Emotion
Emotion
• Emotions- complex pattern of
changes including physiological,
cognitive, and behavioral
reactions, in response to a
situation
Questions…
1. Q- Are some emotional responses innate?
• A- YES- fear & struggling
2. Q- Are emotional expressions universal?
• A- Ekman- all people share overlap in facial
language, esp for happiness, surprise, anger,
disgust, fear, sadness & contempt
*not all expressions are universal & not
all cultures express all emotions the
same way
Questions…
3. Q- How does culture affect emotional
expression?
• A- Cultures est. rules for when people show
certain emotions
- might be based on class in society (Africa)
- hiring professional criers for funerals
(Med. and Near Eastern cultures)
- different for individualistic and
collectivist cultures
Physiology of Emotion
• What’s involved in emotion?
1. Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)releases hormones, raises blood
pressure and blood sugar, increase in
sweat and salivation
- research shows that different
emotions show different patterns of
autonomic activity
Physiology of Emotion
2. Central Nervous System (CNS)hypothalamus & limbic system
- amygdala- attaches significance to
information it receives from the
senses  important in fear and anger
- cortex- PET scans show areas of
happiness & sadness in different parts
of the cortex
3 Theories of Emotion
1. James-Lange Theory: emotion
comes from bodily feedback;
perceiving a stimulus causes
autonomic arousal leading to the
experience of a specific emotion
- stimulus  arousal emotion
3 Theories of Emotion
2. Cannon-Bard Theory: emotion
stimulus produces 2 concurrent
reactions, arousal & experience of
emotion at the same time
- The 2 reactions are independent of
one another; one does not cause
the other
- stimulus  arousal & emotion
3 Theories of Emotion
3. Cognitive Appraisal Theory (aka
Schachter-Singer Theory)- emotion is
the joint effect of physiological arousal
to discover what you are feeling, what
emotion fits best, and what your
reaction means in the particular setting
- stimulus  arousal label/appraisal
 emotion
Why do we have emotions?
A. They serve as a motivation function
by arousing you to take action with
regard to an event
- They also direct & sustain your
behaviors toward specific goals
- If you have too much arousal or too
little, it will impair your performance
Why do we have emotions?
- Some tasks are better with high levels
of arousal; other tasks are better with
low level, key is task difficulty
 Yerkes-Dodson Law- performance of
difficult tasks decreases as arousal
increases, whereas performance of
easy tasks increases as arousal
increases
Why do we have emotions?
B. They regulate social interactions
binding us to some, and repelling
us from others
- ex- you back off when someone
shows anger, or draw close to
someone when they are crying
Why do we have emotions?
C. They influence the way you perceive
yourself & others and the way you
interpret & remember life
- emotional states can affect learning,
memory, social judgments &
creativity
- ex- good mood = better creativity
and problem solving
Why do we have emotions?
- research is being
conducted on
memory & emotion
 we tend to
remember events
more clearly when
they are tied to
emotion
Stress
• Stress- pattern of responses an
organism makes to events that
disturb its equilibrium and strain
or exceed its ability to cope
Stressed?
• List stressors you are currently
dealing with
• Is each stressor chronic or acute
• Rank your stressors in order from
most stressful to least stressful
• How do you tend to cope with stress?
Reactions to Stress
• Major life changes are the root of
stress for many people
- 1960’s: Social Readjustment Rating
Scale (SRRS)
- what do you think are the most
stressful events?
Stress
• Stressor- internal or external event
that induces stress; 2 types:
1. Acute- transient with clear onset
and offset patterns
2. Chronic- continuous conditions in
society and environment; demands
are greater than resources available
for dealing with them
Reactions to Stress
• Physiological Reactions:
- fight-or-flight is a response to acute
stress (involves hypothalamus 
pituitary  stress hormones 
more nrg available)
Reactions to Stress
- Women tend to use tend-and-befriend
where the stressor prompts females
to protect offspring & join social
groups to reduce vulnerability
- Both do not always fit with
contemporary society
- All stressors call for adaptation  an
organism must regain homeostasis
Reactions to Stress
• Response to stressors is General
Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)- proven
valuable to explain psychosomatic
disorders
• Stages:
1. Alarm Reaction- brief periods of
bodily arousal that prepare the
body for vigorous activity
Reactions to Stress
2. Resistance (if stress continues)- a
state of moderate arousal; organism
can endure & resist further
debilitating effects of prolonged
stress
- if the stressor is longlasting/intense, body’s resources
become depleted & it enters Stage 3
Reactions to Stress
3. Exhaustion- can
effect the
immune system
Reactions to Stress
• Catastrophic and traumatic
events can lead to PTSD- anxiety
disorder, characterized by reexperience of the traumatic event
through memories, dreams &
flashbacks
Reactions to Stress
• Chronic stressors- endure over time
- ex- conditions in society,
environment, overpopulation, crime,
economic conditions, terrorism
- frustration, conflict, pressure, &
significant changes in your life
Reactions to Stress
• How do chronic stressors affect
you? health problems, intellectual
development
• daily hassles- more frequent and
intense hassles are  the poorer
your health
Reactions to Stress
- as daily hassles decrease, wellbeing increases, but you need to
also consider positive events in
your life as well