotional Reactivity
• Men experience emotional events more intensely
than do women
– Conflict is physiologically more upsetting for men
than women
– Male autonomic nervous system is more sensitive
and reactive
– Men may be more likely to rehearse angry thoughts
(prolong & intensify physiological reactions)
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Emotional Cognitions
• Men and women differ in their perceptions of
the same event
– Different interpretations linked to different
emotional responses
– E.g., differences in types of everyday events
that provoke anger
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Emotional Expressiveness
• Stereotypical gender differences may arise from
the fact that women are more willing to express
their feelings
• Women are likely to . . .
–
–
–
–
–
–
Smile more often
Gaze at listeners more
Have more emotionally expressive faces
Use expressive hand & body movements
Touch others more often
Talk about their emotions
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Emotional Expressiveness
• North American men only express one
emotion more freely than women:
– Anger towards strangers, especially other men,
when challenged or insulted
– Expectation that men will control or mask
negative emotions
– Consequence is increased difficulty in
recognizing when men are seriously unhappy
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Emotional Expressiveness
• Gender differences in emotional
expressiveness are strongly affected by
culture and situation
– In some cultures, expressiveness is the rule, but
not many differences between genders in nonverbal
behaviour (e.g., Italian, French, Spanish)
– In other cultures, gender differences may be
evidenced with respect to specific emotions
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Emotion Work
• Sometimes we have to hide emotions we
feel, and show emotions we do not
• No sex differences in expressiveness in jobs
that require it (e.g., airline services)
– But women may smile more often as part of their
emotion work to pacify others, smooth conflicts,
and convey deference
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End of Chapter 11
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