Emotion
I. Mood vs. Affect/emotion
A. Mood: enduring disposition
B. Affect/emotion: transient, reaction to stimuli.
Components:
1. Subjective experience
2. Internal physiological responses
3. Belief or cognitive appraisal
a. Is emotion possible in absence of
cognition?
b. Animals' emotion
c. Human emotion
1. Cognitive corrigibility
2. Cognitive incorrigibility
4. Facial Expression
5. Reaction
II. Physiological Arousal
What is the role of physiological arousal in emotion?
A. James (1884) proposed that the perception of
physiological changes IS the subjective experience of
emotion
"We are afraid because we run"
"We are angry because we strike"
" I am angry because I tremble"
1. Stimulus situation => Bodily reaction =>
Subjective emotion
2. Autonomic reactions are key
a. counter example -- method actors
3. Sometimes called James-Lange theory
B. Cannon (1927)
1. Problems with James' theory:
a. Emotion possible without visceral
feedback
b. Physiological changes are very similar
across different emotions ;non-specificity of
emotion
c. Physiological reactions are slow but
experience of emotion can be very fast
d. Artificial physiological stimulation does
not produce true emotion
2. Cannon's theory
a. Stimulus situation =>
b. Perception & Subjective interpretation =>
c. Bodily changes for homeostasis (prepare
fight/flight)
C. Eckman: facial expressions are key
1. similarity of expression across persons
2. similarity of interpretation, even across
cultures
3. distinct pattern of muscular changes for each
emotion
D. Facial feedback hypothesis
1. feedback from facial muscles will alter
emotional state
2. also the feedback from other's faces is
important
III. Cognition & Emotion
A. Zajonc: emotion is primary
1. animals experience emotion without any
cognitions
2. persons experience emotions sometimes without
knowing why
B. Lazarus: cognition precedes
1. there is always a cognition that associates stimuli
with internal states
C. Schacter & Singer: Cognition-Arousal theory
1. E = f(A * C); both necessary
2. Schacter's study
a. "Suproxin" given as a drug to "improve
vision"
b. While waiting for vision experiment, a stooge
acted either angry or happy
c. Subjects labeled their emotion as that which
the stooge portrayed
D. Excitation transfer
1. Arousal from one situation will be interpreted
consistent with subsequent cues
2. Shaky bridge experiment
E. Physiological Arousal in Lie Detection (see item IV
below)
F. Cognition in depression
1. Distorted cognitions create depression
2. Cognitive distortions (or errors)
a. Overgeneralization
b. Selective abstraction
c. Magnification & Minimization
d. All or Nothing thinking
3. Changing cognitions changes emotions
4. Sadder but Wiser phenomenon
IV. Lie Detection
A. Premise is that when you tell a lie, you will have a
bodily reaction--arousal
B. Typically measured: HR, BP, & skin conductance
C. The control-question technique:
1. crime relevant questions and generally
arousing questions
2. Guilty presumably should respond more to
crime relevant than generally arousing questions
D. Problems:
1. one could be aroused for other reasons
2. control questions are a bad control!
E. Polygraphers claim the procedure is ~90%
accurate
1. this is true for guilty people only
2. for innocent persons ~50%
F. The alternative: guilt detection
1. Ask a question with a series of alternatives
2. The subject will respond maximally to those
facts known to him/her.
G. Synopsis of Lie Detection Spiel
1. People Lie
2. There is no unequivocal lie response
3. Polygraphers think the procedure is highly
accurate because they receive little feedback,
and the only feedback they do receive is where a
failed test results in a confession or conviction
4. Procedures that focus on recognition rather
than emotional reactions associated with lying:
a. are more accurate overall
b. are much less vulnerable to false positive
rate outcomes
5. Polygraphs are useful for eliciting admissions
and confessions