PSYCH1000: CHAPTER 11: MOTIVATION & EMOTION
The Nature & Functions of Emotion
• Emotion: positive/negative feeling (affective state)
• Pattern of cognitive/psych/behavioural reactions to events w/ goals/motive relevance
• Negative emotions are central features of stress response
• Emotions further our well-being
• Rouse us to action, help us communicate, elicit empathy
• Negative emotions narrow attention/behaviour, positive emotions broaden thinking/behaviour
• Primary components of emotion
• Eliciting stimuli
• Cognitive appraisals
• Physiological arousal
• expressive/instrumental behaviours
• Personality, motivations, cultural factors affect experience & expression of emotion
• Innate factors AND learning determine arousal properties of certain stimuli
• Some cross-cultural agreement of appraisals that evoke basic emotions
• Also degree of variation for more complex appraisals
• The cognitive component: evaluative & personal appraisal of eliciting stimuli
• Thoughts can elicit emotional arousal
• The physiological component: responses produced by hypothalamus, limbic system, cortex
• 2 systems: conscious cortex processing, unconscious amygdala processing
• Amygdala evaluates emotional significance of sensory input (immediate reaction)
• Removal of amygdala = psychic blindness (objects lose psychological significance)
• Frontal Lobes create conscious emotional awareness, develop deliberate beh. response
• Take amygdala response and do something with it
• Emotional lateralization
• In general, right hemisphere is more involved than left in emotionality
• Emotional response begins on left side of face (controlled by right side)
• Negative emotions = greater right-hemisphere activation
• Positive emotions = greater left-hemisphere activation
• Music
• Involvement of Oxytocin (“cuddle” / “bonding” neurohormone)
• Unregulated oxytocin = Williams syndrome —> wild emotional response to music
• More people present = stronger effect of oxytocin
• Polygraph (“lie detector”) validity questioned (difficult to establish emotion being expressed)
• Measures arousal
• The behavioural component: expressive & instrumental behaviours
• Facial expressions = strong indicator of emotion, accuracy improves w/ situational cues
• Facial expression similarities cross-culture —> some fundamental emo patterns innate
• BUT cultural learning also influences emotional expression
• There is an optimal level of arousal for the performance of any task
• Optimal level varies w/ complexity of the task (complex tasks have lower optimal arousal)
Theories of Emotion
• Common Sense Theory
• Perceived emotion causes arousal (this theory doesn’t really work)
• Emotion provoking event —> perception —> emotion —> arousal
• James-Lange Somatic Theory
• We first become physiologically aroused and then judge what we are feeling
• Emotion provoking event —> perception —> arousal —> emotion
• Low heart rate = happy, disgust, surprise
, • High heart rate —> hot skin = anger, cooler skin = fear, sadness
• Cannon-Bard Theory
• Arousal & cognition are simultaneously triggered by the thalamus and act independently
• Cognitive Appraisal Theory (Lazarus)
• Appraisals of environmental stimuli trigger emotional arousal
• Emotion provoking events —> appraisal <—> bodily arousal —> emotion
• Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory
• Arousal shows how strongly we feel, cognitions from situational cues label the emotion
• Bodily arousal drives intensity of emotion, but labels of the emotion can be manipulated
• Arousal on its own does not lead to any particular emotion
• If you have an explanation for your bodily arousal, you look for emotion labels to explain it
• Misattribution of Arousal: mistakenly identifying arousal as produced by a source
• Excitation Transfer: residual arousal from one event can be transferred to another
• Emotion & arousal
• Darwin: expression intensifies experience
• Facial Feedback Hypothesis (updated somatic theory)
• Changes in facial expression responsible for distinct emotion
• Particular expressions can yield a specific emotion w/o stimuli
• Bilateral facial paralysis = still can feel emotion (facial movement may not be crucial)
• Botox - lower amygdala & brainstem activity after botox (facial movement important)
• Freud: expression reduces experience
• Manipulate appraisals = influence arousal level, arousal changes = affect appraisals
Nonverbal Behaviour
• Telling lies
• Simple structure, looking away, um/er, pauses to think of something to say
• Courtroom scenario
• Less likely to be guilty if wearing suit & looking at jury
• Paralanguage
• Non-content aspects of speech (HOW something is said)
• Tone, speed, amplitude, hesitations/pauses, rise/fall time
• Influential people talk moderately fast
• Facial Expressions
• Typically emotions but may reflect other cognitive states (like comprehension)
• Pretty much universally recognizable
• Can even be recognizable in nonhuman images/cartoons
• Ekman: 6 fundamental emotions to identify
• Did cross-cultural studies of recognizing emotions
• Critique: other cultures have seen Western facial expressions
• New Guinea —> less accuracy BUT still pretty accurate (shows innate knowledge)
• Display rules: when/how it’s appropriate to show emotionality
• Body Language
• Kinesics: body movement, posture
• The more people are physically closed off, the less we like them
• There can be more than one reason for different postures
• Gestures: hand signals
• Emblems: meaningful substitutes (no words to communicate the meaning)
• These gestures can vary from culture to culture
• Illustrators: accompany speech (accent, pacing)
• Regulators: maintain or change speakers
• Eye Contact
• Looking directly into someone’s eyes
• Typical convo: 30% of time, mutual eye contact (duration 1-3 seconds at a time)
The Nature & Functions of Emotion
• Emotion: positive/negative feeling (affective state)
• Pattern of cognitive/psych/behavioural reactions to events w/ goals/motive relevance
• Negative emotions are central features of stress response
• Emotions further our well-being
• Rouse us to action, help us communicate, elicit empathy
• Negative emotions narrow attention/behaviour, positive emotions broaden thinking/behaviour
• Primary components of emotion
• Eliciting stimuli
• Cognitive appraisals
• Physiological arousal
• expressive/instrumental behaviours
• Personality, motivations, cultural factors affect experience & expression of emotion
• Innate factors AND learning determine arousal properties of certain stimuli
• Some cross-cultural agreement of appraisals that evoke basic emotions
• Also degree of variation for more complex appraisals
• The cognitive component: evaluative & personal appraisal of eliciting stimuli
• Thoughts can elicit emotional arousal
• The physiological component: responses produced by hypothalamus, limbic system, cortex
• 2 systems: conscious cortex processing, unconscious amygdala processing
• Amygdala evaluates emotional significance of sensory input (immediate reaction)
• Removal of amygdala = psychic blindness (objects lose psychological significance)
• Frontal Lobes create conscious emotional awareness, develop deliberate beh. response
• Take amygdala response and do something with it
• Emotional lateralization
• In general, right hemisphere is more involved than left in emotionality
• Emotional response begins on left side of face (controlled by right side)
• Negative emotions = greater right-hemisphere activation
• Positive emotions = greater left-hemisphere activation
• Music
• Involvement of Oxytocin (“cuddle” / “bonding” neurohormone)
• Unregulated oxytocin = Williams syndrome —> wild emotional response to music
• More people present = stronger effect of oxytocin
• Polygraph (“lie detector”) validity questioned (difficult to establish emotion being expressed)
• Measures arousal
• The behavioural component: expressive & instrumental behaviours
• Facial expressions = strong indicator of emotion, accuracy improves w/ situational cues
• Facial expression similarities cross-culture —> some fundamental emo patterns innate
• BUT cultural learning also influences emotional expression
• There is an optimal level of arousal for the performance of any task
• Optimal level varies w/ complexity of the task (complex tasks have lower optimal arousal)
Theories of Emotion
• Common Sense Theory
• Perceived emotion causes arousal (this theory doesn’t really work)
• Emotion provoking event —> perception —> emotion —> arousal
• James-Lange Somatic Theory
• We first become physiologically aroused and then judge what we are feeling
• Emotion provoking event —> perception —> arousal —> emotion
• Low heart rate = happy, disgust, surprise
, • High heart rate —> hot skin = anger, cooler skin = fear, sadness
• Cannon-Bard Theory
• Arousal & cognition are simultaneously triggered by the thalamus and act independently
• Cognitive Appraisal Theory (Lazarus)
• Appraisals of environmental stimuli trigger emotional arousal
• Emotion provoking events —> appraisal <—> bodily arousal —> emotion
• Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory
• Arousal shows how strongly we feel, cognitions from situational cues label the emotion
• Bodily arousal drives intensity of emotion, but labels of the emotion can be manipulated
• Arousal on its own does not lead to any particular emotion
• If you have an explanation for your bodily arousal, you look for emotion labels to explain it
• Misattribution of Arousal: mistakenly identifying arousal as produced by a source
• Excitation Transfer: residual arousal from one event can be transferred to another
• Emotion & arousal
• Darwin: expression intensifies experience
• Facial Feedback Hypothesis (updated somatic theory)
• Changes in facial expression responsible for distinct emotion
• Particular expressions can yield a specific emotion w/o stimuli
• Bilateral facial paralysis = still can feel emotion (facial movement may not be crucial)
• Botox - lower amygdala & brainstem activity after botox (facial movement important)
• Freud: expression reduces experience
• Manipulate appraisals = influence arousal level, arousal changes = affect appraisals
Nonverbal Behaviour
• Telling lies
• Simple structure, looking away, um/er, pauses to think of something to say
• Courtroom scenario
• Less likely to be guilty if wearing suit & looking at jury
• Paralanguage
• Non-content aspects of speech (HOW something is said)
• Tone, speed, amplitude, hesitations/pauses, rise/fall time
• Influential people talk moderately fast
• Facial Expressions
• Typically emotions but may reflect other cognitive states (like comprehension)
• Pretty much universally recognizable
• Can even be recognizable in nonhuman images/cartoons
• Ekman: 6 fundamental emotions to identify
• Did cross-cultural studies of recognizing emotions
• Critique: other cultures have seen Western facial expressions
• New Guinea —> less accuracy BUT still pretty accurate (shows innate knowledge)
• Display rules: when/how it’s appropriate to show emotionality
• Body Language
• Kinesics: body movement, posture
• The more people are physically closed off, the less we like them
• There can be more than one reason for different postures
• Gestures: hand signals
• Emblems: meaningful substitutes (no words to communicate the meaning)
• These gestures can vary from culture to culture
• Illustrators: accompany speech (accent, pacing)
• Regulators: maintain or change speakers
• Eye Contact
• Looking directly into someone’s eyes
• Typical convo: 30% of time, mutual eye contact (duration 1-3 seconds at a time)
