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C13:1

MyersMyers’’ PSYCHOLOGYPSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 13

Emotion

C13:2EmotionEmotion

• Emotion– Response of whole organism to pleasant and aversive events of different types

• Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, …

– Three elements

• Physiological arousal

• Expressive behaviors

• Conscious experience

– Fit together in complex ways to determine experience of emotion

C13:3

OutlineOutline• Theories of Emotion

– James-Lange

– Cannon-Bard

– Schachter & Singer

• Embodied Emotion

– Emotions and Autonomic Nervous System

– Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions

– Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions

– Cognition and Emotion

• Expressed Emotion

– Nonverbal

– Detecting and computing emotion

– Culture and Emotional Expression

– Effects of Facial Expressions

• Experienced Emotions

– Fear

– Anger

– Happiness

– How to be Happier

C13:4Theories of EmotionTheories of Emotion

• What is relationship between mental and physical aspects of emotion?

– e.g., Does your heart pound because you are afraid ... or are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding?

• Competing Theories– James-Lange theory

– Cannon-Bard theory

– Schachter’s two-factor theory

– Robert Zajonc’s theory

– Richard Lazarus’s theory

C13:5JamesJames--Lange Lange

Theory of Theory of

EmotionEmotion

• Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

– Stimulus � Arousal � Emotion

C13:6

CannonCannon--Bard Bard

Theory of Theory of

EmotionEmotion

• Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger: Physiological responses AND Subjective experience of emotion

� Arousal

– Stimulus �

� Emotion

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C13:7

SchachterSchachter’’ss

Two Factor Two Factor

TheoryTheory

• Cognition and Emotion– Experience of emotion involves: Physical arousal + Cognitive label

– Schacter-Singer study (later)

� Arousal �

• Stimulus � � Emotion

� Cognition �

C13:8

C13:9

OutlineOutline• Theories of Emotion

– James-Lange

– Cannon-Bard

– Schachter & Singer

• Embodied Emotion– Emotions and Autonomic Nervous System

– Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions

– Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions

– Cognition and Emotion

• Expressed Emotion

– Nonverbal

– Detecting and computing emotion

– Culture and Emotional Expression

– Effects of Facial Expressions

• Experienced Emotions

– Fear

– Anger

– Happiness

– How to be Happier

C13:10Emotions and Autonomic Nervous SystemEmotions and Autonomic Nervous System

Arousal aspect of emotion involves Sympathetic andParasympathetic divisions of Autonomic Nervous System

C13:11

Arousal and Arousal and

PerformancePerformance

• Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks

Easy tasks

C13:12Physiological SimilaritiesPhysiological Similarities

• Gross features of arousal similar in many different, strong emotions, but there are subtle differences in physiological response (and marked differences in psychological experience)

– Similar physiological reactions to Fear, Anger, Sexual Arousal

– Fear and Joy: Both increase heart-rate

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C13:13Physiological DifferencesPhysiological Differences

• Physical responses, like finger temperature and movement of facial muscles, change during Fear, Rage, and Joy.

– Facial muscles: fear � brow, joy � cheek / eye

• Amygdala shows differences in activation during emotions of Anger and Rage.

• Brain and Positive vs. Negative emotions– Frontal lobe: Left (positive) vs. Right (negative)

C13:14Cognition and EmotionCognition and Emotion• Two routes to emotional reaction

– Slower, thinking response (right, Schacter & Singer +1)– Speedy (shortcut) non-cognitive route (left) (+2)

C13:15• Cognition can define emotion: Classic Schacter & Singer Study (6 conditions shown below)

Adrenaline/ Informed Cue /

Epinephrine of Effects? Model

No - Euphoria 1.

No - Rage 2.

Yes Yes Euphoria 3.

Yes Yes Rage 4.

Yes No Euphoria* 5.

Yes No Rage* 6.

Only last 2 groups (*) reported higher levels of the cued emotions: Epin/Adren produced arousal, and being uninformed, arousal was attributed to situation

C13:16Two Routes to EmotionTwo Routes to Emotion

C13:17• Cognition does not always precede emotion– When fearful eyes subliminally presented to subjects (left), fMRI scans revealed more activity in amygdala (Whalen et al. 2004)

– Subliminally presented happy face can encourage subjects to drink more than angry face (Berridge & Winkeilman, 2003).

C13:18

Lie Lie

DetectionDetection

• Polygraph– Machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies

– Measures physiological responses• Perspiration, Heart rate, Blood pressure, Breathing changes

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C13:19Lie DetectionLie Detection

• Comparison between arousal to control and relevant questions

– Control Question: Up to age 18, did you ever physically harm anyone?

– Relevant Question: Did deceased threaten to harm you in any way?

• Two outcomes illustrated in next slide– Control > Relevant = Truth

– Control < Relevant = Lie

C13:20EmotionEmotion--Lie DetectorsLie Detectors

Control question

Relevant

question

Control

question

Relevant

question(a) (b)

Respiration

Perspiration

Heart rate

(a) Control > Relevant = “telling truth”(b) Control < Relevant = “lying”

C13:21

Emotion: Lie DetectorsEmotion: Lie Detectors

• 50 Innocents

• 50 Thieves– 1/3 of innocent declared guilty

– 1/4 of guilty declared innocent (from Kleinmuntz & Szucko, 1984)

C13:22EmotionEmotion--Lie DetectorsLie Detectors

• Although average difference in expected direction, results are a problem from applied perspective

– Assume 70% accuracy

• If 5% of 1000 employees actually guilty

• Test all employees

• 950 x .30 = 285 will be wrongly accused (False Alarms)

– What about 95% accuracy?

• Assume 1 in 1000 employees actually guilty

• Test all employees (including 999 innocents)

• 999 x .05 = 50 wrongly declared guilty

• 1 of 51 testing positive are guilty (2%)

C13:23OutlineOutline• Theories of Emotion

– James-Lange

– Cannon-Bard

– Schachter & Singer

• Embodied Emotion

– Emotions and Autonomic Nervous System

– Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions

– Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions

– Cognition and Emotion

• Expressed Emotion– Nonverbal Communication

– Detecting and computing emotion

– Culture and Emotional Expression

– Effects of Facial Expressions

• Experienced Emotions

– Fear

– Anger

– Happiness

– How to be Happier

C13:24Nonverbal CommunicationNonverbal Communication

• Communication among humans is nonverbal, as well as verbal– People often have more faith in nonverbal messages than explicit, verbal messages

– People may be attuned to detect certain emotional expressions more readily• e.g., angry face may pop out (+1)

– Perception of expressions varies with experience• e.g., abused children more likely than nonabusedchildren to see ambiguous face as hostile or angry (+2)

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C13:25Expressed EmotionExpressed Emotion• People more speedily detect angry face than happy one (Fox et al, 2000)

C13:26Experience and Experience and

Perception of Facial Perception of Facial

ExpressionsExpressions

C13:27

Gender, Emotion, & Nonverbal Gender, Emotion, & Nonverbal

BehaviorBehavior

– Gender implicated in number of aspects of nonverbal communication

• Women

– Better at reading people’s emotional expressions

– Better at detecting lies

– Describe emotional experiences more specifically

– More likely to describe selves as empathic

– React more visibly to emotional situations (+1) and to self-descriptions of own emotional experiences (but perhaps not with respect to anger)

– Perhaps inherited from Father (or grandmother) (+2, +3)

C13:28

Gender and Emotional ExpressionGender and Emotional Expression

• Women show more emotional expressiveness to films

C13:29• X-Imprinting– Father's X chromosome

always contributes to

daughter's genetic make-

up, mother's to son's or

daughter's.

– Paternal X chromosome,

which must have come from

his mother (Grandmother of

his child), can contribute

daughter-specific information on sex

differences (e.g., in

Emotional Expressiveness)

C13:30

• Study in Nature of Turner's syndrome– Single intact X chromosome– 55 Turner's girls who had maternal X– 25 Turner's girls who had paternal X– Girls with paternal X "better adjusted with superior

verbal and higher-order executive function skills which mediate social interactions.“

– Authors propose that imprinting of paternal X permits activation and expression of one or more genes involved in social skills. The X chromosome from dad more "socially inclined" than that from mom.

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• Detecting and Computing Emotion– Facial expressions can be used to deceive (+1 +2)

– People generally at chance (50%) in identifying people who are lying based on emotional expression, or faking emotional response

– Some groups better than chance

• 64%USA Secret Service Agents

• 73% CIA Agents

• 68% Clinical Psychologists interested in Lying

• 67% Los Angeles sheriff’s interrogators

– Can read people’s emotions quite well, however, when they are not trying to deceive us

• e.g., teachers’ attitudes toward students

C13:32

Expressing Expressing

EmotionEmotion

Smiles can show different emotions:

A) Mask anger

B) Overly polite

C) Soften criticism

D) Reluctant compliance

C13:33Which is the natural smile?Which is the natural smile? C13:34

Culture Culture

and and

EmotionEmotion

• Are various aspects of emotions universal or culture-specific?– Darwin found similarities across cultures and thought emotional expression innate: expressed in infants (above from his book “Emotions in Man and Animals”) and even across species (+1)

C13:35 C13:36Culture and EmotionCulture and Emotion

• Overall, many similarities across cultures in experience, labelling, interpreting, and expressing emotions

– e.g., Expression of certain basic emotions claimed to be universal by Ekman and others

– Expression of disgust by people from different cultures, of different ages and genders (+1)

– Expression of various emotions (+2)

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C13:37Expression / Perception of DisgustExpression / Perception of Disgust C13:38Expressing EmotionExpressing Emotion

• Culturally universal expressions

C13:39Culture and EmotionCulture and Emotion

• But there are also some differences across cultures in certain facets of emotion

– Descendents of Irish more expressive than descendents of Scandinavians

– Display rules

• Implicit rules about contexts in which appropriate to display different emotions

• Individualist Cultures (e.g., Canada, UK, …)– EXPRESS negative emotions to in-group members

– SUPPRESS to out-group members

• Collectivist Cultures (e.g., Greece, India, …)

– SUPPRESS negative emotions to in-group members

– EXPRESS to out-group members

• Why these differences?

C13:40

Effects of Facial Effects of Facial

Expressions: Facial Expressions: Facial

Feedback Feedback

HypothesisHypothesis

• Facial expressions not only reflect our emotions; they also contribute to emotional experience

– Manipulate people’s expressions (e.g., hold pen in mouth to create “smile”) intensifies emotion (e.g., how funny cartoons are)

– Expressions play causal role, along with Physiology and Cognition

C13:41

OutlineOutline• Theories of Emotion

– James-Lange

– Cannon-Bard

– Schachter & Singer

• Embodied Emotion

– Emotions and Autonomic Nervous System

– Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions

– Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions

– Cognition and Emotion

• Expressed Emotion

– Nonverbal

– Detecting and computing emotion

– Culture and Emotional Expression

– Effects of Facial Expressions

• Experienced Emotions– Fear

– Anger

– Happiness

– How to be Happier

C13:42Experienced EmotionsExperienced Emotions

• Humans experience 10 or so distinct emotions

– Joy, Interest/excitement, Surprise, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Contempt, Fear, shame, and Guilt

– Most present in infancy, perhaps another sign of universality

– Classified along two dimensions (+1 +2)

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C13:43

Two Dimensions of EmotionTwo Dimensions of EmotionC13:44

C13:45FearFear • Learning– Direct experience

– Modelling

• Biology– Preparedness

– Amygdala (in limbic system … +1) plays critical role

– Fear response less if amygdala damaged

• Excessive fear or anxiety– Central role in many clinical conditions: Phobias, Obsessions, PTSD, … (more in clinical psychology)

C13:46Experienced EmotionsExperienced Emotions

• The Amygdala: a neural key to fear learning

C13:47AngerAnger

• Evoked by:

– Response to other’s misdeeds, especially if unjustified or willful, avoidable, …

– Also blameless annoyances (e.g., traffic jam, heat, …)

• Catharsis (Myth?)

– Emotional release

– Catharsis hypothesis: “Releasing” aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

C13:48

HappinessHappiness

• Happiness

– Varies with time of day (+1)

– Feel-good, do-good phenomenon: People tend to be more helpful when in good mood

– Subjective Well-Being: Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (Physical and Economic indicators) to evaluate Quality of Life

– Examined in following slides

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C13:49Experienced EmotionExperienced Emotion

• Moods across day

C13:50HappinessHappiness

C13:51

• Are today’s college students materialistic?

C13:52Experienced EmotionExperienced Emotion

• Student values and life satisfaction

C13:53Experienced EmotionExperienced Emotion

• Does money buy happiness? (below and +1)

Year

100%90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Averageper-personafter-taxincomein 1995 dollars

Percentagedescribingselves asvery happy

$20,000$19,000$18,000$17,000$16,000$15,000$14,000$13,000$12,000$11,000$10,000$9,000$8,000$7,000$6,000$5,000$4,000

1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

% very happy

Income

C13:54

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C13:55 C13:56Relativity of HappinessRelativity of Happiness

• Relative Deprivation– Perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

• Adaptation Level (next few slides)– Happiness ain’t a thing in itself—it’s only a contrast with something that ain’tpleasant…. And so, as soon as the novelty is over and the force of the contrast dulled, it ain’t happiness any longer, and you have to get something fresh.

– Mark Twain, explaining adaptation, in 1907.

C13:57AdaptationAdaptation--Level and EmotionsLevel and Emotions

• Adaptation-Level: tendency to form judgements relative to “neutral” level

– Perceptions (e.g., of being well-off) made relative to base-line that changes with our circumstances

– Brickman et al (1978): lottery winners not more happy sometime after winning, and paraplegics not less happy (latter claim challenged … below)

– Adaptations to smaller rewards and setbacks almost complete (Suh, Diener, & Fujita, 1996): Produce transient positive or negative deviations, but return to norm

– Adaptation to more serious changes partial: Widowhood and Unemployment (Lucas, Clark, Georgellis, & Diener, 2003, 2004) led to lower levels of life satisfaction even 5 years later, but still some adaptation

C13:58

• Cross-cultural comparisons (Biswas-Diener et al, 2004; Biswas-Diener & Diener, 2001)– African Maasai relatively happy living in dung huts without indoor plumbing or electricity

– Inuit of Northern Greenland relatively satisfied despite very harsh climate

– Impoverished individuals in slums of Calcutta live in shacks, but score positive zone on life satisfaction

– But Street Prostitutes, Homeless, People in mental hospitals remain dissatisfied (relative deprivation?)

• Implications– Over time, many good and bad things lose power

– People poor judges of what will make them happy or unhappy

C13:59Predictors of HappinessPredictors of Happiness C13:60