Psychology Emotion Theories Quiz

Emotions, Stress, and Health

• Module 12.1 focuses on the nature of emotion
• Students should be able to describe methods of measuring emotions, including strengths and weaknesses of each method
• Students need to evaluate James-Lange and Schachter-Singer theories of emotions, along with supporting evidence
• The module also will discuss whether distinguishing a few "basic" emotions makes sense and provides alternative ideas
• Students will examine the role emotions play in moral reasoning
• A definition of emotional intelligence and related evidence will be presented

Socioemotional Development

• This section presents visual aids (images from the movie Inside Out) to illustrate various emotions such as joy, anger, fear, sadness, and disgust.

Measuring Emotions

• Psychologists use various methods to measure emotions
• Self-reports (e.g., PANAS) are one method
• Behavioral observations, including microexpressions, are another
• Physiological measures like autonomic nervous system activity (sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems) are also used, involving body responses like changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and skin conductivity

The James-Lange Theory of Emotions

• This theory posits that perception of bodily changes directly leads to the feeling of emotion
• The process is described as: Situation → Appraisal (cognitive aspect of emotion) → Actions (physiological and behavioral aspects) → Perception of the actions (feeling aspect of the emotion)

Schachter and Singer's Theory of Emotions

• This theory emphasizes the role of cognitive appraisal in determining the type of emotion felt
• The intensity of emotion depends on sympathetic nervous system arousal
• The cognitive interpretation of the situation identifies the specific emotion

Arousal – Intensity & Appraisal - Type

• Physiological arousal determines the intensity of the emotion, but cognitive appraisal determines the specific emotion

Do We Have a Few "Basic" Emotions?

• Some psychologists propose six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise
• Criteria for determining a basic emotion include consistent emergence in early life, similarities across cultures, distinct physiological responses, and unique facial expressions.

Emotion – Inside our brain

• No specific brain area is dedicated to a single emotion
• Brain areas associated with different emotional states and/or responses are activated by a multitude of methods.

Producing & Understanding facial expressions

• Faces are used in experiments to study emotion recognition abilities
• Different expressions are recognized for certain emotional states, including Happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, and fear

Understanding Facial Expressions

• People across the world generally detect facial expressions indicating certain emotional states.
• Emotional understanding involves considering posture, context, tone, and other accompanying information

Understanding emotion in context

• Facial expressions can indicate different feelings based on body language and posture
• The same facial expression might be interpreted differently based on context

Do Facial Expressions Indicate Basic Emotions?

• Everyday expressions often show a mix of emotions
• Recognizing emotions from facial expressions alone is not conclusive
• Other factors (e.g., posture, context) need to be considered to fully understand the emotional expression

Figure 12.15

• Shows a model of emotions based on arousal and pleasure
• Emotions fall on a continuum of these dimensions

The emotion wheel (Plutchik, 2003)

• Illustrates the relationship between emotions through an emotion wheel
• The eight primary emotions are displayed, along with their relationships and intensities

Usefulness of Emotions

• Emotions serve to direct attention to important information and help you adjust priorities based on your situation
• The Broaden-and-build hypothesis suggests that happiness expands your thinking and encourages exploration of new ideas and opportunities

The Trolley Dilemma

• Presents a moral dilemma asking whether one would be willing to sacrifice one life to save five.

Decisions by People with Impaired Emotions

• People with damaged brain regions influencing emotional responses may struggle to make sound decisions, especially those related to treating others

Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional intelligence involves the ability to understand and respond to one's own and others' emotional states
• The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) assesses emotional intelligence

Psychometric properties of EIS

• Study 1 of internal consistency: Cronbach's alpha=.90
• Validations exist using Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Trait Meta Mood Scale (TMMS)
• Other validation methods that use different scales such as Life Orientation test and other depression scales also exist to test the emotional intelligence scale

Critical Analysis

• Current measurements of emotional intelligence may not predict uniquely identifiable information beyond academic intelligence and aspects of personality

Module 12.2: A Survey of Emotions

• This module aims to objectively describe how researchers measure anxiety, evaluate the effect of amygdala damage, examine polygraph effectiveness, distinguish among emotions (anger, disgust, contempt), and explore the impact of wealth and factors related to happiness, life satisfaction changes in old age

Fear and Anxiety

• Anxiety involves increased startle reflex activity
• Objective anxiety measurement can be done by monitoring startle reflex changes after loud sounds
• Amygdala activity is linked to fear and anxiety

Anxiety operated as startle reflex and processed in amygdala

• Structures like the Pons and Medulla control the startle response, while the amygdala modifies the response.

Polygraph

• Also known as a lie detector test; measures sympathetic nervous system activity (like blood pressure, heart rate, etc)

Accuracy of Polygraph

• Polygraph accuracy varies
• Results of tests correctly identifying guilty suspects versus innocent suspects is displayed

Alternative Methods of Detecting Lies

• Guilty knowledge tests - Questioning a suspect on details only someone who knew of a crime would know to differentiate a lie from factual knowledge
• Detail oriented questions, or unexpected questions are useful to assess credibility and intent

Anger and Related Emotions

• Anger arises when intended actions are blocked
• Disgust is a reaction to things perceived as potentially contaminating
• Contempt results from violations of communal standards

Happiness, Joy, and Positive Psychology

• Positive psychology studies factors that enhance well-being
• Subjective well-being is a self-assessment of one's life as pleasant, meaningful, and satisfying
• Factors (including wealth, health, social support, goals, close relationships, and religious beliefs) are linked to happiness
• Levels of happiness often tend to be stable over time and increase in older age as compared to earlier age stages

Influence of Wealth on Happiness

• Wealth is sometimes positively correlated to happiness
• Other factors (like individual freedom, social equality, educational level) correlate with happiness too

Losses in Life & Life Satisfaction

• Life satisfaction often decreases after major losses (e.g., death of a spouse)
• Recovery from these losses is sometimes incomplete or slow

Age effect on Happiness

• People's reported well-being (with no signs of significant health issues) often reaches a low point around age 50 and then rises again.

Cohort effect on Happiness

• Generations (cohorts) born in a given year often experience diverse well-being patterns. Recent cohorts tend to report higher well-being than older ones.

Sadness

• Sadness is a response to loss
• Crying can be a form of communicating sadness or distress

Other Emotions

• Positive emotions include pride, awe, amusement
• Surprise arises when expectations are violated
• Embarrassment, shame, guilt, and pride arise from how other people perceive actions or shortcomings

Module 12.3 - Stress, Health, and Coping

• The module covers Selye's stress concept, measuring stress, stress effects on health behaviors associated with stress, role of cortisol and the immune system, prevalence of PTSD, stress coping mechanisms

Selye's Concept of Stress

• Stress is defined as a nonspecific response to any demand
• Any change, whether positive or negative, can cause stress
• Defining stress should consider both acute and chronic stressors such as poverty and racial injustices

Selye's Concept of Stress (continued)

• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) describes three stages of the body's reaction to stress
• Alarm stage - Initial reaction
• Resistance stage - Body tries to adapt
• Exhaustion stage - Resources are depleted

Measuring Stress

• Checklists of stressful experiences can be used to measure stress
• Checklists may be hampered by ambiguity of items, difficulty of assigning identical stress levels to different stressors, and limited ability to account for the unique experience of each situation
• Interviews offer more detail

Everyday Sources of Stress

• Pressure, uncontrollability, frustration, and conflict are described as everyday stressors

How Stress Affects Health

• Stress indirectly affects health by changing lifestyle choices (eating, sleeping, drinking)
• Stress' direct effects include increased cortisol, which in short term has a positive effect on memory and the immune system but prolonged exposure can harm the hippocampus and impair the immune system

Heart Disease

• Type A personality is linked to higher cardiovascular risk. Type B personality is less risky when compared
• Emotional responses have a minor effect on heart disease risk
• Stress management strategies can help decrease heart disease risk

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• PTSD is a condition characterized by persistent anxiety and depression after experiencing trauma
• Vulnerability and predisposition to PTSD varies among individuals

Coping with Stress

• Coping involves developing methods to manage stressful situations
• Common coping strategies include problem-focused, reappraisal, and emotion-focused approaches

Stress is...

• Stressors are events that trigger stress responses
• Distress involves the negative effects of undesirable stressors
• Eustress is the optimal experience of stress that promotes well-being

Problem-focused coping

• Active steps to change or resolve a stressful situation

Coping by Reappraisal

• Assessing a stressful event and determining how threatening or benign it is

Emotion-focused Coping

• Managing the emotional response to the stressful event

Coping Strategies

• Numerous coping strategies exist, each designed to minimize stress reactions or address specific stressors
• Strategies vary, but generally can be sorted into major categories of coping including confrontive, escaping/avoiding, distancing, self-controlling emotions, or seeking support

Exercise

• Exercise helps reduce stress by burning excess energy and promoting relaxation.

Resilience

• Resilience involves handling difficult situations with minimal distress

Meditation

• Meditation techniques aim to re-focus attention to achieve a calm and focused state
• Concentrative meditation and receptive meditation are different types of meditation techniques

Mindfulness based stress reduction

• This is a method of stress reduction
• It uses different practices to reduce stresses, such as MBSR, mindfulness for children, and mindfulness for different emotions

Mindfulness resources in HK

• There is a range of mindfulness-related resources in Hong Kong.