Journal Day 51:
• Describe the event in your life which you
can describe as the “most emotional time of
my life.”
• Also, do you consider yourself more or less
emotional than the average person?
Explain.
Journal Day 52:
• Come up with 3 truths and 2 lies about you/your
life that no one else would know!!!
• DO have the person repeat their statements 3-5
times
• DO discuss which were lies/truths
• DO NOT discuss the microexpressions with your
partners…this will cause them to alter their
microexpressions…
• We will reconvene and determine who is the best
liars and detectors…and we’ll talk about several
people’s microexpressions
Journal Day 52 part 2 or part B or
part II or part deux:
• If you could take the “happy” pill, would you?
Journal Day 53:
• Make a graphic organizer of the following words
(the goal is to develop a pictorial organization of
the process of emotions; you may need to change
the order of the words, put 2 words at the same
time, etc.)
–
–
–
–
Cognition (if you think it applies)
Arousal
Stimulus
Emotion
• Do it based on your own intuition, not the book’s
ideas necessarily.
Emotion:
from the Latin “motus” = to move
Andy Filipowicz
Ocean Lakes High School
3 Parts to an Emotion
• Physiological Response
• Expressive behavior(s)
• Consciousness of the experience
Early Theory of Emotion
• Darwin’s The
Expression of the
Emotions in Man and
Animals (1872)—
function of animal is:
– communicate to other animals
(ready to fight?)
• Darwin showed faces of emotion to
20 people...often unanimous
– prepares animal for action
agreement, but not always...his
conclusion was some emotions are
(anger = tense muscles)
universal, some specific to one’s
culture...Paul Ekman follow up later
The Subjective Experience of
Emotion
People vary in their subjective experience of
emotion in the following ways:
• People vary greatly in the intensity of their
emotions
• The sexes differ little in their experience
of emotions
• The sexes differ in the expression of
emotion: women are more emotionally
expressive
Part I:
Physiological Response
The Nervous System & Emotion
Divisions of the Nervous System
Hormones and Emotion
• Sensation / Perception of sensory stimulus
• ADRENAL gland sends 2 hormones:
– epinephrine and norepinephrine.
• BOOM!! (sympathetic nervous system)
• = arousal or alertness = energy to act (the
pupils dilate, the heart beats faster, and
breathing speeds up).
Physical Arousal and Emotions
• Sympathetic nervous system = Fight-or-Flight
• Not all F or F responses are the same…
• Different emotions stimulate different responses
– Fear—decrease in skin temperature (cold-feet)
– Anger—increase in skin temperature (hot under the
collar)
• Recent PET scans  sadness, joy, anger, and fear
each produce a distinct pattern of brain activation
and deactivation
• This indicates that each emotion involves distinct
neural circuits in the brain
• Don’t forget about it!
• Some arousal is
necessary
• High arousal is
helpful on easy tasks
• As level of arousal
increases, quality of
performance
decreases with task
difficulty
• Too much arousal is
harmful
Quality of performance
Yerkes-Dodson Law
Easy task
Moderately
difficult task
Very difficult task
Degree of arousal
Parasympathetic
Overreaction
• Causes vital signs to slow to a stop
• Experiment: Rats out for a Swim
• Another way to think about this…
– Sustained sympathetic arousal causes
fatigue of it, but…
– Parasympathetic reactions continue
to be active so much, the heart slows
and the victim dies
• Might explain “VooDoo Death” –
Cannon originally thought it was too
much adrenaline to the heart
(sympathetic)
Lie Detection
• Historical Examples of Lie
Detection! (see my notes)
– Lick a hot iron test
– Chew rice powder
– Trial slice
• Article: “Brain Injuries Allow
Patients to Detect Lies”
• Article: “Liar, liar! Face on Fire!”
– Measures blood flow around eyes
• A variety of nonverbal cues,
especially microexpressions, are
associated with deception, but no
single nonverbal cue indicates that
someone is lying
– Derren Brown
Lie Detection
• The polygraph doesn’t really detect lies, it detects physiological signs of
sympathetic arousal…assumed to be guilt (for lying) or fear (for being caught!)
– Measures: blood pressure, perspiration, heart rate, respiration, and pulse (physiological
responses!)
• Some of its many problems include:
– False - results: ¼ of ppl who are actually guilty are found innocent
– False + results: 1/3 of ppl who are actually innocent are found guilty
– Highly subjective interpretations of the physical changes that occur; no
difference btwn many emotions when measured this way
• A variety of nonverbal cues, especially microexpressions, are associated
with deception, but no single nonverbal cue indicates that someone is lying
• See my notes for more…
Are Lie Detectors Accurate?
Benjamin Kleinmuntz and Julian Szucko (1984) had polygraph experts study the
polygraph data of 50 theft suspects who later confessed to being guilty and 50 suspects
whose innocence was later established by someone's confession. Had the polygraph
experts been the judges, more than one-third of the innocent would have been declared
guilty, and almost one-fourth of the guilty would have been declared innocent.
An Alternative:
The Guilty Knowledge Test
• M/C questions about a crime
• Some questions contain
details that only the
perpetrator would know
– What kind of hat was left behind at
the scene of the crime?
• If suspect shows strong
emotional (physiological)
reaction to correct alternative,
this suggests he is the criminal
• PROBLEMS???
•
Another Alternative:
Brain
Fingerprinting
EEG shows if something is familiar or
unfamiliar
• Brain emits P300 wave when it sees
something familiar
• If a suspect emits a P300 wave in response to
details that only the criminal would know, the
examiner would conclude that the suspect
possessed "guilty knowledge" of the crime.
• Brain fingerprinting is still controversial and
has recently been upheld by the Supreme
Court as admissible evidence (2005).
Part II:
Expressive Behaviors
Specific Emotions, Reading Emotions
Hormones Give Rise
to Expressed Behaviors
• Oxytocin: Greek for
“quick birth”
• Trust Experiment (7)
• Cohesion of 2 People
– A cure for Autism?
Hemispheric Differences
• Wada Test – put to sleep either ½ of brain with anesthetics
• Left ½ Asleep = pessimism, worrying, crying
• Right ½ Asleep = laughter, joking, happy, unworried about the
upcoming brain surgery!
• May explain depression, bipolar disorder...normal control mechanism
to balance these hemispheres may go out of whack
Frontal
Parietal
Occipital
Temporal
left frontal lobe
may be most
involved in
processing
positive emotions
right frontal lobe
involved with
negative emotions
•
•
•
•
•
•
Crying
may relieve and reduce stress
stress-related chemicals found in tears (Brody, 1982)
other elimination processes remove toxins, apparently crying does too
why we feel good after a good cry
children who are unable to cry (genetic defect) show increased stress
Chicago journal study:
– women cry 5x a month, 6% did not cry at all, some cried every day, more likely
to report a “lump in the throat”, 85% felt better after
– men cry 1x a month, 45% did not cry at all, some reported “tears welled up” in
eyes, but did not flow, 73% felt better after
– for both, episodes lasted an average of 6 minutes
– Causes: arguments, watching sad movies / televsion, 7-10pm, 1 in 5 episodes
provoked by happiness
Amygdala:
Our Fear Structure
The Case of S.M.
• Amygdala damage? Can remember you are supposed to be
afraid, but won’t show any reactions to it!
– S.M. – she had Urbach-Wiethe syndrome, lesioning the
amygdala…identification of emotions not hurt, except
for Fear (also can’t pick out the “untrustworthy” one
from a group of faces)
• Otherwise, normal life with job, married, children
• Hippocampus damage? Don’t recognize the object? Still
show emotional rxn, but don’t know why (subject H.M.)
Amygdala:
Our Fear Structure
• Anxious children show heightened activity in the amygdala
when shown fearful faces (2001).
• Right amygdala larger in those children with GAD (2000).
• Its now thought it plays a role in detecting threats.
• Perhaps its hyperactivation may play a role in the abnormal
fear and anxiety levels of those with autism.
• Serial killers often show Acathesia = lack of emotion
regarding something important, esp. fear
ANGER!
• Catharsis = we reduce anger by releasing it through
aggressive action or fantasy
– Fried Green Tomatoes Catharsis
• When angry outbursts calm us, this is essentially what two
word term describing removal of something unpleasant
that will make us more likely to do it?
• Negative Reinforcement! = Learn to “blow off steam” is
not necessarily a good thing if you can’t control where you
do it or towards whom you vent that anger
ANGER!
Breakfast Scene
I Feel Pretty
• Does catharsis work? Moving Images 18: Venting
Anger
• Mixed results
– Study: make fun of someone, then allow them to
retalitate…calming occurred when target is the
tormenter, retaliation is “justified” and target is nonintimidating
– After watching football, wrestling, and hockey, ppl
exhibit more hostility than before
How to Handle
Anger
• Don’t suppress it.
• Don’t Express it aggressively.
• Confess it and do something
about it.
• Serenity Now!
• Seek reconciliation rather
than retaliation.
Happiness!
• Feel Good do Good
Phenomenon:
• Did you just get an A on
your big exam? You feel
good about it? Or did
you fail?
• This affects your decision
whether to aid the dying
person in the street as you
walk by
Happiness!
(Joy)
• Adaptation Level
• “The more I HAVE the more I
want”
• My own TV, HDTV, DVR,
HDDVD
• Our tendency to form
judgments (of sounds, of lights,
of income) relative to a
“neutral” level defined by our
prior experience.
• Relative Deprivation
• “I want more than THEY
HAVE”
• Test Scores
• The perception that one is worse
off relative to those with whom
one compares oneself (others’
attainment)
• (28) questions
Happiness is
•
•
•
•
Having high self-esteem
Being optimistic and agreeable.
Having a satisfying social life.
Having work and leisure that engage one’s skills.
– Jerry knows how to be happy in the most annoying
situations!
• Having a meaningful religious faith.
• Sleeping well and exercise.
• Laughter (28)
Happiness Is Not
Related to
•
•
•
•
•
Age
Parenthood
Gender
Education levels
Physical attractiveness
• Predicting Happiness
Theories of Emotion
(see Graphic Organizer)
1- James-Lang Theory
2- Cannon-Bard Theory
3- Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory
Common-Sense Theory
• Common sense might suggest that the perception
of a stimulus elicits emotion which then causes
bodily arousal
Stimulus
Perception
Emotion
(Tiger)
(Interpretation
of stimulus—
danger)
(Fear)
Bodily
arousal
(Pounding
heart)
1. Emotion-arousing stimulus leads to a
2. Conscious feeling (fear, anger) and a
3. Physiological response.
•
Seeing an angry dog triggers feelings of fear
and physical responses such as trembling.
Debates in Emotion Research
• Which comes first, physiological
arousal or the subjective experience
of an emotion?
• Can we react emotionally before
appraising a situation, or does
thinking always precede emotion?
James-Lange Theory
James-Lange Theory (1890)
•
•
•
•
1880/90s, William James at Harvard
Carl Lange, Danish physiologist
Independently wrote up the same idea
emotion is due to perceiving changes in the
body.
•
Think about what happens when you narrowly miss hitting someone
who has darted out in front of your moving car. Chances are your first
act is to slam on the brakes and screech to a halt. After the car is safely
stopped you notice that your heart is beating rapidly and your face is
flushed with sweat; and then you begin to feel fear. As the JamesLange theory predicts, only after the car is stopped and the accident
averted does the emotion occur. (Schwartz, 1986, p.90)
Support for James-Lange
• Facial Feedback Hypothesis:
– Depicting a specific emotion, especially facially, causes us to
subjectively feel that emotion.
– Research comparing ratings of cartoons by persons holding pen in
teeth versus those holding it in lips; mantra: “me, me” vs. “you,
you”
– Experiences of depressed people who “put on a happy face”
• Drugs that enhance autonomic arousal typically result in
reports of more intense emotions.
• Antonio Damasio’s findings—that each basic emotion produced
a distinct pattern or neural response and that the physiological
changes occurred before they were interpreted as an
emotion—support the theory
Cannon-Bard Theory
• An emotion-arousing stimulus
simultaneously triggers both a
– physiological response (sympathetic
nervous system) and
– the experience of an emotion (brain’s
cerebral cortex).
Cannon Bard Theory
Walter Cannon (1927)
• Cut the spinal cords of dogs so no
sensations could reach the brain...
• If emo follows from the sensations,
w/out the sensations, dogs should
show no emos.
• However, dogs still showed anger,
fear, and pleasure
Walter Cannon (1927) – flawed
• Paralyzed patients still retain a large
portion of autonomic sensitivity via
cranial nerves, such as the vagus
nerve
• These patients report a lack of
emotional intensity, so they feel “as
if” they were angry instead of true
anger
• So, it seems he was wrong, James
may have been right that the body’s
responses do matter
2 Factor Theory of Emotion
Stanley Schachter & Jerome Singer (1962)
• Emotion depends on 2 factors:
• 1- Physiological arousal
• 2- The cognitive interpretation of that
arousal
• Unless you can interpret, explain, and label
the bodily changes, you will not feel a true
emotion.
Schachter-Singer
• Injected either adrenaline or placebo (saline) & presence of
emotion provoking situation…
• 1 group Filled out questionnaire with mildly emotional items
• 2nd group also did this, but a confederate vividly expressed outrage
at the nature of the questions, tore up the response sheet, and
stomped out of the room
• Questionnaire alone did not = anger in those w/placebo OR
adrenaline, without confederate
• Placebo group with confederate did not = anger
• Adrenaline group with confederate = anger about questionnaire
• CONCLUSION: Emo requires autonomic arousal and a relevant
cognition about the environment
– Parps attributed anger to questionnaire, not the other participant
Two-Factor Theory
The Dutton & Aron Experiment
* Study: Males are more attracted to a female
confederate they meet immediately after crossing a
high, swaying suspension bridge than they are when
meeting a female confederate after passing over a
stable, low rise bridge.
* Another study with increased laughing to a comedy
* Finally, same early version, but either told or not told
about the effects of the drug…when told, no emotion
as parps attributed reactions to the drug, not the
situation
Richard Lazarus (1922- )
Cognitive-Mediational Theory
• Emotions result from the cognitive appraisal of a
situation’s effect on personal well-being
• All other components of emotion, including
physiological arousal, follow the initial
cognitive appraisal
• Critics of this theory argue that emotional
reactions to a stimulus or event are virtually
instantaneous—too rapid to allow for the
process of cognitive appraisal. They suggest
that we feel first and think later.
Robert Zajonc (1923-
)
• Suggested that not all emotions
involve deliberate thinking
• Therefore, cognition is not necessary
for all emotions
• Some emotions skip the thinking part
of the brain
Fear Pathway in the Brain
When you’re faced with a potentially threatening
stimulus—like a snake dangling from a stick—
information arrives in the thalamus (blue) and is
relayed simultaneously along two pathways.
Crude, archetypal information rapidly travels the
direct route to the amygdala (red), triggering an
almost instantaneous fear response. More
detailed information is sent along the pathway to
the visual cortex (blue), where the stimulus is
interpreted. If the cortex determines that a
threat exists, the information is relayed to the
amygdala along the longer, slower pathway. The
amygdala triggers other brain structures, such
as the hypothalamus, which activate the
sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine
system’s release of stress hormones.
Amygdala then sends information
along two pathways
•
•
Joseph LeDoux believes that the direct thalamus–
amygdala connection represents an adaptive
response that has been hard-wired by evolution in
the human brain.
The indirect route allows more complex stimuli to
be evaluated in the cortex.
Paths to Emotional Responses
Paths to Emotional Responses
Paths to Emotional Responses
The Expression of
Emotion:
Nonverbal
Communication
•
•
•
•
•
Nonverbal Communication
Humans reveal their emotions
both verbally and nonverbally.
Does she like me?
Communicating feelings
without words:
– Non-Verbals (Seinfeld)
• Tone of voice
• Non word sounds
– Facial expressions
– Hand gestures & More! &
Video
AKA “body language”
Greetings
Display Rules
• The cultural rules governing how
and when a person may express
emotion
• What’s ok in school?
• Rules greatly vary from culture
to culture and for different
groups within a given culture
Emotion and Facial Expressions
• Paul Ekman identified 80 different facial
muscles that in varying combinations code for
expressions...he mapped them!
• Ekman found that people from all over the
world, even remote cultures, accurately
recognized basic emotions in the photographs
• Many ways to smile:
• 1 (tense upper lip) masks anger
• insincere lasts too long (10 sec), genuine = 2 sec
• 1 cushions criticism (lips closed, corners drawn upward)
• reluctant, compliant smile – giving in to pressure from
another (eyes downward, corners of mouth drawn
sideways/slight up)
Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory
• Each basic emotion is associated with a
unique facial expression
• Sensory feedback from the expression contributes
to the emotional feeling
• Example: Smile if you want to feel happy. 
1.80
1.80
1.60
1.60
Average anger score
Average happiness score
Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory
1.40
1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
1.40
1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
Frown
Smile
Facial expression
Frown
Smile
Facial expression
Facial expressions have an effect on self-reported
anger and happiness
Cohn & Tronick (1983)
• 10 Universal Baby emotions: interest,
distress, disgust, joy, anger, surprise,
shame, fear, contempt, and guilt
• Babies can interpret emotions, too.
• Mothers told to imagine how they feel on a
day when they’re tired...instructed to look
away from babies, speak monotone, turn
corners of mouth down....
• In response, Babies cried, grimaced, and
otherwise showed distress.
Which Baby is Which?
Anger, Disgust, Fear, Interest,
Joy, Surprise, Sadness
Joy
Anger
Disgust
Interest
Surprise
Sadness
Fear
Which Baby is Which?
Anger, Disgust, Fear, Interest,
Joy, Surprise, Sadness
Facial Expressions
• Each basic emotion is associated with
a unique facial expression
• Facial expressions are innate and “hard-wired”
• Innate facial expressions the same across many cultures
• Display rules—social and cultural rules that regulate
emotional expression, especially facial expressions.
• Ekman has found that these expressions of emotion are
universal and recognizable across widely divergent
cultures.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFqzYoKkCc
Reading Nonverbal Communication
Facial muscles, in particular, are hard to control and can reveal
emotions that a person is trying to conceal
Trained lie-catchers can detect minute changes in facial
expressions (called microexpressions) that reveal lying.
See if you can pick up on the microexpressions in this video of
people telling lies/truths.
Cato & Ekman
Truth vs. Lie
(already did)
Emotion-Detecting Radar
Arne Ohman and his Stockholm colleagues (2001)
found that people more speedily detect an angry face
than a happy one.
Animals & Emotion
Do animals experience emotion?
Do animals experience emotion?
• Anthropomorphism is the attribution of
human traits, motives, emotions, or
behaviors to nonhuman animals or
inanimate objects.
• Some animal species clearly demonstrate
portions of emotions such as: physiological
arousal, maybe expressive behavior?
• But, to understand how they subjectively
experience such feelings raises questions
that cannot be fully answered at this time.
Reading Nonverbal
Communication: Questions
1.
Discuss some social and work situations in which
the ability to interpret nonverbal cues is of
particular importance.
2. E-mail and Internet chat-room conversations are
completely lacking in nonverbal communication.
What might some of the consequences be?
3. Many studies find that women are better than men
at reading nonverbal cues. Why might this be so?