Emotion
Textbook Study Guide
IMPORTANT: This document is intended to guide your study of the textbook only. It does not
completely cover the content included in exams. Exams can include content from the book,
lecture slides, videos shown in class or online lectures, and other content discussed in class or
online lectures.
Module 37: Introduction to Emotion
 What three aspects make up emotions?
 What is the James-Lange Theory of emotion?
 What is the Cannon-Bard Theory of emotion?
o How do people with low vs. high spinal cord injuries illustrate the mind-body
connection when it comes to the experience of emotion?
 What is the Schachter-Singer Two-factor Theory of emotion?
o How does this explain “spillover effects” in emotional experiences?
 What did experiments by Zajonc and others reveal about how emotions can precede—and
even happen outside of—cognition?
 What are LeDoux’s two routes to emotions (the cortical route and the amygdala route)?
What do they do and what are they “best” at (i.e., why did we evolve these two routes)?
 See Table 35.1 for a brief summary of different theoretical approaches to explaining
emotions.
 How are emotions “embodied?”
o How does the autonomic nervous system (ANS) play a role in our emotions?
o How can the same ANS response underlie different emotions (e.g., fear, anger)?
Module 38: Expressed Emotion
 What have researchers revealed about how quickly people can detect emotions and what
types of emotions people have a hard time detecting?
o How do people who have experienced abuse detect emotions differently than
those who haven’t?
o What can be predicted by just looking at “thin slices” of behavior (e.g., 10-second
clip of someone’s face)?
 In what ways are women better at reading emotions than men?
o What is the one emotion that is more associated with men than women?
o What evidence is there that women are, on average, more empathetic than men?
 In what ways does culture affect emotional expression? What emotions are culturally
universal (expressed in the same way across cultures)?
o How does context also affect how people read emotional expressions?
 What is the “facial feedback effect” and how can it affect emotions?
o How can Botox affect one’s emotions?
o How does facial feedback impact our ability to empathize with others?
Module 39: Experienced Emotion
 How many distinct emotions are there? How do different researchers differ in answering
this question?
 When is anger expressed? What are its behavioral consequences?
o Is anger harmful to the person experiencing it? Is it healthy to “vent” or express
anger (also known as catharsis)?
o When is anger “maladaptive?”
o How can people manage their anger?
o What is advantageous about expressing anger? When is it appropriate and
beneficial to do so?
 How does happiness affect our perceptions, behavior, and life outcomes?
o What is the “feel-good, do-good phenomenon?”
o What is positive psychology and what do researchers in this field study?
 What are the “three pillars” of positive psychology?
o How do people’s level of happiness change throughout the day and throughout the
week?
o How is happiness affected by disability or health problems?
o How is happiness affected by wealth?
 At what point does increased wealth not yield increased happiness?
o How does adaptation and comparison affect happiness?
o What are predictors and non-predictors of happiness? (See Table 39.1 for a
review)
 To what extent is happiness heritable?
o How can one’s happiness be increased? What are evidence-based suggestions for
living a happier life?