Psychology Emotion Processes and Dissonance

Emotion Process

• Emotion often begins with interpreting a situation, called appraisal.
• Emotions are marked by expressive behaviors, subjective experience, motivated actions, and physiological changes.

Discrete Emotions

• Theories suggesting discrete emotions believe basic emotions (like fear and anger) are distinct and natural.
• These emotions are not simply different degrees of a continuous spectrum.
• Basic emotions are recognizable through facial expressions across cultures.

Cognitive Dissonance and Related Errors

• Cognitive dissonance: occurs when beliefs contradict actions or experiences. Example: Dorothy Martin's followers' belief despite the failure of her alien prophecy.
• Confirmation bias: seeking information that confirms existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.
• Belief perseverance: maintaining a belief despite evidence against it.
• Motivated reasoning: prioritizing desired outcomes over factual accuracy in thinking and decision-making.

Errors in Critical Thinking

• Bias blind spot: failing to recognize one's own biases, a common deficiency in critical thinking.

Thinking Errors in Judging Others

• Fundamental attribution error: attributing others' actions to internal factors (personality) while overlooking situational factors.
• Better-than-average effect: overestimating personal qualities and abilities relative to others.
• My-side bias: giving more weight to one's own perspective (and less to opposing perspectives) in judging arguments.

Heuristics and Biases

• Confirmation bias: favoring information confirming existing beliefs.
• Motivated reasoning: prioritizing desired outcomes over accuracy in judgments.
• Availability heuristic: overestimating the likelihood of events that are easily recalled.
• Representativeness heuristic: judging likelihood based on resemblance, rather than statistical probability.

Dual Process Theory

• Type 1 thinking: quick, intuitive, and effortless. Relies on heuristics, experience, and familiarity.
• Type 2 thinking: slower, more conscious, deliberate, and rational. Involves more analysis.
• Critical thinking often involves Type 2 thinking, demanding more conscious review and consideration.

Language and Thinking

• Language is crucial in externalizing and organizing thought.
• Recursion allows for complex linguistic structures, enriching expression of ideas.
• Thinking and language are intertwined, but not identical. Human language contains richer, more complex elements than pure thought.

Persuasion and Propaganda

• Persuasion is aimed at changing attitudes and behaviors, commonly through verbal or written language.
• Propaganda, a more general term, is usually employed by organized entities (like governments) and typically has political intent.
• Effective persuasion frequently uses specific techniques to alter a target's views and behavior.

Plagiarism

• Plagiarism involves representing others' thoughts or ideas as one's own without appropriate attribution or acknowledgement.
• This includes directly copying, paraphrasing inaccurately, or using ideas without citing their source.

Cognitive Processes in Problem-Solving

• Synthesis: combining multiple ideas to form a new, composite understanding.
• Evaluation: judging the merits, effectiveness, or significance of multiple or competing ideas or methods.
• Analysis: breaking down complex information into smaller, more manageable parts.
• Application: using learned principles or knowledge in practical contexts or new situations.
• Knowledge: mastering factual information or subject area.
• Comprehension: grasping and clarifying information within the context of a given subject area.

Critical Thinking Skills

• Reasoning: using logic to evaluate conclusions, arguments, and the validity of evidence.
• Problem-solving: the process and steps involved in defining and resolving a problem or issue.
• Evaluation: analyzing and judging ideas, conclusions, decisions, or proposals.
• Inference: drawing conclusions based on evidence.
• Explanation: clearly and persuasively explaining reasoning or ideas.

This quiz explores key concepts in psychology related to emotion processes, discrete emotions, and cognitive dissonance. Learn about the appraisal of situations, the nature of basic emotions, and cognitive biases that influence belief and reasoning. Test your understanding of these critical psychological theories and their implications.