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 The Four Principles of Psychology
Four key principles are used to emphasize that psychology is a science.
These principles offer a framework to discuss proven concepts, research-based
investigations and experiments, and critical-thinking skills.

PRINCIPLES IN

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Deidre’s epilepsy is a result of malfunctioning

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electrical signals in her brain. Stimulation of

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amused.

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her brain, so she does not know the real reason

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she is amused. Nevertheless, she thinks she

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knows what has amused her.

D O In trying to account for her amusement, Deidre

looks to her social environment, believing that
her amusement results from those “guys,
standing there.”

Like many other people, Deidre’s epilepsy resulted

because she experienced physical trauma to the
brain early in life. Left unchecked, the epilepsy
would affect her for the rest of her life.
 Tools To Help You Learn
Opening Vignette
Grabs the attention of the reader. Skeptic at Large
Explores a common misconception and
shows how scientific research disproves it.

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 Tools To Help You Learn
Researchers at Work Section Summaries
Highlights the process of and Review Questions
Things to
experimentation and Review what you’ve learned Learn
hypothesis testing. from the text.
Provides learning
objectives.
Opening Vignette
Grabs the attention of the reader. Skeptic at Large
Explores a common misconception and
shows how scientific research disproves it.

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U P O Companion Website

O N www.oup.com/us/breedlove

D O Available at no additional cost, the open-access Companion Website

provides you with the following review resources:
■■ Chapter Outlines: Detailed outlines that give
an overview of each chapter.
■■ Chapter Summaries: Full summaries of each
chapter provide a thorough review of the impor-
tant facts and concepts covered.
■■ Flashcards: Interactive flashcard activities
are an effective way for you to learn and review
all of the important terminology.
■■ Practice Quizzes: For each chapter, a
25-question practice quiz is provided.
You can use this quiz as a self-review
exercise, to help check your understanding
of the chapter’s material.
 Principles
of
Psychology

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 T E
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Principles T E D
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Psychology I
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S. Marc Breedlove

D Michigan State University

Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publishers New York Oxford

Sunderland, Massachusetts Oxford University Press
 About the cover
The four images on the cover were chosen to represent the
four principles: machine, unconscious, social, and experience.
All images ©Dave Cutler.

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Principles of Psychology

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Copyright © 2015 by Sinauer Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without

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permission from the publisher.

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Address editorial correspondence to:

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Sinauer Associates, Inc.,
P. O. Box 407

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Sunderland, MA 01375 U.S.A.

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www.sinauer.com

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publish@sinauer.com

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Address orders, sales, license, permissions, and translation inquiries to:

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Oxford University Press U.S.A.
198 Madison Avenue

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New York, NY 10016

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Orders: 1-800-445-9714

OU N
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Breedlove, S. Marc.

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 Principles of psychology / S. Marc Breedlove, Michigan State University.

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      pages cm
 ISBN 978-0-1993-2936-6
1.  Psychology.  I. Title.
 BF121.B636 2015
 150—dc23
                                                           2014040616

Printed in U.S.A.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 E
For my children

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Ben, who taught me about love

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Nick, who taught me about family
Tessa, who taught me about hope

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Kit, who taught me about courage

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 Brief Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction: Principles of Psychology  3
T E
Chapter 2 Psychology as a Science  29

C A
Chapter 3
L
Neuroscience of Behavior  63
LI
Chapter 4
I A P
Genes, Environment, and Behavior  109
R
E D193
Chapter 5 Developmental Psychology  U143

T
A OR
Chapter 6 Sensation and Perception 

M E
Chapter 7 Consciousness 247

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Chapter 8 Learning 307
H T
G IBand
Chapter 9 Memory 351
I U Cognition  397
Y R
Chapter 10 Language
R
P
Chapter 11
T
Intelligence 451
Sof Behavior 
O
Chapter
I
12 Motivation
D
and the Regulation
C 13 Emotions, Stress, and Health  549
ChapterT
499 

U P O
N
O Chapter 15 Social Psychology  641
Chapter 14 Personality 597

O
D Chapter 16 Clinical Psychology  693
 Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction: Principles of
T E
Psychology 3
C A
The Wages of Fear  3

LI L
I
1.1  Psychology’s Roots  4

P A
R U
Our ancestors had to pay attention to the behavior of people

E D
and other animals  4
Early philosophers wrestled with questions about knowledge
and reality  5

T
A OR
Darwin taught us that there is a continuum of behavior from

M E
animals to humans   7

1.2  The Rise of Empiricism  9

T T
German thinkers brought keen observation and structure to

H
psychology 9

G IBU
William James emphasized functionalism and the “brain as

I
machine” 10

R
Behaviorism revealed the rules of learning, but only a limited

R
understanding of behavior  11

Y T
Modern psychology is a cognitive science that discerns

P
processes in the machine at work  13

O I S
Neuroscience aims to explore the brain and its workings

C TD
directly, peering inside the “black box”  14
Like most scientific fields, psychology long excluded women
and minorities   16

U P O
1.3  Psychological Myths and Four Principles of
Psychology   19

O N Despite great progress, many psychological myths endure   19

O
Think like a psychologist: There are four important principles to
consider for any behavior  22

D
Researchers at Work: Detecting racial associations
with crime  23

Chapter 2
Psychology as a Science  29
Are Women Musicians Inferior?  29
2.1 What Constitutes a Science?  30
Science begins with the careful observation of
phenomena   31
 VIII  Contents

We can measure how closely two variables
vary together   33
Observations of behavior may generate
hypotheses to be tested  37
Experimentation can reveal cause-and-
effect relationships between variables   38
Researchers at Work: Is gender bias in
science a thing of the past?  40
Strong inference is the process of disproving
as many plausible hypotheses as
Random sampling is absolutely crucial in
psychology, and surprisingly difficult to
do   45
We use measures of central tendency to
gauge differences between groups   47
Psychologists love statistics because we
have to  49
Psychological measures should be both
reliable and valid   51
Psychologists strive to avoid bias by

E
possible   41 withholding information   52

T
Skeptic at Large: Theories That Cannot Skeptic at Large: The Pepsi Paradox  53
Be Disproven Fall outside the Realm of There are standards of ethical conduct in

A
Science 43 human and animal experimentation   55

C
The Cutting Edge: Meta-analysis casts doubt

I
2.2  How Do We Scientifically Study

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Behavior? 45 on antidepressant drugs  57

I P L A
The Neuroscience of Behavior  63 R U
Chapter 3

T E D
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The Laughing Brain  63
3.1  The Structure of The Nervous System:

M E
A Microscopic View  64 Drugs affect brain signals and therefore

T
The brain contains billions of neurons, or the mind  82

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nerve cells   65 Hormones affect the brain too  83

H
G IBU
Neurons communicate with each other at
synapses 66
3.3  Understanding The Nervous System:

I
Divide and Conquer  85
Neurotransmitters transfer information across

R
The central nervous system gathers
synapses 66

R
information and makes the big

Y
We can classify neurons into three functional

T
decisions 87

P
types 68
The cerebral surface is divided into

S
Psychology in Everyday Life: Dualism and

I
lobes 89

O
Descartes’s Error  71
Beneath the surface of the cerebral cortex

C TD
3.2  The Nervous System at Work: are orderly clusters of cells  92
The Body Electric  72 Each side of the brain controls the opposite

P Every cell in your body is a tiny battery  73 side of the body   93

U O Neurons use electrical signals to summarize The peripheral nervous system carries

N
information between the body and the

O
information from many synapses  74
central nervous system  93
Synaptic input determines whether a neuron

O
will produce an action potential  75 The autonomic nervous system is out of our
control 94

D
Once begun, action potentials travel down
the axon   76
Action potentials work like a flushing
toilet   77
Myelin speeds up action potentials  78
What happens when the action potential
reaches the end of an axon?   80
Researchers at Work: The telltale frog
heart: Loewi’s marvelous dream   81
3.4  How We Study the Brain  96
Lesions and electrical stimulation can map
brain functions   97
Scientists can eavesdrop on electrical
signals within the brain   98
Today’s imaging technology reveals the
brain’s interior structure and function   99
We infer brain function by comparing
different mental activities  101
 Contents  IX

Researchers at Work: Mental The Cutting Edge: Mapping The Connectome

subtraction 101 in The Human Brain  104
Psychology and biology use two different
vocabularies to describe the same
thing 103

Chapter 4
Genes, Environment, and Behavior  109
Non-Identical Identical Sisters  109
4.1  Genes at Work  111 Skeptic at Large: Controlled by Our

T E
A
Genes? 129
The genes we inherit provide “recipes” for

C
making proteins  111 4.4  Multiple Gene Effects on Behavior  130

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Our mother and father give us slightly Twin studies confirm a genetic contribution

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different “recipes”for each protein   113

A
to schizophrenia  130

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If we get a nonfunctional allele from one What does it mean if a behavior is

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parent, the other allele usually spares us

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“heritable”?   132
from harm  114

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There are several things that heritability does
Psychology in Everyday Life: Natural not mean  132

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Selection Favors Beneficial Alleles   115

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Inferences about heritability from twin
We can see how dominant and recessive studies make several simplifying
alleles work in pea plants  116 assumptions   133

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4.2  The Regulation of Genes  118 Although rare, cases of identical twins

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who are reared apart offer powerful
Different genes are used at different times in

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insights   134

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different cells  118

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Sensory experience and learning affect 4.5  The Interaction of Genes and

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gene expression  120 Experience 135
Genes and experience interact  121 Stress plays a role in the appearance of

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Researchers at Work: Mothers matter  121 schizophrenia   135

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Genes and the environment constantly
4.3  Single Gene Effects on Behavior 124

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interact to affect our behaviors  136

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Genes that severely disrupt brain function The Cutting Edge: Early Experience

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have a strong, direct, and disastrous effect Epigenetically Affects the Stress Response in

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on behavior  124
Adulthood 138
Genes that affect sensory systems can have

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a strong effect on behavior  127

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Chapter 5
N
O Developmental Psychology  143

D O Growing Up Alone  143

5.1  The Developing Brain  144
There are six stages of neural
development 145
Experience guides brain development  148
5.2  The Developing Mind  150
Developmental stages can be seen in motor
and sensory development  150
Psychologists have learned how to read
babies’ minds  154
Researchers at Work: Habituation tests
help researchers understand vision in
infants 155
Memory develops steadily during
infancy 157
Skeptic at Large: Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder   159
 X  Contents

Piaget studied the stages of cognitive Adolescence can be a confusing and

development   160 troubling time  176
Psychology in Everyday Life: Autism Is We must learn to balance pleasing other
a Difficulty in Reading Other People’s people and defying them  178
Minds 163
5.4  Adulthood and Beyond  180
Proper emotional and social development
requires a warm, interactive adult  165 Erikson identified eight stages in the
development of our relationships with
Scientists study love and attachment  166
others 181
Psychology in Everyday Life: What Are the
The aging mind slows down but continues to
Effects of Day Care on Children?  171
grow 183

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5.3  Adolescence: Developing Identity  173 The Cutting Edge: If We Are Lucky, We Face

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Adolescence is marked by physical Aging and the Possibility of Alzheimer’s

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changes that prepare boys and girls for Disease 187
adulthood 173

I L C
Chapter 6
I P L A
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Sensation and Perception  193

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No Pain, No Gain  193
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6.1  Sensory System Principles  194
Sensation begins with a stimulus   194
Skeptic at Large: How Does a Flower Look to
a Bee?  215

M E
All detection systems have thresholds   196 Having two eyes helps bring us the world in
3D   217

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Psychophysics systematically analyzes
Our eyes adjust to massive changes in light

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perception   198

H
intensity   221
Detection involves finding a signal in a

G IBU
background of noise   200 What is the physical nature of color?   223

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A stimulus that doesn’t change is Color is constructed by the brain   224

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unimportant, so sensory systems The visual system uses shortcuts to provide

R
ignore it  202 nearly instantaneous perception   226

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The visual system organizes perceptions of
6.2  Touch and Pain  203

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groups of objects  229

I S
Our nerves provide information about a

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specific type of stimulation  204 6.4  Hearing 231

C TD
Touch perception is more refined than you Sound is a pattern of pressure in the air
might think   205 (or water)  231

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Different receptor cells have different The outer and middle ears funnel sound to

U O
receptive fields   205 the cochlea  232

N
Painlessness is hazardous to your The cochlea detects the various frequencies

O
health   207 of sound  234

O
Researchers at Work: Specialized The cochlea picks up good vibrations
receptors transmit information about (and bad)  235

D
pain 208
Pain illustrates the vast difference between
sensation and perception  209
6.3  Vision 211
Reflected light arrives on the retina  211
We all have our blind spots   213
Divide and conquer: How visual information
reaches the two hemispheres of the
brain 214
How do we know where a sound is coming
from? 235
6.5  Taste and Smell  237
Our nose and tongue are exquisitely
sensitive chemical detectors   237
Five taste receptors contribute to flavor   237
Thousands of different odor receptors bring
us the richness of flavor  240
The Cutting Edge: Bionic Eyes  241
 Contents  XI

Chapter 7
Consciousness 247
Uncontrollable Sleep  247
7.1  Consciousness 248
It is difficult to assess consciousness   248
The brain’s activity is similar whether we
imagine something or actually see it  251
What is the function of consciousness?   251
Sleep disorders can have mild effects or be
devastating   277
Sleep patterns change across the life
span   279
7.3  Hypnosis and Meditation  281

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Split-brain patients offer clues about Hypnosis is not what it’s cracked up

T
consciousness without language  253 to be   282

A
In split-brain patients, the verbal mind tries to People vary in their susceptibility to
explain what the other mind is doing   255

C
hypnosis   283

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We are not always aware of what our brain Hypnosis can reduce pain  284

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has decided to do   256

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Researchers at Work: Talking away

I P
Researchers at Work: Who’s in charge the pain  284
here? 257

R U
Hypnosis does not improve memory   286
Skeptic at Large: Is Free Will Illusory?  259

E D
What is the boundary between
7.2  Sleep and Dreams  260 being accommodating and being

T
entranced? 288

A OR
Biological rhythms enforce a sleep–wake
cycle   261 Meditation resembles self-hypnosis   290

M E
There are two different categories of 7.4  Psychoactive Drugs   291
sleep   263
Psychoactive drugs affect the mind by

T
Do animals dream?  268 acting on neurotransmitter systems   292

H T
At least four brain regions regulate sleep Drugs can be classified by their general

G IBU
states   269 effects on mental activity   293

I
Researchers at Work: Divide and Psychology in Everyday Life: Has the Legal
conquer 269 Model of Drug Control Been Effective?  298

R R
We need sleep, but why?   272

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Addiction involves physical and

T
Sleep deprivation has relatively mild effects, psychological dependence   299

P
yet total sleep deprivation is fatal  274 The Cutting Edge: Marijuana Is Risky for

O I S Teenagers 302

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Chapter 8

U P Learning 307
O
Afraid of Santa Claus  307

O N
8.1  Predicting the Future  308 Researchers at Work: Some associations

O
The simplest learning tasks involve only one are made more readily than others  316

D
cue   309
Classical conditioning teaches us to
anticipate the future  311
Subjects in classical conditioning learn
about more than just the conditioned
stimulus   314
8.2  Reinforcing Behavior  322
Our everyday behavior reflects what we’ve
learned by classical conditioning  315
Taste aversion proved the relevance of
evolution to conditioning  316
Psychology in Everyday Life: Taste Aversion
Saves Lives  319
Fear conditioning is a type of classical
conditioning using a painful
unconditioned stimulus  319
Live and learn: Thorndike’s law of
effect   322
Everyone likes to be rewarded  325
Skeptic at Large: Operant Conditioning for
Fun and Profit  326
 XII  Contents

Reinforcement and punishment can be Researchers at Work: Latent learning  338

positive or negative  328 “You can observe a lot by watching”  340
Punishment can be counterproductive  329 Social learning profoundly shapes human
Active avoidance is especially resistant to behavior   342
extinction 330 Sometimes insight plays a role in
The pace of rewards affects how quickly and learning 344
well we learn  332
What Ever Happened to Little Albert?  345
8.3  Observational Learning  337
The Cutting Edge: What Makes You So
Does a rat in a maze become lost in Smart? 346
thought? 337

Chapter 9
T E
Memory 351
C A
I
Trapped in the Eternal Now  351

L L
I P
9.1  The Stages of Memory Formation   352
A
Researchers at Work: Language can

R U
We retain raw sensory information for only a impart a bias in visual memory  373
few seconds  352 Psychology in Everyday Life: The Seven Sins

E D
Skeptic at Large: Does Anyone Have of Memory   374

T
Photographic Memory?  353 How can you improve your memory?   374

A OR
Researchers at Work: How to retrieve
9.3  Different Forms of Long-term
fading images  354

M E
Memory 378
Short-term memory is brief, but can
There are different types of amnesia  378

T
be extended if we work with the

T
information 355 The hippocampus is required to put some

H
Long-term memories also fade unless they memories into LTM elsewhere in the

G IBU
are used   357 brain 379

I
Short-term memory and long-term memory Researchers at Work: Henry was able to
form new memories for some tasks  380

R
rely on different processes  358

R
People with Korsakoff’s syndrome, like H.M.,

Y
We have to encode information in order to

T
store and retrieve it  360 have trouble forming new declarative

P
memories 382

S
Some short-term memories are consolidated

I
Brain damage can destroy autobiographical

O
into the vast store of long-term
memories while sparing general

C TD
memory 363
memories 382
Psychology in Everyday Life: A Few People
Have Prodigious Memories   364 Skeptic at Large: Amnesia in Real Life Is Not

P
Like It Is in the Movies   384

O
9.2  The Vulnerability of Memory  366

U
Different forms of nondeclarative memory

N
Sometimes one memory can interfere with serve varying functions  385

O
another   367 What is the physical basis of memory?   385

O
Several psychological phenomena indicate Long-term potentiation (LTP) may provide a
that forgetting is probably due to a failure physical basis for memory  387

D
in retrieval  369
The Cutting Edge: Are There Some Things We
Memory is susceptible to distortion  371 Should Forget?  391
 Contents  XIII

Chapter 10
Language and Cognition  397
Unheeded Warnings  397
10.1 Language 398 Mental processes take time   421
What are the components of human We reproduce images and manipulate
language?   398 them in our mind  423
Animal communication reveals the Researchers at Work: We need time to
evolutionary roots of language  400 move mental images  423

E
Can other animals acquire language with There are at least three stages in acquiring a

T
training? 402 skill 425

A
We start life ready to decode any language Skeptic at Large: Is There Such a Thing as
we happen to hear   404 Subliminal Perception?   428

I C
Psychologists use behavior to test babies’ Attention is the spotlight of the mind  429

L
language ability  405

L
Even a brief break in our attention can make

A
us “blind”  432

I
Researchers at Work: “Reading babies’

P
minds” 406

R
10.3  Decision Making and Problem

U
Psychology in Everyday Life: Williams
Solving 434

E D
Syndrome Offers Clues about
Language 408 Every judgment is subject to error and

T
bias 435

A OR
There are sensitive periods for learning a
language   409 Researchers at Work: Even random
information can induce bias  436

M E
Some people have a harder time learning to
read 410 We are all prone to particular errors of

T
judgment 437
For most people, the left hemisphere of the

T
brain controls language   411 Our hindsight seems so good because our

H
memory is so easily distorted  439

G IBU
Psychology in Everyday Life: The
Comparatively Minor Effects of Childhood We hate loss more than we love gain  441

I
Loss of a Cerebral Hemisphere  414 Problem solving involves algorithms,

R
What is the right cerebral hemisphere heuristics, and representations  443

Y R
for? 414 Strategies may help or impede problem

T
solving   444

P
Language and culture can influence our

S
thought processes  416 The Cutting Edge: Defending Preferences You

O I
Never Made  446
10.2 Deconstructing Mental Processes  419

C D
There are two kinds of people, and both of

ChapterT
them categorize  420

U P O 11

O N
Intelligence 451

O
The Admirable Crichton  451

D
11.1  History and Development of
Intelligence Tests   452
Intelligence tests were first created to make
a more ordered society   452
How are intelligence tests
administered?   455
Modern-day IQ scores compare individuals
of the same age group  455
Intelligence test scores are normally
distributed   457
A reliable psychological test provides
consistent results   459
Establishing test validity is more difficult   461
What do IQ scores “predict”?   463
11.2  The Many Facets of Intelligence  469
Is there any such thing as general
intelligence?   469
Newer models emphasize
“intelligences” 472
 XIV  Contents

A wide variety of developmental disorders Knowing a trait is heritable does not

result in intellectual disability  474
A few people are remarkably gifted at
specific mental abilities  476
Intelligence, and intelligence scores, can
change over the life span   478
Does IQ decline with age?   479
11.3  The Controversy over Group Differences
in IQ  481
How do we measure the heritability of
address the cause of average group
differences 487
Heritability estimates are higher in middle-
class and affluent populations than in
poor people  488
Early intervention programs for children can
raise IQ scores   489
Skeptic at Large: The Bogus Mozart
Effect 490

E
Emotional state affects performance on
IQ?   481 intelligence tests  491

T
Just because IQ is heritable doesn’t mean it Researchers at Work: The test you are

A
can’t be changed   482 about to take…  491

C
Skeptic at Large: Class Bias Is Found in Most The Cutting Edge: Can the N-Back Procedure

I L
IQ Tests  483
Increase Fluid Intelligence?  493

L
Heritability does not mean what most

I P A
people think it does   484

Chapter 12
R
E D
Motivation and the Regulation of Behavior  U
499
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Brenda, the “Cave Woman”  499

M E
12.1  Motivation 500 12.3  Sexual Behavior  520

T
What do we mean by motivation?   500 In non-human animals, sexual behaviors

T
Homeostasis is the regulation of internal are stereotyped and closely regulated by

H
states 502 hormones 520

G IBU
A pathway in the brain provides us with In humans, sexual behavior is neither as

I
intense pleasure  503 stereotyped nor as hormonally regulated
as in animals  522

R
Researchers at Work: The quest for

R
Prenatal hormones shape the sex of the

Y
pleasure 504

T
body in humans and other mammals  527
Motivational systems fulfill a hierarchy of

P
Psychology in Everyday Life: Why Aren’t

S
needs 505

I
There More Women Scientists and

O
12.2  Hunger 507 Engineers? 529

C TD
Body weight is tightly regulated by the brain Testicular steroids masculinize the
in animal models and humans   507 developing brain of animals and perhaps

P
The brain carefully regulates sugar and fat to of humans  531

U O
avoid energy shortages  510 Sexual orientation is a complex behavior

N
What are the factors that control that in humans appears to be affected by

O
appetite? 511 prenatal hormones   534

O
Nature seems to have some influence on
Researchers at Work: Monitoring hunger
sexual orientation  536
pangs 512

D There are some methods of weight loss that

work for some people  514
Eating disorders usually arise in adolescence
and are more common in girls than
12.4  Social Motivation  539
Everyone feels the need to belong   540
Industrial and organizational psychology
is the study of the behavior and
boys 517
attitudes of people in workplaces and
organizations   541
The Cutting Edge: Distracted by Food  543
 Contents  XV

Chapter 13
Emotions, Stress, and Health  549
The Stresses and Strains of Baboon Life   549
13.1  Emotions 550
What is the relationship between emotional
experience and the body’s physiological
reactions? 550
Manipulating sympathetic arousal gives
The physiology of the stress response is
similar across all mammals   573
Not everyone responds to stress the same
way 575
Lack of control and unpredictability

E
rise to the two-factor theory of emotional make unpleasant events even more
experience 552 stressful 576
Researchers at Work: Arousing
emotions 552 and predictability  577

AT
Researchers at Work: The value of control

C
How many different emotions are Health psychology explores the relationship

I L
there?   554 between physical and mental health  579

L A
Skeptic at Large: Why Do We Yawn?  556 There is constant communication between

I P
The ancient theory of emotional catharsis is the nervous system and the immune

R
system 580

U
not supported by modern research  559
We are simply not adapted to handle

E D
The pursuit of happiness  561
prolonged stress  582

T
A specialized brain circuit underlies the
What are some strategies for dealing with

A OR
adaptive experience called fear  564
stress? 583
Affective neuroscience is revealing brain
Healthy living helps combat stress  585

M E
circuits for emotion  566
Psychology in Everyday Life: Posttraumatic Psychology in Everyday Life: How to Stop

T
Stress Disorder (PTSD)  567 Smoking 588

T
Friends and family provide us with a buffer

H
The left and right sides of the brain differ in
from the cruel, cruel world   589

G IBU
emotional processing   569
The Cutting Edge: Fearless Parasites

I
13.2  Stress and Health  571 Manipulate Their Hosts  591

R
Psychology in Everyday Life: “Lie Detector

R
Tests” Detect Stress, not Lies  572

P Y T
S
Chapter 14

O I
Personality 597

C TD
An Explosive Personality   597

U P 14.1  The Quest for Personality  598

O
There is a long history of ideas about
Humanistic psychology challenged the
psychoanalytic model   610

O N
personality 598
14.2  The Rejection of Personality Types and
Skeptic at Large: Your Horoscope Today the Pursuit of Traits  611

O
Says… 600
Modern psychology emphasizes traits rather

D
Freud focused on the unconscious  600
Freud believed family dynamics during
development affected personality  603
Skeptic at Large: Does Birth Order Affect
Personality?   606
Freudians probe the unconscious to reveal
conflicts in a client’s personality  606
Projective tests are unreliable and their
validity is difficult to determine  608
than types  611
Introverts and extraverts offer a continuum of
personalities 612
How many personality traits are there?  614
Modern personality theory embraces the
five-factor model  615
How do we assess personality traits?   617
Some tests are designed to screen for
psychological disorders or career fit   620
 XVI  Contents

Skeptic at Large: Can the MMPI Reliably
Detect Malingering?  622
14.3  Biological Influences on
Personality 624
There are genetic influences on personality
traits   624
Temperament seems to be a lifelong
characteristic   625
Researchers at Work: Tracking different
temperaments 625
14.4  Social Influences on Personality  629
Behaviorism: Behavioral approaches
emphasize overt behavior and
rewards 630
Cognitive psychology: Perceptions of control
and competency shape a developing
personality 630
Cross-cultural psychology studies the role of
culture in personality  633
What Ever Happened to Phineas Gage?  634

E
Is personality stable across situations?  627 The Cutting Edge: Do Non-Human Animals

T
Have Personalities?  636

Chapter 15
C A
Social Psychology  641
LI L
I
The People’s Temple  641
P A
R
E D U
15.1  Social Perception  643
Impressions and physical appearance
Evolutionary psychology offers an
explanation for altruism  669

T
affect social interactions  643 Neuroeconomics offers a new way of

A OR
Attributions are easy to make and hard to studying human influence  671
shake 645

M E
15.3  Friendship and Romance  673
Psychology in Everyday Life: Inheriting
Friends have things in common and

T
Political Views  647
reciprocate 673

T
Different cultures foster different styles of

H
Married people tend to be happier and
attribution 648

G IBU
healthier than single people  674
Attitudes affect behavior, and behaviors

I
There are three components to romantic
affect attitude  649
relationships 675

R
Cognitive dissonance is the psychological

R
15.4  Aggression 676

Y
discomfort of holding two conflicting

T
beliefs 651 Experiments in non-human animals offer a

P S
Researchers at Work: Getting paid to lie to context for aggression  677

O I
others 651 Hormones influence human aggression  678

C TD
Stereotypes and racial prejudice live Aggression can be planned or
on 654 impulsive 679

P
Societal stereotypes are embedded deep in Genes and the environment influence
our brains  656

O
aggression 680

U
Researchers at Work: Implicit associations Social and cultural factors influence

O N
affect cognition  656 aggression 680
Stereotype threat produces self-fulfilling Skeptic at Large: Video Violence and

O
prophecies 658 Aggression 681

D
15.2  Social Influences on Behavior  661
We constantly waver between conformity
and nonconformity  661
Sometimes being part of a group leads us to
shirk our responsibilities  666
Sometimes being part of a group leads us to
do the wrong thing  667
Sometimes being part of a group leads us to
make faulty decisions  667
What are the roles of cooperation and
competition? 668
How can punishment reflect the crime and
serve society?  682
15.5  Persuasion and Authority  684
Stanley Milgram demonstrated the power of
authority 685
Later variations of Milgram’s experiment had
surprising results   686
The Cutting Edge: Aftermath of Milgram’s
Study 688
 Contents  XVII

Chapter 16
Clinical Psychology  693
“My Lobotomy”  693
16.1  Modern Classification of Psychological Can we detect psychopaths in the modern
Disorders 694 world? 710
Twentieth-century psychiatrists seeking Skeptic at Large: Multiple Personality
standardization created the DSM 694 Disorder: Myth or Reality?  712
How do we define normal?  697
16.4  Schizophrenia and Bipolar

E
Modern classification emphasizes the Disorder 713

T
consequences for everyday life  698
Diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia

A
Mental disorders may represent extremes on suggest many different disorders  713
a continuum  698

C
Anatomical differences are seen in

I L
16.2  Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive- the brains of many people with

L
Complusive Disorder, and schizophrenia   714

I A
Depression 700

P
There is a strong genetic component to
What are the roots of anxiety disorders?  700 schizophrenia 716

R U
Phobias can be unlearned  701 Schizophrenia is an inherited susceptibility to

E D
stress, especially stress early in life  717
Obsessive-compulsive disorder brings

T
recurrent, unwanted thoughts and Researchers at Work: The stress of city

A OR
behaviors 702 living 718
Depression is a debilitating, potentially Antipsychotic medications revolutionized the

M E
deadly disorder  704 treatment of schizophrenia  719
Despite popular portrayals, most people

T
Skeptic at Large: Does the Incidence of
who develop schizophrenia recover

T
Depression Peak at the Holidays?   705

H
appreciably 721
Cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective

G IBU
as antidepressant medication  706 Several factors are associated with recovery

I
from schizophrenia  722
16.3  Personality Disorders  708 Bipolar disorder is more like schizophrenia

R R
Some personality disorders resemble mild than depression  723

Y
versions of more serious disorders  708

T
Researchers at Work: The entirely

P
Where are the borders for borderline accidental discovery of lithium

I S
personality disorder?  709 therapy 724

O
Avoidant personality disorder is Are people with schizophrenia or bipolar

C TD
characterized by social anxiety and disorder dangerous?   726
feelings of inadequacy  710 The Cutting Edge: Scanning for Schizophrenia

P
Risk 727

U N O
O
Answers to Review Questions  ARQ–I

O
Glossary G–I

D Illustration Credits  IC–I

References R–I
Name Index  NI–I
Subject Index  SI–I
 T E
C A
L LI
A I P
R
E D U
T
A OR
M E
H T T
I G IBU
Y R R
P S T
O I
C TD
U P O
O N
D O
 Preface
I’ve written this textbook as an affectionate kick in the pants to the field of psy-
chology. For several years when I taught Psychology 101 at the University of
T E
A
California, Berkeley I invited guest lecturers from different sub-disciplines in the

C
field to join me to chat informally with the students about “What’s the big pic-

I L
ture?” of their research. The goal was to distill concepts that come up in many

L A
different experiments, conducted in widely different areas of psychology. These

I P
talks also revolved around how to think critically about the concepts of psychol-

R
ogy and how research can contradict our day-to-day impressions about human
behavior.

E D U
These experiences taught me that psychology as a field needs to be more

T
effective in communicating the hard-won findings of our research-based sci-

A OR
ence. Relatively few of our fellow citizens know, for example, that:
••Bias shapes every human judgment.

M E
••Genes influence all human behavior but determine only the simplest of
human behaviors (like color blindness).

H T
••No human has ever been formally taught her or his first language, although

T
almost everyone learns one.

G IBU
••People can sincerely, even vividly, remember events that never happened.

I
••Our sensory systems actively distort information about our surroundings.

R
••No one really understands why antidepressant or antipsychotic drugs

R
work.

Y T
••There is no cure for schizophrenia, but young adults who develop

P
schizophrenia often recover.

O I S
Many scientific observations support each of these ideas, but plenty of adults

C TD
in our society would disbelieve most of them, even those who previously took a
college course in Introductory Psychology. How have psychologists failed to get

P
our messages out to the public?

O
I think introductory textbooks are overly focused on details and minor points

U
that should be addressed in later, more advanced courses. What’s needed in an

O N
introductory textbook is a broad framework upon which you can hang details
that come your way to help you gain a solid understanding of our hard-won

O
knowledge. I think this can be made easier by emphasizing a few important

D
principles that relate to almost any behavior.

The Four Principles

Principles of Psychology is organized around the following four important, well-
established principles:
••The mind is a product of a physical machine, the brain.
••We are consciously aware of only a small part of our mental activity.
••We constantly modify our behavior, beliefs, and attitudes according to
what we perceive about the people around us.
••Experience physically alters the structure and function of the brain.
 XX  Preface

These principles may sound simple and uncontroversial, but each gives rise
to surprising revelations (including many of the counterintuitive findings listed
above) and can serve as touchstones, or a framework, for the field as a whole.
They help emphasize proven concepts, support research-based investigations
and experiments, and encourage critical thinking, thereby encouraging you to
see the “big picture.”

Vignettes and Principles in Action

Because we all love and readily remember narratives, I begin each chapter with
a vignette, an instance when behavior has a big impact on someone’s life. The

E
chapter returns to the vignette several times as we cover findings that relate to

T
that particular case. To close the chapter, I show how the four principles re-
late to the vignette, with a feature called “Think Like a Psychologist: Principles

A
in Action.” I even offer a mnemonic, MUSE (Machine-like brain, Unconscious

C
processes, Social influences, Experience matters) so that, for the rest of your

I L
life, whenever you encounter any interesting behavior, you can recall the four

L A
principles to consider how they might apply to this instance. If you do that, you

I P
will indeed be thinking like a psychologist.

R
E D U
Psychology Is a Research-Based Science

T
Among other things, the fact that psychology is a science means I’m not going

A OR
to shrink away from presenting what other sciences tell us about human behav-
ior. I explore concepts and discoveries from all areas of psychology, as well as

M E
evolutionary biology, genetics, and neuroscience. Cognizant of you, the student,
nothing I’ve written about these topics assumes any prior biology background is

T
needed to understand the interplay between the sciences and behavior. I want

H T
the science to excite you and broaden your understanding of human behavior.

G IBU
Nature vs. Nurture

R I
Understanding psychology as a research-based science also helps deal with

R
one of the biggest questions facing individuals and society: the nature vs. nur-

Y
ture question. Given our society’s confusion about genes and experience, I think

P T
few people grasp how these two factors can really interact to affect behavior.

I S
For this reason I devote Chapter 4 Genes, Environment, and Behavior to explain

O
why every behavior is affected by both genes and experience, with examples

C TD
that you can incorporate into your thinking. Rather than just say that genes and
the environment “interact,” without providing an explanation of what that means,

P
I show you how they interact. We’ll see that experience affects when and where

O
genes are expressed—so it’s not just which genes you inherited, but how those

U
genes are used that matters. Experience-driven gene expression can affect the

O N
structure of the brain, which affects behavior, which affects experience to start
the whole cycle over again. While these are awesome and important ideas, they

O
are not mystical and there’s no reason why anyone can’t grasp them to under-

D
stand the nature vs. nurture debate.

Critical Thinking
Psychology’s important mission is to teach people how to think critically about
human behavior, to apply the same hard-nosed attitude that scientists display
in other fields. You will spend the rest of your life observing human behavior and
trying to make sense of it. So I created two features to help you think critically
about behavior, including your own, to better understand the human mind: “Re-
searchers at Work” and “Skeptic at Large.”
 Preface   XXI

Researchers at Work
Each chapter offers one or two examples of hypothesis testing to show you the
logic of scientific thinking. Following the progress of a successful line of research
that provides a conclusion that has withstood the test of time teaches critical
thinking without leaving you confused about what we do know. “Researchers at
Work” includes the Question that prompted the study, the specific Hypothesis
that was being tested, then the Test, the Results of the test, and the Conclusion
drawn from the result. We also have terrific figures illustrating the results, and
I hope the combination of step-by-step narrative and pictures makes the logic
of these experiments clear, and helps drive home the critical thinking skills of a

E
research-based science of behavior.

T
Skeptic at Large

A
To reinforce the critical thinking needed to see through the hooey that’s present-

C
ed to us over the Web every day, Chapter 1 offers several psychological myths,

I L
including at least one relevant to each subsequent chapter, and briefly previews

L A
how we’ll disprove them along the way. Most chapters have a box, “Skeptic at

I P
Large,” that takes on a widespread notion and demonstrates how research dis-

R
proves it. These particular instances of critical thinking should help you see the

E D U
danger of our current “misinformation age” and the power of experimentation,
reinforcing the “Researchers at Work” feature.

The Cutting Edge

T
A OR
Psychology is a living, research-based science and I want you to know that

M E
we are still exploring the frontiers. Thus each chapter ends with “The Cutting
Edge,” which explores an exciting report of recent research on the very edge

T
of what we know. How does the grooming provided by a rat mother affect the

H T
specific genes in the pups’ brain? How do eye-tracking systems determine,

G IBU
with over 90% accuracy, people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia?

I
Are people suffering from eating disorders more sensitive to photos of fattening
foods than control participants? Showing these vibrant frontiers will emphasize

R R
that psychology research is abundant and thriving.

P Y
Final Thoughts
T
O I S
The aim of this text is to present you with a more unified message to empha-

C TD
size how a few principles are at work in many findings. Without apology, I write
for you, the students. I want you to read, understand, and (if at all possible) be

P
entertained by what I’m saying. Of course, I want to be precise—to impart what

O
I really mean. But I have no desire to use long words or complicated sentence

U
structures for their own sake.

O N
I wrote this book in a conversational style and tried to use the power of story-
telling—the human mind loves narratives and we will recall their details more

O
fully. In addition to the vignettes, sometimes I offer personal stories to illustrate

D
psychological phenomenon, certain you will better remember the finding be-
cause of the story. I want you to remember the stories and the principles long
after the examinations are over and your course grades are posted. No matter
how many details you’ve forgotten, if what you read here helps you to think like
a psychologist, then you’ll carry this course with you for life.
 XXII  Preface

Acknowledgments
When I began work on this book, I thought I knew what I was getting into. After
all, I’d been a co-author or co-editor for two other college-level textbooks. While
the dates on my earliest Word files for this book are dated 1996, I didn’t really
begin in earnest until 2005. If I’d known then that it would take nearly 10 years to
complete the book, I honestly doubt that I would have started. Of course, I am
enormously proud of the final product, but also totally humbled. So many people
have brought talent, effort, and perseverance to bear on producing this book
that it literally makes me laugh out loud to think how inadequate my contribu-
tions alone would have been.

E
My first thanks go to Andy Sinauer, who has gathered and nurtured a won-

T
derful cadre of talent that keeps producing, year after year, the most beautiful
textbooks I’ve ever seen—an enduring testament to his vision and his team.

A
Andy’s personal encouragement was critical in starting this project, and I am so

C
grateful for his steadfast belief in this undertaking.

I L
Sinauer Associates Editor Sydney Carroll has been an amazing bedrock of

L A
guidance and support. Not only has she been a tremendous resource for ideas

I P
and problem-solving, Syd has somehow kept the entire juggernaut of editors,

R
reviewers, designers, artists, and a sometimes unbelievably cranky author mov-

E D U
ing along. Each time I thought we’d hit an unmovable roadblock, Syd found a
way forward. What’s funny is how, after each detour, the book came into better

T
focus, so that the crystallization of the book in many ways is as much a reflection

A OR
of Syd’s mind as mine. No matter whose name is on the front of the book, this
has been a partnership, and I have been so glad to have such a capable, tire-

M E
less, genial colleague.
Syd’s predecessor, Editor Graig Donini persuaded me to take the plunge in

T
the first place, so I want to thank (blame?) him for his encouragement and faith

H T
that I could see it through. Graig’s support and creative insights in the early

G IBU
stages were absolutely critical. The formation of the book also benefitted enor-

I
mously from several editors guided first by Graig and then by Syd, including
Development editors Annie Reid and Carol Pritchard-Martinez. Each brought

R R
unique strengths to bear on the text, from the first stage to the last, and I feel so

Y
grateful for their collective guidance.

P T
Once the actual production of the book began, yet another team of talented

S
people came to bear. Copy editor Liz Pierson made so many improvements on

O I every page, with a tireless attention to detail. Toward the end of the process

C TD
Copy editor Lou Doucette read the text with a fine-tooth comb and was remark-
ably good at catching places where changing a few words could avoid misun-

P
derstandings, and also caught several flat-out mistakes (all of them mine)! Chris-

O
tine Lofgren was also a tremendous help with the writing of the Glossary and the

U
Quiz Yourself questions and answers.

O N
In Sinauer’s production department, Chris Small was so important to the
process of bringing the book into focus, and has so many great ideas about

O
future editions that I’m excited to see what we come up with next. With her el-

D
egant vision and grace, compositor and designer Joanne Delphia did an amaz-
ing job of taking the deluge of words, jumbled images, and diverse features and
somehow getting them to simply flow across the pages that follow. It was like
watching someone pour a messy, lumpy batter into a pan and then somehow
pull a beautiful, delicious pastry out of the oven. Photo researcher David Mc-
Intyre continues to amaze me with his ability to find the perfect photos and im-
ages to complement the text. He brings a terrific eye and a great sense of hu-
mor, as well as an amazingly broad store of knowledge, to the process. Thank
you to Jason Dirks and his team of editors in the Media and Supplements de-
partment for their patience and skill in creating a compelling and useful supple-
ments package. Stephanie Bonner, Production Editor, also deserves a special
 Preface  XXIII

thank you for all of her work and efforts to help tidy up the book. Mike Demaray
and Helen Wortham at Dragonfly Media Group are incomparable with their abil-
ity to coalesce complex, sometimes dense scientific concepts into spare, ele-
gant, beautiful simplicity in the illustrations. There is no doubt in my mind that
they are the finest scientific illustrators on Earth.
Production Editor Kathaleen Emerson was tireless in her efforts to keep me
on track, and her ability to keep tabs on the illustrations, photos, editors, and
hundreds of draft files is nothing short of preternatural. Kath’s patience with me
was also preternatural, as the thousands of emails between us prove. She has
been much more than midwife to the birth of this child; more like a genetic

E
engineer.

T
I also want to thank the folks in the Higher Education Department at Oxford
University Press. As our co-publisher in this project, they have been enthusiastic

A
throughout, offering invaluable advice and suggestions. The have been our

C
“partner” in the truest sense of the word. Special thanks go to John Challice, VP

I L
and Publisher, Higher Education; Patrick Lynch, Editorial Director; Jane Potter,

L A
Psychology Senior Acquisitions Editor. Further thanks go to Jolene Howard,

I P
Director of Market Development; and Eden Kram-Gingold: Marketing Manager;

R
thank you both for your well-orchestrated campaign and your fervor for this
book.

E D U
Finally, I want to warmly thank the many reviewers who took the time from

T
their busy lives to offer reactions and feedback to the (many, many, many) drafts

A OR
of every chapter. I learned a lot in doing the research to write this book, but I
learned a lot more from the collective knowledge of these remarkably informed,

M E
wise people. The reviewers taught me so much. Not only did they catch mis-
takes that made me blush, but they pushed me to think harder about many is-

T
sues, and I know the book is so much better because of their selfless efforts.

H T
Nevertheless, if there are shortcomings or mistakes in what follows, I have to

G IBU
take full responsibility for them.

Reviewers
R I
Y R
The following reviewers have read, critiqued, or class-tested many iterations of

T
P
this book. We wish to thank them for their time and extraordinarily thoughtful

I S
and helpful comments; the book is greatly improved because of their input.

O
C TD
Eileen Achorn, University of Texas at San Antonio
Rachel Albert, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Melissa Berry, University of Dayton
Bakhtawar Bhadha, Pasadena City College

P
George Alder, Simon Fraser University Julia Blau, State University of New York, College at

O
Nancy Alwood, University of Arkansas Oneonta

U
Sandra Arntz, Carroll University Tim Bono, Washington University of St. Louis

O N
Diane Ashe, Valencia College, Winter Park Carol Borden, St. Cloud State University
Pamela Auburn, University Houston-Downtown Louis Boudreau, University of Connecticut

O
Kevin Autry, University of Arkansas Jessica Boyette-Davis, York College of Pennsylvania

D
Angela Bahns, Wellesley College
Steve Balsis, Texas A & M University, College Station
Jonathan Banks, Nova Southeastern University
Dave Baskind, Delta College
Kiersten Baughman, Ball State University
Gwyneth Beagley, Alma College
Holly Beard, Midlands Technical College
Burton Beck, Jr., Pensacola State University
Felice Bedford, University of Arizona
Jennifer Bellingtier, University of Northern Iowa
Michael Benhar, Suffolk County Community College
Debi Brannan, Western Oregon University
Eric Bressler, Westfield State University
Thomas Brothen, University of Minnesota
Trina Brown, Savannah College of Art & Design
Brad Brubaker, Indiana State University
Josh Burk, College of William and Mary
Laura Byers, Grand Rapids Community College
Aimee Callender, Auburn University
Ken Callis, Southeast Missouri State University
Michele Camden, Stetson University
J. Timothy Cannon, University of Scranton
 XXIV  Preface
Bernardo Carducci, Indiana University Southeast
Marie Cassar, Saginaw Valley State University
Amber Chenoweth, Hiram College
Sheryl Civjan, Holyoke Community College
Wanda Clark, South Plains College
James Collins, Carson-Newman University
Jessamy Comer, Rochester Institute of Technology
Sheree Dukes Conrad, University of Massachusetts,
Boston
Shaun Cook, Millersville University
Erin Cooper, College of the Canyons
Kristi Cordell-McNulty, Angelo State University
Justin Couchman, Albright College
Verne Cox, University of Texas at Arlington
Howard Casey Cromwell, Bowling Green State University
I L
Craig Cummings, Auburn University
L A
Brian Cusato, Centre College
I P
Thomas Daniel, Auburn University
R
Natalie Dautovich, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
E D U
Samuel Day, Susquehanna University
Scott Debb, Norfolk State University
T
Stacie Craft DeFreitas, University of Houston-Downtown
A OR
Casey Dexter, Berry College
Matt Diggs, Collin College
M E
Stephanie Ding, Del Mar College
Maureen Donegan, Delta College
T
Dale Doty, Monroe Community College
H T
Kari Dudley, University of New Hampshire
G IBU
Kimberley Duff, Cerritos College
I
Felecia Terry Dunson, Valencia College, Winter Park
Erin Dupuis, Loyola University of New Orleans
R R
Ramani Durvasula, California State University,
Y
Los Angeles
P T
Jennifer Dyck, State University of New York at Fredonia
S
April Dye, Carson-Newman University
O I
John Edlund, Rochester Institute of Technology
C TD
Robert Egbert, Walla Walla University
Christine Feeley, Suffolk County Community College
P
Keith Feigenson, Albright College
O
Kimberly Fenn, Michigan State University
U
Annette Feravich, Oakland University
O N
Thomas Fischer, Wayne State University
Julia Fisher, Coker College
O
Faith Florer, Manhattan College
D
Andrea Flynn, DePaul University
Johnathan Forbey, Ball State University
Catherine Forte, Tacoma Community College
Charles Fox, Worcester State University
Michael Foy, Loyola Marymount University
Christopher France, Cleveland State University
Denise Frank, Mercy College
Michael Frank, Stockton College
Rebecca Fraser-Thill, Bates College
Alexandra Frazer, Muhlenberg College
Michael Frederick, University of Baltimore
Sara Frederick-Holton, Capella University
Linda Freeman, Valencia College, Winter Park
Karyn Frick, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
William Fry, Youngstown State University
April Fugett, Marshall University
Philip Gable, University of Alabama
Christopher Gade, University of California, Berkeley
Danielle Gagne, Alfred University
Chad Galuska, College of Charleston
Janet Gebelt, Westfield State University
E
Caroline Gee, Saddleback College
T
Shriradha Geigerman, Georgia Institute of Technology
Seth Gillihan, Haverford University
A
Amanda Gingerich, Butler University
C
Melissa Glenn, Colby College
William Goggin, University of Southern Mississippi
Rudy Goldstein, University of Kansas
Adam Goodie, University of Georgia
Joel Goodin, Florida State University
Jennifer Grabski, Alfred University
Peter Gram, Pensacola State College
Daniel Greenberg, College of Charleston
Gary Greenberg, Wichita State College, emeritus
Donnell Griffin, Davidson County Community College
Azriel Grysman, Hamilton College
Fay Guarraci, Southwestern University
Jill Haasch, Elizabeth City State University
Chuck Hallock, Pima Community College
Sidney Hardyway, Volunteer State Community College
John Haworth, Chattanooga State Community College
Mark Hicks, Lorain County Community College
Heidi Higgins, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Amy Holmes, Davidson County Community College
Kevin Holmes, Colorado College
Allen Huffcutt, Bradley University
Kelly Huffman, University of California, Riverside
Trevor Hyde, Cardinal Stritch University
Malgorzata Ilkowska, Georgia Institute of Technology
Steven Isonio, Golden West College
Darren Iwamoto, Chaminade University of Honolulu
James Jakubow, Florida Atlantic University
Benjamin Jee, Rhode Island College
Elizabeth Jenkins, Collin College
Steve Jenkins, Wagner College
Susan Jenks, The Sage Colleges
Andrew Johnson, Park University
John Johnson, Pennsylvania State University
David Jones, Westminster College of Missouri
Matthew Kailey, Red Rocks Community College
Hilary Kalagher, Drew University
Theodora Kanellopoulos, Queens College, City University
of New York
Kiesa Kelly, Tennessee State University
Abigail Kerr, Illinois Wesleyan University
Andrew Kim, Citrus College

Michael Kitchens, Lebanon Valley College
Kristina Klassen, North Idaho College
David Kreiner, University of Central Missouri
Michelle LaBrie, College of the Canyons
Alan Lambert, Washington University of St. Louis
Jean Lamont, Bucknell University
Franki Larrabee, Chippewa Valley Technical College
Cindy Lausberg, University of Pittsburgh
Shannon Layman, University of Texas at Arlington
Jennifer Lee, Cabrillo College
Jonathan Lewis, University of North Texas
Richard Lewis, Pomona College
Sam Ling, Boston University
Paul Locasto, Quinnipiac University
Christine Lofgren, University of California, Irvine
I L
Greg Loviscky, Pennsylvania State University,
L A
University Park
I P
John Lu, Concordia University Irvine
R
Wade Lueck, Pima Community College
E D U
Agnes Ly, University of Delaware
Margaret Lynch, San Francisco State University
T
Mike Mangan, University of New Hampshire
A OR
Alisha Marciano, Lynchburg College
Jillian Marshall, Connecticut College
M E
Diane Martichuski, University of Colorado, Boulder
Robert Martinez, University of the Incarnate Word
T
Amy Masnick, Hofstra University
H T
Mark Mattson, Fordham University
G IBU
John Mavromatis, St. John Fisher College
I
Nicolle Mayo, Mansfield University
Christopher Mazurek, Columbia College
R R
Jennifer McCabe, Goucher College
Y
Patsy McCall, Angelo State University
P T
Kristin McCombs, Zane State College
S
Daniel McConnell, University of Central Florida
O I
Jason McCoy, Cape Fear Community College
C TD
Julie McIntyre, The Sage Colleges
Emalinda McSpadden, Bronx Community College
P
Julian Megosa, Walla Walla University
O
Michael Melville, University of New Hampshire
U
Tracy Meyer, Collin College
O N
Dennis Miller, University of Missouri
Marty Milligan, San Bernardino Valley College
O
Darlene Mosley, Pensacola State College
D
Courtney Mozo, Old Dominion University
Paige Muellerleile, Marshall University
Angela Neal, University of New Hampshire
Katy Neidhardt, Cuesta College
Todd Nelson, California State University, Stanislaus
Jeffrey Nettle, Housatonic Community College
Christopher Niemiec, University of Rochester
Bonnie Nolan, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Brian Nolan, Quincy University
Nicholaus Noles, Michigan State University
Sadie Oates, Pitt Community College
Preface  XXV
Kathryn Oleson, Reed College
Lynn Olzak, Miami University of Ohio
Kristen Onos, University of New Hampshire
Barbara Oswald, Miami University of Ohio
Monica Overton, Illinois Wesleyan University
Justin Peer, University of Michigan, Dearborn
Marion Perlmutter, University of Michigan
Linda Perrotti, University of Texas at Arlington
Daniel Peterson, Knox College
Doug Peterson, University of South Dakota
E
Terry Pettijohn, The Ohio State University at Marion
T
Kathy Phillippi-Immel, University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley
Leslie Phillmore, Dalhousie University
A
Jamie Pierson, Miami University
C
Kellie Pierson, Northern Kentucky University
Mark Plonsky, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Christy Porter, College of William and Mary
Tracy Powell, Western Oregon University
Brian Rabinovitz, American University
Lisa Raskin, Amherst College
Meera Rastogi, University Cincinnati
Neelam Rattan, San Jose State University
Ann Renken, University of Southern California
Harvey Richman, Columbus State University
Robert Rieske, Louisiana State University
Sheldon Rifkin, Kennesaw State University
Jill Rinzel, University of Wisconsin-Waukesha
Vicki Ritts, St. Louis Community College-Meramec
Kelley Rogers, Valencia College
Matt Rossano, Southeastern Louisiana University
Ann Rost, Missouri State University
Lawrence Rudiger, University of Vermont
Jeff Rudski, Muhlenberg College
Ramon Russe, Lake-Sumpter State College
David Ryan, East Tennessee State University
Lawrence Ryan, Oregon State University
Kara Sage, Hamilton College
Sharleen Sakai, Michigan State University
Heather Schellinck, Dalhousie University
Jim Schirillo, Wake Forest University
Steve Schuetz, University of Central Missouri
Joseph Sclafani, University of Tampa
Ines Segert, University of Missouri
Colleen Seifert, University of Michigan
Fred Shaffer, Truman State University
Keith Shafritz, Hofstra University
Steven Shatz, Hofstra University
Stuart Silverberg, Westmoreland County
Community College
Patricia Simone, Santa Clara University
Sheldon Siporin, Pace University
Brenda Smith, Westmont College
Melissa Smith, University of North Carolina, Ashville
Ken Sobel, University of Central Arkansas
Jennifer Spychalski, College of Charleston
 XXVI  Preface

Tamara Stachowicz, Davenport University Rita Smith Wade-El, Millersville University

Jeannine Stamatakis, Lincoln University
Emily Stark, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Lyra Stein, Rutgers University
Barry Stennett, University of North Georgia-Oconee
Courtney Stevens, Willamette University
Julia Strand, Carleton College
Jutta Street, Campbell University
Helen T. Sullivan, Rider University
Elizabeth Swenson, John Carroll University
Jeffrey Wagman, Illinois State University
Kurt Wallen, Neumann University
Linda Walsh, University of Northern Iowa
Jason Warnick, Arkansas Tech University
Lynn Washington, Arkansas Tech University
Mark Watman, South Suburban College
Nicole Weekes, Pomona College
Christine Weinkauff, California State University,
San Bernardino

E
Michael Swett, Portland Community College Becky Weldon, George Washington University

T
Lorey Takahashi, University of Hawaii at Manoa David Widman, Juniata College
Shawn Talbot, Kellogg Community College Judith Wightman, Kirkwood Community College

A
Kathleen Taylor, Columbia University Patrick Williams, University Houston-Downtown

C
Brian Thomas, Baldwin Wallace College Laura Wilson, University of Mary Washington

I L
Lisa Thomassen, Indiana University-Bloomington Patrick Wise, Monroe County Community College

L A
Clarissa Thompson, University of Oklahoma Marc Wolpoff, Riverside City College

I P
Albert Toh, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Erin Wood, Catawba College

R
Natasha Tokowicz, University of Pittsburgh James Woodson, University of Tampa

E D U
Michelle Tomaszycki, Wayne State University
Terry Trepper, Purdue University Calumet
Thomas Wrobel, University of Michigan-Flint
Rick Wynn, County College of Morris

T
Alexa Tullett, University of Alabama Jennifer Yates, Ohio Wesleyan University

A OR
Joseph Vielbig, Arizona Western College Anthony Zoccolillo, Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi

M E
H T T
I G IBU
Y R R
P S T
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About the Author

P
S. Marc Breedlove, the Barnett Rosenberg Professor of Neuroscience at Michi-

O
gan State University, has written over 100 scientific articles investigating the role

U
of hormones in shaping the developing and adult nervous system, publishing in

O N
journals including Science, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, and the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Science. He has been widely interviewed about

O
his research by periodicals including the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles

D
Times, New York Times, and Newsweek, as well as broadcast programs such
as All Things Considered, Good Morning America, and Sixty Minutes. He has
active grant support from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and
Stroke, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Science Foun-
dation. Dr. Breedlove is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, and the Association for Psychological Science.
Dr. Breedlove is also a co-author of two biological psychology textbooks:
Biological Psychology, Seventh Edition by Breedlove and Neil V. Watson; and
the recently published The Mind’s Machine: Foundations of Brain and Behavior,
by Watson and Breedlove.
 Media and
Supplements
to accompany Principles of Psychology

T E
For Students
C A
Companion Website

LI L
I A
www.oup.com/us/breedlove

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Available at no additional cost, the Companion Website provides students with

U
the following review resources:

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••Chapter Outlines: Detailed outlines that give an overview of each

T
chapter.

A OR
••Chapter Summaries: Full summaries of each chapter provide a thorough
review of the important facts and concepts covered.

M E
••Flashcards: Interactive flashcard activities are an effective way for
students to learn and review all of the important terminology.

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••Practice Quizzes: Each chapter includes a 25-question practice

H T
quiz, which students can use as a self-review exercise, to check their

G IBU
understanding.

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For Instructors

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An extensive and thoughtful supplements program offers instructors everything

T
P
they need to prepare their course and lectures, and assess student progress.

O I S
Ancillary Resource Center (ARC)

C TD
(For more information, go to www.oup.com/us/breedlove)
Available online exclusively to adopters, the Ancillary Resource Center (ARC)

P
includes all of the instructor resources that accompany Principles of Psychology.

O
••Psychology News Feed: Continuously updated by Marc Breedlove,

U
this news feed brings instructors interesting news stories from the

O N
field of psychology. Great as a resource for lecture starters or reading
assignments. (Also available in Dashboard.)

O
••Instructor’s Manual: For each chapter of the textbook, the Instructor’s

D
Manual includes the following:
••Chapter Overview
••Learning Outcomes
••Chapter Outline
••In-Class Discussion Questions
••Suggested Online Resources
••Textbook Figures & Tables: All of the textbook’s figures and tables are
provided in a variety of formats, including: high- and low-resolution, with
and without balloon captions, and unlabeled (all balloon captions, labels,
and leaders removed).
 XXVIII  Media and Supplements

••PowerPoint Resources:
••Figures & Tables: This presentation includes all of the figures and tables
(all formats) from the chapter, with titles.
••Lecture: A complete lecture outline, ready for use in class. Includes
coverage of all important facts and concepts presented in the chapter,
along with selected figures and tables.
••Animations: All of the animations from Dashboard are available in the
ARC for download, making it easy to include them in lecture presentations
and online course materials. (Also available in Dashboard.)
••Videos: A collection of videos selected to accompany each chapter helps
bring some of the key concepts from the textbook to life. Ideal for use as

E
lecture starters or paired with assignments.
••Test Bank: A complete test bank provides instructors with a wide range

short answer, and essay questions. All questions from the Dashboard and

AT
of test items for each chapter, including multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank,

C
Companion Website quizzes (see below) are also included. Each question

I L
is referenced to a specific textbook section, a Bloom’s Taxonomy level, and

L
an APA Learning Outcome.

I A
••Computerized Test Bank: The Test Bank is also provided in Blackboard

P
Diploma format (software included). Diploma makes it easy to create

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quizzes and exams using any combination of publisher-provided questions

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and an instructor’s own questions, and to export those assessments for
print or online delivery in a wide range of learning management system

T
formats.

A OR Dashboard

M E
(For more information, go to www.oup.com/us/dashboard)
Oxford’s Dashboard learning management system features a streamlined inter-

T
face that connects instructors and students with the functions that they perform

H T
most often, simplifying the learning experience in order to save instructors time

G IBU
and put students’ progress first. Dashboard’s pre-built assessments were cre-

I
ated specifically to accompany Principles of Psychology, and are automatically
graded so that instructors can see student progress instantly. Dashboard in-

R R
cludes the following resources:

Y
••Quizzes: For each chapter of the textbook:

P S T ••A pre-lecture formative quiz designed to be used as an initial assessment

I
of basic student comprehension of the important facts and concepts

O
introduced in the chapter.

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••A post-lecture summative quiz designed to be used as an assessment
of student mastery of the important facts and concepts introduced in the

P
chapter, after the student has read the chapter and attended the relevant

O
lecture/class period/discussion section.

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••Animations: A set of detailed animations help students understand some

O N
of the book’s more complex topics and processes by presenting them in a
clear, easy-to-follow narrative.

O
••Matching Exercises: These fully assignable questions assess student

D
understanding of important structures and concepts through image- and
text-based matching exercises.
••Psychology News Feed: Continuously updated by Marc Breedlove, this
news feed brings you interesting news stories from the field of psychology.
Great as a resource for lecture starters or reading assignments.

LMS Course Cartridges

For those instructors who wish to use their campus learning management sys-
tem, a course cartridge containing all of the Dashboard resources is available for
a variety of e-learning environments. (For more information, please contact your
local Oxford representative.)
 T E
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Y R R
P S T
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 13 E
AT
Emotions, Stress,L I C
I A L
and R UP
T E D
Health
A R
M EO
H T T
The Stresses and Strains of Baboon Life

G IBU
You might think the life of a baboon on the Serengeti young baboons. The behavior of these aggressive

I
plains of Africa would be sheer bliss. Baboons are males required all the baboons in the troop to be

R
highly social animals, meaning there are so many constantly vigilant, not for lions or food but for other

Y R
vigilant eyes that predators almost never manage baboons.

T
to sneak up close, and if one does, it may regret it Physiological examination of the baboons con-

O P I S
when an entire troop of adult baboons fights back.
Food is relatively plentiful, so the baboons only need
firmed what behavioral observations suggested: the
entire troop was stressed out. Their blood had high

C TD
to work about 3 hours a day to get the calories they levels of hormones that are released from the adre-
need. And yet, these baboons lead highly stressful nal glands during times of stress. The blood samples

P
lives. Why? Because as American researcher Robert also revealed that these baboons had fewer immune

O
Sapolsky (2008) puts it, if you only spend 3 hours a system cells with which to produce antibodies to

OU
day working, then “you’ve got nine hours of free time

N
every day to devote to making somebody else just
ward off illness (Sapolsky, 2002).
That lowered immunity may have played a role in

O
miserable.” the disaster that shattered the troop after a hunting
When Sapolsky first began studying a group lodge on the edge of their territory began dump-

D
of baboons that he named the Forest Troop, the
animals’ lives were dominated by the hyperaggres-
sive interactions of the oldest, strongest, meanest
males. These males were constantly picking fights
with each other, occasionally resulting in injuries,
even for the “winner.” But it wasn’t just the rowdy
males that were affected. When one of those males
was in a bad mood, for example after losing a fight
with another male, he might attack females or even
ing leftover food in the open. Of course, only the
meanest, most aggressive males were getting food
from the dump, because they wouldn’t let any of the
other baboons get close. They might have lived this
way forever, but when some tainted meat was left
in the dump, several baboons became ill and suf-
fered agonizing deaths (Angier, 2004). Those deaths
altered the Forest Troop profoundly, as we’ll see at
the chapter’s close.
 550  Chapter 13

Chapter Preview
We’ll begin this chapter by talking about emotions, those arousing, subjective
experiences that add spice to our mental life. First we’ll talk about the physiologi-
cal reactions that accompany many emotions, especially unpleasant ones. Next
we’ll explore the ancient notion that we need to express negative emotions in
order to get rid of them. In fact, scientific findings seem to contradict that idea.

E
Those findings will bring us to the question of what makes us happy and how

T
we can maximize our happiness. We’ll conclude our discussion of emotion by
reviewing brain circuits involved in emotions, especially the emotion of fear.

A
Baboons Experience Stress Too
The second section of the chapter concerns stress, when we sometimes find

C
ourselves experiencing more arousal and anxiety than is good for us. We will

I
The baboons of the Forest Troop in

L
Kenya went through a drastic social consider how we can cope with stress, and what we can do to maximize our

L A
reorganization. mental health. We’ll see that behaviors that are good for our physical health are

I P
also good for our mental health, and vice versa.

R
E D U 13.1 Emotions
Things to Learn
T
A OR
••Relationship between
What exactly is an emotion? The answer to this question is complicated be-
cause we associate this one word with several different things. Emotion is a

M E
physiological reactions and private, subjective feeling that we may have without anyone else being aware of
emotion it. But the word “emotional” is also used to describe many behaviors that people

T
••Number of different show, such as fearful facial expressions, frantic arm movements, or loud yell-

H T
emotional facial expressions
ing. Furthermore, when we are experiencing an emotion, our body often shows
••Cultural influences on

G IBU
signs of physiological changes, such as a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath,
recognizing emotions

I
or tears. To encompass all three of these aspects, we will define emotion as a
••Facial feedback hypothesis
subjective mental state that is usually accompanied by distinctive behaviors as

R
••Things that make us happy

R
well as involuntary physiological changes. Typically we experience an emotion
••Brain circuit for fear

Y
for only a brief time, but we’ll see later in this chapter that the anxiety associated

T
••Asymmetry of facial displays

P
of emotion with prolonged stress can be very bad for our health.

I S
We’ll begin this section by discussing the major theories of how we experi-

O
ence emotions, including efforts to determine whether emotional experience

C TD
causes physiological arousal or vice versa. Then we’ll discuss the different types
of emotions and how they relate to one another. We’ll note the distinctive facial

P
expressions associated with each emotion, and learn that people in very differ-

O
ent cultures recognize most of these expressions. We’ll see that the near-univer-

U
sal expression of emotion suggests that emotions have evolved because facial

O N
displays of emotional experience may help us get along with others. Then we’ll
discuss happiness, that emotion we all seek, and talk about what makes us

O
happy and unhappy. Finally, we’ll talk about the neuroscience of emotion, which

D
has revealed brain circuits that are active during emotional experience, including
a specialized brain circuit for fear.

What is the relationship between emotional experience

emotion  A subjective mental state and the body’s physiological reactions?
that is usually accompanied by
distinctive behaviors as well as Many emotions are accompanied by particular patterns of body reactions that
involuntary physiological changes. are often outside our control. When we’re afraid or angry, our heart races. When
autonomic nervous system  we are happy and calm, our heart rate is low and we may feel warm inside.
A part of the nervous system that When we are embarrassed, we may blush. These involuntary components of
is not under our conscious control, emotional response are controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which
consisting of the sympathetic and regulates many body processes that are not under our conscious control (hence
parasympathetic nervous systems. the name “autonomic,” meaning “independent”).
 Sympathetic activation Parasympathetic activation
(fight or flight) Organ or system (rest and recover)
Epinephrine (adrenaline) Neurotransmitter Acetylcholine
Enlarges (dilates) Pupil of the eye Constricts
Speeds Heart rate Slows
Speeds Respiration Slows
Slows Digestive system Speeds
Inhibits Salivary glands Excites
Closed Urinary sphincter Relaxed
Release epinephrine Adrenal glands -
Inhibits Immune system Activates
Prepare for action, Relax, invest in long-term
postpone activities (like activities like digesting food,

E
digesting food or fighting TOTAL EFFECTS resting muscles, and fighting

T
infections) until danger infections.
is passed.

Figure 13.1  The Autonomic Nervous

C A
I
System  The sympathetic and para-

L
One part of the autonomic nervous system is the sympathetic nervous sys- sympathetic divisions of the autonomic

L A
tem, which generally activates the body for action, speeding up heart rate and nervous system exert opposite effects

I P
breathing, opening the pupils, and shutting down the digestive system (if you are on physiological systems. Further details
of the autonomic nervous system are

R
in danger, your body doesn’t waste energy trying to digest your lunch, because

U
shown in Figure 13.18.
that can wait). The sympathetic nervous system is sometimes called the “fight or

E D
flight” system because its activation can help us either do battle or run away. The

T
other part of the autonomic nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous

A OR
system, sometimes called the “rest and recover” system, which generally pre-
pares the body to relax and recuperate—heart rate and breathing slow down,

M E
while the digestive system may be activated to break down food and provide nu-
trients for body growth and repair (Figure 13.1). Some emotions, such as fear and

T
anger, are accompanied by sympathetic activation, while other emotions, such as

H T
happiness and affection, are accompanied by parasympathetic activation. sympathetic nervous system 

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Because the subjective experience of a strong emotion and the physiological The part of the autonomic nervous

I
reactions of the body happen at pretty much the same time, it’s not easy to system that activates the body for
determine whether one comes before the other. It has been traditionally held action (the “fight or flight” response).

R R
that physiological reactions result from our having an emotional response to parasympathetic nervous system

Y
something we perceive (e.g., a loved one’s smile or a dangerous animal’s threat-

T
The part of the autonomic nervous

P
ening posture) and that an emotional reaction (e.g., happiness, fear, or anger) is system that prepares the body to

I S
quickly followed by body responses (Figure 13.2A). relax and recuperate.

O
C TD
(A) Folk psychology
(feeling triggers autonomic reaction)
Figure 13.2  Different Views of the Chain
of Events in Emotional Responses

U P O
Informal observation suggested
that emotions cause the body Stimulus
Perception/
Particular
emotion
Specific pattern
of autonomic

N
interpretation
to react. experienced arousal

O
(Bang! ) (danger)
(fear) (heart races, etc.)

O
(B) James–Lange theory
(autonomic reaction triggers feeling)

D
AU/SA:
The outstretched
James andhand Langeonargued
the lastthat
iteration was correctly sized Specific pattern
based on Perception/ Particular emotion
theit’s distance
bodily from evokes
response the body (being outstretched as it was),
the Stimulus of autonomic
and to make it smaller would have made it look quite odd. The only interpretation arousal (heart experienced
emotional experience. (Bang! )
way to make it smaller and to avoid a jarring optical illusion was to (danger) races, etc.) (fear)
re-position the whole arm (by bringing it down to the persons side),
but by doing so the hand overlaped the text in the bottom box, which
had to(C)
be Cannon–Bard
adjusted. theory
Thanks, (simultaneous feeling and autonomic reaction)
DMG
Cannon and Bard insisted that General autonomic
the brain must interpret the arousal (heart races, etc.) Bodily response
Perception/
situation to decide which Stimulus and emotional
interpretation
emotion is appropriate. (Bang! ) experience are
(danger)
Particular emotion simultaneous.
experienced (fear)
Breedlove Intro Psych 1e
Fig. 13.01, #0000
07/09/14
Dragonfly Media Group
 552  Chapter 13

James–Lange theory  The theory
that our experience of emotion is
a response to the physiological
changes that accompany it.
Cannon–Bard theory  The theory
that our experience of emotion is
independent of the simultaneous
physiological changes that
accompany it.
In the late 1800s two researchers, William James (1842–1910) and Carl Lange
(1834–1900), each independently suggested that the sequence might be the
other way around. The James–Lange theory proposes that when we perceive
something, the physiological reactions happen first, and then the mind, perceiv-
ing those body reactions, experiences an emotion that is appropriate for those
physiological changes. For example, if we hear a sudden loud sound, we startle
and our heart races—and then our mind, detecting the racing heart, experi-
ences alarm (Figure 13.2B). There’s probably something to this idea that our
body reactions at least contribute to our experience of emotion. For example,
people with spinal cord injuries that prevent them from sensing autonomic re-

E
sponses from the body seem to have less intense emotions (Hohmann, 1966).

T
The James–Lange theory implies that each emotional state results from a dis-
tinctive pattern of body sensation, so we experience surprise, joy, or fear as a

A
result of a particular pattern of autonomic activity.

C
In other words, the idea is that if my body is producing one particular pattern of

I L
autonomic responses, then I must be angry. My mind notices those responses,

L A
and then I experience anger. If my blood pressure were still high, but a bit lower

I P
than during anger and my breathing a bit faster than in anger, then I would be afraid.

R
Unfortunately for the James–Lange theory, no one has ever been able to identify a

E D U particular pattern of autonomic response that is specific for each emotion (Leven-
son, 1992). Some emotions, such as anger, fear, and anxiety, produce more sym-

T
pathetic responses, while other emotions, such as contentment, have more para-

A OR
sympathetic responses. But there doesn’t seem to be any pattern that distinguishes
fear from anger, or fear from anxiety, as the James–Lange theory would require.

M E
Furthermore, autonomic responses appear to be too slow to be the only cue
for our emotional experience. Walter Cannon (1871–1941) and Philip Bard (1898–

T
1977), insisted that what we perceive starts two separate processes simultane-

H T
ously, triggering a rapid emotional experience, followed within a second by the

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physiological response (Figure 13.2C). The Cannon–Bard theory asserts that

I
our emotional experience can be independent of physiological responses. In
other words, physiological reactions accompany, but are not solely responsible

R R
for, our emotional experience. In fact, a clever experiment made it clear that our

Y
interpretation of those physiological reactions, whether we experience them as

P T
anger or exhilaration, depends on our thought processes at the time.

O I S Manipulating sympathetic arousal gives rise to the two-factor

C TD
theory of emotional experience
In a classic study, Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer (1962) deliberately acti-

P
vated the sympathetic nervous system of some students by injecting them with

O
the drug epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) (Figure 13.3). This drug would

U
increase heart rate and breathing within 3–5 minutes. All students were told they

O N
were being given a “vitamin,” but only a few were told to expect increased heart rate
and breathing (for this reason, such an experiment would probably not be allowed

O
today). For the students who were not told to expect these effects, how would this

D
unexplained sympathetic system activation affect their emotional experience?

Researchers at Work
Arousing emotions
Figure 13.3  The Classic Schachter and Singer Experiment  (After
Schachter & Singer, 1962.)
 Question: What is the relationship between autonomic system
activation and emotional experience?

 Hypothesis: Activation of the sympathetic nervous system will affect

emotional experience.
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   553

 Test: Inject participants with epinephrine to activate the sympathetic

nervous system or, as a control, saline. Then bring them to a room with
another “participant,” who is really a confederate, a person who is helping the
researchers by pretending to be just another participant. The confederate acts
either angry (complains and curses about a questionnaire that has to be filled
out) or playful (making cheerful small talk). The researchers secretly observe the
participants and afterward have them fill out a survey about how they felt.

Some participants were injected with

epinephrine but not warned of its effects.

T E
C A
LI L
A
Playful confederate Angry confederate

RI P
U
Some participants Other participants
are exposed to a are exposed to an

E D
playful confederate angry confederate
while filling out the

T
while filling out the
form. form.

A OR
M E
H T T
G IBU
These participants were more These participants were more likely

I
likely to report feeling elated. to report feeling angry and frustrated.

Y R R
T
 Result: The participants who were injected with epinephrine but not warned

P
about the side effects displayed more emotion, and reported experiencing

I S
more emotion, than did participants injected with saline. As predicted by

O
the James–Lange theory, arousal by epinephrine triggered an emotional

C TD
experience—the greater the arousal, the stronger the emotion. But which
emotions did the injected participants experience? The James–Lange theory

P
would suggest that, given the same drug triggering the same autonomic

U O
reactions, all the epinephrine-injected participants should experience the same
emotions. However, the uninformed participants given epinephrine were more

O Nlikely to report whichever emotion the confederate displayed. In other words,

participants waiting with an angry confederate were more likely to report

O
negative emotions, while those waiting with a playful confederate were more

D
likely to report positive emotions.

 Conclusion: The epinephrine made uninformed participants more likely to

feel either angry or playful, depending on the confederate’s emotional display.
Importantly, the epinephrine-injected participants who were told to expect
the side effects of physiological arousal did not experience any particular
emotion accompanying that arousal. In other words, the epinephrine made the
participants more likely to experience the confederate’s emotions only if they
had no other explanation for their physiological arousal. Schachter and Singer
concluded that the misinformed participants attributed their physiological
arousal to their emotional experience: “My heart’s really pounding—I’m so
angry!” or “My heart’s really pounding—I’m so elated.”
AU/SA:
Text may refer to playful confederate but
balloon and label refer to happy confederate.
Should they be consistent?
Thanks,
 554  Chapter 13 Stimulus General autonomic arousal
(loud) (heart races, etc.)

Autonomic responses
Stimulus Perception/ contribute to the intensity of
(Bang!) interpretation emotional experience.

Context Particular emotion

(danger) experienced (fear)

Feedback Emotion experienced will affect

future interpretations of stimuli and
continuing autonomic arousal.
Figure 13.4  Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory

two-factor theory of emotion

A theory that physiological arousal
determines the intensity of the
Such experiments led to the two-factor theory of emotion, which says that
physiological arousal is the first factor, informing us about the intensity of our emo-
T E
A
tion, while a second factor, the cognitive interpretation of what is causing that

C
emotion while cognitive interpretation arousal, determines which type of emotion we experience (Figure 13.4). In

I L
determines the type of emotion Schachter and Singer’s experiment, the students’ cognitive interpretation of which

L
experienced.

A
emotion they experienced was affected by their environment. It was as if the be-

I P
havior of the confederates informed the test participants of which emotion they

R
should feel. On the one hand, these results conform to the James–Lange theory

E D U that experiencing a particular pattern of physiological response causes us to expe-

rience emotion. After all, the uninformed subjects given the epinephrine did experi-

T
ence more emotion. But the particular emotion they experienced in response to

A OR
that stimulus could be anger or happiness, depending on the participant’s inter-
pretation. Of course, there is something artificial about this experiment (which no

M E
ethical review board would allow to be conducted today), because the participants
found themselves experiencing a physiological arousal from out of nowhere. Still,

T
A range of emotions are seen as the fact that they could experience an unexplained physiological arousal as either

H T
variations on a theme: four pairs
of opposing emotions. a positive or negative emotion, depending on their environment, strongly suggests

G IBU
that emotional experience is “steered” by our intellect. In other words,

I
Ecstasy there is a cognitive component to emotional experience. It’s as if we are
Levels of
constantly trying to make sense of what we are feeling.

R
Vigilance Adoration intensity

R
In addition, the two-factor model suggests that our emotional experi-

Y
ence, which has been directed to one emotion or the other by cognitive

T
Rage Terror High

P
processes, can influence our interpretation of future events (see Figure

S
Loathing Amazement 13.4). That is, emotions can, at least for a time, be self-reinforcing—the

O I
Grief student’s experience of epinephrine’s side effects as anger, triggered by

C TD
the confederate’s outrage, may have caused the student to perceive the
questionnaire as infuriating, when otherwise he or she

P
Happiness Breedlove Intro Psych 1e might have seen it as simply tedious. We’ll return short-
Fig. 00.00, #0000

O
Expectation Affection ly to the question of whether expressing an emotion

U
08/19/13 Eight basic human
emotions vary in reinforces that emotion or drains it away. But first let’s

N
Anger Fear Medium

O
intensity from high consider how many different emotions there really are.
to low.

O
Disgust Surprise
How many different emotions are there?
Sadness

D
Several researchers have tried to determine how many
different emotions we experience. One avenue is to
Contentment examine language, with the notion that we must have
Alertness Regard come up with a distinctive word for each distinctive
feeling. Surely truly basic emotions, feelings that nearly
Annoyance Apprehension Low all humans have experienced at one time or another,
would have words to describe them in most languag-
Boredom Distraction es. In one such classification scheme, eight basic hu-
Pensiveness man emotions are identified, consisting of four pairs
of opposite emotions: happiness versus sadness, af-
Figure 13.5  Eight Basic Emotions in fection versus disgust, fear versus anger, and surprise
Opposing Pairs  (After Plutchik, 1994.) versus expectation (Figure 13.5). The range of human
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   555

emotional experience is accounted for by variations in the

intensity of each basic emotion from high to low as Figure
13.5 shows. While many English words for emotional state
lend themselves to this classification system, whether it em-
braces all of the human emotions is debatable. For example, The facial nerve innervates
where would embarrassment, resentment, and jealousy fit the superficial muscles that
contribute to emotional
into this scheme? expression.
Studying facial expressions offers another interesting
strategy for determining how many basic emotions hu-
mans experience. Under the human face there are many
Deep facial muscles, like

E
muscles, some of which engage in physiologically im- those controlling the jaw, are

T
portant activities such as chewing and blinking the eyes. innervated by the trigeminal
nerve (not shown).
But other facial muscles are thin and sheetlike and at-

A
tach to the skin. Their only purpose seems to be to

C
change facial appearance (Figure 13.6). Charles Darwin

I L
noted that many other animals also seem to display Figure 13.6  Superficial Facial Muscles and Their Neural Control

L A
emotions, and he pointed out how our closest relatives,

I P
monkeys and apes, also have very expressive faces (Fig-

R
ure 13.7A). Modern researchers have confirmed that

E D U
other primates show facial expressions similar to ours. Grinning (revealing
clenched teeth) signals that an individual is friendly and unthreatening (Figure

T
13.7B). On the other hand, an open mouth, with lips pulled back to reveal the

A OR
teeth and gums, may signal that an individual is upset or feels threatened (Fig-
ure 13.7C).

M E
Facial expressions may have evolved to aid social communication. It’s easier to
get along with other adults if you can detect their moods and thus avoid conflicts

T
that could prove dangerous. For this reason it’s adaptive to learn how to read the

H T
faces, and thus the moods, of your companions. For the same reason, it’s adap-

G IBU
tive for you to signal your emotions to others. Natural selection favored the evolu-

I
tion of facial signals to communicate emotions. For example, most people as-
sume that yawning serves some physiological function, but in fact its only known

R R
function is to communicate to others, as we discuss in Box 13.1.

Y
For facial communication of emotion to be effective, it must signal emotions

P T
accurately. This brings us back to the question: How many distinctive emotions

O I S
C TD
(B) (C)

P
(A) Breedlove Intro Psych 1e

O
Fig. 13.05, #1305

U
10/10/13

N
Dragonfly Media Group

O
D O
Darwin noted that these
black-crested macaque
monkeys could have
either a placid expression….
… or a very different A Tibetan macaque bares his
expression “when teeth, grinning to signal submission
pleased by being to a dominant animal. In humans,
caressed.” teeth baring has gained a different,
friendlier meaning.
An adult female chimpanzee
screams at another female, who is
pulling at her food. Screaming is
used in submission and protest.

Figure 13.7  Facial Expression of Emotions in Non-Human Primates

(Drawings from Darwin, 1872; photographs by Frans de Waal, from de Waal, 2003.)
 556  Chapter 13

Skeptic at Large
BOX
13.1
Why Do We Yawn?
Yawning video clips
1.5
Because we tend to yawn when we are sleepy, Control video clips
people have speculated that yawning is triggered by
having low levels of oxygen, or high levels of carbon

Average number of yawns

dioxide, in our blood circulation. But when research-
ers deliberately manipulated oxygen and carbon 1.0
dioxide, there was no change in yawning (Provine et
al., 1987), so those ideas were not supported by evi-
dence. Nor is there any evidence that yawning boosts

T E
A
oxygen or reduces carbon dioxide in circulation. In
0.5
fact, no one has found any physiological measure that

I
helps us predict if a person will yawn.

L C
L
If yawning serves no physiological purpose, what

I A
purpose does it serve? One possibility is social com-

P
0
munication. Darwin noted that in some primates, males Typically Children

R U
yawn much more than females do, and he hypothe- developing with autism

E D
sized that males yawn to show off their big, dangerous children spectrum
disorder

T
canine teeth—that yawning may be a social signal of
Cuing in on Yawning  Children with autism spectrum

A OR
dominance. Supporting that view, raising testosterone disorder are less susceptible than typically developing
levels in monkeys also increases yawning behavior children to contagious yawning in response to videos.

M E
(Graves & Wallen, 2006). But we humans don’t have (After Senju et al., 2007.)
impressive canine teeth to show off, and men do not

T
yawn more than women (Schino & Aureli, 1989), so

T
for our species, yawning must communicate some facial expression of our emotional state. Supporting

H
other signal, presumably lack of alertness. Most people

G IBU
interpret a yawn as a signal of sleepiness.
this idea is the finding that a person’s susceptibility
to contagious yawning correlates with activity in the

I
How do we explain the contagious effect of yawn- cortex around the amygdala (Schürmann et al., 2005),

R
ing? Seeing someone yawn can make you yawn. a brain hot spot for emotional functions. You’ve prob-

Y R
In fact, if I ask you to think about what it feels like ably been in situations where you felt like yawning

T
to yawn, you might give a yawn just in response to and didn’t want people around you to know. It can be

P S
reading this. Believe it or not, I just yawned in re- embarrassing. People may think you are bored, and

O I
sponse to writing that! Yawning is also contagious in worse yet, you may actually be bored!

C TD
other primates, including chimpanzees (Anderson et But sometimes we yawn when we are shifting
al., 2004), and dogs sometimes yawn in response to from sleepy to alert, as for example, when we yawn
seeing a human yawn (Joly-Mascheroni et al., 2008). upon awakening. A classic study of paratroopers

P
Children with autism spectrum disorder, who have dif- found they yawned more when they were about to

U O
ficulty reading emotional expression on other people’s jump out of a plane to do battle, when their alertness

N
faces and show little empathy, are less susceptible to was increasing, not decreasing. Some people yawn

O
contagious yawning (see figure; Senju et al., 2007). just before having sex, and again, that can only be

O
These results all suggest that yawning serves a social, understood as signaling increased arousal (Provine,
not a physiological, function. 2005). So next time you’re embarrassed because you

D
If yawning is a social cue to let others know how yawned, explain that sometimes yawning indicates an
we feel, then it could be regarded as yet another increase in interest and arousal. It might work…

are there? And can they all be signaled by facial expressions? As Figure 13.8A
illustrates, most of us can recognize on the faces of others at least eight different
emotions. We are so finely attuned to detect emotional faces that we can detect
them in even the barest outlines, such as emoticons (Figure 13.8B).
The eight emotions recognized through facial expression shown in Figure
13.8 are not, however, exactly those illustrated in Figure 13.5. Anger, sadness,
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   557

(A)
Fear Happiness Surprise Contempt

T E
A
Anger Sadness Embarrassment Disgust

I L C
I P L A
R
E D U
T
A OR
M E
:-) T
(B) Fear Happiness Surprise Contempt

(:-[ H UT:-O (:-s

Anger

I G IB
Sadness Embarrassment Disgust

>:-(
Y R :-(
R
:-$ :-p
P S T
Figure 13.8  Emotional Faces  (A) Each of these eight emotions is accompanied

O I
by a distinctive pattern of facial expression. (B) Our brains are so attuned to detect-
ing emotions in faces that we readily interpret emoticons that provide only the barest

C TD
outlines of facial features, as in these examples.

U P O
happiness, fear, disgust, and surprise appear in both figures, but expectation
doesn’t have a very distinct facial expression, and it’s difficult to tell an affection-

O N
ate face from a merely happy one. The facial expressions shown in Figure 13.8A
for disgust and contempt are quite distinct (it has been suggested that signaling

O
disgust might warn other individuals, including your relatives, that some food or

D
water source is bad and therefore potentially harmful). Likewise, embarrassment
is not depicted in the classification of emotions in Figure 13.5, but it has a dis-
tinctive facial pattern (eyes lowered and averted, a small smile) as well as the
13.07 signal of blushing. Blushing suggests that signaling embarrassment
distinctive
may be particularly important in a socially complex species such as ours. We all
make mistakes, and it may be adaptive to have a clear signal of when we recog-
nize and acknowledge an embarrassing gaff. “Gee, I don’t know why I did that.
My bad. Don’t be angry.”
If facial expressions conveying emotions evolved in an ancestor to all hu-
mans, we would expect people from any culture to recognize them. These days
it is difficult to find groups of people who have not been exposed to Western
 558  Chapter 13

Within Western and non-Western But people from isolated, nonliterate

literate groups there is widespread groups are much less likely to agree
agreement about the emotions with literate people’s judgments of
represented in photographs of some facial expressions, particularly
basic facial expressions. surprise and disgust.

100

Expression:
Happiness
80 Surprise
Anger
Percentage of agreement

E
Sadness
Fear

T
60 Disgust

C A
I
40

L
The black bar marks the

L A
level of agreement

I P
expected if the subjects
20 simply guessed which

R U
emotion is portrayed.

T E D 0
Western literate Non-Western literate Isolated nonliterate

A OR
(20 groups) (11 groups) (3 groups)
Observers from different cultures

M E Figure 13.9  Cultural Differences in Recognizing Facial Expressions

T
(After Russell, 1994.)

H T
I G IBU
cultural display rules  How and culture via magazines, television, movies, and the Internet. Nevertheless, re-
when emotions are expressed in a searchers have tried to determine whether people from other cultures recog-

R
particular culture.

R
nize the same facial emotions that people from Western cultures do, by having

Y
them identify the emotional states of people in photographs (Figure 13.9).

P T
People from both Western and non-Western literate groups tend to agree on

I S
which emotions are displayed in the photos. People from isolated, nonliterate

O
groups recognize many of the same emotions that people of literate cultures

C TD
perceive, including happiness, anger, sadness, and fear. But people from the
isolated nonliterate groups do not agree very well on what facial expressions

P
communicate surprise and disgust.

O
The near-universal use of certain facial expressions to express specific emo-

U
tions supports the idea that emotional expression was favored by natural selec-

O N
tion. However, both nature and nurture influence our emotional makeup. The
finding that not all cultures recognize the same facial expressions for every emo-

O
tion suggests that social influences are at play as well. Cultural influences on

D
Culture-Specific Facial Expression 
The French are much more likely to dis-
play a little grimace called a moue than
are Americans.
emotional expression are common; for example, in France people sometimes
turn down both corners of their mouth in a small grimace called a moue, a facial
expression indicating distaste at someone’s bad manners that is seldom seen in
other cultures.
People sometimes exaggerate or inhibit facial expressions, depending on
what signals they wish to convey, following the so-called cultural display rules
of emotional expression—displays that vary with what a culture expects. These
rules can change. As suggested by Figure 13.10, how we mediate the expres-
sion of our emotion will vary with the times and with the culture. For example, in
1968, one American politician’s career was severely damaged when he cried in
public (Broder, 1996), but today several male political figures cry in public quite
often, presumably because they feel it aids their career.

Breedlove Intro Psych 1e

 Emotions, Stress, and Health   559

Elicitors Facial affect program Mediation by End result

(all cultures) culture-specific
display rules
Facial motor programs for:
Actual or
Exaggerate
anticipated Happiness Surprise Anger
Minimize
situations,
Counteract
recollections, Sadness Fear Disgust Camouflage
etc.
Embarrassment Contempt

The ancient theory of emotional catharsis is not supported

by modern research
Each culture has rules about
how we display our emotions.

T E
A
Politicians, under intensive
The great ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 bce) offered a theory scrutiny from many people, need

C
to be particularly careful about
of human emotion that applied to both the theater and everyday life. Aristotle

I
how they display their emotions.

L
thought that experiencing an emotion served to clean it from the mind, as if

L A
each emotion slowly accumulates in our mind until we manage to get rid of it by Figure 13.10  Cultural Display Rules

I P
expressing it. Aristotle felt that theater was good for people, because by iden- for Emotions 

R
tifying with the characters in a tragedy, feeling their extreme emotions, people

E D U
could get rid of unpleasant emotions such as sorrow and fear. They would then
leave the theater feeling calm and relaxed, having gotten those other emotions

T
out of their system. Aristotle described this process as catharsis, a cleansing

A OR
or purging of the emotions. In his medical writings, Aristotle used the word
catharsis to describe getting rid of body fluids by vomiting, sweating, or diar-

M E
rhea (a strong laxative is a “cathartic”). Just as it was good to get rid of toxins,
he thought it was good to get rid of emotional buildup by experiencing and

T
expressing those emotions.

H T
Aristotle’s notions about emotional catharsis, based on nothing but his anec-

G IBU
dotal observations and speculation, had an enormous influence on subsequent

I
thinking about emotions. Sigmund Freud’s elaborate theories that we experi-
ence a buildup of mental energies that must be released (see Chapter 14) were

R R
directly related to Aristotle’s idea of catharsis, as Freud himself acknowledged.

Y
Freud’s therapy involved helping patients remember past traumas they had re-

P T
pressed from memory, and experience the painful emotions surrounding that

S
trauma. He thought expressing those painful emotions would weaken them, al-

O I
lowing the patient to lead a happier life. Today Freud’s ideas about the causes

C TD
and treatment of anxiety disorders and other mental disturbances have been
rejected by almost all mainstream psychologists and psychiatrists. Yet Aristote-

P
lian ideas about emotional release are still prominent in many of our cultural

O
ideas about emotions. We talk about people expressing frustration or anger by

U
“venting” or “blowing off steam,” as if they are getting rid of those emotions so

O N
they can feel better.
Modern scientists are skeptical of the therapeutic value of catharsis, the

O
notion that expressing an emotion will help a person feel less of it. In fact, it

D
has been repeatedly demonstrated that expressing an emotion can cause a
person to feel that emotion more strongly. The facial feedback hypothesis
suggests that the sensory feedback from our face when displaying an emo-
tion makes us more likely to actually feel that emotion (Adelmann & Zajonc,
1989; Cappella, 1993; Davis et al., 2009; Soussignan, 2002). It is as if our
mind determines how we feel, in part, based on what expression is on our
face. For example, when scientists have people deliberately make a happy catharsis  A cleansing or purging of
face, they find it makes the people feel happier afterward. In one study, peo- emotions.
ple were asked to hold a pencil with their facial muscles, supposedly to help facial feedback hypothesis The
understand how people without hands can get by (Strack et al., 1988). One hypothesis that sensory feedback
group of people was asked to use their upper lip to hold the pencil against the from our face affects our emotional
bottom of the nose. This activates the muscles that are normally used when experience.

Breedlove Intro Psych 1e

Fig. 13.09, #0000
10/07/13
 560  Chapter 13

Figure 13.11  Facial Feedback (A) (B)

Hypothesis  Several studies indicate that
when subjects are manipulated into mim-
icking facial expressions of sadness (A)
or happiness (B), their emotional mood is
affected. Several researchers have sug-
gested that forcing yourself to put on a
happy, cheerful expression may actually
help you feel better.

T E
C A
LI L
I P A
R
E D U frowning. Another group was asked to hold the pencil with their teeth, activat-
ing muscles that are normally used when smiling (Figure 13.11). A third group,

T
as a control, was asked to hold the pencil with their nondominant hand. Peo-

A OR
ple in all three groups were given a distracting task while holding the pencil
and then were asked to rate how funny they found a cartoon. People who had

M E
been using their smiling muscles found the cartoon more amusing than those
in the control group did. People who had been using their frowning muscles

T
found it less amusing than those in the control group did. In another study,

H T
adhesive bandages and rubber bands were used to either raise the cheeks,

G IBU
which made the people feel happier, or lower the cheeks, which made them

I
feel sadder (Mori & Mori, 2009).
Facial feedback effects on emotion have been demonstrated in people who

R R
get injections of Botox in a procedure to smooth out wrinkles, making the face

Y
look younger (at least to some people). Botox, a toxin, incidentally also paralyzes

P T
facial muscles, limiting facial feedback. People who receive Botox injections still

I S
experience emotions, of course, but there’s evidence that they do not experi-

O
ence them as fully as people who don’t receive Botox injections (Davis et al.,

C TD
2010), perhaps because they’re lacking some of the facial feedback that nor-
mally accompanies emotions. In one study, people were asked to make an an-

P
gry face before and after getting Botox injections. Brain scans revealed that

O
brain activation while making the angry face was reduced after the frowning

U
muscles had been paralyzed by Botox (Hennenlotter et al., 2009). These find-

O N
ings suggest that there’s a self-reinforcing quality about emotions. If expressing
an emotion causes you to feel it more fully, then presumably that will make you

O
even more likely to show that emotion on your face, further amplifying the expe-

D
Does Botox Affect Emotional Experi-
ence?  Several studies have suggested
that people who receive Botox injections,
which reduce wrinkles by paralyzing facial
muscles, may have reduced emotional
experience because of loss of facial
feedback.
rience. This idea also supports the James–Lange theory that your experience of
emotion reflects what you perceive to be going on in your body.
On a practical level, these findings suggest that you can improve your mood
by deliberately acting happier than you feel: “Fake it until you feel it.” It may seem
false or hypocritical to act happier than you feel, but it’s not as if the acting will
hurt anyone—in fact, acting happier than you feel may benefit those around you
by elevating their mood too (as in the Schachter and Singer experiment we dis-
cussed earlier). Furthermore, if you do end up feeling better, then this strategy
would be more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than a matter of deceiving anyone. Of
course you can take this advice too far. If there really is a problem in your life that
needs to be addressed, then eventually you have to acknowledge the problem

Breedlove Biological Psychology 7e

Fig. 15.08, #0000
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 Emotions, Stress, and Health   561

in order to do something about it. But as long as you are addressing the prob-
lem, dwelling on it and feeling unhappy about it probably will not help either
solve the problem or improve your mood.
If feedback from facial expression augments our emotional experience, might
sensory feedback from other parts of the body affect our emotional state as well?
Does screaming and yelling in rage cause us to feel less angry, as Aristotelian
catharsis would suggest, or does the sensory feedback from that outburst make
us feel even angrier? William James, who thought emotional experience is deter-
mined by physiological processes, rejected Aristotle’s theory. Indeed, James felt
that expressing an emotion like anger would simply cause you to experience

E
more of it. If you really wanted to stop feeling angry, James advised you to remain

T
calm: “Refuse to express a passion, and it dies” (James, 1890, p. 463). In this line
of thinking, a quarreling couple may be better off going to bed angry; by morning

A
they may be calmer and better able to deal with the problem.

C
Modern research seems to back up James’s position and refute the idea of

I L
catharsis. In one experiment, people read a passage extolling the virtues of ca-

L A
tharsis—how expressing your anger helps you to calm down and get over it.

I P
However, when some of these people were then given a chance to hit a punch-

R
ing bag, they behaved more aggressively afterward than did people who were

E D U
given another activity (Bushman et al., 1999). Researchers wondered whether
the physical activity involved in punching influenced people to behave aggres-

T
sively. To control for that possibility, a later study had all the people hit the punch-

A OR
ing bag; some were instructed to think about how it would get them into better
shape, while others were shown a picture of a stranger who was described as

M E
dislikable, and encouraged to imagine hitting him while punching the bag. After-
ward, everyone had a chance to act aggressively toward the man who had been

T
pictured. The people who had imagined hitting him acted more aggressively than

H T
those who had punched the bag for fitness (Bushman, 2002). Thus, expressing

G IBU
anger seems to make people behave more aggressively, not less aggressively.

I
What about a particular modern activity in which people, especially children,
are encouraged to behave in incredibly aggressive fashion—playing video games?

R R
If Aristotle were correct, we might expect such behavior to make people less ag-

Y
gressive afterward. However, playing aggressive video games, or watching ag-

P T
gressive acts on television, is associated with people who are more likely to be-

S
have aggressively, not less likely (Carnagey and Anderson, 2007) (see Box 15.2).

O I
While Artistotle’s belief in catharsis appears to be wrong, his ideas on how to

C TD
be happy may have some merit. Artistotle believed that we achieve happiness
by living a balanced life, and actively doing something well, as we’ll see next.

U P
The pursuit of happiness

O
The U.S. Declaration of Independence proclaims that we all have a right to “life,

O N
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But what should we do if we want to build
happy lives? We’ve already seen that just using the facial muscles that normally

O
produce a smile can help us actually feel happier—we find cartoons funnier, for

D
example. Does money bring happiness, the more money the merrier? What
does make us happy? Let’s review the evidence.

activity  Perhaps the most straightforward test of which activities make

us happy comes from a survey of people who agreed to be paged over their
iPhone at random times during the day. Whenever that prompt came, they
were to report what they were doing and how happy they felt (Killingsworth
& Gilbert, 2010). Supporting Aristotle’s claim that happiness comes from be-
ing active, people felt most happy when they were busily engaged in some Whistle While You Work  Being deeply
activity, and were least happy when they were doing nothing and just letting involved in an activity can help us feel
their minds wander. In other words, daydreaming tends to make us unhappy. happy.
 562  Chapter 13

This finding comes as a surprise if you think people generally daydream about
pleasant fantasies. In the study, most people’s daydreams were indeed about
pleasant topics, yet they were still less happy when daydreaming, on average,
than when they were engaged in doing something, regardless of what that
activity was. Which activities made people happiest? You can probably guess:
“making love,” exercising, and engaging in conversation all got high ratings.
People were least happy when they reported resting, using a home computer,
or being on the job.
Of course there may be a big difference between what makes us happy in the
short term versus the long term: however unpleasant some people may find

E
working in the short run, they might be even less happy in the long run if they

T
stopped working altogether. In fact, working hard toward a goal, and making
progress toward that goal, makes people happy and makes them less likely to

A
have negative emotions afterward (Davidson & Irwin, 1999). Follow Aristotle’s

C
advice to find something you enjoy doing, and exert a lot of effort learning to be

I L
better and better at it. It’s good to have goals. There are several different arenas

L A
in which you can work hard toward a goal. It may be personal improvement, as

I P
in physical fitness, healthy eating habits, or improving your mind.

R
E D U money  For many people, getting money is an important goal, but does it
make you happy? Finding fulfillment in working hard toward achieving goals in

T
school or the workplace not only improves our mood, but also can be a good

A OR
strategy for economic success. There’s an old saying that you can’t buy hap-
piness, but in fact people living in poverty are much less happy than other

M E
people. For example, people who make more than $75,000 per year are more
than twice as likely to say they are “very satisfied” with their lives than are

T
people who make $25,000 or less per year (Kahneman & Deaton, 2010).

H T
On the other hand, once people are past the level of poverty, there’s a limit

G IBU
to how much additional money will help them to be happy. If we ask people

I
how they felt over the past 24 hours, as a measure of day-to-day happiness,
there is no additional benefit to having an income above about $75,000 (Fig-

R R
ure 13.12). At the time of the study, about one-third of American households

Y
had incomes above that amount, so we may consider this amount of money

P T
“well-off,” but not rich. Interestingly, if instead of asking how happy they were

I S
over the past few days, we ask people to look back and report how satisfied

O
C TD Day-to-day feelings of happiness and freedom

P
Figure 13.12  Money Can Buy You from stress increase as income rises up to about

O
Happiness, but Only up to a Point $75,000/year. Additional income over that amount

U
(After Kahneman & Deaton, 2010.) has no further effect on those feelings.

O N 90 7.5

O
Positive effect
Percentage of people reporting

However, when looking back

D
80 7.0 on their life so far, making
additional money seems to
Life satisfaction

make people more satisfied.

70
6.5
Not sad
Life satisfaction

60
6.0
Stress-free

50
5.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 160
Annual income (thousands U.S.$)
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   563

they are with their lives, then additional wealth does bring additional satisfac-
tion. However, we have to suspect that when these folks are talking about how
satisfied they are with their lives, how much money they have plays heavily in
their thinking. They are probably not aware that the additional money did not,
in fact, bring more day-to-day happiness or reduce day-to-day stress (Quoid-
bach et al., 2010).
Another example of money’s limited ability to bring happiness is seen in
people who win lotteries. While such people are initially much happier, within
a few years, and often within a few months, they are no happier than they were
before they won (Brickman et al., 1978). Similarly, when the average income in

E
a nation increases, as happened in the United States in the decades after

T
World War II, the average happiness that its citizens report does not change
(Easterlin et al., 2010). In general, people tend to overestimate the emotional

A
impact that changes such as winning the lottery, getting a better job, or ac-

C
quiring some desired object will make on their lives (Wilson & Gilbert, 2005). In

I L
one study, people were asked before a presidential election to predict how

L A
happy or sad they would be, depending on whether their candidate won.

I P
When contacted afterward, those supporting the winner were not as happy as

R
they had predicted, and those supporting the loser were not as sad as they

E D U
had predicted (Wilson et al., 2003).
The Good Life?  Months after winning

T
the lottery, this couple separated. They
social relationships  Having strong personal relationships has been

A OR
moved out of their dream home, and both
proven to increase happiness. In one survey of college students, the happiest went back to work.
people were highly social, and reported stronger romantic and social relation-

M E
ships than other people. Not surprisingly, the happiest people also tended to be
outgoing, but they did not seem to have benefitted from more “lucky breaks” in

T
their lives, nor did they exercise more or participate in religious activities more than

H T
other people (Diener & Seligman, 2002). Sociability is not just good for college stu-

G IBU
dents. A broad-based survey of adults found that the more social activities people

I
participated in, the happier they were (Robinson & Martin, 2008). In contrast, the
more television people watched, the less happy they were. Do people who watch

R R
a lot of television have fewer or less satisfying social connections?

Y
How important is the happiness derived from friendship? One review of more

P T
than 140 different studies, including hundreds of thousands of respondents,

S
concluded that people with strong social relationships were significantly more

O I
likely to stay alive for the following year (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010). In fact, having

C TD
few social relationships affected survival nearly as much as cigarette smoking!
In line with college students who are happier if they have a romantic relationship,

P
married people are happier, on average, than single adults. Even people in rela-

O
tively unhappy marriages are more likely to be happy than single people (Dush &

U
Amato, 2005; Musick & Bumpass, 2012) (see Figure 15.20).

O N
There is also evidence that happiness can spread through social networks—
from friend to friend. People who are surrounded by happy people are more

O
likely to be happy in the future (Fowler & Christakis, 2008). One researcher noted

D
that “if your friend’s friend’s friend becomes happy, that has a bigger impact on
you being happy than putting an extra $5,000 in your pocket” (Belluck, 2008)!

religion  There is a tendency for people who consider themselves to be

religious to be more satisfied with life than other people. For example, in a large
survey of Germans, those who attended church regularly reported being hap-
pier than did non-churchgoers (Headey et al., 2010). To the extent that there
are conflicting reports in this area, they seem to be due to different definitions
of “religious” (Hackney & Sanders, 2003). Religious activity is more likely to cor-
relate with life satisfaction if the person strongly identifies with the religion, and
correlates even more strongly in people who report being personally devoted.
Religiosity may also help people undergoing stressful life events to avoid de-
 564  Chapter 13

amygdala  A group of nuclei, one
in each temporal lobe, that is key in
producing and recognizing fear.
pression (Smith et al., 2003). These studies were done in countries such as
the United States and Germany, where a majority of the people identify with a
particular religion—Christianity. So it is possible that one benefit of religiosity in
these cases derives from feeling solidarity with the majority of fellow citizens.
By contrast, when similar studies were done in countries such as the Nether-
lands and Denmark, where fewer people report being religious, there was no
correlation between happiness and religiosity (Snoep, 2008). Given the positive
correlation between religious activity and happiness in places such as Germany
and the United States, you might speculate that people in the less religious
countries of Denmark and the Netherlands are unhappy. But in fact, those two

E
countries are among the top five worldwide (155 nations were studied) in terms

T
of how happy their citizens claim to be (Levy, 2010). The happiness of citizens
in the United States was ranked 14th, and that of citizens in Germany was 33rd.

age  As we noted in Chapter 5, happiness increases with age, even into old

C A
I L
age, as people seem to be better able to adapt emotionally to circumstances

L A
and spend more time thinking about positive events and less time dwelling on

I P
negative events (Charles & Carstensen, 2010). The best predictor of whether

R
older people are happy is how many strong personal relationships they have

E D U with other people. The take-home message is that the best move you can make
for a lifetime of happiness is to start building a strong social network now.

T
A OR
A specialized brain circuit underlies the adaptive
experience called fear

M E
We like being happy, but we should also be grateful for an unpleasant emotion—
fear. Fear prompts us to run away from danger, improving our chances of re-

T
producing, so it’s easy to see why natural selection favored the evolution of fear.

H T
When we are afraid, the sympathetic nervous system revs up the body for action,

G IBU
increasing heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure. Many other animals dis-

I
play those same reactions under conditions that provoke fear, such as exposure
to a predator. The obvious benefits of fear and the similarity of fear-related be-

R R
haviors across species may explain why we know much more about the neural

Y
circuitry of fear than of any other emotion (LeDoux, 1995). For example, it is easy

P T
to reliably elicit fear by using classical conditioning (see Figure 8.13), in which a

I S
person or animal is presented with a stimulus such as light or sound that is paired

O
with a brief aversive stimulus such as a mild electrical shock. After several such

C TD
pairings, the response to the sound or light itself is the typical fear portrait, includ-
ing freezing and the physiological results of sympathetic activation.

P
Studies of such fear conditioning have provided a map of neural circuitry that

O
includes the almond-shaped brain region called the amygdala (Greek amyg-

U
dale, “almond”) as a key structure producing fear. Buried within each temporal

O N
lobe, the amygdala is composed of about a dozen different nuclei, each with a
distinctive set of connections. In the 1930s, researchers found that lesioning the

O
amygdala on both sides of the brain in monkeys made them fearless—they no

D
longer acted afraid of humans or attacked other monkeys (Klüver & Bucy, 1938).
Lesioning only the central nucleus of the amygdala has the same effect in both
monkeys and rats, preventing blood pressure increases and freezing behavior in
response to a conditioned fear stimulus, such as a sound or light that signals an
electrical shock to the feet.
Information about fear-provoking stimuli—for example, a scorpion with its
tail poised to jab your toe—appears to reach the central amygdala by two dif-
ferent routes (Figure 13.13). A pathway of sensory information directly to the
amygdala, called the “low road” for fear responses, bypasses conscious pro-
cessing and allows for immediate reactions to fearful stimuli (LeDoux, 1996).
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   565

Sensory
cortex
Hippocampus
Thalamus ”
ad
Sensory ro
h The information
cortex Amygdala

ig
Hippocampus ultimately reaches

“H
”
road the amygdala’s
Low central nucleus,
“
Amygdala which projects to
different brain
Thalamus Central nuclei to produce
nucleus different

E
components of
the fear response.

A fear-inducing stimulus
Sensory
organ
Emotional
behavior
Autonomic
responses
Hormonal
responses

AT
I C
reaches the thalamus and is

L
Figure 13.13  The Circuitry of Fear
relayed either directly to the

L
amygdala (the “low road”) (After LeDoux, 1994, 1996.)

I A
for unconscious reactions to

P
threat or via the cortex and

R
hippocampus (the “high

U
road”) involving more Stimuli

E D
detailed and conscious
processing of stimuli.

T
A OR
M E
That path will get your sympathetic arousal going right away. An alternative
“high road” pathway routes the incoming information through the sensory cor-

T
tex, allowing for processing that, while slower, is conscious, more graded, and

H T
integrated with higher-level cognitive processes, such as memory. This path-

G IBU
way may remind you to draw your foot slowly away. The prefrontal cortex and

I
anterior
Breedlove cingulate
Intro Psych 1ecortex (see Figure 13.15) use this pathway to offer an addi-
Fig. tional
13.13, #0000
level of fear conditioning: observational fear learning, in which fear of

R
10/08/13

R
potentially
Dragonfly harmful stimuli is learned through watching the behavior of others
Media Group

Y
(Olsson & Phelps, 2007). To extend our example of the scorpion, children

P T
might learn to fear scorpions by observing another person’s reactions of fear

I S
and pain, without personally experiencing a scorpion attack themselves. Giv-

O
en the considerable adaptive benefits that observational fear learning confers,

C TD
it’s not surprising that it is seen in diverse species other than humans, includ-
ing mice, cats, cows, and non-human primates (see Chapter 8).

P
The animal data associating the amygdala with fear fit well with observations

O
in humans. When people are shown visual stimuli associated with pain or fear,

U
blood flow to the amygdala increases (LaBar et al., 1998), even if the stimulus is

O N
too brief for the person to be aware of it (Pegna et al., 2005). People who suffer
from temporal lobe seizures that include the amygdala commonly report that

O
intense fear heralds the start of a seizure (Engel, 1992). Likewise, presurgical

D
stimulation of temporal lobe sites may elicit feelings of fear in patients (Bancaud
et al., 1994). Conversely, patients with damaged amygdalas do poorly at recog-
nizing fear in human facial expressions (Adolphs et al., 2005).
The life of one woman, referred to as S.M., who suffers from a rare genetic
disease that damaged both amygdalas, shows the value of being afraid (Fein-
stein et al., 2011). Not only is S.M. unafraid of snakes, spiders, and the pre-
tend “monsters” jumping out of Halloween haunted houses, but she once
walked right up to a knife-wielding drug addict who was trying to rob her. He
Fear Factor  People with damaged
was so disquieted by her strange response that he was the one who ran amygdalas report feeling little or no fear
away. Once she was nearly killed in an act of domestic violence. While her during even the scariest of movies.
 566  Chapter 13

Most people who However, patient S.M. (blue) reported little

watch these film clips or no fear, more like arousal. Note that what
report afterward that little arousal she reports to various films
they felt afraid. does not match well with other people’s
Extreme 8 rating of how scary those clips are.
fear
7

Maximum amount of fear

6 Control subjects
Patient S.M.
5

T E
A
2

I C
1

No fear

L
0

A L
I P
A B C D E F G H I J
Film clips

R
E D U
A – The Ring (2002) The ghost of a murdered child infiltrates the lives of her soon-to-be victims.

T
B – Blair Witch Project (1999) Campers are attacked by an unknown apparition at night.

A OR
C – CSI (2009) A man struggles to survive after being buried alive.
D – The English Patient (1996) A man is tortured by the Germans during World War II.

M E
E – Se7en (1995) An apparent corpse suddenly awakes from the dead.
F – Cry Freedom (1987) Armed trespassers attack a woman who is home alone during the night.

T
G – Arachnophobia (1990) A large poisonous spider attacks a girl in the shower.

H T
H – Halloween (1978) A woman is being chased by a murderer.

G IBU
I – The Shining (1980) A young boy hears voices in the hallway of a haunted hotel.

I
J – The Silence of the Lambs (1991) A woman evades a serial killer in a dark basement.

R R
Figure 13.14  The Woman Who Was Never Afraid  (After Feinstein et al., 2011.)

P Y T
O I S behavioral responses and self-report appear typical for other emotions, S.M.

C TD
shows very little sympathetic responses to fearful stimuli, and produces al-
most no startle response to a sudden, loud noise. Shown movie clips that

P
other people find frightening, S.M. reports being unmoved (Figure 13.14). A

O
mother of three children, S.M. is also very poor at recognizing the facial ex-

U
pressions of fear in other people (see Figure 13.8). Vietnam veterans who

O N
suffered traumatic events were much less likely to develop posttraumatic
stress disorder if the event damaged their amygdala (Koenigs et al., 2008).

O
We discuss this disorder further in Box 13.2.

D
Considerable evidence indicates that the amygdala is a crucial component of
a brain circuit that both activates fear in ourselves and recognizes fear in others.
Perhaps because fear is so crucial for survival, it is the only emotion so far that
we know to be associated with a particular brain region. Still, scientists have
identified other brain regions that are active during emotions, as we’ll see next.

Affective neuroscience is revealing brain circuits for emotion

One approach to understanding the brain circuitry at work in emotions is to
monitor brain activity while people do their best to experience a particular emo-
tion. Such research suggests that several specific brain regions are often ac-
tive when we experience emotions. For example, disgust appears to activate a

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 Emotions, Stress, and Health   567

Psychology in Everyday Life

BOX
13.2
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Some people experience especially
awful moments in life that seem
etched in their memory forever, result-
ing in vivid impressions that persist.
These events tend to be intense and

E
usually associated with witnessing
abusive violence and/or death. Pre-

T
70 Depression
cipitating events may be the sudden Anxiety

A
loss of a close friend, rape, torture, 60 Posttraumatic
stress disorder

C
kidnapping, or profound social dislo-

I
Percentage of veterans
L
cation, such as in forced migration. 50

L
In these cases, memories of hor-

I A
40

P
rible events intrude into consciousness
and produce the same intense visceral

R U
30
arousal—the fear and trembling and

E D
general sympathetic activation—that 20

T
the original event caused. These

A OR
traumatic memories are easily reawak- 10
ened by stressful circumstances and

M E
even by seemingly benign stimuli that 0
No combat Light Moderate Heavy
somehow prompt recollection of the Combat exposure level

T
original event. An ever-watchful and

T
The Wages of Fear  Exposure to combat increases the likelihood of

H
fearful attitude becomes the portrait of
PTSD, depression, and anxiety disorders. (From Sim et al., 2005.)

G IBU
individuals afflicted with what is called

I
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
PTSD is common in soldiers who

R
have seen combat, and indeed it was formerly called short-term memory (Bremner et al., 1993). These

Y R
combat fatigue, war neurosis, or shell shock. About memory disturbances suggest that the hippocampus

T
19% of a random sample of Vietnam veterans had may be involved, and indeed the volume of the right

P S
PTSD at some point after service. Among those hippocampus is smaller in combat veterans with

O I
exposed to high war-zone stressors, more than 35% PTSD than in controls, with no differences in other

C TD
developed PTSD at some point, and most of them brain regions (Bremner et al., 1995). It was once
were still suffering from the disorder decades later widely assumed that the stressful episode caused the

P
(Dohrenwend et al., 2006). A study of Australian hippocampus to shrink, but some veterans suffering
veterans of the Korean War (Australian Institute of PTSD left a monozygotic twin at home, and it turns

U N OHealth, 2005), conducted decades after the conflict, out that the nonstressed twins without PTSD also

O
found a correlation between how much combat the tend to have a smaller hippo­campus (Gilbertson et
soldiers had seen and their risk for PTSD and other al., 2002). So an inherited tendency to have a small

O
disorders (see figure). hippocampus may be what makes a person more
Genetic factors also affect vulnerability to PTSD, susceptible to PTSD.

D as shown in twin studies of Vietnam War veterans

who had seen combat. Among twins who suffered
from PTSD, monozygotic twins showed significantly
greater concurrence for PTSD than dizygotic twins,
Nevertheless, effective therapy for PTSD is avail-
able. Unfortunately in the United States, Veterans’
Administration hospitals are chronically underfunded
and veterans with PTSD have long waits for treatment
and the specific contribution of inheritance to PTSD (Goodnough, 2014).
may account for one-third of the variance (Kremen et
al., 2012). People who display combat-related PTSD posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)  A disorder in
which memories of an unpleasant episode repeatedly
show (1) memory changes such as amnesia for some
plague the victim.
war experiences, (2) flashbacks, and (3) deficitsSA:in
Please note there are two box figures 13.02.
Thanks,
DMG

Breedlove Intro Psych 1e

Fig. Box13.02?, #0000
 568  Chapter 13

(A)
Figure 13.15  The Emotional Brain Among these brain regions that have
(From Dolan, 2002.) been implicated in emotions, only the
amygdala seems to be associated
with a particular emotion (fear).
(B)
The differences among other
emotional experiences seem
to be in the relative activation
of these various regions.

Anterior Orbitofrontal Anterior Posterior

cingulate region of cingulate cingulate
cortex Amygdala prefrontal cortex cortex cortex

T E
C A
LI L
I P A
R
E D U
T
A OR
M E Insula

H T T
insula  A region of enfolded cortex cortical region called the insula (the portion of cortex that is folded inside the

G IBU
activated during several emotions. lateral fissure; Figure 13.15) and parts of the basal ganglia, but not the amyg-

I
cingulate cortex  A region of cortex dala (Calder et al., 2000; Phillips et al., 1998). Sadness activates the insula and
immediately above the corpus the cingulate cortex (the portion of cortex at the midline, lying just above the

R R
callosum that is activated during corpus callosum). Activation of the orbitofrontal cortex (the portion of frontal

Y
several emotions. cortex just above and behind the eyes) is common in many emotional reactions

P T
orbitofrontal cortex  A portion of (Montag et al., 2013).

S
frontal cortex near the eyes that

I
Another study compared brain activation during four different kinds of emo-

O
is activated in many emotional tion, and again the insula, cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex were among

C TD
reactions. the regions activated. These studies indicate that there is no simple, one-to-one
relation between a specific emotion and changed activity of a brain region. We

P
have no “happy center” or “sad center.” Instead, each emotion involves different

O
patterns of activation across a network of brain regions associated with emo-

U
tion. For example, activity of the cingulate cortex is altered in sadness, happi-

O N
ness, and anger, and the left somatosensory cortex is deactivated in both anger
and fear. Feelings of regret over costly decisions involve activation of the amyg-

O
dala and orbitofrontal cortex. Although different emotions are associated with

D
different patterns of activation, there is a good deal of overlap among patterns
for different emotions (Damasio et al., 2000).
What about love? In one study, researchers recruited volunteers who pro-
fessed to be “truly, deeply, and madly in love” (Bartels & Zeki, 2000). Each
participant furnished four color photographs: one of his or her boy- or girl-
friend, and three of friends who were the same sex as the loved partner and
were similar in age and length of friendship. Functional MRI brain scans were
taken while each participant was shown counterbalanced sequences of the
four photographs. Brain activity elicited by viewing the loved person was
compared with that elicited by viewing friends. Love, compared with friend-

Breedlove Intro Psych 1e

Fig. 13.15, #0000
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 Emotions, Stress, and Health   569

ship, involved increased activity in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex (see The parts of the brain highlighted here
Figure 13.15) and in the basal ganglia—all bilaterally (Figure 13.16). It also led become especially active when a
person is looking at a photo of his or
to reduced activity in the posterior cingulate cortex and amygdala, and in the her romantic partner and thinking about
right prefrontal cortex. This combination of sites differs from those found in their love for the partner.
other emotional states, suggesting that a unique network of brain areas is
Insula
responsible for the emotion of love.

The left and right sides of the brain differ in

emotional processing
Studying the results of brain damage offers another way to learn about brain

E
circuits underlying emotion. Such studies indicate that the left and right sides

T
of the brain may play different roles in emotion. For example, people who have
suffered brain damage as a result of a stroke are more likely to be cheerful

A
if the damage is to the right side of the brain rather than the left. This is an

C
example of an emotional syndrome, when injury or disease has a general

I L
effect on emotional tone. In general, people who have suffered strokes involv-

L A
ing the left cerebral hemisphere have the highest frequency of depressive

I P
symptoms. Damage to the left hemisphere is more likely to disrupt language

R
ability, so you might think those with left hemisphere damage would be more

E D U
depressed because they are more disabled. But in fact, injury-produced lan-
guage deficits do not correlate with severity of depression (Starkstein & Rob-

T
inson, 1994). In contrast, patients with lesions of the right parietal or temporal Basal ganglia

A OR
cortex are described as unduly cheerful and indifferent to their loss. Another
indication that the two hemispheres differ in emotional tone comes from in- Figure 13.16 “Tell Me Where Is

M E
Fancy Bred? Or in the Heart or in the
jection of a fast-acting anesthetic into either the left or right carotid artery
Head?”  (From Bartels & Zeki, 2000.)
supplying the brain, causing the entire cerebral hemisphere on that side to go

T
to sleep for a short time (see Figure 10.11). Such injections into the left hemi-

H T
sphere produce a depressive aftereffect, whereas right-sided injections elicit

G IBU
smiling and a feeling of euphoria (Terzian, 1964).

I
Studies of how we detect emotions in other people also indicate that the left
and right sides of the brain play separate roles. For example, people listening to

R R
two different recordings at the same time, one in the left ear and one in the right

Y
ear, have a hard time making out the information. They do a better job under-

P T
standing the meaning of a message in the right ear and a better job detecting

S
the emotional tone of a message in the left ear (Ley & Bryden, 1982). Because

O I
neurons from each ear project more strongly to the opposite hemisphere, these

C TD
results indicate that the right hemisphere is better than the left at interpreting
emotional aspects of vocal messages.

P
A similar difference is seen in the ability to detect emotional expressions on

O
other people’s faces. Emotional expressions presented to the left visual field

U
(projecting to the right hemisphere) are more accurately identified than those

O N
presented to the right visual field (projecting to the left hemisphere; Bryden,
1982; Stone et al., 1996). Adults who were born with cataracts that blocked vi-

O
sion in their left visual field, therefore depriving them of stimulation to their right

D
hemisphere during infancy, are poorer at recognizing facial expressions of emo-
tions than are adults who had cataracts in the right visual field as babies, even
after the cataracts have been removed (Le Grand et al., 2003). Perhaps visual
experience is needed to teach the right hemisphere to become expert at deci-
phering facial expressions.
Not only is the right side of our brain better at detecting emotional expressions
in other people, but it is also better at communicating our own emotional state.
By cutting down the exact middle of the face in a photograph of a person who is emotional syndrome  A syndrome in
displaying an emotion, we can create two new composite photos—one that com- which injury or disease has a general
bines two left sides of the face (one of which is printed in mirror image), and an- effect on emotional tone.

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 570  Chapter 13

Photographs constructed from only the left side of

the face are judged to be more emotional than either
the original face or a composite constructed from
only the right side of the face.

(A) Left sides (B) Original (C) Right sides

T E
Figure 13.17  Emotions and Facial

C A
I
Asymmetry  Composite faces reveal

L L
differences between left and right in the

A
level of intensity of emotional expression.

RI P
E D U other that combines two right sides. The results reveal that facial expressions are
not symmetrical (Figure 13.17). Most observers judge the left-side photos as

T
more emotional than the right-side photos. Because the left side of the face is

A OR
controlled by the right hemisphere, this observation again suggests that the right
hemisphere has a greater involvement than the left in emotional expression

M E
(Borod et al., 1997). This is true for both posed and spontaneous faces, for pleas-
ant and unpleasant emotions, and for both sexes and all ages.

T
All told, it appears that the right hemisphere of the brain, which receives infor-

H T
mation from and controls the left side of the body, is better than the left hemisphere

G IBU
of the brain at communicating our emotions and detecting emotions in other peo-

I
ple. But note that this is merely a difference in degree. The left hemisphere does
express and detect emotions, just not quite as well as the right hemisphere.

Y R R
T
13.1 SUMMARY

P S
• Emotion is a subjective mental experience usually accompanied by

O I
involuntary physiological changes as well as distinctive behaviors.

C TD
Involuntary physiological arousals are controlled by the autonomic
nervous system, including the sympathetic nervous system, which
prepares the body for action (so-called fight or flight responses), and

P
the parasympathetic nervous system, which prepares the body to

U O
rest and recover.

N
• The James–Lange theory proposes that physiological response may

O
come first, triggering our emotional experience.
• Schachter and Singer found that how we experience a particular

O
pattern of autonomic arousal depends on context, such as our

D
mental state before the arousal. In their classic experiment, people
Breedlovewho were
Intro unknowingly
Psych 1e given epinephrine to trigger sympathetic
arousal
Fig. 13.17 were more likely to experience that arousal as anger if they
10/07/13were around an angry-acting person, or to experience the arousal as
exhilaration if around an energetic, playful person.
• The two-factor theory of emotion says that autonomic arousal may
intensify our emotional experience, but the emotion we experience
depends on our cognitive interpretation of what’s going on around
us.
• At least eight different emotions can be detected in facial expres-
sions. The emotions underlying most of these facial expressions can
also be discerned by people from other cultures, suggesting that at
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   571

least some emotions may be universal across our species as a result stress  The events and stimuli that
of evolution. threaten us, how we assess them,
• Aristotle’s ancient notion of catharsis, that giving vent to our negative and our physiological reaction.
emotions can help diminish them, is not supported by research. stressors  The events and stimuli that
• The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that expressing an emo- threaten us.
tion causes us to feel it even more intensely. This hypothesis ex- stress evaluation  The cognitive
plains why activating the muscles for smiling can make us feel system that assesses events that
happier. Likewise, people who engage in strenuous physical activity threaten us.
while thinking aggressive thoughts are more aggressive afterward
stress response  The physiological
than people doing the same activity while thinking nonaggressive
response of the body to the
thoughts.
assessment of threat.

E
• People feel happiest when they are busily engaged in doing some-

T
thing, including working toward a goal.
• People living in poverty are not very happy, but outside of poverty,

A
additional money does not necessarily bring additional day-to-day

C
happiness.

I L
• Having close personal relationships with other people, including

L A
a spouse, is consistently correlated with greater happiness, and

I P
people who strongly identify with a religion tend to be happier than
nonreligious people.

R U
• Fear is an unpleasant emotion that is adaptive and seems to have a

E D
specialized brain circuit that includes the amygdala. This brain region

T
is active in animals during fear conditioning. People with damage to

A OR
the amygdalas on both sides of the brain tend to have few fears and
are poor at distinguishing fearful expressions on the faces of others.

M E
• There is no known association of any other particular emotion with
one particular brain region, but several brain regions tend to be

T
active during emotion, including the cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal

T
cortex, and insula.

H
• Emotional processing may differ in the two hemispheres of the brain.

G IBU
Damage to the right hemisphere may increase a person’s cheerful- Food for Thought

I
ness, while damage to the left hemisphere is more likely to lead to

R
depression. In science fiction, several

R
characters have been portrayed

Y
Review Questions who have few or no emotions

P T
1. Compare the perspectives of folk psychology, the James–Lange (robots, for example). What do you

S
think it would be like to experience
theory, and the two-factor theory of emotion on the relationship

O I
no emotions?
between autonomic activity and the experience of emotional states.

C TD
2. Describe the results of the Schachter and Singer experiment and
relate them to the role of cognitive factors and autonomic activity in

P
emotions.

O
3. Describe the facial feedback hypothesis and discuss the various

U
results that support it. Things to Learn

O N
4. What factors seem to contribute to happiness?
••Physiology of stress response
5. Why does fear seem to be a special emotion, and what do we know ••Limitations of “lie detectors”

O
about the brain regions involved in fear?
••Early experience and adult

D
stress response
••Importance of control and
predictability in handling
13.2 Stress and Health stress
••Reciprocal nature of mental
We all experience stress, but what is it? Attempts to define stress tend to be health and bodily health
rather vague. Hans Selye (1907–1982), whose work launched the modern field ••Communication between
of stress research, broadly defined stress as “the rate of all the wear and tear brain, endocrine system, and
caused by life” (Selye, 1956). Today, researchers try to sharpen their focus by immune system
treating stress as a multidimensional concept. Accordingly, we must consid- ••Negative consequences of
long-term stress
er three dimensions: stressors, the events and stimuli that threaten us; stress
••Strategies to deal with stress
evaluation, the cognitive system that assesses those events; and the stress
••Social buffering hypothesis
response, the body’s physiological reaction.
 572  Chapter 13

We’ll start this section describing the stress re-

sponse, the physiological reactions that are remark-
ably similar across different species, including the
release of several hormones that normally help us
adapt to stress. Next we’ll consider two factors that
make a tremendous difference in whether we evalu-
ate an experience as stressful: lack of control and
unpredictability. We’ll touch upon the field of health
psychology and the remarkably consistent finding
that what’s good for our physical health is good for

E
our mental health, and vice versa. We’ll conclude the

T
section by talking about ways to reduce stress and
improve health. We can all expect to go through

A
some tough times in our lives, but we’ll see that there

C
are things we can do, including building up a net-

I L
work of supportive friends and family, that help us

L
Run for Your Life  In nature, stressful events tend to be short-lived.

A
weather the storms and preserve our health to enjoy

I
Whatever the outcome, this chase will be over quickly.

P
a long, happy life.

R
E D U
Psychology in Everyday Life
BOX T
A OR
M E
13.3
“Lie Detector Tests” Detect Stress, not Lies

T
One of the most controversial attempts to apply technology as scientifically unproven (Iacono, 2000;

H T
psychological science is the so-called lie detector Eriksson & Lacerda, 2007). A federally appointed

G IBU
test. This test attempts to detect lying by measur- panel of scientists noted that even if polygraphs

I
ing physiological responses during an interview. were correct 80% of the time, then giving the test
The test is based on the assumption that people to 10,000 people that included 10 spies would

R R
have emotional responses when lying because they condemn 1,600 innocent people and let 2 spies go

Y
fear detection or feel guilt about lying. Emotions free (National Academy of Sciences, 2003). Indeed,

P T
are usually accompanied by body responses that

S
many criminals and spies have been able to pass

I
are difficult for a person to control, so a polygraph the tests. For example, long-time CIA agent Aldrich

O
(Greek poly, “many”; graphein, “to write”) monitors Ames, who was sentenced to prison for espionage,

C TD
several different physiological measures, among successfully passed polygraph tests after becoming
them respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, and the a spy. His countermeasures were not very sophisti-

P
electrical conductance of skin (basically, a measure cated: get a good night’s rest, relax, and be espe-

O
of how much someone is sweating), at the same cially chatty and friendly with the polygraph operator

OU N
time (Figure A). The examiner asks many questions
and tries to compare the physiological reactions
when the participant is truthfully answering a “control
(Weiner et al., 1995).
It is difficult to do convincing research on lie
detection because most studies focus on only trivial

O
question” (“What is your name?”) versus answering attempts at deception that do not necessarily involve

D
an incriminating question. The theory is that a person
truthfully denying an incriminating question will show
the same physiological reactions as when truthfully
answering a nonthreatening control question.
Proponents of polygraph examinations (primarily
people who make a living selling or using polygraphs
for “lie detection”) claim that the tests are accurate
90% of the time. But the estimate from impartial
research is an overall accuracy rate of about 65%
(Nietzel, 2000), and many psychologists regard the
participants emotionally (Holden, 2001). One paper
concluded, “It may, in fact, be impossible to conduct
a proper validity study” (Saxe & Ben-Shakhar, 1999).
In real-world situations, it’s very difficult to know
what the truth is. Because of these controversies,
most American courts do not allow testimony about
polygraph results in trials. However, such testimony
is widely used in the initial stages of criminal investi-
gations, often to convince suspects that they should
confess (Nietzel, 2000). Unfortunately, even innocent
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   573

The physiology of the stress response is

similar across all mammals
On the basis of his many studies of the impact of stressors on different or- general adaptation syndrome
gan systems of the body, Selye emphasized a close connection between stress The system connecting stress and
and disease that he termed general adaptation syndrome. According to this disease through a series of stages.
scheme, the initial response to stress, called the alarm reaction, is followed by alarm reaction  The activation of
a second stage, called the adaptation stage, which attempts to reestablish the sympathetic nervous system
balance. However, if stress is prolonged or frequently repeated, the exhaustion including a release of hormones as
stage sets in, which is characterized by increased susceptibility to disease and the initial response to stress.
eventually death. adaptation stage  The return to

E
The first step in the alarm reaction is activation of the sympathetic nervous sys- normal following an alarm reaction.

T
tem, part of the autonomic nervous system that we discussed above (see Figure exhaustion stage  The increased
13.1). As we described there, this activation increases respiration, heart rate, and susceptibility to disease and possible

A
blood pressure, among other things. These physiological responses to stress pro- death that follows prolonged or

C
vide the basis of so-called lie detector tests. As Box 13.3 makes clear, these tests frequently repeated stress.

I L
measure stress, not lying, which means that in typical use the number of innocent

L A
people they implicate vastly outnumbers the few guilty people they detect.

I P
Close on the heels of these physiological responses to stress, a host of hor-

R
mones are released. One classic study of stress followed a group of young recruits

E D U
T
A OR
M E
people may display emotional arousal when (A)
being questioned by the police.

T
Respiration
Some scientists believe that modern neuro-

H T
science may someday provide new methods

G IBU
of lie detection. Conscious lying may involve Skin
conductance

I
unusual activation of control mechanisms of
the prefrontal cortex (Figure B) (Abe et al.,

R R
2007). Fear results in activation of the amyg-

Y
dala (as we discussed earlier in this chapter),

T
Heart rate

P
which might be visible with functional MRI.

I S
The anterior cingulate cortex becomes more

O
active when subjects are lying (Langleben et 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

C TD
al., 2002). Time (s)
Initial results from brain imaging studies of
(B)

P
deception are intriguing, but much more work

O
will be required to establish that brain imag-

U
ing can detect lies with enough reliability to be

O N
useful in making important decisions about
individual people.

D O
polygraph  Also called lie detector. A
device that monitors several physiological
measures, such as respiration, heart rate,
blood pressure, and electrical conductance
of the skin.

The Basis of Lie Detector Tests  (A) The polygraph measures

signs of arousal. But even an innocent person may feel alarmed
if questioned about a crime. (B) These images reveal selective
activation of the prefrontal cortex in a person who is lying (rela-
tive to a control scan). (Images courtesy of Nobuhito Abe.)
 574  Chapter 13

(A) Response systems affected in jump situation

Hypothalamus Soldiers training for parachute
jumps display an array of auto-
Pituitary nomic and hormonal changes to
gland the stressful experiences.
Heart Thyroid

Spleen
Liver
Pancreas
Adrenal

E
gland

AT
I C
Intestines

L A L Hormonal

I P
responses

R
Bladder

U
Parasympathetic
responses

E D
Testes Sympathetic

T
responses

A OR
M E
Hormonal changes are especially
(B) Hormonal responses large during the first jump days.

T T
Testosterone

H
Cortisol (µg/100 mL) (µg/100 mL) Epinephrine (µg/100 mL) Norepinephrine (µg/100 mL)

G IBU
16 Baseline 10 50
8

I
12 Baseline Baseline

R
Baseline 6 30

R
8 4

Y T
4 2 10

P
0

S
0 0 0

I
1 2 5 11 1 2 5 11 1 2 5 11 1 2 5 11

O
Jump day Jump day Jump day Jump day

C TD Before training (baseline) Before that day’s jump After that day’s jump

P
Figure 13.18  Autonomic Activation

U O
during a Stress Situation  (After Ursin et
in the Norwegian military both before and during parachute training (Ursin et al.,

N
al., 1978.)

O
1978). During the training period, the men were propelled down a long sloping
cable suspended from a four-story tower. At first the sense of danger was acute,

O
even though the recruits knew they were not likely to lose their lives in this training.

D
On each jump day in this study, blood samples revealed release of hormones
triggered by the sympathetic nervous system, including the hormone cortisol
from the adrenal gland (Figure 13.18). Initially, cortisol levels were elevated in
the blood, but successful jumps during training quickly led to a decrease in the
jumpers’ adrenal response. On the first jump, testosterone levels in the blood fell
below those of controls, but these levels returned to normal with subsequent
jumps. Other substances that showed marked increases in concentration at the
cortisol  A hormone from the adrenal initial jump included epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) and norepinephrine,
gland released in response to stress. both of which are also released from the adrenal gland when triggered by the
adrenal gland  An endocrine gland sympathetic nervous system.
atop the kidney which releases Less dramatic real-life situations also evoke clear hormonal responses (Fran-
hormonesIntro
Breedlove in response
Psych 1e to stress. kenhaeuser, 1978). For example, riding in a commuter train provokes the release
Fig. 13.18, #0000
10/10/13
Dragonfly Media Group
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   575

(A) (B) Figure 13.19  Hormonal Changes in

A small, 10% increase in the Levels of epinephrine and
number of passengers during norepinephrine in a graduate student Humans in Response to Social Stresses
a period of gasoline rationing during a 2-week period before, during, (After Frankenhaeuser, 1978.)
resulted in a much higher and after a thesis exam reflect levels
level of epinephrine secretion. of stress. (The student passed.)

180 400
Norepinephrine
during journey (% of control level)

350

160
Increase of epinephrine

300

Hormone secretion
E
(picomoles/min)
250

T
140

A
200

I C
150

L
120

L A
100

I P
Epinephrine

R
0

U
0
Normal Crowded –16 –12 –8 –4 0 4 8

E D
Train trip Successive days After
before exam exam

T
Exam

A OR
of epinephrine, and the longer the ride and the more crowded the train, the

M E
greater the hormonal response (Figure 13.19A). Factory work also leads to the
release of epinephrine, and the shorter the work cycle—that is, the more fre-

T
quently a person has to repeat the same operations—the higher the levels of

H T
epinephrine. The stress of a PhD oral exam also led to a dramatic increase in

G IBU
both epinephrine and norepinephrine (Figure 13.19B).

I
Not everyone responds to stress the same way

R R
Why do individuals differ in their response to stress? One hypothesis focuses on

Y
early experience. Rat pups clearly find it stressful to have a human experimenter

P T
pick them up and handle them. Yet researchers found that rats that had been

I S
handled briefly as pups were less susceptible to adult stress than were rats that

O
had been left alone as pups (Levine et al., 1967). For example, the previously

C TD
handled rats secreted less corticosteroid (rat equivalent to cortisol) in response
to a wide variety of adult stressors. This effect was termed stress immunization

P
because a little stress early in life seemed to make the animals more resilient to

O
later stress.

U
Follow-up research suggested an alternative explanation. It turned out that the

O N
pups being handled were benefitting not from the stressful handling itself, but from
their mothers’ attention afterward. When pups were returned to their mother after

O
a separation, she spent considerable time licking and grooming them. In fact, she

D
would lick the pups much longer if they were handled by humans during the sepa-
ration. This gentle tactile stimulation from the mother was crucial for the stress
immunization effect. Even among undisturbed litters, the offspring of mother rats
that exhibited more licking and grooming behavior were more resilient in their re-
sponse to adult stress than other rats were (Liu et al., 1997). Lack of maternal at-
tention had a negative effect on rat pups, so that in adulthood they showed a
greater stress response to novel stimuli, difficulty learning mazes, and reduced
stress immunization  The concept
production of new neurons in the brain (Mirescu et al., 2004). In fact, the animals that mild stress early in life makes
that recovered more rapidly from stress in adulthood were those that as pups had an individual better able to handle
gotten lots of positive attention from their mothers. stress later in life. Research indicates
Lack of maternal attention in early life appears to exert negative effects on adult early stress is only beneficial if the
stress responses by causing long-lasting changes in the expression of hormone individual is comforted afterward.

Breedlove Intro Psych 1e

Fig. 13.19, #0000
10/07/13
 576  Chapter 13

These data argue receptors in the brain. This phenomenon

40 against the is termed epigenetic regulation because
Adverse Childhood Experiences simple-minded idea the change in gene expression persists

Percentage of study participants with a

35 that early stress

lifetime history of attempted suicide

Abuse “immunizes” us long after the original stimulus is gone.
Emotional 30 against later stress. Epigenetic influences have been ob-
Physical served in humans (as well as in animals;
Sexual 25 see Chapter 4). When the brains of sui-
Neglect
cide victims were examined, for example,
20 an epigenetic change in a certain hor-
Emotional
Physical mone receptor gene was seen only in
15

E
those victims who had suffered abuse as
Household dysfunction

T
10 children (McGowan et al., 2009). Thus it
Mother treated violently
may be that the early abuse caused the

A
Household substance abuse 5 epigenetic change in the gene and left the

C
Household mental illness
individuals less resilient in response to

I L
Parental separation or divorce
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 ≥7 stress, and therefore more susceptible to

L
Incarcerated household member

A
Number of adverse suicide.

I P
childhood experiences In fact, much evidence clearly contra-

R
dicts the idea that stress early in life

U
Figure 13.20  Adverse Experiences
in Childhood Increase the Risk of Sui- makes it easier to withstand stress in

E D
cide in Adulthood  (After Middlebrooks adulthood. People who experience very stressful events in childhood are much

T
& Audage, 2008.)
more likely to become depressed and commit suicide (Figure 13.20; Middle-

A OR
brooks & Audage, 2008). It appears that for childhood stress to be beneficial, it
must be fairly mild stress, and it must be followed by positive attention from

M E
parents or guardians.

T
Lack of control and unpredictability make unpleasant

H T
events even more stressful

G IBU
Unpleasant things happen to all of us once in a while, and those events can be

I
stressful. Often how stressed we feel in response to some event depends on
how we perceive that event. Research has identified two characteristics that

R R
make a tremendous difference in whether we perceive an event as stressful:

Y
lack of control and unpredictability. This information can be of practical value

P T
because if we can’t avoid unpleasant events entirely, perhaps we can take steps

I S
to predict or control the events. The more control that individuals have over

O
unpleasant events, the less stress they experience in response to those events.

C TD
The story of how we came to understand the importance of control for minimiz-
ing stress is an interesting example of how a poor experimental design can lead

P
scientists astray.

O
One of the most famous experiments in psychology, and one that has found

U
its way into popular culture, is almost certainly incorrect. In the so-called execu-

O N
tive monkey experiment, two monkeys were subjected to mild but unpleasant
electrical shocks to the feet (Brady et al., 1958). The shocks came every 20

O
seconds unless one monkey, the “executive,” pushed a button to avoid it. The

D
other monkey had no button. Each pair of animals was yoked, meaning that
when one monkey in a pair was shocked, they both were. Since the monkeys
got exactly the same unpleasant shocks, you might think they would experi-
ence equal stress. But the monkeys that had some control, that could push the
button to postpone shock, appeared to be more stressed, because several of
them died of infections caused by gastric ulcers (open sores inside the stom-
ach). The researcher’s conclusion that it is stressful to be in control, like an ex-
ecutive, was quickly assimilated into our culture. But the conclusion was
mistaken.
The experiment was flawed because the monkeys were not randomly as-
signed to the executive role. A total of four pairs of monkeys were tested. In pre-
training, the four monkeys that learned the task best were selected to be the

Breedlove Intro Psych 1e

Fig. 13.20, #0000
09/27/13
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   577

executives, while the other four monkeys became the yoked controls that got
the same shocks as the executive monkey in each pair. The monkeys that
learned the task fastest were probably the ones that were most stressed by the
shocks. They may have been more sensitive to shocks, and to stressors in gen-
eral, in the first place.
Noting this flaw in the executive monkey experiment, Weiss (1968) embarked
on a series of well-designed experiments that led to conclusions exactly oppo-
site of those from the executive monkey experiment, as we’ll see next (Figure
13.21).

E
Researchers at Work
The value of control and predictability
Figure 13.21  Control Reduces the Stress from Electrical Shock  (After
AT
I C
Weiss, 1968.)

L
 Question: Is it stressful to be an “executive,” to have control over

A L
I
unwanted events in the environment?

R P
 Hypothesis: Alternatively, maybe having control over the environment

U
will reduce the adverse effects of stressful events.

T E D
 Test: Apply electrical shocks to the tails of pairs of rats. One rat in each

A OR
pair, the executive, can turn off the shock for both rats by pressing a lever.
The other rat in each pair is yoked and receives the same shock as the

M E
executive whenever the executive fails to push the lever.

 Result: The animals that could control the shock developed smaller

T
ulcers than the yoked animals. A third group of rats was put in the very

H T
same apparatus but did not receive any shocks: these rats had very few

G IBU
ulcers, so the apparatus itself was not very stressful.

R I Rats that could avoid or

turn off the shock by

R
pressing a lever (executive

Y
5.0
rats) developed smaller

T
ulcers than yoked rats

P S
that received the same

I
number and duration of

O
4.0
Total length of gastric ulcers (mm)

shocks.

C TD
P
3.0

U N O
O
2.0

D O 1.0

0.0
Yoked Executive No
rat rat shock

 Conclusion: Since the two rats in each pair received the same amount
of shock, it must have been the lack of control that caused the yoked rats
to suffer more stress. Having control over stressful events appears to
reduce the negative effects on health.
 578  Chapter 13

Having a warning of A separate experiment showed that predictability also makes a big difference
5.0 impending shocks
reduced the size of the
in how stressful rats perceive events to be (Weiss, 1971a). Control rats were again
ulcers by half. put into the apparatus without receiving shocks, and they developed few ulcers.
Two other groups of rats received shocks, and as in the first experiment, they were
4.0 paired so that one executive rat could press a bar to avoid or stop the shock, while
Total length of gastric ulcers (mm)

Executive rats the yoked rat got the same shock as the executive. But this time, the rats were
had even smaller given a signal, an auditory tone, to let them know when the shock was coming. In
ulcers than the
3.0
yoked rats. these conditions, the yoked rats still got larger ulcers than the executive rats (Fig-
ure 13.22), but both groups had smaller ulcers than rats given no signal (see
Figure 13.21).

E
2.0 Both factors, control and predictability, have been shown to matter in the way

T
that humans respond to stress. For example, in some famous studies of British civil
servants, people at the very top of the executive scale, who had the most control

A
1.0 over what happened in their jobs, showed fewer signs of stress than the people

C
under them, who had less control over their lives. In fact, the farther down the scale

I L
of authority people were, the more signs of stress they exhibited (Marmot et al.,

L A
1978). Not only that, the stress seemed to make a difference, as people at the low-

I P
0.0
Yoked Executive No est grade of employment (messengers, doorkeepers, etc.) were three times more

R
rat rat shock likely to die in the following year than were people at the highest grade. Also,

E D U Signal before shock people who have a lot of control over their job (people at the top have the most
control, the most flexibility in their jobs) are much less likely to develop heart dis-

T
Figure 13.22  Predictability Also
Reduces the Stress from Electrical ease (Kuper & Marmot, 2003; Nabi et al., 2013). So despite the urban myth that the

A OR
Shock executive monkey suffered because it had to make decisions, in humans we see
that being in a position to make decisions about your work is good for your health.

M E
By the way, one researcher found a way to replicate the outcome of the origi-
nal executive monkey experiment in rats (Weiss, 1971b). He went back to his

T
records and found those executive rats that were especially responsive, pushing

H T
the lever much more than was needed to turn off the shock. He reasoned that

G IBU
these hyperresponsive rats were like the hyperresponsive monkeys that had

I
been selected to be executives in the original experiment. Indeed, these select
executive rats had larger ulcers than the other executive rats.

R R
Note that two things were going on here. First, these executive rats were dif-

Y
ferent from the start. For whatever reason, they were especially eager to stop the

P T
shocks, and that seemed to reflect a more stressful response to the shocks.

S
Second, because these executives were hyperresponsive, the rats to which

O I they were yoked received far fewer shocks than the average yoked rat. So it ap-

C TD
pears that there are important individual differences in stress response, and the
original executive monkey experiment was flawed because hyperresponsive

P
animals had been selected as executives. But when animals are randomly as-

O
signed to the executive and yoked conditions (thereby controlling for individual

U
differences in stress response), the animals that have control fare better than

O N
those that do not. And if they can’t have control, being able to predict unpleas-
ant events helps reduce the effect of stress on the body.

O
A different but interesting historical point about these experiments concerns

D
their use of gastric ulcers as a measure of stress. Taken together, these studies
convinced the world that such ulcers were purely “psychological.” To some peo-
ple this meant that ulcers could not be treated by “biological” or “medical” ap-
proaches. But eventually scientists learned that a bacterium (Helicobacter pylori)
causes almost all ulcers in humans, so antibiotic treatment usually gets rid of the
bacteria and the ulcers. There’s little doubt that stress increases the severity of
ulcers, and today we understand that stress impairs the immune system, as we’ll
discuss shortly. For this reason, bacteria that might have been kept in check by
Gastric Ulcers  The bacterium Helico-
the immune system may proliferate under stressful conditions and cause an ulcer.
Breedlove IntroisPsych
bacter pylori 1e common cause
the most So if you think you have an ulcer, it’s a good idea both to see a doctor for antibiotic
Fig. 13.22, #0000
of stomach ulcers. treatments and to reduce stress in your life.
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 Emotions, Stress, and Health   579

This story about gastric ulcers is also one of my favorite examples of the mis- health psychology  The study
take of thinking that if some process has a “psychological” component, then it of psychological, behavioral, and
must be beyond any “medical” intervention. In fact, an entire field of psychology biological factors that influence
is based on the idea that mental health and physical health are intertwined, as physical and mental health.
we’ll see next.

Health psychology explores the relationship

between physical and mental health  Table 13.1  Social Readjustment Rating
Health psychology examines the psychological, social,
Scale (SRRS)
and biological factors that influence physical and men- Event Score

E
tal health (Taylor, 1990). The overarching theme of health Death of a spouse or child 100

T
psychology is that what’s good for the body is good for Divorce 73
the mind, and vice versa. For this reason, it is a mistake to

A
Marital separation 65
think there is some clear division between medical health Imprisonment 63

C
and psychological health. We’ve already discussed how

I
Death of a close family member 63

L
prolonged stress can damage our physical health. Re-

L
Personal injury or illness 53

A
search proves that the relationship between stress and Marriage 50

I P
health is reciprocal—psychological stress can damage Dismissal from work 47

R
the health of the body, and physical illness can take a toll

U
Marital reconciliation 45
on our minds.

E D
Retirement 45
For example, people who experience life events that are Change in health of family member 44

T
stressful are more likely to suffer physical ailments after- Pregnancy 40

A OR
ward. In the classic study of this type, researchers surveyed Sexual difficulties 39
the medical records of thousands of people and asked the Gain of a new family member 39

M E
patients to report whether they had experienced any of a Business readjustment 39
long list of stressful events in the years preceding their ill-

T
Change in financial state 38
ness (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). There was a positive correla-

T
Death of a close friend 37

H
tion between stressful life events and later illness. The re- Change to different line of work 36

G IBU
searchers devised a Social Readjustment Rating Scale Change in frequency of arguments 35

I
(SRRS), where people could check off various stressful life Major mortgage 32
events. Each event has a number that indicates how stress-

R
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30

R
ful it is—death of a spouse or child was seen as the most Change in responsibilities at work 29

Y
stressful and given a score of 100, while divorce rated a 73,

T
Child leaving home 29

P
separation a 65, imprisonment a 63, etc. (Table 13.1). Peo- Trouble with in-laws 29

I S
ple with a score of over 300 were very likely to suffer an ill- Outstanding personal achievement 28

O
ness in the following year. This correlation between stress- Spouse starts or stops work 26

C TD
ful life events and later illness was seen repeatedly (Andrews Begin or end school 26
& Tennant, 1978). Another scale, called CUSS, gauging the Change in living conditions 25

P
stress associated with common events for college stu- Revision of personal habits 24

O
dents, is presented in Table 13.2.

U
Trouble with boss 23
Remember: correlation does not prove causation; a

N
Change in working hours or 20

O
correlation between stress and illness does not prove that conditions
the stressful events cause illness. Consider, for example, Change in residence 20

O
that some people may be more prone to stress than oth- Change in schools 20

D
ers. Of course people have no control over whether a Change in recreation 19
spouse dies, but for most of the stressful events on the Change in church activities 19
SRRS, the individual contributes to some degree to the Change in social activities 18
stressful situation. For example, the person must have Minor mortgage or loan 17
played some role in divorce, separation, imprisonment, Change in sleeping habits 16
dismissal from work, pregnancy, or having a mortgage. Is Change in number of family reunions 15
it possible that some people are genetically inclined to run Change in eating habits 15
into such difficulties, perhaps having genes that contribute Vacation 13
to impulsiveness that make marital or legal problems and/ Christmas 12
or illness more likely? Indeed, one study found good evi- Minor violation of law 11
dence that relatives of a person prone to stress are more Source: Holmes & Rahe, 1967.
 580  Chapter 13

 Table 13.2 College Undergraduate
Stress Scale (CUSS)
Event
Being raped
Finding out you are HIV-positive
Being accused of rape
Death of a close friend
Death of a close family member
likely to experience stress than the average person is (Kendler
et al., 1999). But that study concluded that such heritable in-
fluences could not account entirely for the correlation between
Stress rating stressful events and illness. It concluded that the correlation
100 reflects a causal relationship—that the events really did make
100 illness more likely—in at least some cases.
98 What sorts of illnesses may be triggered by stressful events?
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that episodes of de-
97
pression are more common after highly stressful events (Kendler
96 & Gardner, 2010). It makes sense that experiencing stressful

E
Contracting a sexually 94 emotions and dealing with hardships in our everyday life would

T
transmitted infection (other affect our minds and make us more susceptible to depression.
than AIDS) In Chapter 16 we’ll see that experiencing stress, especially early

A
Concerns about being 91 in life, also increases the likelihood of another major psychiatric

C
pregnant disorder, schizophrenia.

I L
Finals week 90 But experiencing stressful events is also associated with dis-

L A
Concerns about your partner 90 orders that we do not normally think of as “psychological.” For

I P
being pregnant example, cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and

R
hypertension (high blood pressure) are commonly associated

U
Oversleeping for an exam 89
with stress (Abbott et al., 2014). People who perceive their lives

E D
Flunking a class 89
as stressful are more likely to have a heart attack. Does this

T
Going on a first date 57
mean that heart disease should be classified as a “psychologi-

A OR
Registration 55
cal” disorder, given that stress puts a burden on the heart, mak-
Maintaining a steady dating 55 ing it more susceptible to disease? Probably not, given that

M E
relationship
exercise, which also puts a burden on the heart, reduces the
Commuting to campus/work 54 risk of heart disease.

T
Peer pressures 53 And what about suffering infections from bacteria and vi-

H T
Being away from home for the 53 ruses—would you consider these “psychological” disorders?

G IBU
first time Probably not. Nevertheless, there’s good evidence that experi-

I
Getting sick 52 encing stress also makes us more susceptible to such infec-
tions (DeVries et al., 2007). In the study of British civil servants

R
Concerns about your 52

R
appearance described earlier, researchers found that not only were people

Y
in the lowest pay grades more likely to have heart disease, but

T
Getting straight A’s 51

P
they were also more likely to suffer a wide variety of infections

S
A difficult class that you love 48
such as colds and the flu (Steptoe et al., 2007). This information

O I
Making new friends; getting 47
suggests that the participants’ immune systems did not func-

C TD
along with friends
tion as effectively as those of the executives. How can the psy-
Fraternity or sorority rush 47
chological experience of stress cause physical illness? We’ll

P
Falling asleep in class 40 see next that the brain and immune system are in constant,

O
Attending an athletic event 20 reciprocal communication.

OU N
Source: Renner & Macklin, 1998.
There is constant communication between the
nervous system and the immune system

O
People sometimes think of the body’s immune system as an automatic mecha-

D
psychoneuroimmunology The
study of psychological and neural
influences on the immune system
and its influences on behavior.
nism, attacking any invading virus or bacteria, independent of other body sys-
tems. But by the 1980s a new field, psychoneuroimmunology, arose to study
psychological and neural influences on the immune system as well as immune
system influences on behavior (Ader, 2001). For example, when researchers
deliberately infected people with a cold virus, those who had happy social lives
were less likely to come down with the cold (Cohen et al., 2006). Likewise,
people who tend to feel positive emotions also produce more antibodies in re-
sponse to a flu vaccination (Rosenkranz et al., 2003)—a response that should
help them fight off sickness. These interactions go in both directions: the brain
both monitors immune cells and their products, and can take steps to rein in the
immune system to keep it from overreacting and damaging the body.
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   581

Hormone levels in The brain uses the

circulation are carefully sympathetic nervous system
Figure 13.23  The Brain Monitors
monitored by the brain. to affect antibody protection.
and Controls Hormones and the
Immune System
Perception of threat Immune system
(fear) leads to release cytokines alert the
of cortisol from Nervous brain about infection.
adrenal cortex. system

T E
A
Endocrine Immune

C
system system

LI L
I P A
R
E D U
T
A OR
M E
Release of cortisol Immune system products

T
inhibits immune modulate hormonal
responses. responses to infection.

H T
I G IBU
How does the brain keep tabs on the immune system? Neurons in the hypo- cytokines  Proteins in the blood that
thalamus monitor the blood for proteins called cytokines, which the immune control production of white blood

R R
system uses to control the production of white blood cells, which attack invad- cells and antibodies.

Y
ers, and of antibodies, proteins that latch on to invaders to signal white blood white blood cells  Blood cells that

P T
cells to attack (Samad et al., 2001; Dantzer et al., 2008). This early-warning attack microbes invading the body.

I S
sensory system serves to alert the brain when microbes invade the body (Bese- antibodies  Proteins that latch on to

O
dovsky & del Rey, 1992). In this way, the brain is directly informed about the invading microbes to signal white

C TD
actions of the immune system. blood cells to attack.
There is an interesting theory about why our brains monitor the immune sys-

P
tem so closely. Although that achy, lethargic feeling that we have with the flu is

O
unpleasant, it is also adaptive because it forces us to rest and keep out of

U
trouble until we recover (Hart, 1988). In other words, the discomfort might not be

O N
caused by the invading virus or bacteria themselves, but might be imposed by
the brain simply to force us to rest. Perhaps high levels of cytokines signal the

O
brain to impose that sick feeling. This suggestion has given rise to the idea that

D
depression in some people may be caused by excessive amounts of cytokines
in circulation, or by excessive brain sensitivity to those cytokines. Indeed, anti-
depressant drugs tend to reduce cytokine production (Maes et al., 1991; Dantzer
et al., 2008).
We’ve just seen how the brain monitors the immune system, but how might
the brain control the immune system? The autonomic nervous system provides
nerves to all the organs of the immune system, including the spleen and lymph
nodes, and can slow down their production of cytokines and white blood cells
(Figure 13.23; Wang et al., 2003). Also, the brain controls the hormonal re-
sponses to stress that we described above (see Figure 13.18), and those hor-
mones can also suppress immune responses.

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 582  Chapter 13

External It has been repeatedly demonstrated that stress suppresses the immune sys-
stressful tem. This means that stress can lead to a vicious cycle—a suppressed immune
event
system may lead to disease, which adds to the experience of stress, further
weakening the immune system, and so on (Figure 13.24). To understand why
Suppressed
stress suppresses the immune system, making us susceptible to this vicious
immune cycle, let’s consider the evolution of the stress response.
system
We are simply not adapted to handle prolonged stress
Under stressful conditions, as noted earlier, the brain causes the release of the
Increase steroid hormone cortisol from the adrenal glands. Cortisol suppresses immu-

E
risk of nological responses by inhibiting the division of some white blood cells and

T
illness triggering the death of others. You might ask why, during times of stress, the
Stress of
brain causes cortisol to be released, if this hormone suppresses the immune

A
suffering and
dealing with system? Modern evolutionary theory offers some possible explanations for this

C
illness seemingly maladaptive situation (Sapolsky, 2004).

I L
When stress is a sudden emergency, the temporary suppression of immune

L
Figure 13.24  The Vicious Cycle

A
responses makes sense because the stress response demands a rapid mobili-

I P
of Prolonged Stress  Stress sup-
zation of energy, while immune responses take longer than the immediate, de-
presses the immune system, which

R
manding situation. A zebra wounded by a lion must first escape and hide, and

U
is not a problem in the short run. But
only then does infection of the wound pose a threat. So the stress of the en-

E D
prolonged stress, which many humans
experience, can lead to illness. Then counter temporarily suppresses the immune system, saving resources until a

T
the added stress of suffering from the safe haven is found. Later the zebra can afford to mobilize the immune system

A OR
illness and dealing with its consequenc-
to heal the wound. The cortisol released as part of the stress response also sup-
es may suppress the immune system
even further. presses swelling (inflammation) of injuries, especially of joints, which helps the

M E
zebra remain mobile long enough to find refuge. First the zebra runs away from
the lion, then it lets the joint swell up and repair while it’s safe.

T
In the wild, animals are under stress for only a short time, and any animal

H T
stressed for a prolonged period dies. So natural selection favored stress reac-

G IBU
tions as a drastic effort to deal with a short-term problem. What makes humans

I
unique is that, with our highly social lives and keen minds, we are capable of
experiencing stress for prolonged periods—months or even years. Some prob-

R R
lems that we might worry about can last for years: Am I going to keep my job?

Y
Do people think I’m weird? In such cases, our large, sensitive brain causes us to

P T
have problems most other animals don’t. Unfortunately, while our brain has

S
evolved to make us capable of feeling stressed for long periods of time, the

O I stress system still calls for changes that are only good for us in the short run.

C TD
Those body reactions to stress, which evolved to benefit us in the face of short-
term problems, become a problem when extended too long (Sapolsky, 2004).

P
As Robert Sapolsky said, “For 99 percent of the beasts on this planet, stress is

O
about three minutes of screaming in terror after which it’s either over with or

U
you’re over with. …We turn [stress] on for 30-year mortgages.” Humans suffer-

O N
ing such long-term stress, lasting more than a month, are more likely to catch a
cold (Cohen et al., 1998). People who are grieving the death of a relative, espe-

O
cially a spouse, also have a suppressed immune system for months or even

D
years (Stein & Miller, 1993).
For students, stressful exam periods usually cause a decline in the number of
immune cells and in levels of cytokines (Glaser et al., 1986). Importantly, a stu-
dent’s perception of the stress of the academic program is a predictor of the level
of antibody in the blood: students who perceive the program as stressful show the
lowest levels of antibodies. One experiment considered the effects of university
examinations on wound healing in dental students (Marucha et al., 1998). Two
small wounds were placed on the roof of the mouth of future dentists. The first
wound was timed during summer vacation, and the second was made 3 days
before the first major examination of the term. Not one student healed as rapidly
during the exam period, when healing took 40% longer on average. One measure

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Fig. 13.23, #0000
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   583

 Table 13.3  The Stress Response and Consequences

of Prolonged Stress
Principal components of the Common negative consequences of
stress response prolonged stress
Suppression of immunity and of Impaired disease resistance
inflammatory response
Mobilization of energy at the cost Fatigue, muscle wasting, diabetes
of energy storage
Increased heart rate and blood Hypertension (high blood pressure)

E
pressure

T
Suppression of digestion Ulcers
Suppression of growth Psychogenic dwarfism
Suppression of reproduction Loss of libido

C A
I
Insensitivity to pain Apathy

L L
Enhanced sensory sensitivity, Accelerated neural degeneration during

A
including altered cognition and aging

I P
sensory thresholds

R U
Source: Sapolsky, 1992.

T E D
A OR
of immunological response declined 68% during the exam period. So even some-
thing as transient, predictable, and relatively benign as examination stress can

M E
have significant consequences for wound healing. (Do you agree that examination
periods are relatively benign?) This is a powerful example of how the stress system

T
that helps us deal with short-term crises can wreak havoc with our bodies when

H T
it is prolonged. Table 13.3 lists a variety of stress responses that are beneficial in

G IBU
the short term but are detrimental in the long term.

I
It’s important to recognize that some people seem more prone to stress than
others. In the 1970s, researchers identified two general behavior patterns—called

R R
type A and type B personalities—in the development of heart disease (Friedman

Y
& Rosenman, 1974). Type A behavior is characterized by excessive competitive

P T
drive, impatience, hostility, and accelerated speech and movements. In short, life

I S
is hectic and demanding for such individuals. In contrast, type B behavior pat-

O
terns are more relaxed, with little evidence of aggressive drive or emphasis on

C TD
getting things done fast. The type A and B terminology has entered our culture,
but scientific support for this simple dichotomy has been spotty.

P
For example, some studies suggest that a tendency toward negative feelings,

O
especially hostility, coupled with being socially inhibited, is more closely associ-

U
ated with heart disease than is the traditional type A personality (Kupper & De-

O N
nollet, 2007). In Chapter 14 we’ll see that one of the “big five” components of
personality is neuroticism, the tendency to readily experience negative emotions

O
such as anxiety or anger. Neuroticism is positively correlated with type A behav-

D
ior (Bruck & Allen, 2003), so the greater susceptibility to heart disease found in
earlier reports of type A people may reflect a greater neuroticism in these indi-
viduals. One strategy in the field of health psychology is to identify people who
are especially prone to stress, and then intervene. Perhaps if we can get them
to reduce the stress in their lives, they will enjoy better health.

What are some strategies for dealing with stress?

If being too brainy for our own good makes us humans prone to prolonged
stress, can we harness our intelligence to reduce the impact of stress? This
is the theme for the rest of this chapter: what can we do to reduce stress and
improve our mental and physical health?
 584  Chapter 13

Although there are many different versions of it, relaxation training in-
volves focusing your attention on something calming while becoming more
aware of your body (McGuigan & Lehrer, 2007). The most common forms of
relaxation training have two parts. The first part consists of going somewhere
quiet to concentrate on a soothing stimulus, such as calming music or images,
which can be either present or imagined. The second part is progressive mus-
cle relaxation, when you deliberately tense the muscles in one part of your
body and then strive to relax them as much as possible. You do this in first one
part of the body and then another, with the goal of relaxing all the muscles in
your body. Relaxation training, consisting of regular practice for 20–30 min-

E
utes per day, is often recommended for people suffering from anxiety disor-

T
ders (discussed in detail in Chapter 16). For example, people suffering from
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), discussed in Box 13.2, may benefit from

A
relaxation training (Vaughan et al., 1994; Committee on Treatment of Posttrau-

C
matic Stress Disorder, Institute of Medicine, 2008). It also seems likely that

I L
anyone who is feeling stressed now or might be in the future would benefit

L A
from such training. While some people employ biofeedback, the use of ma-

I P
chines that measure physiological parameters such as heart rate or blood

R
pressure, to monitor how well they are relaxing, such equipment is not neces-

E D U sary for relaxation training.

Many people find that meditation, the practice of mentally shutting out

T
Relaxation Training  Most versions of re- most of the outside world and cultivating an internal state of calmness and

A OR
laxation training involve attending to the peace, helps reduce the experience of stress (see Chapter 7). There is a be-
moment and striving for deep relaxation wildering array of different types of meditation, associated with different cul-

M E
of the entire body.
tures or religions, so it is difficult to generalize about the practice or to scien-
tifically evaluate its effectiveness at reducing stress. Yet almost all meditation

T
practices include relaxation, as seen in a reduction of heart rate, breathing

H T
rate, and blood pressure, during the meditation itself. There have been re-

G IBU
ports that some types of meditation can reduce the impact of stress, for ex-

I
ample, by boosting the immune system (Davidson et al., 2003), but a review
of the literature concluded that the evidence was mixed at best (Ospina et al.,

R R
2007). Furthermore, do the benefits of meditation come from the specific

Y
form of meditation itself or simply from the relaxation that typically accompa-

P T
nies meditation (Gillani & Smith, 2001)? In other words, meditation may simply

I S
provide a specific method of relaxation training. Interestingly, some people

O
feel more anxious when they attempt meditation (Cramer et al., 2013), so it’s

C TD
not for everyone. If you are seeking to reduce stress, you might want to try
meditation with an open mind. If it works, great, and if it doesn’t, then try an-

P
other form of relaxation training.

O
The University of Massachusetts Medical School has organized a program

U
of therapy that was partially inspired by various meditation practices. Mindful-

O N
ness-based stress reduction (MBSR) pairs relaxation with efforts to focus
attention on the present moment, including current sensations, thoughts, and

O
bodily states, in an open, nonjudgmental way. The idea is that much of the

D
relaxation training  A technique that
focuses attention on calming stimuli
while relaxing the body, intended to
reduce stress.
meditation  The practice of focusing
attention in order to relax the body
and mind, and to reduce stress.
mindfulness-based stress reduction
(MBSR)  A technique that pairs
relaxation with attention on the
present moment.
anxiety and depression experienced in response to stress comes from reliv-
ing past events or worrying about future problems. This same experience of
“being in the present” is a goal of many schools of meditation. MBSR is fo-
cused on results and does not require practitioners to adopt any particular
religious or spiritual views (Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn, 2008). Many studies indicate
that MBSR indeed helps deal with stress, specifically by preventing relapses
of anxiety disorders or depression (Hofmann et al., 2010). MBSR also reduces
activity in the amygdala and other regions associated with negative emotions
(Goldin & Gross, 2010). While the University of Massachusetts offers local
MBSR training programs, considerable information about the programs, and
on MBSR centers in other states and countries, is available on the Internet at
www.umassmed.edu/cfm (“cfm” stands for Center for Mindfulness). The
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   585

 Table 13.4  Mayo Clinic Top Seven Suggestions for Stress Relief
Recommendation Examples
Get active Virtually any form of exercise and physical activity can act as a stress
reliever. Consider walking, jogging, gardening, house cleaning, biking,
swimming, weightlifting, or anything else that gets you active.
Meditate During meditation, you focus your attention and eliminate the stream
of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing
stress. Meditation instills a sense of calm, peace, and balance that
benefits both your emotional well-being and your overall health.
Laugh A good sense of humor can’t cure all ailments, but it can help you

E
feel better, even if you have to force a fake laugh through your

T
grumpiness. So read some jokes, tell some jokes, watch a comedy, or
hang out with your funny friends.
Connect When you’re stressed and irritable, your instinct may be to wrap
yourself in a cocoon. Instead, reach out to family and friends and

C A
I L
make social connections. Social contact is a good stress reliever

L
because it can distract you and provide support.

I P A
Assert yourself You might want to do it all, but you probably can’t, at least not without
paying a price. Learn to say no to some tasks or to delegate them.

R U
Do yoga With its series of postures and controlled-breathing exercises, yoga is

E D
a popular stress reliever. Yoga brings together physical and mental

T
disciplines to achieve peacefulness of body and mind, helping you
relax. Try yoga on your own or find a class.

A OR
Sleep Stress often gives sleep the heave-ho. You have too much to do—and
too much to think about—and your sleep suffers. If you have sleep

M E
troubles, make sure you have a quiet, relaxing bedtime routine,
listen to soothing music, put clocks away, and stick to a consistent

T
schedule.

H T
Source: Ghoncheh & Smith, 2004.

I G IBU
Mayo Clinic also offers many suggestions for how to relieve stress, as sum-

R R
marized in Table 13.4.

Y T
Healthy living helps combat stress

P I S
We’ve already discussed how the psychological experience of stress can

O
damage our physical health. This relationship between stress and health is

C TD
reciprocal, meaning that attending to our physical health also helps counter-
act the physical damage caused by stress. Maintaining our physical health

P
is also one of the best ways to reduce the mental toll of stress as well. First

O
let’s consider some of the things people may do in response to stress that

U
are maladaptive—excessive drinking, smoking, and other drugs. These be-

O N
haviors may alleviate the experience of stress in the short term, but they add
to it in the long term. Then we’ll look at the many findings indicating that tak-

O
ing care of our physical health helps us deal with the experience of stress,

D
and helps us prevent one of the biggest psychological problems caused by
stress—depression.

alcohol  One response to stress that humans have used since prehistoric
times is drinking alcohol. Alcohol can help people relax, and studies consistently
find that people who drink moderately—one or two drinks per day for men and
one drink per day for women—have a reduced risk of many health problems,
including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and senile dementia (Di Castelnuovo
et al., 2006). For women, there is a drawback to alcohol: even moderate drinking
seems to increase the risk of breast cancer. Note that here “one drink” means a
5-ounce glass of wine, a 1.5-ounce shot of spirits, or a 12-ounce bottle of beer
(each provides about 13 grams of alcohol).
 586  Chapter 13

alcoholism  A disorder resulting
from the excessive consumption of
alcohol to the point that it interferes
with a happy and productive life.
withdrawal  Symptoms that occur
when a drug is discontinued.
Not surprisingly, many of the health benefits of alcohol do not accrue if
people drink to excess (more than two drinks in a bout), even if only occasion-
ally. In fact, excessive drinking increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and
other problems. This brings us to another distinct risk of alcohol—alcoholism,
a disorder caused when a person drinks so much alcohol that it interferes with
leading a happy and productive life. It can be a slippery slope between moder-
ate alcohol use that benefits our physical and mental health, and excessive
alcohol use that can ravage our health and destroy our relationships with oth-
ers. For this reason, most physicians and psychologists are reluctant to advise
people to drink for their health, especially people with relatives who suffer from

E
alcoholism. Only moderate drinking will benefit your health.

T
Finally, note that there are two cases where we are certain that even moder-
ate alcohol use can be harmful. One is drinking by pregnant women. A mother’s

A
consumption of alcohol can have profoundly damaging effects on the fetus (in-

C
cluding fetal alcohol syndrome, discussed in Chapter 5), and even moderate

I L
drinking in pregnancy seems to lower the IQ of the child later in life (Mattson et

L A
al., 1998). Put simply, there is no amount of alcohol consumption by a pregnant

I P
woman that is known to be safe for her fetus.

R
The other case is drinking and driving. Alcohol impairs our ability to drive

E D U safely. At least 16,000 Americans die each year—many of them college stu-
dents—as a result of car accidents involving alcohol. Again, there is no level of

T
alcohol consumption that is known not to affect driving ability.

A OR drugs  Some of the other things people do to cope with stress are clearly

M E
counterproductive. For example, people who are feeling stressed may resort to
illegal drugs. In Chapter 7 we discussed the many dangers of illegal drugs, es-

T
pecially narcotics, such as heroin and cocaine, and amphetamines (“meth”). The

H T
main problem with this way of alleviating the experience of stress is that it only

G IBU
works for a short time, then leaves us worse off than we were before. To those

I
dangers, add the danger of being arrested and imprisoned. Getting involved in
the criminal justice system is not a good way to reduce the stress in your life!

Y R R smoking  One of the most common responses to stress is known to be very

P T
harmful—smoking tobacco. In the short run, smoking a cigarette provides com-

S
fort by boosting mood and energy. But this way of dealing with stress is another

O I example of a process that helps in the short run but makes the problem worse

C TD
in the long run. Whatever comfort the cigarette provides now will be counterbal-
anced by additional stress in the future.

P
For one thing, the nicotine provided by cigarette smoking is remarkably ad-

O
dictive, meaning that once you’re hooked, which can happen after just a few

U
cigarettes (Brody et al., 2006), you will soon feel bad if you don’t smoke. This

O N
is an example of withdrawal, when a person stops taking a drug and begins
experiencing symptoms that are generally the opposite of the effects of the

O
drug. In other words, the boost in energy and mood provided by the cigarette

D
is followed by feelings of irritability, anxiety, and depression during withdrawal.
Of course, a person addicted to cigarettes might simply keep on smoking to
avoid withdrawal symptoms, and that’s precisely what smokers do. This is one
reason why cigarettes are among the most addictive drugs humankind has
ever encountered—as addictive as heroin and cocaine. For people dealing
with poverty and the stress that comes from not being able to make ends meet
or take care of basic needs, cigarette addiction is especially counterproduc-
tive. The need to keep spending scarce funds on cigarettes simply adds to
their stress.
But even smokers who can afford their addiction eventually suffer the long-
“The Needle and the Damage Done” term health consequences of smoking. In addition to causing shortness of
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   587

breath, cigarette smoking increases the

chances of almost every illness you can imag-
ine: cancer of many kinds, heart disease,
stroke, peptic ulcers, collapsed blood vessels
(especially in the legs), erectile dysfunction in
men, and reduced fertility in both sexes. Why
are so many different health problems caused
by smoking? Cigarette smoke contains an in-
credible mix of poisons, many of which
haven’t even been identified yet. Perhaps the

E
most dramatic illustration of the terrible toxic-

T
ity of cigarette smoke is its effect on facial
skin. Comparing identical twins where only

A
one twin smokes vividly illustrates how toxic

C
cigarette smoke really is (Doshi et al., 2007).

I L
Once these health problems arise, the person

L A
who took up smoking to reduce stress be- Cigarette Smoking Increases Your Stress in the Long Run  Tobacco indus-

I P
try portrayals of the effects of cigarette smoking typically leave out the effect
comes beset with even more stress.
of erectile dysfunction in men, and of reduced fertility in both sexes.

R
I watched my mother slowly die of another

E D U
consequence of smoking, and it makes a rela-
tively rapid death from cancer look good by

T
comparison. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), which includes

A OR
the condition called emphysema, results when the lungs are so damaged that
respiration is impaired, and 85–90% of cases are due to smoking (Young et al.,

M E
2009). People with COPD have a hard time catching their breath, which is not so
bad at first, but COPD is relentlessly progressive and there is no cure, or any

T
treatment to reverse the damage. COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in

H T
the U.S., killing more people than breast cancer and diabetes combined (National

G IBU
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 2010). It is a slow, painful death. You know how

I
uncomfortable you feel when you’re really short of breath from physical exertion?
For COPD patients like my mother, that hunger for air never goes away, and they

R R
have to fight the panic of knowing it will only get worse.

Y
When you tally up all the health consequences of cigarette smoking, perhaps

P T
it’s not surprising that cigarette smoking is responsible for the death of millions

S
of people. As one review pointed out, now that a billion humans smoke, hun-

O I
dreds of millions will be killed by the habit (Peto & Doll, 2006). Although smoking

C TD
is a difficult addiction to beat, researchers have identified several measures that
can help people stop smoking, as discussed in Box 13.4.

P O
exercise, diet, and sleep  One common technique for dealing with

U
stress—which millions of people use and, unlike smoking, really does help re-

O N
duce stress and improve your health—is exercise. Surveys show that people
who exercise regularly are less likely to suffer from depression (Harvey et al.,

O
2010). Interpreting such correlations is difficult because people who, for other

D
reasons, are resistant to depression may therefore be more open to exercising.
But in studies where groups of adults were assigned to start an exercise regi-
men while others were given a control assignment, the people who exercised
not only showed an improvement in memory, but also had a larger hippocam-
pus, a brain region involved in memory (Erickson et al., 2011). The hippocampus
has been implicated in depression, and one reason antidepressant drugs work
is that they increase the production of new neurons in the hippocampus (Manev chronic obstructive pulmonary
et al., 2001; Santarelli et al., 2003). disorder (COPD)  A progressive
Perhaps the most effective form of exercise is whichever form you actually lung disease that impairs respiration
enjoy doing. Rather than making exercise one more thing you have to do, find a due to lung damage, usually caused
form of exercise that is something you get to do. Many people find yoga classes, by smoking.
 Psychology in Everyday Life
BOX
13.4
How to Stop Smoking Time to
peak
Tobacco use has brought premature death to more

Blood nicotine concentration (ng/ml)

Americans than alcohol and all the illegal drugs com-
bined. Cigarette smoking is a pernicious and highly 15
addictive habit because it floods the blood supply with
the stimulant nicotine (discussed in Chapter 7) at an
incredibly rapid rate (see figure). Cigarette smoking is 10
responsible for about 33% of all cancer deaths, includ-
ing 90% of lung cancer deaths (Peto & Doll, 2006).

E
5
If you don’t smoke, congratulate yourself. If you do

T
smoke, you probably would like to quit. The fact that

A
76% of adult smokers want to quit proves how difficult 0
it is to do, and some people never manage to give up 0 30 60 90 120

I C
Time (min)

L
cigarettes. Those who do quit often have to try more

L
than once before they succeed. On the other hand, The Rush of Nicotine  Cigarettes get nicotine into the

A
blood at a remarkably fast rate, making cigarette smok-

I
half of all adults who once smoked have managed to

P
ing a highly addictive habit that is hard to quit (Bennett,
quit, so it can be done. In fact, the millions of adults

R
1983).

U
who manage to quit smoking, added to the smokers

E D
who die, require the tobacco industry to generate “re- Orleans, 1985; Fiore et al., 2007). There’s also strong

T
placement smokers” to maintain profits. The tobacco evidence that one’s social network can have a big

A OR
industry’s well-funded advertising campaigns to portray impact on smoking (Park et al., 2004). Smokers are
smoking as adventurous and cool are targeted at chil- more likely than other people to socialize with other

M E
dren, adolescents, and college students (Sepe et al., smokers, and the habit of smoking spreads through
2002). Health psychologists are particularly concerned social ties, from friend to friend (ironically). Likewise,

T
about finding effective methods for people who want people are most likely to stop smoking if their friends

T
to stop smoking. and family stop too. These effects are larger than

H
Some smokers try to reduce their cigarette smok-

G IBU
ing gradually, while others quit abruptly (“cold turkey”),
any pharmacological intervention. For example, if a
spouse quits smoking, the other spouse also quits

I
and these strategies are about equally effective (Lind- 67% of the time. Having a sibling, friend, or coworker

R
son et al., 2010). Nicotine replacement therapy (nico- quit also helps (Fratiglioni & Wang, 2008). It doesn’t

Y R
tine patches, gum, sprays, etc.) significantly improves matter whether one’s geographical neighbors quit, so

T
the odds of quitting (Stead et al., 2008), in part by these are not local effects of anti-smoking campaigns

P S
combating the withdrawal symptoms. Smokers who or laws. Rather, it’s when friends or family members

O I
quit may become depressed, and indeed, antidepres- quit that smokers are most likely to stop. The closer

C TD
sants, such as bupropion, increase the odds of quit- the friend, the bigger effect he or she has. So if you
ting (Hughes et al., 2007; Polosa & Benowitz, 2011). want to stop smoking and you have friends or family
Counseling, either one-on-one or group therapy, is who also want to quit, your best shot at shedding the

P
also effective (Stead & Lancaster, 2005), but exercise habit is to try quitting together, and to offer each other

U O
programs, acupuncture, cigarette substitutes, and encouragement and reinforcement.

N
hypnosis are not (Clinical Practice Guideline Treat- A scholarly resource for evaluating various pro-

O
ing Tobacco Use and Dependence, 2008; Barnes et grams to stop smoking is the Cochrane Library (www.

O
al., 2010), despite the claims of practitioners offer- cochrane.org/search/reviews/smoking). Authoritative
ing those interventions. Whatever method a smoker tips to quit smoking can be found on the Centers for

D
uses, about half of those who manage to abstain for 6
months will never take up cigarettes again.
One effective aid to quit smoking has no pharmaco-
logical side effects: social support. Having family and
friends cooperate—by doing things such as talking
the smoker out of having a cigarette, expressing plea-
sure at the smoker’s efforts, and predicting success—
makes success in quitting more likely (Coppotelli &
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “quit smoking”
website (www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit_smoking/index.
htm) and the National Cancer Institute’s “smokefree”
website (www.smokefree.gov/), offering their START
program: Set a date, Tell family and friends, Anticipate
and plan for challenges, Remove all tobacco products
and paraphernalia from home/car/work, and Talk to a
doctor about getting help.

Breedlove Intro Psych 1e

Fig. Box13.04, #0000
09/27/13
Dragonfly Media Group
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   589

which typically blend relaxation (Ghoncheh & Smith, 2004) and exercise, enjoy- social support  Friends and family
able and easy to maintain. Personally, I enjoy walking and loathe all other forms that provide a network of resources.
of exercise, so every day I take the time to walk a few miles. stress buffering hypothesis The
It turns out that a healthy diet, which is good for your physical health and for hypothesis that social support
avoiding obesity (as discussed in Chapter 12), is also good for your mental provides a buffer between a person
health. One study found that people who eat foods high in trans fats and satu- and stressful events.
rated fats—the fats most common in industrially produced pastries and fast
food—are more likely to suffer depression. The researchers started with more
than 12,000 volunteers, none of whom had yet been diagnosed with depres-
sion. Those eating lots of fast food were 48% more likely to be diagnosed with

E
depression over the next 6 years (Sánchez-Villegas et al., 2011). The more trans

T
fats and saturated fats the people ate, the more likely they were to become de-
pressed. Alternatively, those eating healthier fats, such as those found in fish,

A
vegetable oil, and olive oil, were less likely to become depressed.

C
Likewise, sleep is good not only for your physical health, in part because it

I L
boosts the immune system (Besedovsky et al., 2012), but it’s also good for your

L A
mental health. Several studies have found that young adults who do not get

I P
enough sleep are more susceptible to depression and suicide (Kahn-Greene et

R
al., 2007; Wong et al., 2010).

E D U
By now you surely have noticed the theme in these studies—what’s good for
your physical health is good for your mental health. As noted earlier, that’s a

T
good summary of what health psychology has found. If you want a happy,

A OR
healthy mental life, make a point of doing those things that will promote your
physical health. Finally, there’s excellent evidence that having social support

M E
also helps us withstand stress, as we will discuss next.

T
Friends and family provide us with a buffer from

H T
the cruel, cruel world

G IBU
Researchers have consistently found that people who lack social support, in

I
the form of friends or family, are more likely to suffer mental and physical illness.
For example, people with low social support are not only more likely to suffer

R R
from depression and anxiety, but they are also more likely to suffer from cardio-

Y
vascular disease and are more likely to die in the next few years (Uchino & Bir-

P T
mingham, 2010). As another example, people—especially men—who go through

I S
separation or divorce and then remain separated or divorced through subsequent

O
decades are at a much increased risk of dying from heart disease than are people

C TD
in other at-risk groups (Sbarra & Nietert, 2009). Such data gave rise to the stress
buffering hypothesis that social support serves as a buffer between a person

P
and the bumps in life, helping the person weather stressful events without devel-

O
oping physical or mental illness (Cohen & Wills, 1985).

U
The value of social support has also been demonstrated in the laboratory.

O N
Here, subjects given a demanding task that normally elevates cardiovascular
measures, such as heart rate, show less of a response to the stress if a friend or

O
family member is present. This reduced stress response in the presence of a

D
friend may account for the greater ability of people with social support to be resil-
ient and avoid mental and physical illness in response to stress.
Pets can also reduce our experience of stress. Researchers find that pet own-
ers, on average, have significantly lower heart rate and blood pressure levels than
non–pet owners, both at rest and when exposed to stress in the laboratory.
What’s more, for pet owners, having their pet physically present significantly low-
ers those measures in reaction to stress (Allen et al., 2002). In fact, having their pet
with them lowers the stress response of pet owners better than having their
spouse or friend there! It appears that having an animal friend can offer some of
the same psychological benefits as family and human friends.
 590  Chapter 13

Figure 13.25  Life Is a Balancing Act Stressors

Bacteria
Social and Impaired
Toxins
stress viruses nutrition

Body defense mechanisms

Genetic Immune
factors system

T E
A
Nervous
system,

I C
Hormonal memory and Social

L
system perception, support

L
coping/appraisal

I A
strategies

R UP Reducing stress as much as

we can, reserving our ability

E D
to withstand the remaining
stress, taking good care of

T
Health our physical health, and

A OR
consequences cultivating social networks
can decrease the negative
effects of stress.

M E
H T T
Our present-day understanding of the effects of stress on the interacting sys-

G IBU
tems in the body, including our genes, brain, hormone system, and immune sys-

I
tem, is summarized in Figure 13.25. While we can’t control which genes we
inherit, and may have little influence on some sources of stress that arrive at our

R R
door, there are many things we can do to reduce stress in our lives.

Y
If you have any doubts about the rewards of having friendly relations (and

P T
friendly relatives), consider the Forest Troop of baboons we met at the start of

I S
this chapter. Recall that a group of especially aggressive males had made troop

O
life particularly stressful. Perhaps it was fortunate that only these males—the

C TD
meanest and most aggressive of the troop—got access to the food at the hunt-
ing lodge’s dump site. It was only these males that ate the beef tainted with tu-

P
berculosis. They died horrible, agonizing deaths, but about half the males and

O
most of the females and youngsters survived. The loss of the most aggressive

U
males had a remarkable effect on the social life of the Forest Troop. The surviv-

O N
ing males, which had always been a little easier to get along with than the more
aggressive males, never ramped up their aggression to the levels that had been

O
seen before in the troop. They occasionally tussled with one another, but hostili-

D
ties usually ended before another baboon got hurt, and the males rarely took out
their aggression on the innocent bystanders, the females and young. Now, all of
the baboons spent much more time grooming each other, and otherwise spend-
ing “quality time” in peaceful pursuits.
As withIntro
Breedlove humans, having friends appears to be calming and good for a ba-
Psych 1e
Fig. 13.26,
boon’s #0000 Not surprisingly, members of the Forest Troop showed fewer
health.
10/10/13
physiological
Dragonfly Mediasigns
Groupof stress after the aggressive males died. Even 20 years later,
the Forest Troop remains a relatively peaceful place for a baboon. When new
young males enter the Forest Troop, they might try the aggressive high jinks
common to neighboring troops for a while, but the resident males don’t engage.
Within a month or so, the new males calm down and fit right into the more
Peaceful Baboons peaceful atmosphere of the Forest Troop.
 Emotions, Stress, and Health   591

Perhaps the most important lesson these animals have for us is that most of
the stress we experience is avoidable. If we all treat each other better, everyone
can benefit. These animals also make it clear that aggression, fighting, and
stress are not inevitable consequences of biology. If baboons can, in a short
time, convert from a fractious, stressed-out society to a more peaceful, nurtur-
ing society, and can maintain that new social order for generations, shouldn’t we
be able to follow suit?

Fearless Parasites Manipulate Their Hosts

  The Cutting Edge

E
It’s a good idea to be afraid in certain situations, such as when a predator
is around. In an amazing story of adaptation, some parasites have evolved
a way to reproduce by blocking fear in a mammal. Toxoplasma gondii is
a single-celled microscopic organism that can infect many mammals and

AT
C
birds. But it can sexually reproduce only in the gut of cats, shedding millions

I L
of offspring in a cat’s feces. How does the parasite get to the next cat to re-

L
produce again? After all, cats don’t normally eat the feces of other cats. But

I P
other animals, including mice, will eat cat feces. Although Toxoplasma gondii
cannot sexually reproduce inside the mouse, it can still multiply, waiting for
A
R U
the next cat to eat the mouse and start the cycle over again.

E D
The remarkable aspect of this story is that the parasite speeds up the

T
cycle by infecting neurons in the mouse brain, which reduces the mouse’s

A OR
fear of cats. Mice that avoided the smell of cat urine before infection become
unfazed by the odor, an effect that seems to be permanent (Ingram et al.,

M E
2013). By losing their fear of cats, the mice are much more likely to be eaten,
and thereby to introduce Toxoplasma to another cat gut (Figure 13.26).

T
People who are around cat feces, as when cleaning a litter box, can be-

H T
come infected by the parasite and come down with a disease called toxo-

G IBU
plasmosis, which usually causes achy, flu-like symptoms that may last for a

I
month or more. In people with a compromised immune system, the effects
can be serious, and there is particular concern about infection in pregnant

R
women. Estimates are that as many as one-third of people worldwide have

Y T R been infected with Toxoplasma at some point. That makes it sound like the
disease can’t be too serious. But there is growing concern that Toxoplasma

O P I S
may have previously unrecognized effects on human behavior. For example,
people with schizophrenia are much

C TD
more likely to have been infected with
the parasite than the general popula-

P
tion. This finding raises the possibility

O
that toxoplasmosis may increase the

U
risk of schizophrenia (Flegr, 2013).

O N
What’s more, people who have been
infected with Toxoplasma are more

O
likely to be in traffic accidents (Flegr et

D
al., 2009), which suggests that per-
haps they were not as cautious as
they should have been while driving.
It’s chilling to think that this parasite,
which evolved a way to reduce fear in
mice in order to spread, may also re-
duce fear in people, with sometimes
fatal results. Will future research re-
Figure 13.26  Sometimes It’s Not
veal other environmental factors that
a Good Idea to Be Open to New
affect our emotions without our ever Relationships  (Courtesy of Wendy
being aware of it? Marie Ingram and Adrienne Greene.)
 592  Chapter 13

13.2 SUMMARY
• Stress includes events and stimuli that threaten us (stressors), the
cognitive system that assesses these events (stress evaluation), and
the physiological response of the body to that assessment (stress
response).
• There are two stages of normal stress response: the alarm reac-
tion, when physiological systems activate the sympathetic nervous
system and hormones, including cortisol from the adrenal glands, to
prepare for action; followed by the adaptation stage, when every-
thing returns to normal.

E
• Repeated or prolonged alarm reactions can lead to the exhaustion
stage, when the stress responses that were beneficial in the short

T
term become harmful in the long term.

A
• There are individual differences in how quickly a person recovers from

C
stress. Positive attention from parents in childhood seems to make

I L
people more resilient in adulthood. In contrast, very stressful childhood

L
events, including abusive parents, greatly increase the risk of suicide in

I A
adulthood.

R UP • Animal experiments indicate that having control over stressors and be-
ing able to predict the arrival of stressors result in a less severe stress

E D
response. The same principles seem to apply to humans, as people
with the most control over their workplace show the least evidence of

T
stress and stress-related illness.

A OR
• Health psychology reveals that psychological stress can hurt the body
and that physical illness can affect the mind.

M E
• The brain monitors the immune system by detecting cytokines, proteins

T
produced by white blood cells, the immune cells that attack invaders.
Cortisol released during stress suppresses immune responses. These

H T
aspects of the stress response, which are beneficial in the short term,

G IBU
are harmful when prolonged.

I
• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is especially harmful because it
maintains the stress response long after the traumatic event.

R R
• Relaxation training, such as meditation or mindfulness-based stress

Y
reduction (MBSR), focuses attention on calming stimuli while relaxing

P T
the body, which can help reduce stress.

S
• Healthy living practices, such as exercising, getting adequate sleep,

O I
and eating a healthy diet, improve mental as well as physical health.

C TD
• There is evidence that moderate intake of alcohol can improve physical
and mental health, but it comes at the risk of alcoholism.

P
• Smoking, which may reduce the experience of stress in the short term,

O
is highly addictive and has such a devastating effect on physical health

U
that it increases stress in the long term.

O N
• One of the most effective ways to minimize the impact of stress is to
have a network of close friends and family. The stress buffering hypoth-

O
esis says that social support helps people avoid the ill effects of stress.

D
Review Questions
1. What are typical responses to stress, and how is it that those re-
sponses, which are beneficial in the short run, can be harmful
in the long run?
2. How did our understanding of stress immunization in animals
change, and what does our current understanding suggest
Food for Thought concerning how children may grow up to be resilient adults?
3. How was the design of the executive monkey experiment flawed?
How many of the stressors listed on How did experiments with rats indicate that control and predictabil-
the College Undergraduate Stress ity reduce the stress of unpleasant events?
Scale (CUSS) in Table 13.2 apply
4. What is health psychology, and what are some examples of how
to you? How are you doing coping
physical health affects mental health and vice versa?
with these stresses?
 13
13
Emotions, Stress
and
Health
The Stresses and Strains of Baboon Life
You might think the life of a baboon on the Serengeti
plains of Africa would be sheer bliss. Baboons are
highly
The social animals,
Stresses meaning
and Strains there are so
of Baboon Lifemany
vigilant eyes that predators almost never manage
You might think the life of a baboon on the Serengeti
to sneak up close, and if one does, it may regret it
plains of Africa would be sheer bliss. Baboons are
when an entire troop of adult baboons fights back.
highly social animals, meaning there are so many
Food is relatively plentiful, so the baboons only need
vigilant eyes that predators almost never manage
to work about 3 hours a day to get the calories they
to sneak up close, and if one does, it may regret it
need. And yet, these baboons lead highly stressful
when an entire troop of adult baboons fights back.
lives. Why? Because as American researcher Robert
Food is relatively plentiful, so the baboons only need
Sapolsky (2008) puts it, if you only spend 3 hours a
to work about 3 hours a day to get the calories they
day working, then “you’ve got nine hours of free time
need. And yet, these baboons lead highly stressful
young baboons. The behavior of these aggressive
males required all the baboons in the troop to be
constantly vigilant, not for lions or food but for other
baboons.
young baboons. The behavior of these aggressive
Physiological examination of the baboons con-
males required all the baboons in the troop to be
firmed what behavioral observations suggested: the
constantly vigilant, not for lions or food but for other
entire troop was stressed out. Their blood had high
baboons.
levels of hormones that are released from the adre-
Physiological examination of the baboons con-
nal glands during times of stress. The blood samples
firmed what behavioral observations suggested: the
also revealed that these baboons had fewer immune
entire troop was stressed out. Their blood had high
system cells with which to produce antibodies to
levels of hormones that are released from the adre-
ward off illness (Sapolsky, 2002).
nal glands during times of stress. The blood samples

every day to devote to making somebody else just
lives. Why? Because as American researcher Robert
miserable.”
Sapolsky (2008) puts it, if you only spend 3 hours a
When Sapolsky first began studying a group
day working, then “you’ve got nine hours of free time
of baboons that he named the Forest Troop, the
E
That lowered immunity may have played a role in
also revealed that these baboons had fewer immune
the disaster that shattered the troop after a hunting
system cells with which to produce antibodies to
lodge on the edge of their territory began dump-
ward off illness (Sapolsky, 2002).
ing leftover food in the open. Of course, only the

every day to devote to making somebody else just
animals’ lives were dominated by the hyperaggres-
miserable.”
sive interactions of the oldest, strongest, meanest
When Sapolsky first began studying a group
males. These males were constantly picking fights
of baboons that he named the Forest Troop, the
with each other, occasionally resulting in injuries,
T
That lowered immunity may have played a role in
meanest, most aggressive males were getting food
the disaster that shattered the troop after a hunting
from the dump, because they wouldn’t let any of the
lodge on the edge of their territory began dump-
other baboons get close. They might have lived this
ing leftover food in the open. Of course, only the
way forever, but when some tainted meat was left

animals’ lives were dominated by the hyperaggres-
even for the “winner.” But it wasn’t just the rowdy
sive interactions of the oldest, strongest, meanest
males that were affected. When one of those males
males. These males were constantly picking fights
was in a bad mood, for example after losing a fight
with each other, occasionally resulting in injuries,
with another male, he might attack females or even
A
meanest, most aggressive males were getting food
in the dump, several baboons became ill and suf-
from the dump, because they wouldn’t let any of the
fered agonizing deaths (Angier, 2004). Those deaths
other baboons get close. They might have lived this
altered the Forest Troop profoundly, as we’ll see at
way forever, but when some tainted meat was left
the chapter’s close.

C
even for the “winner.” But it wasn’t just the rowdy in the dump, several baboons became ill and suf-
males that were affected. When one of those males fered agonizing deaths (Angier, 2004). Those deaths

I
was in a bad mood, for example after losing a fight altered the Forest Troop profoundly, as we’ll see at

L
with another male, he might attack females or even the chapter’s close.

Think Like a Psychologist:

Principles in Action I A P L
R
E D U
T
Whenever we encounter any interesting behavior we should consider the four principles.

A OR
Here are some ways that the four principles relate to our opening story about baboon life.

M E
T
MACHINE

H T
The constant activation of a stress response in the baboons meant

G IBU
the release of high levels of stress hormones from the adrenal
The mind is a product of

I
a physical machine, glands, which act on the brain and, among other things, made the
the brain. animals cautious and over-reactive.

Y R R
P S T
I
UNCONSCIOUS

O
Presumably baboons are like us and have no conscious control

C TD
We are consciously aware over the autonomic nervous system, so it is not easy to reduce the
of only a small part of sympathetic nervous system’s activation of the body and brain.

P
our mental activity.

U N O
O SOCIAL

O
We constantly modify our Virtually all the stress these animals experience is from their social

D
behavior, beliefs, and interactions. Before the accident that killed the most aggressive
attitudes according to males, the constant social tension took a toll on them all.
what we perceive about
the people around us.

EXPERIENCE After the death of the most aggressive males, perhaps it was
Our experiences physically experiencing the relief of no longer living in constant stress that
alter the structure helped the animals get along.
and function of the brain.
 594  Chapter 13

KEY TERMS
adaptation stage, 573 emotional syndrome, 569 psychoneuroimmunology, 580
adrenal gland, 574 emotion, 550 relaxation training, 584
alarm reaction, 573 exhaustion stage, 573 social support, 589
alcoholism, 586 facial feedback hypothesis, 559 stress buffering hypothesis, 589
amygdala, 564 general adaptation syndrome, 573 stress evaluation, 571
antibodies, 581 health psychology, 579 stress immunization, 575
autonomic nervous system, 550 insula, 568 stressors, 571
Cannon–Bard theory, 552 James–Lange theory, 552 stress response, 571
catharsis, 559 meditation, 584 stress, 571
chronic obstructive pulmonary mindfulness-based stress reduction sympathetic nervous system, 551

E
disorder (COPD), 587 (MBSR), 584 two-factor theory of emotion, 554

T
cingulate cortex, 568 orbitofrontal cortex, 568 white blood cells, 581
cortisol, 574 parasympathetic nervous system, 551 withdrawal, 586

A
cultural display rules, 558 polygraph, 573
cytokines, 581 posttraumatic stress disorder

I C
(PTSD), 567

L A L
QUIZ YOURSELF

RI P
E D U
  1.  Which theory of emotion attributes the intensity of an
emotion to the physiological arousal and the type of
  5.  Which of the following is not monitored by a poly-
graph (lie detector)?

T
emotion to the cognitive interpretation? a. Amygdala activation

A OR
a. Two-factor theory b. Respiration
b. Cannon–Bard theory c. Heart rate

M E
c. James–Lange theory d. Blood pressure

T
d. Cultural adaptation theory   6.  A subjective mental state that is usually accompanied

T
  2.  Which of the following pairs of emotions is not part by distinctive behaviors as well as involuntary physi-

H
of the popular eight basic emotions classification ological arousal is .

G IBU
system?   7.  The amygdala is part of the specialized brain circuit

I
a. Affection, disgust for the emotion of .

R
b. Anxiety, relaxation   8.  Rat pups that had a little stress early in life seemed

Y R
c. Fear, anger more resilient to later stress. This effect is termed

T
d. Happiness, sadness .

O P I S
  3.  What tool can be used to give a numerical rating to
each of the stressful life events a person has experi-
  9.  Someone with behavior patterns will typi-
cally be excessively competitive, impatient, hostile,

C TD
enced in the past year? and speak and move rapidly.
a. Therapeutic index   10.  Lynette is trying to quit smoking. She is suddenly

P
b. Neuroticism scale irritable, anxious, and depressed. These are symp-

O
c. Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression toms of .

U
d. Social Readjustment Rating Scale

O N
  4.  According to the stress buffering hypothesis, which
of the following is most important to help a person

O
through stressful events without developing physical

D
or mental illness?
a. Wealth
b. An engaging career
c. Social support
d. Periodic vacations

stress immunization; 9. type A; 10. withdrawal

1. a; 2. b; 3. d; 4. c; 5. a; 6. emotion; 7. fear; 8.