3.2COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS:
COGNITION AND EMOTION
3.3 AN INTEGRATIVE LOOK AT
HAPPINESS
Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness
21:20 min.
OUTLINE PRINCIPLES THAT
DEFINE THE COGNITIVE LEVELS
OF ANALYSIS
WHAT ARE THE 3 PRINCIPLES THAT DEFINE
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS?
1.Human beings are information processors
2. The mind can be studies scientifically
3. Cognition processes are influenced by social and
cultural factors
EXPLAIN HOW PRINCIPLES THAT
DEFINE THE COGNITIVE LEVEL
OF ANALYSIS MAY BE
DEMONSTRATED IN RESEARCH
Cognition and Emotion: Daniel Goleman: Why
aren't we more compassionate?
RESEARCH IN COGNITION AND EMOTION THAT
DEMONSTRATE THE 3 PRINCIPLES OF CLA:
LeDoux – Biological Factors in Emotion
 Lazarus and Folkman (1984) - Appraisal
 Brown and Kulik – flashbuld memory
 Schachter and Singer – two factor theory of
emotion.

DISCUSS HOW AND WHY
PARTICULAR RESEARCH
METHODS ARE USED BY
COGNITIVE RESEARCHERS
RESEARCH METHODS USED
1.PET
2. fMRI
3. MRI
4. EEG
5. Case Studies
6. Experimental
7. Correlation studies
8. Interviews
9. observations
DISCUSS ETHICAL
CONSIDERATIONS RELATED TO
RESEARCH STUDIES AT THE
COGNITIVE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
DISCUSS THE EXTENT TO WHICH
COGNITIVE AND BIOLOGICAL
FACTORS INTERACT IN EMOTION?
Video : The Science of Stress Physiology Emotions
Fight Flight (3:33)
EMOTIONS AND MEMORY
Where were you when the planes hit the Twin
Towers?
 Where were you when the Sandy Hook shooting
took place?
 Why do we remember some events but not
others?

We appear to remember those events that involve
emotions
 Emotions are physical signals which react to external
stimuli.

EMOTIONS CONSIST OF 3 COMPONENTS
Physiological changes, such as arousal of the
autonomic nervous system and the endocrine
system that are not conscious
 The person’s own subjective feeling of an
emotion
 Associated behavior, i.e. smiling or running
away.


Cognitive appraisal is an interpretation

Physiological stimuli (fight or flight) and cognitive
appraisal (based upon experience) results in a
decision about what to do.
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN EMOTION

Amygdala – brains
emotional center.


Stress hormones i.e.
adrenaline are released
when strong emotions
are evoked.
LeDoux, The Emotional
Brain (1999)
1. short route: thalamus
to amygdala
 2. long route: neocortex
and hippocampus before
emotional response
 Flexibility in responses

THE SCHACHTER-SINGER TWO-FACTOR
THEORY OF EMOTION
Video
 The theory posits that the experience of
particular emotions is dependent on cognitive
labels exerting a “steering function” over general
physiological arousal.
 Hypothesized: in the absence of an “appropriate
explanation” for arousal participants could be
manipulated into experiencing an emotion by
manipulating aspects of the available “cognitive
circumstance.”

FOLLOWING THE IMPLICATIONS OF THEIR THEORY
SCHACHTER AND SINGER ALSO PROVIDED THREE
IMPORTANT ANCILLARY PROPOSITIONS:
(1) In the event that an individual has no causal
explanation for an arousal state he or she will label
arousal in terms of available cognitions.
(2) In the event that an individual has appropriate
explanation for arousal alternative cognitive
labeling will be unlikely.
(3) Under identical “cognitive circumstances” an
individual will only respond with emotional
experience to the degree that he or she is
physiologically excited.
Interactive Activity:
THE PROCEDURE
The experiment was “cast in the framework of a
study of the effects of Vitamin supplements on
vision.” [3]
 Researchers told all 184 participants, all male
college students, that they would be receiving
injections of the vitamin compound “Suproxin.”


In reality the injected compound was ½cc of either
epinephrine or saline (placebo) solution, creating
experimental and control conditions respectively.

participants who received the epinephrine were
assigned to one of three conditions

“Informed”


“Ignorant”


participants were not given any information regarding
potential side effects and thus no explanation for arousal.
“Misinformed”.


participants were made aware of the injection’s potential
side effects (e.g. increased heart rate, shakiness, etc.), thus
giving an “appropriate explanation” of arousal.”
participants were made aware of fabricated side effects. (in
order to control for effects of introspective anxiety in the
face of side effects).
The final variable manipulated was the
“cognitive circumstance.”
PROCEDURE CONT.,
Participants were left alone for 20 minutes with paired
stooges (blind to participant condition) who were
trained to act in either a “euphoric” or “angry” manner.
 Emotional state was then experimentally measured
via one-way mirror assessments (semiprivate index) of
the participants’ behavior relative to the stooge.
 The results of the experiment confirmed Schachter and
Singer’s original hypothesis. In both the “euphoric”
and “angry” conditions participants in the “Ignorant”
and “Misinformed” conditions consistently showed
significantly higher scores on both activity indices and
self report scales than those in the Informed and
Placebo conditions.

(refer pg 18/19 of original study)
COGNITIVE FACTORS IN EMOTION:
APPRAISAL

Lazarus: Appraisal are evaluations related to
how the situations will impact an individual's
well being.
Positive emotions emerge if appraisal is benefitical
 Negative emotions emerge if appraisal is harm


Cognitive appraisal is important to how people
react to emotional stress AND that stress is not
only physiological.
People actively interpret and evaluate what is
happening around them.
 An individuals experience of stress can be moderted.

LAZARUS: MODERATING INDIVIDUAL
APPRAISAL OF STRESS

Characteristics that influence stress perception:
Motivation
 Beliefs about one’s self and the world
 Environmental variables, such as the nature of the
danger or the social networks


Strategies for stressful situations:
Problem-focused coping: aims to fix the problem
causing the stress
 Emotion-focused coping: handles the emotions rather
than changes the problem. e.g. escape, self control,
seeking social support or attempting to seek a
positive appraisal of the situation.

SPEISMAN ET AL (1964) PG 90

Read Speisman – regarding film on genital
surgery.
Aim: to investigate if peoples emotional reaction to
the unpleasant film could be manipulated.
 Procedure: film was presented with three different
soundtracks

1. trauma condition
 2. denial condition
 3. intellectualization condition


It may not be the event itself that elicits the
emotional response, but rather the individuals
appraisal of those events.
EMOTION AND COGNITIVE PROCESS:
FLASHBULB THEORY

Brown and Kulik (1977) –
Flashbulb memory – vivid and detailed memories of
highly emotional events that appear to be recorded in
the brain as though with the help of a camera’s flash.
 Suggests that there is a neural pathway that triggers
an emotional arousal because the event is unexpected
or extremely important.
 Emotional events are better remembered than less
emotional events.(amygdala???)


Neisser (1985) challenges

People do not know an event is important until after,
so perhaps it is rehearsal and reconsideration of the
event. Story telling.
Post event information and current attitudes and
emotions influence memory.
 Breckler (1984) : Bias in memory



Peoples current attitudes toward blood donation
impacted their memories about how they felt when
they donated blood in the past.
Holmber and Holmes (1994)

men whose marriages had become less happy over
time tended to recall early interactions in the
marriage being more negative than they had
originally been reported.
DISCUSS THE EXTENT TO WHICH COGNITIVE
AND BIOLOGICAL FACTORS INTERACT IN
EMOTION?
Cognitive
Biological
3.3 AN INTEGRATIVE LOOK AT
HAPPINESS
Lyubomirsky (2001): humans have an inborn set
point for happiness. It accounts for 50% of our
overall perceived happiness, 10% is due to
circumstance and 40% is influenced by others.
COGNITIVE FACTORS IN HAPPINESS:
BELIEFS ABOUT HAPPINESS

Social Comparison Theory:
people learn about and assess themselves by
comparisons with others.
 Happiness is stimulated by having more than the
other guy.
 But how long does this feeling of happiness last?


Level of aspiration theory:
Reaching certain goals?
 People assess what they can gain and how likely it is
that they will achieve their goal.
 Expectations are influenced by previous experience,
and by desire.
 But how long does this feeling of happiness last?

DOES MONEY BUY HAPPINESS?

Myers and Dieners (1995):


no direct link between an increase in wealth and
happiness
Hagarty (2003):

happiness was correlated with equality of
distribution of wealth (US and seven other countries)
Comparing yourself to someone who is more
fortunate- upward comparison – leads to
dissatisfaction.
 People believe they will be happier in the future
then in the present



Johnson and Kruger (2006) happiness is being
satisfied with one’s salary – the size of the salary
does not matter, it is the perception.
Illusory correlation – making faulty associations
between variables .

Conway, di Fazio and Mayman (1999)
Research – Money brings happiness?
 Method: questionnaires –
 judge high status individuals with a lot of money and lowstatus individuals with no money.
 Population: 159 young men and women
 Results: false belief that wealthy individuals would be
happier, less angry, less depressed and experience less fear in
daily life.

CASE STUDY: CHALLENGING ESTABLISHED
BELIEFS OF HAPPINESS
Lori and Reba
Schappel – conjoined
at he head for 40
years.
 Share blood supply
and brain tissue.
 Lori use to work in a
hospital
 Reba is a country
singer

REFLECTING ON HAPPINESS
What is happiness to you?
 Is it based upon emotion or reason?
 Do Reba and Lori really know what happiness is?

SOCIAL FACTORS ABOUT HAPPINESS

According to the Dalai Lama,
Happiness is determines more by the state of one’s
mind that by the external conditions, as long as basic
survival needs are met.
 If people base their happiness on wealth, they will
lose their happiness if they lose their money.

GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS

King of Bhutan – introduced the term Gross
National Happiness – a measure of growth and
happiness.

The ultimate purpose of life is inner happiness

“Knowing your limitations; Knowing how much is enough”
THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD?

The Danes





Denmark has the highest level of income equality
Prosperous economy
Well functioning democracy
Winning the 1992 EU championship in football didn’t
hurt.
Danes do not have high expectations of the future,
they are realistic
NATIONAL HAPPINESS RANKING
(WASHINGTON POST SEPT. 2013)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/09/10/a-fascinatingmap-of-the-worlds-happiest-and-least-happy-countries/
SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT PUT MORE FOCUS
ON MAKING PEOPLE HAPPIER VS WEALTHIER?

Should happiness be the measure of a counties
well being?
BBC survey found 81% of the population think the
government should focus on making people happier
rather than wealthier.
 Happiness was associated with health levels
(correlation 0.62), followed by wealth (0.52) then
education (0.51)

Positive psychology: conducts research that looks
to promote human happiness and well-being
 Experience of positive emotions is also associated
with: trust, safety, and lack of corruption

BIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN HAPPINESS

People adapt to their environment: habituation
– we become use to the way things are.


We adjust to noise or disabilities or even lose the
excitement of a new car – things that once shined
bright, begin to pale.
Humans have an inner voice of dissatisfaction
that prompts them to strive for more.
Humans tend to notice trouble
 Tend to focus on the negative aspects


Survival technique???
GENETICS

Happiness Twin Study - compared happiness
scores among sets of identiacal and fraternal
twins who grew up together or apart. Mostly
white and born in Minnesota.
Identical twins are very similar in their happiness
scores (raised together or apart)
 Fraternal twins do not show same pattern
Conclusion: each individual has a genetic set point, or
innate baseline of happiness, and that 50% of peoples
happiness is genetically determined.

Refer pg 99 for more information.
Pros and cons?
SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY,
THE HOW OF HAPPINESS (2007)

What do you think are characteristics or the
recipe for happiness?








Devote a lot of time to friends and family
Can easily express gratitude for what they have
Often the first to offer help to people in need
Optimistic outlook on the future
Enjoy pleasures of life and live in the present
Spend time doing physical exercise
Committed to lifelong goal and ambitions such as
fighting fraud
Cope well in times of crisis
EXTENDED ESSAY IDEAS…..
Does culture matter in happiness?
 To what extent is it possible to increase one’s
happiness level?
 Why is there a difference in peoples beliefs about
happiness and what psychology research shows?

EVALUATE ONE THEORY OF HOW
EMOTIONS MAY AFFECT ONE
COGNITIVE PROCESS.