Psychology Chapter 15: Emotions

Chapter 15: Emotions

• Emotions are crucial for experiencing and evaluating the environment, and for interacting and communicating with others
• Emotions are associated with overt behaviours like crying and laughter, and motivational states like approach or avoidance
• Physiological responses like increased heart rate or perspiration accompany emotions
• Different theories explain the relationship between emotions and bodily responses
  • Folk psychology: Emotions cause bodily responses
  • James-Lange theory: Bodily changes cause emotions
  • Cannon-Bard theory: Emotion and bodily responses are independent
  • Schachter's Cognitive Attribution Model: Physiological response combined with context determine the emotional experience
• Lie detector tests measure physiological arousal, but brain imaging can provide more specific measures of brain activity associated with lying
• Six fundamental emotions recognized across cultures are anger, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and disgust
• Facial expressions and their feedback can influence mood
• MacLean's limbic system is a group of brain regions associated with emotions

Chapter 16: Depression and Anxiety

• Key symptom of depression is anhedonia (loss of pleasure)
• Other symptoms may include sadness, low energy, difficulty concentrating, restlessness
• Treatments for depression include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and drugs (like SSRIs and MAO inhibitors)
• Monoamine hypothesis of depression suggests that a deficiency in monoamine function contributes to depression
• Stress hormone dysregulation can be a factor in depression, with elevated cortisol levels in depressed patients
• Treatments for anxiety disorders include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and medication (SSRIs, benzodiazepines)

Chapter 17: Memory

• Prefrontal cortex may have a role in suppressing amygdala activity related to fear
• Memory impairments include retrograde amnesia (loss of memories before a trauma) and anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories after a trauma)
• Memory formation involves a multistage process, starting with sensory input and encoding into short-term memory, then moving to consolidation and storage in long-term memory
• Primacy effect refers to better recall of items at the beginning of a list, while recency effect refers to better recall of items at the end of a list
• Long-term memory relies on the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus which is critical for converting short-term memories into long-term memories
• Memory storage is associated with physical changes in the brain, such as changes in neurotransmitter levels and synapse formation
• Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a stable and enduring increase in the effectiveness of synapses, important for forming memories. This is supported by the activation of CAMKII, AMPA glutamate receptors and CREB