Emotions - a complex psychological state that involves:
1. Physiological arousal
2. Behavioral/expressive behaviors
3. Conscious/subjective experience including thoughts and feelings
- Proposed by Charles Darwin
- Facial expressions are believed to be innate and allow people to
communicate with each other
- Emotions are absorbed in the body in ~6 seconds
Emotions vs. Moods
- Moods tend to be longer lasting, minutes, hours, and days
- Emotions may only last seconds to minutes
- Emotions are about something specific, such as a person or situation
- Moods are much more diffuse (spread out) with no identifiable object
- It’s easier to identify an emotional trigger but not the cause of a mood
- Moods don’t have unique facial expressions as opposed to universal emotions
- First to study emotion was Charles Darwin in the 1870s
- Evolutionary psychologists believe emotions are the product of evolution ; They
help us adapt to problems proposed by our environment
- We are biologically prepared to learn fears that helped our ancestors survive
- Fear: Avoids potential danger
- Love: seek a mate and care for offspring
- Anger: Defend oneself
- Emotions go well beyond physical survival and guide individuals in all aspects of
life
- Researchers agree that there are a limited number of basic emotions, fear,
surprise, anger, disgust, happiness/joy, and sadness in all humans in all cultures,
however, the emotional experience can be complex
- Emotions can overlap and result in mixed emotions
, - Most commonly classified according to two dimensions:
- Degree to which it is pleasant or unpleasant
- Level of activation or arousal associated with the emotion
- Considered to have a third dimension based on the emotional connection to
other people
- Interpersonal engagement: an emotion dimension reflecting the degree to
which emotions involve other people
Theories of Emotion
1. James-Lange Theory: your feelings follow your body’s response ; Our
experience of emotion is our awareness of our physical responses to emotional
arousing stimuli
2. Cannon-Bard Theory: physical arousal and emotional experience occur
simultaneously
a. Emotion-triggering stimulus is routed simultaneously to the brain’s cortex
(causes the subjective awareness of emotion) and to the sympathetic
nervous system (causes the body’s arousal). However, they believe you
can experience emotion even without sympathetic nervous system arousal
b. Cannon pointed out that bodily reactions are similar for many emotions,
yet our subjective experience of various emotions is very different
3. Two-Factor Theory: To experience emotion, one must be physically aroused
and cognitively label the arousal/experience
a. Proposed by Schachter and Singer
4. Cognitive-Apprasial Theory: theory that emotional responses are triggered by
cognitive evaluation
a. Can’t experience emotional unless we perceive a reason for it
b. Unlike Schachter and Singer, you don’t need physical arousal to
experience emotion
1. Physiological arousal
2. Behavioral/expressive behaviors
3. Conscious/subjective experience including thoughts and feelings
- Proposed by Charles Darwin
- Facial expressions are believed to be innate and allow people to
communicate with each other
- Emotions are absorbed in the body in ~6 seconds
Emotions vs. Moods
- Moods tend to be longer lasting, minutes, hours, and days
- Emotions may only last seconds to minutes
- Emotions are about something specific, such as a person or situation
- Moods are much more diffuse (spread out) with no identifiable object
- It’s easier to identify an emotional trigger but not the cause of a mood
- Moods don’t have unique facial expressions as opposed to universal emotions
- First to study emotion was Charles Darwin in the 1870s
- Evolutionary psychologists believe emotions are the product of evolution ; They
help us adapt to problems proposed by our environment
- We are biologically prepared to learn fears that helped our ancestors survive
- Fear: Avoids potential danger
- Love: seek a mate and care for offspring
- Anger: Defend oneself
- Emotions go well beyond physical survival and guide individuals in all aspects of
life
- Researchers agree that there are a limited number of basic emotions, fear,
surprise, anger, disgust, happiness/joy, and sadness in all humans in all cultures,
however, the emotional experience can be complex
- Emotions can overlap and result in mixed emotions
, - Most commonly classified according to two dimensions:
- Degree to which it is pleasant or unpleasant
- Level of activation or arousal associated with the emotion
- Considered to have a third dimension based on the emotional connection to
other people
- Interpersonal engagement: an emotion dimension reflecting the degree to
which emotions involve other people
Theories of Emotion
1. James-Lange Theory: your feelings follow your body’s response ; Our
experience of emotion is our awareness of our physical responses to emotional
arousing stimuli
2. Cannon-Bard Theory: physical arousal and emotional experience occur
simultaneously
a. Emotion-triggering stimulus is routed simultaneously to the brain’s cortex
(causes the subjective awareness of emotion) and to the sympathetic
nervous system (causes the body’s arousal). However, they believe you
can experience emotion even without sympathetic nervous system arousal
b. Cannon pointed out that bodily reactions are similar for many emotions,
yet our subjective experience of various emotions is very different
3. Two-Factor Theory: To experience emotion, one must be physically aroused
and cognitively label the arousal/experience
a. Proposed by Schachter and Singer
4. Cognitive-Apprasial Theory: theory that emotional responses are triggered by
cognitive evaluation
a. Can’t experience emotional unless we perceive a reason for it
b. Unlike Schachter and Singer, you don’t need physical arousal to
experience emotion
