Emotions, Motivation and Affect

• Affect is defined as experiencing feeling or emotion.

Emotions and Motivation

• An emotion is a mental and physiological feeling state that directs attention and guides behavior.
• Motivation is a driving force that initiates and directs behavior.
• Arousal is a bodily response created by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, or ANS.

The Experience of Emotion

• Emotions are not solely derived from older parts of the brain; interpretations of experiences contribute to a wider range of emotional experiences.
• The amygdala may perceive fear, such as when sensing a body falling, but context can alter that perception like excitement on a roller coaster versus fear when falling from an airplane.
• Cognitive appraisal is the cognitive interpretations that accompany emotions, allowing a more complex set of secondary emotions.
• Experiences of secondary emotions are determined by arousal and valence, referring to whether feelings are pleasant or unpleasant.
• Arousal refers to the level of emotional intensity, ranging from mild to intense.
• Valence describes if the emotion is pleasant or unpleasant, indicating if feelings are positive or negative.
• Success may evoke joy, satisfaction, and contentment, while a friend's win over you may evoke anger, sadness, resentment, and shame.
• The fast pathway handles basic emotions like fear, where the thalamus quickly sends messages to the amygdala for an immediate response.
• The slow pathway handles secondary emotions, where information moves from the thalamus to the frontal lobes for analysis and integration before reaching the amygdala.
• Emotions and cognition both play a role in decision-making.
• Emotions can guide more accurate decisions in complex or uncertain situations than purely cognitive analysis.
• The Cannon-Bard theory suggests that the experience of an emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal.
• The James-Lange theory suggests that our experience of an emotion results from the arousal we experience.
• The two-factor theory of emotion suggests that experience is determined by the intensity of the arousal we're experiencing, and cognitive appraisal of the situation.
• Walter Cannon and Philip Bard's theory suggests experience of emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal.
• For example, as awareness of danger increases, so does our heart rate.
• William James and Carl Lange's theory proposes the experience of an emotion results from the arousal experienced.
• Fear doesn't occur with the racing heart, but because of the racing heart.
• A fundamental aspect of the James-Lange theory is that different patterns of arousal may create different emotional experiences.
• The fast emotional pathway indicates arousal and emotions occur together, suggesting emotional experiences are weaker without arousal.
• Spinal injuries reducing arousal also report decreases in emotional responses.
• Different emotions are produced by different patterns of arousal, with fearful faces triggering more amygdala activation and different hormones released when experiencing compassion.
• The two-factor theory contradicts the James-Lange theory in which each emotion has a different pattern of arousal.
• The two-factor theory argues that the arousal experienced is basically the same in every emotion, differentiating all emotions only by cognitive appraisal of the source of the arousal.
• Emotion is determined by the intensity of the arousal experienced, but the cognitive appraisal of the situation determines the emotion.
• Emotions consist of an arousal factor and a cognitive factor.
• Misattribution of arousal refers to the tendency for people to incorrectly label the source of their experienced arousal.
• In a romantic relationship with high emotional arousal, partners may mislabel their feelings as love, hate, or both.
• In the Capilano Suspension Bridge Study, Dutton and Aron found that men crossing a high suspension bridge felt arousal from the height, but misattributed it as attraction to an attractive woman who interviewed them.
• More men contacted the woman later, indicating misattribution of arousal as romantic attraction.

Communicating Emotion

• We express and perceive emotions through nonverbal cues including tone of voice, posture, gait, touch, and facial expressions.
• Nonverbal communication helps convey feelings like liking, disliking, dominance, and submission.
• Nonverbal gestures vary by culture; for example, the middle finger is a disrespectful gesture in Canada, but the "V" sign is used similarly in some other countries.
• The face has 43 muscles that can create over 10,000 unique configurations to express emotions, such as smiling for happiness, frowning for disliking, and lowered brows for anger.
• The facial feedback hypothesis suggests facial expressions can trigger corresponding emotions.
• Holding a pen in a smile-like position may cause one to rate cartoons as funnier
• Emotions and behaviors influence each other leading one to smile when happy and smiling makes us feel happier.
• Standing upright can make us feel proud, and feeling proud can encourage one to stand taller.

Summary

• Emotions can spill over from one highly arousing event to another.
• People experiencing arousal from one event may also experience unrelated emotions more strongly through excitation transfer.
• Cannon-Bard theory suggests emotions and arousal are subjectively experienced together, and the spread is fast.
• James-Lange theory supports the idea that arousal is necessary for emotion experience, and that arousal patterns vary for different emotions.
• The two-factor model suggests that we may interpret the same patterns of arousal differently in different situations.

Functions of Emotions

• Intrapersonal refers to the role of emotions that play within us individually.
• Interpersonal refers to the role of emotions that play between individuals within a group.
• Social and cultural refers to the role of emotions in the maintenance of social order within a society.
• Emotions are fast ways of processing information that let people adjust to birth, conflict, death, and seduction.
• They make it possible to make rapid decisions that are functionally adaptive and helpful to survival, including attacking, defending, running, or caring for others.
• Disgust can save a life, causing us to act without much thought.
• Emotions prepare the body for action, coordinating perception, attention, memory, and decision-making.
• Emotions trigger necessary systems while shutting down others to ensure an effective response.
• Emotions do not always lead to immediate behavior, they prepare the body but actions are influenced by social norms, experiences, and perceived consequences.
• Emotions shape behavior but are just one of many factors in decision-making.
• Emotions link to thoughts and memories and aren't just facts, but shaped by emotions felt at the time.
• Emotions act as neural glue, connecting different facts in our minds.
• Mood affects memory recall; happy emotions bring happy memories, while anger brings angry memories.
• Emotions shape attitudes, values, and beliefs, giving them meaning beyond just statements.
• Emotions influence thinking, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.
• Intense emotions can hinder clear and critical thinking.
• Emotions prepare bodies for immediate action, influence thoughts, and can be felt.
• Emotions are powerful motivators of future behavior.
• For example, one might take precautions after experiencing disgust from drinking spoiled milk.
• Emotions not only influence immediate actions but also motivate long-term behaviors.
• Facial expressions are universal social signals that convey psychological states, intent, and future behavior.
• Observers react to facial expressions, influencing their actions.
• Fearful faces lead to approach-related behaviors, while angry faces lead to avoidance.
• Subliminal smiles increase consumption and willingness to pay, while angry faces decrease these behaviors.
• Emotional displays trigger specific emotional responses in others.
• Anger evokes fear, while distress evokes sympathy and aid.
• Emotional expressions shape relationships, revealing deeper dynamics beyond momentary feelings.
• Studies by Gottman & Levenson examined how emotions impact long-term relationship health.
• Subtle facial expressions can predict relationship outcomes because even small displays of certain emotions can indicate long-term dissatisfaction.
• Contempt from men and disgust from women are red flags that correlate with future marital struggles.
• Negative emotional patterns can lead to divorce and the risk of separation because they erode connection when these expressions become habitual.
• Facial expressions regulate social interaction.
• Social referencing helps infants interpret situations to decide how to react by looking to others’ facial expressions, demonstrated in the visual cliff experiment.
• Facial expressions influence infant behavior beyond immediate moments and even an hour later, babies remember and act according to the emotional cues received.
• Different emotions produce different levels of response; anger causes the strongest hesitation, followed by disgust, while joy encourages engagement.
• Modern life involves many people and groups working together smoothly.
• People belong to different groups with their own rules and expectations.
• In cities, where diverse backgrounds mix, systems prevent disorganization.
• Culture organizes systems by providing shared rules and ideas, helping people and groups work together, avoid chaos, and live orderly.
• Culture offers a sense of purpose, aiding survival, happiness, and understanding life.
• Culture shapes emotional expression and norms are learned early to maintain social order.
• Managing emotions reduces the complexity of social interactions, rendering them more predictable and harmonious.
• Without norms, social functioning breaks down; unregulated emotions could lead to unpredictable or harmful behaviors.
• Emotions are essential for societal success, maintaining stability and efficiency in group interactions.
• Culture transmits meaning and information by shaping emotional worldviews.
• These worldviews provide guidelines on which emotions are desirable and how to regulate them.
• Cultural norms influence individual behavior and social relationships.
• Cultural backgrounds dictate ideal emotions, shaping emotional expectations.
• Emotional norms pass down through parents, caregivers, and cultural products.
• Cultural display rules, learned early in life, define how emotions should be expressed or modified in different social situations.
• These emotional norms reduce social complexity and promote socially appropriate behavior.
• Emotions are essential for societal functioning, helping maintain order and cooperation.

Positive Emotions: The Power of Happiness

• Thinking positively helps people meet their goals, keeps them healthy, happy, and able to effectively cope with negative events.
• People who think positively about their future, who believe they can control their outcomes, and who are willing to open up and share with others are healthier.
• Some focus on optimism, a tendency to expect positive outcomes, finding that optimists are happier and have less stress.
• Others focus on self-efficacy, the belief in ability to carry out actions that produce desired outcomes.

Drive States

• Drive states are known as the affective experiences influencing thoughts and behaviors, motivating to fulfill goals beneficial to survival and reproduction.
• Drive states are evolved motivational mechanisms designed to ensure that organisms take self-beneficial actions.
• Humans, like all organisms, need to maintain a stable state in their various physiological systems, known as homeostasis.
• For example, dehydration can lead to a dangerous state, and too much water can be damaging.
• Intensified drive states direct attention toward elements, activities, and forms of consumption that satisfy the biological needs associated with the drive.
• Drive states also narrow attention, collapsing time-perspective toward the present, making one impatient.
• A third form of attention-narrowing involves thoughts and outcomes related to the self versus others where intense drive states narrow one's focus inwardly to undermine altruism.
• Two important drive states in ensuring human survival and are determining behavior are hunger and sexual arousal.
• Hunger results to thoughts and behaviors associated with eating.
• Sexual arousal results in thoughts and behaviors related to sexual activity generated by internal and external mechanisms.
• Unlike hunger, mechanisms behind arousal can differ substantially between males and females, indicating evolutionary differences in biological functions that sexual arousal serves for different sexes.

Psychology in Decision-Making

• Studying the mental processes, feelings, and prejudices that can affect people's decision-making assesses alternatives, balances risks, and thinks through possible consequences.
• Decision-making can be impacted by stress, motivation, prior experiences, and social influence.

Motives and Goals

• Goals are a cognitive representation of a desired state or mental idea of how we would like things to turn out.
• Motivation is the psychological driving force that enables action in the pursuit of a goal.
• Intrinsic motivation is drive from the process of pursuing a goal.
• Extrinsic motivation is drive from the benefits of achieving a goal.
• Goal pursuit is influenced by personal characteristics and situational factors.
• Environmental cues like images, words, sounds, and people can activate a goal.
• Activation can be conscious or nonconscious.
• Self-regulation are the factors influencing motivation in pursuing a goal.
• Self-control is the ability to continue pursuing a goal when faced with conflicting desires, like resisting temptation to socialize while preparing for an exam.
• Commitment to a goal arises from perceiving that it is valuable and attainable leading people to adopt goals believing will lead to positive outcomes.
• Goal commitment can occur without much conscious thought, inferring value and attainability based on prior behaviors and outcomes.
• For example, you infer you are committed to staying physically fit going to a class.
• Cues in the environment can influence goal pursuit and goals are organized in memory connecting goals to activities or objects that help achieve them.
• For example, the goal to stay fit can be connected to a gym, bicycle, or training partner.
• Environmental cues can prime the pursuit of goals activating and increasing motivation to exercise given seeing a training partner or the word "workout".
• Motivation from priming peaks right after the cue and slowly declines as one moves away from it after pursuing a goal.
• Goal activation and increased motivation can influence perception, evaluation, and feelings about the world.
• Motivational states can alter visual perception.
• For example, seeing the ambiguous figure "13" as a letter B or number 13 based on the goal.
• Goals impact how objects and people are evaluated, while goal-relevant objects are seen more positively.
• Goal priming can lead to goal-consistent behaviors, even if unaware of the source of motivation.
• Self-regulation involves altering perceptions, feelings, and actions to achieve a goal, like choosing fruits when trying to stick to a health goal.
• Deliberation Phase requires an open-minded assessment of options and deliberation but can hinder action because of obstacles.
• Implementation Phase involves planning specific goal actions that can lead to closed-mindedness and unrealistic expectations about goal achievement.
• Prevention focus aims to avoid negative outcomes, with goals seen as "oughts," like exercising to avoid health issues.
• Promotion focus aims for positive outcomes, with goals seen as “ideals,” such as exercising to feel and look better.
• Individuals self-regulatory focus depends on personal on situational factors leading one to respond better to either prevention or promotion strategies.
• Self-regulation compares current progress to the desired end state and acting to close any gaps.
• Positive feelings arise when progress is better than expected, leading to reduce effort and negative feelings increasing effort when progress lags behind expectations.

Goal-Commitment:

• Confidence in goal commitment influences whether past actions are seen as signs of progress or commitment.
• Self-control is needed when immediate temptations conflict with long-term goals.
• It is the ability to resist temptations and stay focused on long-term goals.
• This self-control can be drained, making it harder to continue resisting future temptations since it is seen as a limited resource.
• Identifying self-control conflicts is crucial for successful goal pursuit since conflicts can be unrecognized with minimal immediate consequences
• Recognizing broader decision patterns makes it easier to identifying self-control conflicts.
• Strategies for counteracting temptations include devaluing temptations, precommitting to goals, establishing rewards/penalties, and distancing from temptations, goal-related thoughts can be automatically activated to inhibit temptation.
• Pursuing goals is complex and requires understanding cognitive processes like goal priming, self-regulation, and self-control.
• Success in achieving goals involves understanding personal goal values and expectancies, managing self-regulation challenges, and recognizing conflicts to stay on track.
• Achieving long-term goals can be feasible through saving money, improving health, or reaching extraordinary aspirations.