What are Emotions?
They are our feelings, moods, affect. They involve some level of physiological arousal and the subjective, personal experience of feeling a certain way, and also some form of expression: facial changes, posture, behaviour. There are universal emotions tha
Face in the Crowd
Which are we more likely to notice: A smiling face in a sea of frowners, or a frowning face in a sea of smilers We are all much more likely to notice and pay attention to a frowning face in a sea of smiling faces than vice versa because the frowner is a p
Emotion Theories
1. James-Lange Theory (AKA bodily feedback theory) common sense says:
1. Something happens
2. You feel an emotion (fear)
3. You do something (scream, run away)
2. James says:
1. Something happens
2. you respond physiologically (heart rate sores, sweating,
The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
James Laird (1974, 1984): Consistent with the bodily feedback/James-Lange theory. Here we look at how different facial expressions lead to different patterns of blood flow to the brain. There is research that actually links changes in brain temperature pa
Two Factor Theory (Schachter and Singer)
Later in the 20th Century Scachter and Singer found that indeed we do need physiological arousal in order to experience emotion, but in itself isn't enough. We also need contextual cues to provide us with a cognitive label for what we feel. In a study, th
The Cognitive Appraisal Theory
Lazarus et al (1980) say that we get scared, happy, sad, angry in response to our cognitive assessment of the physiologically aroused if our cognitions tell us that arousal is the proper response. Ie: you're in line at the show, or for a concert and someo
Psychodynamic Perspective
Holds that much of our emotional experience is inaccessible, implicit outside of our conscious grasp.
Emotion and the Brain
Are there particular structures/regions in the brain that play a role in emotion? Fear response: the brain circuits link up like this:
1. first basic information sorted through the thalamus which in turn activates the amygdala. (Base emotions) this is a q
Hemisphere Specialization
Certain regions of the left prefrontal cortex (LPFC) seem specialized to generate & process positive approach based emotions: happiness, joy, interest, anticipation and also anger, which is an approach, aroused type of emotion. The LPFC also serves to inh
The Role of Culture
We know that some emotions are universal. But some suggest that there are others that are culture-specific. In German, the word "schadenfreude" describes the feelings of joy at another person's misfortune. In Japanese "ijrashii" is a feeling associated wi
The Mystery of Happiness
Basic findings in the West include more money doesn't lead to more happiness once basic needs and some wants are met. The increase in happiness felt after a new purchase, car, home, vacation tends to fade back to baseline after a few months. So what do "h
Can You Get Happy if You're Not?
What if you tend to be pessimistic, a worrier, generally unhappy? Is there hope? Assuming you'd like to be happier, yes! (If it's clinical depression, there are treatments out there) It's important to recognise happiness when you find it, take a mental no
The Many Faces of Happiness
What the research (Diener & Diener) have found is that countries very enormously in happiness. Culture can play a big role through the most important place on the positive emotions and beliefs about how to achieve a state of well-being.
Positive Psycholog
Display Rules and Emotion Work
Each culture and further each smaller group such as genders, family, has it's own "display rules: for emotions: which emotions, when, where and how they can and should be displayed. They also tell us how and when we should show an emotion. And this effort
Types of Emotion Work
1. Masking: here we are covering up whatever true emotions we're feeling, we're showing nothing. Ie: boyfriend cancels date, you pretend it doesn't bother you at all. Your mother criticises your clothing, you ignore her (even though it bugs you).
2. Simul
Lie to Me
Research has found some tell tale signs when we try to hide or fake our emotions. For one thing, when we do this, we use different muscles than when the emotions is genuine. Ask 100 people to pretend grief, and only 15 will get the eyebrows, eyelids, and
The Polygraph Machine
For close to 100 (1938, Marston) years now we've had the standard polygraph machine. The polygraph measures heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and skin conductance. The idea being that lying is stressful and will cause marked changes in these mark
Brain Imaging in Lie Detection
1. Brain Fingerprinting (Farwell): This involves the subject (say a suspected gang hit man) wearing an EEG helmet or headband, and then beomg shown images of, for example, missing persons he's suspected of killing or pics where the hits went down. The ide
The Burden of Lying
Wray's estimates that we correctly spot lies just more than half of the time by listening and observation alone. Our minds have limited capacity for how much it can handle at any one time. So piling on demands for simultaneous thinking or "cognitive overl
Gender an Emotion
it's popular to think that women are more emotional, less logical, more intuitive. But is this true? Well what causes emotions to stir may differ between the sexes, (jealousy for example) and how or if they are outwardly displayed, may differ but both sex
Why do we Cry?
General Gender Difference: women on average cry about 5 times a month and men cry about once every for weeks.
It's the tears we produce that appear to make us different from our animal cousins. All primates can whimper, howl or moan in outrage or pain, bu
How Important a Social Signal are Tears
In an experiment, subjects we shown photos of faces. Some were of people crying, and in some instances, the tears were digitally erased. When tears were present subjects were very accurate in detecting deep emotions, sadness. With the tears gone they were
Gender Differences in How we Cry
Gottman et al (1989 to now) hooked up married couples to machinery that would measure their heart rates, blood pressure, skin conductance (GSR), and then video-taped them having a heated discussion about an issue that was causing them some trouble. What t