The Subjective and
Physiological Nature of
Emotions
Chapter 13
I. Emotions and Their Subjective
Characteristics

A. Components of Emotion


The components are subjective affect, facial expressions,
physiological arousal, associated behavior, and brain
processes.
B. Methods for Uncovering Basic Emotions

1. Category Analysis of Emotion Words



Analyses of the meaning of emotion words resulted in the
formation of seven basic categories of emotion.
Emotion prototype: common meaning of all words in a
category.
2. Dimensional Analysis of Emotion Words


A valence dimension ranges from unpleasantness to
pleasantness.
An intensity dimension ranges from low to high.
I. Emotions and Their Subjective
Characteristics

3. Evolution Theory


4. Facial Expressions


Emotions are classified by their ability to aid species
survival.
Each basic emotion is characterized by a unique facial
expression.
5. Conclusions on Categories of Emotion

Emotions in a category are qualitatively similar but differ
in intensity.
I. Emotions and Their Subjective
Characteristics

C. Analyses of Affect

1. Describing Private Affective Experience



2. Emotional Education


Through this process children learn to label their affective
feelings.
3. Emotion Words and Relationships or Causes


Qualia: primitive subjective experiences that are not fully
describable.
It is difficult to describe affect to a person who is emotionally
blind.
An emotion word describes the relationship between the
person and the object that produce the emotion.
4. Intensity and Duration of Emotions

Emotions can vary in intensity (e.g., anxiety vs terror) and in
duration.
I. Emotions and Their Subjective
Characteristics

D. Moods

1. Differences between Moods and Emotions


2. An Analogy for Mood


Figure-ground relationship: emotion is to figure as mood is to
ground.
3. Time of Day, Day of Week, and Mood


Moods are of longer duration, of less intensity, and with less
stimulus awareness than are emotions.
Positive mood is higher midday and lower morning and night
and increases from Sunday to Monday. Negative mood
increases from Saturday to Monday and then decreases to
Saturday.
4. Seasonal Variation and Moods

Seasonal affective disorder: very low mood in winter and for
some also in summer.
II. Arousal and Emotional Experience




A. Significance of Arousal
 Arousal can be the source of emotional feeling, the impetus for
attending to the environment, and the motivation for action.
B. James-Lange Theory
 A specific emotion occurs when we become aware of our body's
unique accompanying pattern of physiological arousal.
C. Cognitive Arousal Theory
 Affect depends on the interpretation of one's physiological
arousal based on information extracted from the situation.
D. Cannon’s Theory of Arousal
 Physiological arousal indicates an organism's preparedness to
make an emergency response, such as fight or flight response.
Action readiness is the preparedness to execute a behavior
associated with an emotion.
II. Arousal and Emotional Experience

E. Function of Psychological Arousal

1. Physiological Variables


Variables that are associated with affect: heart rate,
electrodermal responses, muscle activity, blood pressure, and
skin temperature.
2. Methods for Inducing Emotions



Real life manipulation: present actual stimuli to induce an
emotion.
Directed facial action task: person moves facial muscles to
produce a pattern that matches the facial expression of an
emotion.
Relived emotions task: recall memories of previous emotion
episodes.
II. Arousal and Emotional Experience

F. Arousal Specificity and James-Lange Theory

1. Physiological Specificity of Emotion


2. Research on Physiological Specificity of Emotion


Each unique affective experience has a hypothesized
physiological response pattern.
Conclusion of this research is that discrete emotions cannot
be differentiated on the basis of physiological response
patterns alone.
3. Emotions of Spinal Cord-Injured Individuals

Counter to predictions from the James-Lange theory,
emotional experiences were equally intense before and after a
spinal cord injury.
II. Arousal and Emotional Experience

G. Arousal and Cognitive Arousal Theory

1. Excitation Transfer Experiments


Physiological arousal induced from one source
influences emotional experience and behavior induced
by another source.
2. Emotion Stimulus as a Source of Arousal

Emotion stimuli (gun, snake, nude) produce
physiological arousal.
II. Arousal and Emotional Experience

H. Action Readiness and Cannon’s Theory of
Arousal

1. Emergency Responses and Negative Emotions


2. Component Model of Somatovisceral Response
Organization


Discrete emotions prepare us for specific emergency
responses.
Patterns of physiological arousal depend on action readiness,
the situation, and cognitive demands required in the situation.
3. Behaviors for Positive Emotions

Undoing hypothesis: the function of a positive emotion to undo
or terminate the effects of a negative emotion.