emotion
a brief, specific response, both psychological and physiological, that helps people meet goals, including social goals
focal emotion
an emotion that is especially common within a particular culture
display rule
a culturally specific rule that governs how, when, and to whom people express emotion
broaden-and-build hypothesis
the idea that positive emotions broaden thoughts and actions, helping people build social resources
social intuitionist model of moral judgment
the idea that people first have fast, emotional reactions to morally relevant events, and then rely on reason to arrive at a judgment of right or wrong
moral foundations theory
a theory proposing that there are five evolved, universal moral domains in which specific emotions guide moral judgments
affective forecasting
predicting future emotions, such a whether an event will result in happiness or anger or sadness, and for how long
immune neglect
the tendency for people to underestimate their capacity to be resilient in responding to difficult life events, which leads them to overestimate the extent to which life's problems will reduce their personal well-being
focalism
a tendency to focus too much on a central aspect of an event while neglecting the possible impact of associated factors or other events
duration neglect
giving relative unimportance to the length of an emotional experience, whether pleasurable or unpleasant, in judging and remembering the overall experience
Humans appear to have a coordinated display of embarrassment that resembles appeasement signals in other species. What does this tell us about the function of embarrassment? Why do you feel embarrassed when you trip and fall in a full lecture hall? What e
Emotions have myriad social functions, and embarrassment has a particularly interesting role in human relationships, signaling remorse for making social errors (like breaking norms or violating role constraints). Expressing embarrassment tells others in y
The relationship between culture and emotion is complex. Say you're seated at a wedding reception with an older European-American man, who tells you that East Asians never get excited. How would you explain to him that he's mistaken by drawing on the conc
Excitement is an ideal emotion in Western cultures like America, where it is consistent with American cultural ideals, such as readily expressing the self, and is thus highly valued. In contrast, many East Asian cultures more highly value calmness and con
Much communication today occurs via electronic text rather than face-to-face, whether in an online chat or text message, and e-mail, or a post on a social media site. Given what you know about the importance of emotions for social relationships, why do yo
Emotion plays an important role in coordinating interactions, communicating our commitments and true feelings, and understanding what others are thinking and feeling. Emoticons and emojis can help us express and signal emotions in the online world, adding
Suppose you just got into a huge fight with your parents on the phone and are feeling angry. You call up your romantic partner to talk about the fight, but just end up fighting with your partner. Using what you know about emotion's effects on perception,
Anger makes us more attuned to signals of threat in the environment, making us see more hostile intent in the actions of others. In this situation, the first fight made you angry, which likely colored your perception of the interaction with your romantic
If you were working as a canvasser collecting signatures for a petition to ban same-sex marriage, what strategies could you use to increase your signature count, given what you know about moral foundations theory and the effects of disgust on moral judgem
Disgust intensifies judgment that impure acts are morally wrong. Gay men and lesbians are, unfortunately, seen as "impure" groups by some people, and same-sex marriage is thus a topic relevant to moral concerns about impurity. To collect more signatures,
Would winning several million dollars in the lottery make you happier? What does research on affective forecasting predict? What does the research on money and happiness have to say? How should you spend your winnings to maximize happiness?
Based on affective forecasting research, although you might predict that winning the lottery would increase your happiness considerably, chances are you'd be less happy after winning the lottery than you'd predicted. This may occur because of localism, su