Emotion
Concept of Emotion
A class of subjective feeling elicited by
stimuli that have high significance to an
individual
stimuli that produce high arousal generally
produce strong feelings
are rapid and automatic
emerged through natural selection to benefit
survival and reproduction
Emotions
State of Arousal
Emotions vs. Motivation
People have needs
Drives are urges to satisfy needs
Behaviors are established to assess and attain goals to satisfy
needs
Emotions strengthen and reinforce behavior
Pleasure arouses a person to eat different foods that
improves nutrition
Fear strengthens arousal to move away from fire
Robert Plutchik
Plutchik believed 8 basic emotions could be
mixed to create all other emotions
Brain-Based Theory of Emotions
Frontal lobes
influence people’s conscious emotional feelings
and ability to act in planned ways based on feelings
(e.g., effects of prefrontal lobotomy)
Parietal
Occipital
Temporal
left frontal lobe
may be most
involved in
processing
positive emotions
right frontal lobe
involved with
negative emotions
Brain-Based Theory of Emotions
Limbic System
Plays a significant role in motivation and emotion
Hypothalamus
Controls drives and the Autonomic Nervous
System
Amygdala
evaluate the significance of stimuli and generate emotional
responses
generate hormonal secretions and autonomic reactions that
accompany strong emotions
damage causes “psychic blindness” and the inability to
recognize fear in facial expressions and voice
Organ
Parasympathetic Response
"Rest and Digest"
Sympathetic Response
"Fight or Flight"
Heart
Decreased heart rate
(baroreceptor
Cardiac output decreases
reflex)
Increased rate and strength
of contraction
Cardiac output increases
Lung
Bronchioles
Constriction
Dilation
Stomach
Increased secretion
digestive enzymes
Decreased secretion
Eye
Iris constricts
Adjusts for near vision
Iris dilates
Adjusts for far vision
Basal
Metabolism
No effect
Increases ~ 2X
Urinary
bladder
Relaxes sphincter
Urination promoted
Constricts sphincter
Urination inhibited
James-Lange Theory
James proposed that bodily changes follow
directly the perception of the exciting
fact, and our feeling of the same changes
as they occur is the emotion.
Lange's modification indicated that
physiological changes are the emotions
Both viewed emotion as the perception of
a response by the nervous system.
Both suggest that the underlying processes
perceived as emotions are autonomic.
James’s Peripheral Feedback
Theory
James’s Theory
Stimulus
(Tiger)
Perception
(Interpretation
of stimulus-danger)
Bodily
arousal
Emotion
(Fear)
(Pounding
heart)
perception of a stimulus causes bodily arousal which
leads to emotion
I am running therefore I must be scared
Cannon-Bard
Viewed emotions as the result of
concurrent brain stem & cognitive events
Emotion is located in the thalamus where
it is relayed to the cortex and internal
organs simultaneously
Emotional awareness and physiological
changes occur at the same time
Impulses released to ANS result in
emotional behavior
Schacter and Singer's Theory
Emotional feelings and behavior are the products of
information from 2 systems
o Internal state - hypothalamus and limbic system
o External environment (context in which the internal state
occurs)
Humans given adrenaline may report that they feel or
behave as if they are more hostile or elated
(depending upon the environment stimuli)
Effects of adrenaline on 3 groups: informed,
uninformed, misinformed
o Informed group did not change significantly in hostile or
pleasant environment
o Other two groups did change.
Schachter’s Cognition-PlusFeedback Theory
Schachter’s Theory
Stimulus
(Tiger)
Bodily
arousal
Perception
(Interpretation
of stimulus-danger)
(Pounding
heart)
Emotion
(Fear)
Type
Intensity
Perception and thought about a stimulus
influence the type of emotion felt
Degree of bodily arousal influences the
intensity of emotion felt
Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory
Universal occurrence of facial expressions of
emotions
Smile is universal facial expression of happiness
Each basic emotion is associated with a unique
facial expression
Sensory feedback from the expression contributes to
the emotional feeling
Hold the pencil test
• Hold pencil with your teeth
 makes you smile
• Holds pencil with your lips
 makes you frown
1.80
1.80
1.60
1.60
Average anger score
Average happiness score
Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory
1.40
1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
1.40
1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
Frown
Smile
Facial expression
Frown
Smile
Facial expression
Facial expressions have an effect on self-reported
anger and happiness
0.12
0.08
0.04
0.00
(b)
Facial expressions can produce effects on the rest of
the body
Disgust
Surprise
Sadness
Happiness
-0.04
Fear
Disgust
Surprise
0.16
Anger
Temperature change
(degrees C)
(a)
Happiness
Sadness
Fear
12.0
10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
-2.0
Anger
Heart rate change
(beats per minute)
Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory
Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms protect us from being
consciously aware of a thought or feeling which we
cannot tolerate.
The defense only allows the unconscious thought or
feeling to be expressed indirectly in a disguised form.
Let's say you are angry with a professor because he is very
critical of you.
Here's how the various defenses might hide and/or
transform that anger
Defense Mechanisms
Denial: You completely reject the thought or feeling.
"I'm not angry with him!"
Suppression: You are vaguely aware of the thought or feeling,
but try to hide it.
"I'm going to try to be nice to him."
Reaction Formation: You turn the feeling into its opposite.
"I think he's really great!"
Projection: You think someone else has your thought or
feeling.
"That professor hates me."
"That student hates the prof."
Regression: You revert to an old, usually immature behavior to
ventilate your feeling.
"Let's shoot spitballs at people!"
Rationalization: You come up with various explanations to
justify the situation (while denying your feelings).
"He's so critical because he's trying to help us do our best.“
Displacement: You redirect your feelings to another target..
"I hate that secretary.“
Intellectualization: A type of rationalization, only more
intellectualized.
"This situation reminds me of how Nietzsche said that anger is
ontological despair."
Undoing: You try to undo your feeling by DOING something
that indicates the opposite feeling. It may be an "apology" for the
feeling you find unacceptable within yourself.
"I think I'll give that professor an apple."
Sublimation: You redirect the feeling into a socially productive
activity.
"I'm going to write a poem about anger."
Learned Helplessness
Martin Seligman was using a Pavlovian conditioning
technique with dogs to condition dogs to fear a tone
using a Shuttlebox dog did not attempt to flee the
electric shock
Skinnerian conditioning could not explain why
Seligman used a variation of the attribution theory
What do attribute our current situation to
• Internal or external causes
If we believe we have no control over a situation then we
accept the inevitable without attempting to change
Seligman expanded this idea to a possible cause of
depression and failure without trying
Drives as States of the Brain
Central state theory of drives different drives correspond to neural
activity in different sets of neurons in
the brain
Central drive system - set of neurons in
which activity constitutes a drive
Drives as States of the Brain
Techniques for
studying central
drive systems
include lesions
and stimulation
Connecting Socket
Electrode
Brain
Theories of Emotion
Common-Sense Theory
Stimulus
Perception
Emotion
(Tiger)
(Interpretation
of stimulus-danger)
(Fear)
Bodily
arousal
(Pounding
heart)
Common sense might suggest that the
perception of a stimulus elicits emotion
which then causes bodily arousal