CHAPTER 6
EMOTION & AFFECT
© 2014 Wadsworth Cengage Learning
CHAPTER TOPICS
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What is Emotion?
Emotional Arousal
Some Important Emotions
Why Do We Have Emotions?
Group Differences in Emotions
Arousal, Attention, and Performance
Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Affect Regulation
DEBATE: DEALING WITH SPAM
• Consider the case of Charles Booher, who reacted
to a barrage of spam by threatening to kill
employees of the company sending him the spam
• Was he provoked into making the threats?
• Was his arrest and high bond ($75,000) fair? What should his
punishment be?
WHAT IS EMOTION?
• Emotion: conscious evaluative reaction to some
event
• How do emotions guide your behavior?
• How do emotions provide you with feedback?
• Mood: feeling state that is not clearly linked to some
event
• Affect: automatic response that something is good
or bad
AFFECT, EMOTIONS, AND MOODS
7-5
CONSCIOUS EMOTION VS. AUTOMATIC
AFFECT
• Conscious emotion – is a powerful and clearly
unified feeling state, such as anger or joy.
• Automatic affect – is a quick response of liking or
disliking toward something.
• How does conscious emotion relate to the
deliberate mind?
• How does automatic affect relate to the automatic
mind?
EMOTIONAL AROUSAL
James- Lange Theory of Emotion
The proposition that the bodily processes of emotion come first
and the mind’s perception of these bodily reactions then creates
the subjective feeling of emotion.
Facial Feedback hypothesis
• Was inspired by the James-Lange Theory
• Facial expressions can evoke or magnify emotions
because the brain reacts to what the facial muscles
are doing.
• According to the facial feedback hypothesis, what
happens when women injected with Botox are not
able to move their face as much as normal?
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
Schachter-Singer Theory of Emotion
EMOTIONAL AROUSAL THEORIES
• How does the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
contradict the James-Lange theory of emotion?
What does it have in common with James-Lange?
• How does the Schacter-Singer theory of emotion
relate to the James-Lange theory of emotion? How
does it relate to the Cannon-Bard theory of
emotion?
SOCIAL SIDE OF SEX: CAN PEOPLE BE
WRONG ABOUT WHETHER THEY ARE
SEXUALLY AROUSED?
• Sexual arousal may not be accurately attributed.
• Ambiguities of sexual arousal
• Sexual stimulation may affect the brain, or the genitals,
neither, or both
• The disconnect between the brain and the genitals is
greater among women than men.
• Attitudes may prescribe reactions different than
physiological response
MISATTRIBUTION OF AROUSAL
• How does the Vancouver suspension
bridge study relate to the theories of
emotion discussed above?
• Can the misattribution of arousal turn fear into love?
• What flaws in the design of the study could lead to questions
of the results?
HAPPINESS
What is happiness?
• Measured by affect balance:
frequency of positive minus
frequency of negative
emotions
• Does affect balance suggest
that optimistic people are
happier?
Life satisfaction
• Can comparing life to some
standard explain why someone
in a horrible situation can still
be happy?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/default.stm
OBJECTIVE ROOTS OF HAPPINESS
• What objective measures do you think would make
you happy?
• Why do people believe something (such as children) makes
them happier, when in fact it makes them less happy?
• How does the hedonic treadmill theory explain the
happiness state of lottery winners a year after winning, as
opposed to someone who has been paralyzed after an
accident?
http://youtu.be/As-g_dwgJig
SUBJECTIVE ROOTS OF HAPPINESS
• In what ways does your outlook determine your
happiness?
• Why would someone’s current happiness be a
predictor for their future happiness?
• In what ways are subjective roots more significant
predictors than objective roots?
INCREASING HAPPINESS
• How can focused attention on positive things
change your outlook?
• What are some examples of exercises to focus attention on
positive things?
• How and why is happiness linked to good health?
ANGER
• What is anger? An emotional response to a real or
imagined threat or provocation.
• Angry people may:
• Downplay risks and overlook the dangers of impulsivity
• Fail to consider consequences of actions
• In what ways is anger hurtful?
CAUSES OF ANGER
• How does perceptions of others’ behaviors relate to
anger?
• What types of behaviors in others may perpetuate greater
anger?
• In what ways is anger helpful?
• From an evolutionary standpoint, what role does anger play
in survival?
HIDING VS. SHOWING ANGER
• In what situations does society encourage people
to not show anger?
• What are the drawbacks of venting anger, or
exercising vigorously in response to anger?
• How can people decrease arousal to reduce anger?
• What are some best practices for dealing with anger?
GUILT AND SHAME
• What is the difference between guilt and shame?
• Which is constructive? Which is destructive?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks to guilt and
shame?
• How do apologies and amends represent positive
outcomes of guilt?
• How can guilt strengthen relationships?
GUILT AND RELATIONSHIPS
• In what ways is guilt an interpersonal emotion?
• Consider survivor guilt
• People may try to make others feel guilty
DISGUST
• What is the purpose of disgust?
• Consider disgust in men versus women
• How can disgust motivate healthy behaviors?
• How can public health officials take advantage of disgust?
• Why do people feel more disgust towards strangers
or different groups?
• How can disgust influence moral judgments?
WHY DO WE HAVE EMOTIONS?
• Emotions:
• Comprise powerful and important feedback system
• Promote belongingness
• May causes behavior indirectly
• Mood (emotion) doesn’t cause eating (behavior)
• Guide thinking and learning
• Affect-as-information hypothesis: if I feel good about something,
it must be good
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
• How does mood affect your food?
• People who feel bad often eat badly
• Both in terms of type and amount of food
• May lead to binge eating
• You want to feel better and eating is a strategy for feeling
better
Food
Mood
EMOTIONS GUIDE THINKING AND
LEARNING
• How do anticipated emotions guide decisions and
choices?
• What is affective forecasting?
• How do emotions help and hurt decision-making?
• How does the risk-as-feelings hypothesis explain biased
judgments?
• How do emotions lead to risky behavior?
• What effect do emotions have on the way people use
probabilities?
POSITIVE EMOTIONS
• Positive emotions are less prevalent, and they are
studied less often
• How, according to the broaden-and-build theory,
do positive emotions solve problems of personal
growth and development?
POSITIVE EMOTIONS (CONT’D.)
• Benefits of being in a good mood
• A good mood helps flexibility, creativity, and problemsolving
• People in a good mood perform better, are more persistent,
and more motivated
• People in a good mood avoid risks
• Drawbacks of being in a good mood
• People in a good mood are less logical, have poorer shortterm memory, and more easily distracted by irrelevant
information
ARE EMOTIONS DIFFERENT ACROSS
CULTURES?
Research conducted by Paul Ekman have identified
six basic emotions that can be identified by facial
expression
Happiness
Surprise
Sadness
Fear
Anger
Disgust
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN EMOTION
• Asian Americans place greater emphasis on
emotional moderation than European Americans
• How do people in collectivist and individualist
cultures find self-worth?
• How does culture teach people to hide emotions?
• How might that affect studies on cross-cultural recognition
of emotional facial expressions?
ARE WOMEN MORE EMOTIONAL THAN
MEN?
• Studies show that men are more emotional, but
women are more willing to report emotions
• Why do stereotypes regarding women’s greater
emotionality persist, despite research findings to the
contrary?
AROUSAL, ATTENTION, AND
PERFORMANCE
• Is arousal good or bad for performance?
• Under what circumstances can arousal cause an increase
in performance? Under what circumstances can it
decrease performance?
• How does the strength of arousal affect performance?
• What does this say about the effects of stress?
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI OR EQ)
• Emotional intelligence: the ability to perceive,
access and generate, understand, and reflectively
regulate emotions
• Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT)
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Perceiving Emotion
Facilitating Thought
Understanding Emotion
Managing Emotions
AFFECT REGULATION STRATEGIES
• What are some things that people can do to alter
their mood?
• What are some things people do to deal with the
problem?
• How do these approaches differ? What are the
strengths and weaknesses of each approach?
GOALS OF AFFECT REGULATION
• What are some affect regulation goals?
• In what situations would a positive mood be undesirable? In
what situations would a negative mood be desirable?
• How do people regulate their mood prior to social
interactions?
• What gender differences exist for mood regulation?
• Is affect regulation a good idea?
WHAT MAKES US HUMAN?
• Human emotion is tied to meaning
• Can respond emotionally to ideas and concepts
• Leads to a larger range of emotion
• Emotion aids in social acceptance/cognition
• Provides feedback
• Anticipated emotion used for decision making
• EI provides power to regulate emotions
DISCUSSION: EMOTIONAL
DIFFERENCES
• What are some of the differences in emotions and
emotional regulation between genders, ages, and
cultures? What universal similarities exist?
• Are people more alike or more different due to their
emotions and the way they express them?
CONCLUSION
• Emotions shape our behaviors and are
accompanied by physiological arousal
• Emotions can affect our lives, actions, and
performance
• Though there are many strategies for
controlling mood, emotions serve an
important function in our lives