Psychology Emotions and Feelings Quiz

The Emotional Self - Week 14

• Intended Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will demonstrate understanding of emotions and their role in shaping the emotional self, including emotional awareness, expression, and regulation.
  • Students will analyze the multifaceted nature of emotions, considering cognitive, physiological, and behavioral components, and understand how emotions contribute to self-identity.

Definition: What is Emotion?

• The term emotion originated from the French word emouvoir, meaning "to shake, to stir."
• It is a strong mental or instinctive feeling, such as love or fear, involving bodily processes and mental states.
• Emotions are typically brief, intense, and involve physiological changes (e.g., heart rate, facial expressions, hormonal secretion).

Basic Emotions

• According to Daniel Goleman, there are eight basic families of emotions:
  • Fear (Safety): anxiety, apprehension, nervousness, concern, consternation, misgiving, wariness, qualm, edginess, dread, fright, terror, phobia, and panic.
  • Anger (Justice): fury, outrage, resentment, wrath, exasperation, indignation, vexation, acrimony, animosity, annoyance, irritability, hostility, hatred, and violence.
  • Sadness (Loss): grief, sorrow, cheerlessness, gloom, melancholy, self-pity, loneliness, dejection, despair, and depression.
  • Enjoyment (Gain): happiness, joy, relief, contentment, bliss, delight, amusement, pride, sensual pleasure, thrill, rapture, gratification, satisfaction, euphoria, whimsy, ecstasy, and mania.
  • Love (Attraction): acceptance, friendliness, trust, kindness, affinity, devotion, adoration, infatuation, and agape.
  • Disgust (Repulsion): contempt, disdain, scorn, abhorrence, aversion, distaste, and revulsion.
  • Surprise (Attention): shock, astonishment, amazement, and wonder.
  • Shame (Self-control): guilt, embarrassment, chagrin, remorse, humiliation, regret, mortification, and contrition.

Components of Emotions

• Emotions are multifaceted, involving physiological arousal (brain, nervous system, hormones), subjective feelings, and cognitive processes (memories, perceptions, expectations, interpretations).
• Behavioral reactions, both expressive and instrumental, are also important parts of emotional responses.

Characteristics of Emotions

• Emotions are closely related to a person's biological needs.
• Emotions occur when an individual's basic needs are hindered or satisfied.
• Emotions are helpful in terms of satisfying basic needs.
• Emotional intensity is inversely related to logical thinking; as emotional intensity increases, the capacity for logical thinking decreases.
• Emotions often manifest in overt behaviors that are indicators of internal emotional states (e.g., anger is linked to aggressive behaviors).
• Emotions trigger a range of internal activities involving the autonomic nervous system, ductless glands (endocrine system), and visceral organs.

Emotions Leave an After Feeling Called 'Mood'

• Emotions are characterized by strong intensity and relatively short duration, serving as immediate responses to stimuli or situations.
• The aftermath of intense emotional experiences often leaves a lasting influence on an individual's mood.

Physiological Changes in Emotions

• Facial expressions (e.g., eye, lips, nose, forehead muscles) change.
• Muscular adjustments throughout the body.
• Gestures and hand movements.
• Changes in voice (e.g., volume, pitch).

Definition: What is Feeling?

• Feelings are enduring and significant experiences arising from cognitive interpretation and evaluation of emotions.
• Feelings are influenced by various factors, like personal experiences, cultural norms, and individual differences.

Characteristics of Feelings

• Feelings have a dimension of pleasantness or unpleasantness.
• Feelings also have dimensions of excitement and numbness (intensity), and tension and relaxation (activation of the body).

Distinction Between Emotions and Feelings

• Emotions are intense but temporary.
• Emotions help to establish initial attitudes towards reality and alert individuals to immediate dangers.
• Emotions ensure immediate survival of the self.
• Feelings are low-key but sustainable, establishing long-term attitudes and alerting people to anticipated dangers.
• Feelings ensure long-term survival of the self.

Major Theories Related to Emotions

• James-Lange Theory of Emotion: Emotions arise from bodily sensations.
• Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion: Emotions and bodily responses occur simultaneously in the thalamus.
• Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion: Emotions require both physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation.

Neuroscience of Emotions

• Limbic System: A crucial brain region for emotion regulation, comprised of the thalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, and more.
  • Thalamus: Relays sensory information, including emotional stimuli, to different brain areas.
  • Amygdala: Processes fear and pleasure, and plays a role in emotional memory formation.
  • Hippocampus: Involved in memory formation, influencing emotional regulation via interactions with the amygdala; helps create memories linked to emotional experiences.
  • Hypothalamus: Key regulator for autonomic and endocrine systems; orchestrates physiological changes associated with emotions (heart rate, body temperature, hormone release).
  • Cingulate Cortex: involved in emotional processing, conflict resolution, and emotional learning.
  • Insular Cortex: associated with processing and regulating emotions. It helps with interoceptive awareness, allowing individuals to perceive their own bodies in relation to emotions such as heartbeat, respiration, and gastrointestinal sensations.
  • Fornix: Fiber bundle connecting the hippocampus to other limbic structures; facilitating communication within the limbic system.

Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, assess, and manage one's own emotions, and the emotions of others.
• Highly emotionally intelligent people understand their own emotions and those of others.

5 Components of Emotional Intelligence

• Self-awareness.
• Self-regulation.
• Motivation.
• Empathy.
• Relationship management.

Emotional Regulation

• Emotional regulation is the process by which individuals influence their own emotions, including when, how, and how intensely those emotions are experienced.

Three Components of Emotional Regulation

• Initiating actions triggered by emotions.
• Inhibiting actions triggered by emotions.
• Modulating responses triggered by emotions.

Two Forms of Emotional Regulation

• Cognitive reappraisal involves changes to one's perspective.
• Suppression involves concealing an emotional response.

Research-Based Emotional Regulation Strategies

• Reappraisal: altering one's perspective to reduce emotional intensity.
• Self-soothing: techniques for calming and regulating emotional responses, particularly during stressful situations.
• Attentional control: focusing on specific aspects of a situation to reduce emotional influence.

Other Emotional Regulation Strategies

• Identifying and labeling emotions.
• Understanding the function of emotions.
• Reducing painful, negative emotions and letting go of emotional suffering.
• Increasing positive emotions.

Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions (see image description for detail)

• A model to understand and categorize emotions including a visual model of the interconnected degrees of emotions (e.g., joy and love overlapping).

Test your understanding of the distinctions between emotions and feelings, including their intensity and the theories that explain them. This quiz covers key concepts such as the dimensions of feelings, essential brain structures involved in emotional processing, and the roles of different components in emotions.