Emotion, Stress and Health
Obj 1: Identify the three components of emotion, and contrast the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, and
(Schacter) two-factor theories of emotion.
The three components of emotion: 1) physiological arousal (ie. heart pounding) 2) expressive behaviors
(ie. quickened pace) 3) conscious experience, including thoughts that go along with the experience, and
feelings.
Psychologists agree that these are three components, but they do differ on how they believe they fit
together, and in what order they occur.
James-Lange Theory of Emotion: This theory proposes that we feel emotion AFTER we notice our
physiological responses. A text to world example for this theory would be a car sliding on ice. As it
careened crazily you hit your brakes and regained control. Just after the sliding ended, you FIRST noticed
that you heart was racing, THEN you felt the emotion. Your feeling FOLLOWED your body's response.
(canon-bard theory): emotional arousal and conscious acknowledgement of the emotion(s) happen
simultaniously after the stimulant occurs. My example would be when my dad scares me. He’ll come up
from behind, scare me. I jump, scream, my heart rate goes up all at the same time!
Schacter's Two Factor Theory is that emotion has two parts or ingredients to it. The first is the physical
arousal such as a heart racing. The other part is a cognitive label of the physical arousal such as stating
"I'm afraid." Emotion grows from the body arousal but then needs to be identified with a cognitive label
so we know what emotion we are feeling.
An example would be that when I get angry my body tenses up.So I have labeled that as anger.
Obj 2: Describe the physiological changes that occur during emotional arousal and discuss the
relationship between arousal and performance.
Your sympathetic nervous system increases your heart rate, inhibits your digestion, and secretes stress
hormones when you're scared or excited. Your parasympathetic nervous system decreases your heart
rate, activates digestion, and decreases the secretion of stress hormones once you're calm and relaxed.
A high amount of arousal can take a toll on the body and a low amount of arousal (sleepiness, for
example) can be disruptive. Having an amount of arousal in between the two extremes produces the
best performance.
My example would be when I am about to perform I can feel my heart rate increasing, and my whole
body getting excited. The adrenaline that my body secretes actually helps my performance, but only if it’s
balanced, because if I am too excited, I mess up and forget what I’m doing.
Obj 3: Describe the relationship between physiological states and specific emotions, and discuss the
effectiveness of the polygraph in detecting lies.
There are similarities and differences in physiological states in different emotions. If looking at a monitor
showing the heart rates, perspiration, and breathing of two people(one angry, one afraid), it would be
difficult to distinguish between the two. Fear and joy can both cause increased heart rate, but they use
different facial muscles. You can see the difference in emotions because of the face. Also, positive
emotions tend to trigger more activity in the left side of the brain, negative emotions in the right.
The polygraph detects arousal, but it cannot detect what specific emotion that person is feeling since
many emotions have the same physiological responses. A guilty person could have the same heart rate
increase as could an innocent person who is very tense from the accusation. These lie detector tests are
wrong about one-third of the time.
My example would be when I am babysitting a baby and they become angry and afraid. If I were to just
feel how they reacted- bodies tensed, heart rate increased, crying- I wouldn’t be able to tell their emotion
because the physiological reactions are similar for both emotions. But if I see how they baby reacts then I
differentiate the two emotions, and realize how the baby feels.
Obj 4: Explain the role of cognition in emotion, and discuss how neurological processes may enable us to
experience some emotions prior to conscious thought.
Emotions affect our thinking and cognitive processes. What we feel (emotion) can affect and influence
how we see or think about the world around us (cognition). Arousal is what fuels and begins an
emotion, while cognition is what channels an emotion. Here is a good example of how cognition ties in
with emotion: Learning to think (cognition) more positively about ourselves and the world around us
helps us feel better (emotion).
Robert Zajonc discovered that we have emotional reactions apart from, or before our interpretations
and conscious thought of a situation. Richard Lazarus noted that we process and react to a lot of
information without our conscious awareness. He also noted that many emotional responses do not
require conscious thought. Our emotions arise when we unconsciously judge an event or situation to be
either beneficial or harmful to our well-being. But complex emotions very clearly arise because of our
interpretations, analyzations, and expectations making them so they don't tie in with emotions that
don't require conscious thought.
My example would be when I am really tired or sad; I get very overwhelmed and start to think that
everything is impossible. I feel like everything is stacking up to an impossible height, and don’t see things
for what they really are. So my negative emotions are negatively influencing how I see my reality.
Obj 5: Describe out ability to perceive and communicate emotions non-verbally, and discuss gender
differences in this capacity.
We can read others' bodies, listen to the tone of their voice, and study their facial expressions to
determine expressed emotions. These things are very useful in judging what mood someone is in. We all
communicate verbally and non-verbally.
We are already able to pick up many non-verbal clues. If we watched an old black-and-white silent film
right now, by watching their faces, we could get a good idea of what's going on.
Although, hard-to-control facial muscles can reveal emotions you may be trying to conceal. For
examples, twitching your eyebrow can reveal worry or distress. Even though our brains are very good at
detecting these things, it's still very hard to detect deception.
Women have a greater nonverbal sensitivity than men do, which explains their greater emotional
literacy. The fact that women decode others' emotions contributes to the fact that they have deeper
emotional responses in both positive and negative situations.
My example would be when a friend, or yourself, says that everything is okay, and you know that they
are lying because of their facial expressions, or the way they are holding themselves. It is funny to watch,
because even between friends, girls are always a little bit more on top of those cues.
Obj 6: Discuss the culture specific and culturally universal aspects of emotional expression and describe
the effects of facial expression on emotional experience.
Culture Specific: The meanings of gestures are very culture specific and varies in every culture. For
example in the Chinese culture people clap their hands to express worry or disappointment. In the
American culture, the same gesture is one of the many ways to demonstrate praise.
Culturally Universal: Given a photograph with various facial expressions and asked to guess the
emotion, we'd all have similar results, (experiment conducted by Paul Ekman, Wallace Friesen, and
Carrol Izard). Regardless of your cultural background a smile will always remain a smile no matter where
in the world you are. Even a blind child who's never seen a face will have the universal facial
expressions (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1971). Charles Darwin speculated that in prehistoric times, before our
ancestors communicated with words, their ability to express themselves with facial expressions helped
them survive. That shared heritage is why he believed all humans express the basic emotions with
similar facial expressions. Although cultures share a universal facial language for basic emotions, they
differ in how much emotion they express.
Effects of facial expression on emotional experience: Expressions not only communicate emotion, they
also amplify and regulate it. As Darwin that "the free expression by outward signs of an emotion
intensifies it." Was Darwin right? Fake a big grin and then scowl. Can you feel the "smile therapy"
difference? Participants in dozens of experiments have felt a difference. Smile warmly on the outside
and you feel better on the inside. Scowl and the whole world will scowl back. Acting as another acts
helps us feel what another feels.
My example is transfer students at Copper Hills High School. Sometimes they don’t speak the best English
and you can’t exactly understand what they are talking about. I have had a few that moved into my
neighborhood, and they often have difficulty learning the different gestures we use here. The one thing
that holds constant is the smiles or frowns on their faces.
Obj 7: Name several basic emotions, and describe two dimensions psychologists use to differentiate
emotions.
10 basic emotions include joy, interest-excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear,
shame, and guilt
emotional experiences are found between two dimensions Pleasant/Positive with Unpleasant/ Negative
and Low Arousal and High Arousal. Based on where the emotions are leads to what kind of emotions
they are.
My example would be the level of an emotion I am. I am happy when I am hanging out with my friends,
but I am VERY happy on Christmas. It’s the interplay between the dimensions of emotion.
Obj 8: State two ways we learn our fears, and discuss some biological components of fear.
We can learn fears by conditioning and learning by observation. Biological components of fear start in
the amygdala. According to evolutionary psychology, we're hard wired to fear snakes, spiders, and cliffs,
because these traits helped our ancestors survive.
My example would be that I am scared of bugs. I have probably both been conditioned and observed this
fear. You can look at this fear as a way that our ancestors survived because bugs can carry disease and
be poisonous and harmful to our bodies.
Obj 9: Identify some common causes and consequences of anger, and assess the catharsis hypothesis.
Whether it is an undesired project score you receive, not getting asked to the next school dance, or a
younger sibling who seems to want to do everything in their power to bother you, anger is something
we can experience every day. Events that are frustrating or insulting that we interpret as willful,
unjustified, and/or avoidable can cause us to be angry.
Too much of anything isn't necessarily a good thing, and anger is no exception. Even though anger can
motivate us to work harder or perform better, it can have adverse effects on our bodies and
relationships. If someone is excessively angry, they build a habit of being angry. They also put more
stress on their heart due to a rise in blood pressure. Angry people can have struggling or failing
relationships because people around them don't want to interact with them when they are behaving in
antisocial ways.
The catharsis hypothesis is somewhat valid because there is some relief when we vent or beat on
something to release rage, but the effects of releasing anger in such ways may in fact add fuel to the
fire, and cause a person to become even more angry.
My example would be that when I get angry it is sometimes hard to end that anger. Sometimes when I
am critiqued or told that I am not doing a good job I get angry and it motivates me to do better. But the
catharsis effect sometimes makes me a little angrier.
Obj 10: Identify some potential causes and consequences of happiness, and describe two psychological
phenomenon that help explain the relatively short duration of emotions.
Happy people are often happy because of good things happening to them such as finding money,
succeeding in a challenging task or recalling a happy event. Happy people often see a safer world, make
decisions easier, they're more cooperative and live healthier, more satisfied lives. People who are sad
can often quickly change moods because they eventually start thinking about other things and then it
takes their mind off of being sad. The adaptation level phenomenon is when people adapt to the mood
that their end and need something more powerful to feel happy again or sad again. Relative deprivation
is another phenomenon in which we may be momentarily happy when something good happens to us,
but then we compare ourselves to someone we perceive as better than us and feel worse again. Our
good and bad emotions still tend to balance out over the life span.
My example for the adaption level phenomenon is when you are really sad, you need something even
more happy to make you smile again. The relative deprivation phenomenon is like when you get a car.
It’s not a very new car, but you are really happy you got a car in the first place. Then you go to school
and your friend got a car too, but hers is newer and nicer. So then you start feeling sad and low again.
Obj 11: Describe the pervasiveness of stress in daily life, and identify health psychology's contribution to
the field of behavioral medicine.
When asked about stress, three out of four people said that stress occurs at least some times of
frequently. For some people stress is an everyday thing. You check your grades at home on the last day
to turn in missing assignments and you’re failing one of your classes. Your mom asks you to pick-up your
little brother from school, and take him home before work, but he forgets his backpack and has to run
back in the school. Even the smallest things can give you stress, like forgetting to bring a pencil to class.
Health Psychologists are trying to contribute to health medicine by asking the questions: how do our
emotions and personality influence our risk of disease? How do our perceptions of a situation determine
the stress we feel? Or how can we reduce or control stress? By answering there questions, these
psychologists may someday be able to help people live a stress free life and maybe even live longer!
My example would be how even though a huge event doesn’t happen every day, most every day we have
been stressed, or stress has affected us in one way or another. My personal stress is driving. I don’t like
to drive, and it stresses me out daily. It may not be a huge stressor but it affects my life.
Obj 12: Discuss the role of appraisal in the way we respond to stressful events, and describe the biology
of the fight-or-flight response.
A stressful event occurs and our appraisal is how we perceive the event. We can take it as a threat or a
challenge, if we take it as a challenge we will become more aroused and focused. However, if we take it
as a threat we will become stressed to distraction.
The fight-or-flight response begins with a threatening stimulus, the thalamus receives the sensory
information and sends it to the amygdala. At that point the amygdala receives the impulse saying you
need protection so an impulse is sent from there to alert the hypothalamus that it needs to initiate the
fight-or-flight response to save your life.
My example is when you walk into a party and you see drugs or alcohol. I would respond to this as a
stressful situation, and my response would be to leave because of my perception. On the other hand,
someone else might see this as a fun situation, and their reaction would be different than mine, just
because of how they perceive it. Fight or flight would be you either fighting the threat, or running from it.
For example if my dad were to wrestle me to the ground, my first instinct would be to fight him off,
trying to protect myself. (Just play fighting… don’t worry! )
Obj 13: Discuss the health consequences of catastrophes, significant life changes, and daily hassles.
Catastrophes can increase depression and anxiety and cause problems with concentration and sleep.
When 9/11 happened sleeping pill prescription went up 28% in New York.
Significant life changes, like losses or changes, may leave people vulnerable to disease.(Like moving to a
new school can cause you to get sick more easily then if you continued at the same school)
Daily hassles are the most significant sources of stress for most people and can damage health and well
being. (Getting sick from being stressed over homework).
My example would be when I am really stressed and overwhelmed over homework, and work, and
dance, etc. I feel a lot less healthy and tend to feel a lot sicker. I also sometimes lose sleep so that
contributes to how I feel.
OBJECTIVE 14: Discuss the role of stress in causing coronary heart disease, and contrast Type A and Type
B personalities.
Stress in general affects our psychological factors and lower immune system. Stress can cause blood
pressure to increase, hormones (cholesterol) that accelerate the buildup of plaque in the artery walls.
Chronic stress contributes to persistent inflammation which increases the risk of clogged arteries.
Type A: aggressive, time consciousness, competitive, hard-driving, impatient and is easily angered (cause
unnessary stress)
Type B: Relaxed and easy going (opposite of A)
My example is that I am more of a Type A personality, which I don’t know if I am proud of. My boyfriend
Tyler is more of a Type B personality, which is good for me because he balances out my stress, and
impatience.
Objective 15: define psychophysiological illness, and describe the effects of stress on immune system
functioning, including its role in the progression of AIDS and cancer.
Psychophysiological illness: any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some and
headaches. Literally means "mind-body" illness.
Effects on immune system: stress may cause the immune system to respond too strongly, forcing it to
attack the body's own tissue causing arthritis/an allergic reaction. On the other hand, if your immune
system acts too weakly, I may allow a dormant herpes virus to erupt or cancer cells to multiply.
My example would be my own stress. I have had stomach problems because of how my immune system
reacts to the stress.
Obj 16: Identify two ways people cope with stress, and describe how a perceived lack of control can
affect health.
Two ways people cope with stress: 1) People tend to share their feelings. Talking to a trusted friend will
help with the stress because not talking about it will build resentment and the situation will remain the
same. 2) People also avoid unnecessary stress. Avoiding people who stress you out. For example: if
someone consistently causes stress in your life and you can't turn the relationship around, limiting the
amount of time you spend with that person or people just simply end the relationship.
Perceived lack of control: Can have a direct effect on health if it involves with this like overeating or over
indulging in alcohol. Carrying extra weight due to overeating puts strain on your heart which can lead to
heart related problems, such as a heart attack, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Over
consumption of alcohol can cause damage to your liver, heart and other organs.
My example is that I use both of the two methods to handle stress. When I am stress about a situation
that doesn’t involve another person I tend to talk about that stress with someone else. This helps me
relieve my feelings. If my stress does involve another person I do tend to avoid them to avoid that
situation.
Obj 17: Discuss the links among basic outlook on life, social support, stress, and health.
Your outlook on life can be optimistic or pessimistic. Optimists cope better with stress and also have
better health. They have smaller increases in blood pressures. They also live longer. Having social
support in your life helps you cope with life's struggles like cancer. Having someone there, like a spouse,
studies show that you will live longer. An example of optimistic vs. pessimistic is that during basketball
practice when we have to condition, when I have a good mindset, and am positive, it makes the running
so much easier. When I am negative or pissed about it, it makes it so much harder, and I get tired more
quickly.
My example of this is when older people’s spouse dies, they sometimes die soon afterward because they
don’t have the social support anymore.
Obj 18: Aerobic exercise can reduce stress, depression and anxiety. "Nonexercisers" are twice as likely as
"exercisers" to report being "Not too happy". Vigorous exercise has been proven to provide a substantial
mood boost. It can sometimes be even more helpful than taking antidepressants.
My example would be that sometimes when I wake up for dance, I don’t feel very good. After dance I
almost always feel better because I have gotten up and gotten active. This is especially true when I
exercise on my menstrual cycle.
Obj 19: How do biofeedback and relaxation work as stress-management techniques? Discuss meditation
as a relaxation technique.
Biofeedback was discovered as a means to control blood pressure and heart rate through mental effort.
While seen as initially effective, the capacity to mentally calm oneself through 'happy thoughts' and
conscious effort without medical equipment eventually weakened support for biofeedback.
Especially in Type A personalities, relaxation through lifestyle alterations has shown much greater
promise than 'relaxation techniques.' Most of these lifestyle changes included simple things such as
smiling and commenting on other people to ease personal burdens, as well as improving personal faith.
Meditation is a relaxation technique which creates states of relaxation, diminished sense of self, greater
mental clarity, and lowered heart rate and blood pressure. Meditation has shown significant promise in
lowering heart attack risk in stressful circumstances, and often leads to more reasonable decision
making and promotes patience. Meditation may also help to center oneself, thus providing a greater
sense of purpose and thereby a greater willingness to contribute to society and meaningful
relationships.
My example is about meditation. I have meditated before and I love it. It calms your whole body, and
makes you feel happier and more willing to do well. After meditating I am less likely to be irritated and
more likely to be a nice, loving person the rest of the day.
Obj 20: Discuss the controversy over complementary and alternative medicine, and explain how it is
best resolved through scientific research.
The controversy over complementary and alternative medicines is the idea that alternative drugs aren't
as efficient as using real drugs. Many people believe there can only be one type of medicine; medicine
that works or doesn't work and medicine that has been tested or not. In the end it doesn't matter if the
drug began as an alternative drug. The only thing that matters is the outcome of the drug. It is best
resolved through scientific study by doing experiments involving a drug and a placebo. This tells the
researcher if the drug being tested works or doesn't work.
My example would be herbal oils. I have always had a really hard time with my stomach and no medicine
has been able to take my stomach aches away. When I got oils from DoTerra my stomach aches went
away considerably.