Psychology Chapter on Emotions and Theories

Emotion and Motivation

• Emotion is a four-part process: physiological arousal, cognitive interpretation, subjective feelings, and behavioral expression.
• Emotions involve a state of mental and physical arousal focused on an event of importance.
• Emotions help respond to important situations and convey intentions.
• Emotions result from genetics and learning, particularly early in life.
• Emotions act as arousal states, aiding organisms in coping with recurring situations.
• Learned emotional responses, alongside genetics, are crucial components of various psychological disorders.

Emotion Basics

• Emotion and motivation are interconnected processes.
• Emotion emphasizes arousal (physical and mental), while motivation highlights how arousal turns into action.

Why We Have Emotions

• Emotions stem from a combination of genetics and learned experiences, especially during early life.
• Emotions serve as arousal states to help organisms cope with recurring significant situations.
• Learned and genetic components interact in various psychological disorders.

Universality of Emotions

• Despite diverse languages and cultures, studies suggest that people universally understand and use facial expressions for emotions.
• This shared understanding of emotions supports the idea of a biological heritage within the human species.

Seven Basic Emotions

• Paul Ekman suggests seven fundamental emotions recognizable across cultures: sadness, fear, anger, disgust, contempt, happiness, and surprise.

Display Rules

• Ekman defines display rules as culturally permissible ways of expressing emotions.
• Display rules vary across different cultures.

Emotion Facial Expressions

• Presented are visual breakdowns illustrating the specific facial muscular movements associated with anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

Reading Emotions

• The ability to recognize facial expressions is largely consistent across ages.
• Five-year-old children show similar capabilities in recognizing emotions as adults.

More Emotions

• While recognizing Ekman's seven basic emotions, many other emotions exist (e.g., greed, envy, regret, optimism).
• Robert Plutchik proposed a model with eight primary emotions, each with secondary derivative emotions. This model is visualized as a "wheel."
• More complex emotions emerge from combining adjacent emotions on the "Emotion Wheel." (e.g., love combining joy and acceptance)

Origins of Emotions

• The study of emotions saw significant advancements with the discovery of distinct emotional pathways in the brain.
• One pathway functions quickly and unconsciously, filtering stimuli and initiating responses.
• The other pathway is slower and linked to explicit memory, processing more complex information.
• The brain's built-in sensitivity to certain cues influences instinctive emotional responses to things like spiders, heights, and lightning.

The Limbic System

• Both emotional pathways share reliance on the limbic system.
• The amygdala plays a key role in processing emotions, including both negative and positive ones, a more recent discovery.

Emotion in Men and Women

• Cultural norms often perceive women as more emotional than men.
• Biological and cultural factors potentially contribute to this difference.
• There are different lessons concerning emotional control that boys and girls learn.

Lateralization of Emotion

• Different brain regions process different emotions.
• The right hemisphere is often associated with negative emotions, while the left processes positive ones.

Psychological Theories of Emotion

• Various theories explain how emotions affect behavior and mental processes.
• James-Lange Theory: A stimulus triggers a physical response, followed by the emotion.
• Cannon-Bard Theory: Emotional feeling and physiological response occur simultaneously.
• Two-Factor Theory: Emotions are a product of internal physical state and external circumstances.
• Cognitive Appraisal Theory: Emotions arise from consciously evaluating a situation.
• Opponent-Process Theory: Triggering one emotion often results in suppressing its opposite.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

• Optimal performance corresponds with a moderate level of psychological arousal.
• Too little or too much arousal negatively impacts performance.
• This relationship is often plotted as an inverted U-shaped curve.

Motivation

• Motivation encompasses processes initiating, directing, and sustaining physical and psychological activities.
• Motivation links observable behaviors to internal states.
• Motivation explains behavioral variability and persistence despite challenges.
• Motivation relates biological processes to behavioral responses.

Types of Motivation

• Drive: Biologically based motivation creating tension that organisms seek to reduce. (e.g., thirst, hunger)
• Motive: Learned motivational process. (e.g., achievement)

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation

• Extrinsic Motivation: Behavior motivated by external rewards or punishments.
• Intrinsic Motivation: Behavior motivated by internal desires and effectiveness.
• Research suggests that intrinsic motivation often leads to better, more sustainable results than extrinsic motivation, though they can work together.

Problems with Extrinsic Motivation

• Extrinsic motivators might not sustain behavior once removed.
• Removing external rewards may lessen behavioral outputs.

Overjustification Effect

• External rewards may diminish intrinsic motivation.
• People may lose interest and intrinsic motivation for activities they previously enjoyed, when extrinsic rewards are introduced.

Theories of Motivation

• Instinct Theory: Innate factors drive behaviors essential for survival.
• Drive-Reduction Theory: Physiological needs create internal tension or drives leading to behavior to satisfy those needs.

Cognitive Social-Learning Theory

• Behavior is influenced by factors including goals and their perceived value to the person.
• This includes expectations of reaching a goal, and the perceived value of that goal.

Psychodynamic Theory

• Motivation stems from unconscious drives, particularly in the Id-level of the mind.
• The theory highlights Eros (the life instinct), and Thanatos (the death instinct) as key motivations.

Maslow's Hierarchy/Humanistic

• Maslow's approach posits a hierarchy of needs that humans strive to fulfil - starting with biological ones and culminating in self-actualization.
• Needs lower on the hierarchy must be partially met or satisfied before moving to higher-level needs.
• Most needs are met at approximately 85% completion before pursuing deeper levels.

Criticism of Maslow's Hierarchy

• Although Maslow's Hierarchy is a cornerstone of motivation models, critics point out possible incompleteness and potential bias regarding cultural differences.
• Basic needs are sometimes neglected for perceived (rather than real) social needs.

Stress

• Psychological stress is a response rather than a situation.
• Psychologists differentiate between a stressor (a stimulus) and stress (a response).
• Stressors can include challenging or threatening situations demanding adaptation.

Traumatic Stressors

• Significant events exceeding "normal" stressors can be traumatizing, endangering physical safety.
• Examples include natural disasters and intentional human-caused catastrophes.

Response to Traumatic Stressors

• Individuals commonly face stages following traumatizing events, ranging from shock and confusion (psychic numbness) to communal support followed by eventual recovery.

PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder)

• Individuals who experience severe trauma (rape, combat, torture) may develop PTSD, characterized by long-lasting stress symptoms.
• PTSD symptoms can include distraction, disorganization, memory difficulties, emotional numbing, and feelings of alienation.

Response to Normal Stressors

• The human body typically responds to stressors with physiological arousal (fight-or-flight), along with changes in the autonomic nervous system, and decreased immune system effectiveness.

Types of Stress

• Acute Stress: Temporary, resulting from stressors lasting for a specific duration.
• Chronic Stress: Continuous state of arousal persisting for a prolonged period.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

• A general physical response to persistent stressors, composed of three stages.
• These stages are Alarm Reaction (mobilizing resources), Resistance (adaptation to the stressor), and Exhaustion (depleting resources).