WHAT IS EMOTION

A complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behavior.

THEORIES OF EMOTIONS
1.

James Lange theory By: William James and Carl Lange Emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events.
Sight of Bear physiological changes(Legs shaking, increase heart rate etc) Interpreted as fear

Person run Away

James-Lange Theory

Sight of oncoming car (perception of stimulus)

Pounding heart (arousal)

Fear (emotion)

Shortcommings of the theory

James and Lange would say, "I feel afraid because I tremble People who show different emotions may have the same physiological (visceral) state - Example: cry when happy & sad Physiological arousal may occur without the experience of an emotion: For example: exercise --> increased heart rate --> no emotional significance

Cannon-Bard Theory: Walter Cannon & Philip Bard

We feel emotions and experience physiological reactions such as sweating, trembling and muscle tension simultaneously. More specifically, emotions result when the thalamus sends a message to the brain in response to a stimulus, resulting in a physiological reaction Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger: physiological responses and subjective experience of emotion

Pounding heart (arousal) Sight of Bear (perception of stimulus)

Fear (emotion)

Schachter-Singer Theory
Also known as the two-factor theory of emotion Cognitive theory of emotion Physiological arousal occurs first, and then the individual must identify the reason behind this arousal in order to experience and label it as an emotion To experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal People search the immediate environment for emotionally relevant cues to label and interpret unexplained physiological arousal

Pounding heart (arousal) Sight of Bear (perception of stimulus) Cognitive label Im afraid Fear (emotion= labeled arousal)

Experiments

Donald G. Dutton and Arthur P. Aron Used a natural setting to induce physiological arousal In this experiment, they had male participants walk across two different styles of bridges. One bridge was a very scary (arousing) suspension bridge, which is very narrow that was lies above a deep ravine. The second bridge was a much safer and less rocky as the first.

At the end of each bridge an attractive female experimenter met the participants. She gave the participants a survey to fill out and a number to call if they had any other further questions. The idea of this study was to find which group of males were more likely to call the female experimenter. The results found that the men who walked across the scary bridge were most likely to call the woman, asking for a date

Cognitive Appraisal Theories of Emotion Emotional Appraisal: Evaluating personal meaning of a stimulus In the absence of physiological arousal, we decide what to feel after interpreting or explaining what has just happened. Two things are important in this: whether we interpret the event as good or bad for us, and what we believe is the cause of the event. Event ==> thinking ==> Simultaneous arousal and emotion

This was most likely due to the arousal they felt from walking across the scary bridge. They had misattributed their arousal from the bridge towards the woman, making her seem more attractive. Strangely, when asking the males why they called the woman they all had reasons for why they called her. Some said it was because of her attractive face, eyes etc

Experienced emotion

Emotion and cognition feed on each other

Cognition

Arousal Theory
Behavior changes as a function of arousal Inverted U function Yerkes Dodson Law

Social Comparison Theory

We learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves with other people and their opinions Upward social comparison occurs where we mostly compare ourselves with people who we deem to be socially better than us in some way. Downward social comparison acts in the opposite direction.

Experiment-I
Hornstein et al. dropped a wallet containing some trivial items, a return address, $2 and a letter in midtown Manhattan, then watched what people did when they picked it up. There were two variations, each with a different letter. Some letters were

Outcomes
Letter from the 'foreigner' led to the wallet being returned around 30% of the time. Letters from the 'native' with positive or neutral tones were returned around 65% of the time Native letters with negative tone were returned only around 10% of the time.

Thus, when the person finding the letter felt similar to the letter-writer, they were more motivated to return the wallet. However, when the letter writer seemed like them, but wrote in a negative way, they 'punished' the person by not returning the wallet.

Facial Feedback hypothesis

Our facial expressions influence our emotions Can influence our appraisal of particular events, same event differentially interpreted based on our facial expression... ...So put on a happy face

Emotional Intelligence: Combination of skills, including empathy, self-control, selfawareness, sensitivity to feelings of others, persistence, and self-motivation

Emotional Ups and Downs

Our positive moods rise to a maximum within 6-7 hours after waking up. Negative moods stay more or less the same throughout the day.

Culturally universal emotions