Scientific theories and research methods

• Theories of emotion and motivation are explored
• Motivation involves energy and direction
• Self Determination Theory states intrinsic motivation drives human behavior
• Extrinsic motivation cannot explain all behavior

Self Determination Theory Components

• Autonomy: choosing one's own path or behavior
• Competence: having skills and mastery
• Relatedness: feeling socially connected
• Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations exist on a continuum

Regulatory Focus Theory

• Motivation varies based on the outcome being pursued
• Approach/promotion: working towards something
• Avoiding/preventing: working to avoid something
• These are not mutually exclusive

Common Sense View Vs James-Lange Theory

• Common Sense View: Event -> Feeling -> Behavior
• James-Lange Theory: emotions are based on sensations from muscles or organs reflected on body's reaction to certain situations
• Event -> Physiological Changes & Behavior -> Feeling
• Revised (1894): Event -> APPRAISAL -> Physiological Changes & Behavior -> Feeling
• Appraisal: Subjective interpretation of stimulus meaning

Plutchik’s Theory of Emotion

• Emotions are functional and facilitate actions that affect the world
• Emotions are reactions to objects and events in the environment
• Emotions must be inferred rather than observed

Four Aspects of Emotion

• Appraisal: assessment of the situation
• Feeling: subjective experience of emotion
• Physiological changes: bodily responses
• Behavior: actions taken
• Core affect is a subjective feeling and a defining aspect of emotion
• Non-specific arousal is part of core affect
• Events may cause valence and arousal, but not necessarily
• Event -> Valence & Physiological Arousal -> Feeling

The Circumplex Model

• Developed by Russell in 2003
• Emotional feelings form a circle defined by dimensions of pleasantness and arousal
• It is not possible to feel strong positive and negative emotions simultaneously
• The Evaluative Space Model includes dimensions of positive and negative activation
• Dimensions are independent of each other with arousal built-in
• High positive and negative activation indicates high arousal or activation

Basic/Discrete Theory

• Event -> Appraisal -> Emotion -> Observable Behavior
• Each emotion serves a distinct function
• Emotions coordinate individual aspects to produce a package of responses to situations
• Categories reflect distinction among natural categories of human psychological experience
• Some categories should be inherent in human nature, despite culture

Component Process Model

• Event -> Appraisals -> Emotion
• People interpret the environment using all-purpose appraisals, not categorical appraisals
• Each appraisal has independent effects, and these effects combine to produce emotion

Psychological Construction by Barrett (2013)

• Event -> Valence & Arousal -> Feeling & Appraisals, Cognitive Changes, Action Tendencies, Observable Behavior
• Different aspects of emotion are loosely correlated
• Emotion categories are learned concepts, closely aligned to Schacter-Singer theory
• Emotional experiences are created from psychological construction

Schacter & Singer (1962)

• Results are confusing
• Words and concepts used to describe emotions are learned and based on what people think they're supposed to feel

Culture and Emotion

• Cultures are ways of interpreting, understanding, and explaining what's happening in the world
• Sadness and pe'a pe'a (1973) have cultural interpretations
• Sadness is associated with loss or absence of a loved one
• Pe'a pe'a, found in some cultures means infection, illness, or overwork
• It also leads to loss of energy, withdrawal, decreased activity, and a downcast expression
• Swidler (2001) posited Hollywood Love and Prosaic Love
• Litost (Czech): torment from insight into one's miserable self
• Schadenfreude (German): enjoyment of another's suffering
• Liget (Ilongot): positive, socially encouraged response to insult/injury
• Amae (Japanese): pleasurable dependence on another, being cared for
• Hyper-cognized emotions involve elaborate networks/distinctions, leading to vocabularies on emotions
• Hypo-cognized emotions involve cultures with minimal cognitive elaboration/detail
• Individualism vs. Collectivism: Western cultures are individualistic while Eastern cultures are collectivistic
• Power Distance: Vertical societies emphasize social hierarchy; horizontal societies minimize status differences

Emotion and the Brain

• Amygdala: small, almond-shaped structure in each temporal lobe
• It receives input from senses
• Damage to the amygdala can cause Klüver-Bucy Syndrome in animals
• Urbach-Wiethe Disease in humans results in calcium damage to the amygdalae, leading to fearless behavior and panic induced by suffocation
• Lesions to the amygdala showed weaker fear conditioned responses
• The amygdala directs attention toward stimuli with emotional implications
• The amygdala facilitates activity in the hippocampus (adjacent), which stores vivid memories of personal experience
• Reward Circuit: The nucleus accumbes and ventral tegmental area (NA) primarily respond to rewarding stimuli
• Sometimes it responds to punishment
• Dopamine is primary neurotransmitter
• Wanting/Liking: Stimuli is perceived as pleasant based on person's preference
• There are 3 microcircuits involved
• One active during anticipating and moving toward likely reward
• Another is active when reward is being consumed
• The last microcircuit is involved in learning to predict future rewards and punishments
• Hypothalamus: Below the thalamus and above the brain stem
• It acts as the body's thermostat, regulating physiological variables and behavior to maintain homeostasis
• When stressed, triggers pituitary to release cortisol
• It collects sensory information from outside the body
• Homeostasis is maintained here through regulation of temperature, hydration, oxygen levels, sugar levels, salt levels etc.
• Prefrontal cortex is the front of motor and premotor areas and is active in cognitive functions
• It is used in planning, working memory, and inhibition of impulses
• Activated when using cognitive appraisal to reduce emotional intensity
• Inhibits activation of amygdala
• The amygdala communicates with the prefrontal cortex, informing of possible emotional consequences of a decision to allow selection of a good outcome
• Dopamine: Ventral tegmental area to nucleus accumbens activates after unpredicted reward and decreases when reward fails to appear
• Attention increases and facilitates learning about how to get reward
• Less activated in depression
• Pharmaceutical treatment increases dopamine
• Dopamine is important in cognitive operation in frontal lobes
• Antipsychotic drugs block dopamine synapses
• Stimulant drugs increase dopamine receptor activity in NA
• Drug abuse increases activity but sometimes indirectly blocks something that inhibits its release
• Serotonin is involved in sleep, memory, appetite control, nausea
• SSRIs are used to treat depression
• Oxytocin leads to uterine contractions and milk extraction in breast feeding
• Increases during sexual arousal and orgasm
• Nasal spray elicits
• Men more attracted to their partner but not other women with a willingness to trust, but effects inconsistent
• Increases attention to social cues, magnifies inclinations already felt
• Lindquist (2012) shows brain structure test selective activation of hypothesized structures
• The result: different emotions CANNOT be distinguished
• Vytal & Hamann (2012) examines patterns of activation across every voxel and identified regions that are consistently more active in one emotion that in others
• The results are that different emotions CAN be distinguished

Nervous System

• Autonomic Nervous System (ANS): a set of neurons communicating between the central nervous system (CNS) and visceral organs (heart, lungs, arteries, stomach, intestines, genitals, and sweat glands)
• It maintains homeostasis
• The ANS has two branches
• Sympathetic branch: fight or flight response
• Increased heart rate, breathing rate, sweating, blood flow to muscles
• Inhibits digestion
• Pupil dilation
• Decreased blood flow to stomach and intestines
• Parasympathetic branch: rest and digest response
• Maintenance and growth activities
• decreased heart rate and slower breathing
• increased salivation and digestive system
• insulin release promotes storage of energy in liver and fatty tissue
• facilitates sexual arousal and dilates vessels leading to genitals

Hormones and Endocrine System

• Control interior body
• insulin release from the pancreas, cells take in more glucose for energy
• growth hormone (pituitary) cell reproduction
• Cortisol increases in blood sugar and encourages the liver to release glucose
• Promotes breakdown of muscles and fat to produce more glucose, long-term promotesstorage of fat around the waist and increase blood pressure
• Cortisol levels peak after waking and decline throughout the day
• Smaller waking cortisol linked to depression, economic hardship, and severe stress during childhood
• Larger waking cortisol linked to negative daily emotions and depression is blunted
• Responses to stressful experiences later in the day; some responses cause more cortisol which is healthy
• Seen in children who've been abused/bullied or who're experiencing chronic, and adults who experienced greater stress as children
• In puberty, linked to higher levels of early life stress
• Lack of responsiveness suggests under severe, ongoing stress, people's bodies may begin giving up responding to challenging situations
• Estrogen is mood-enhancing; sharp drops are linked to depression
• Complex relationship between mood
• Mood responds to change in levels rather than absolute levels like puberty and menopause
• Testosterone has sexual motivations, mood-enhancing effects (minor depression with low TE)
• Increases aggression; cortisol decreases
• Heart rate (beats per min) and Cardiac interbeat interval (time between beats)
• High ratio of TE to cortisol correlates with increased aggressive behavior and increases risk-taking behavior
• Blood pressure (volume of blood in each heartbeat) occurs
• Systolic happens when pressure of blood on arteries while ventricles contract
• Diastolic occurs blood pressure while ventricles are relaxed between beats
• Mean arterial average pressure across systole and diastole
• Respiration rate which increases speed of electrical conductivity by the skin due to increased sweat
• Cardiac pre-ejection period occurs in when ms between onset of ventricular contraction; opening of aortic valve
• Respiratory sinus arrhythmia occurs at a difference in respiration rate while inhaling vs exhaling
• Pure Autonomic Failure: ANS ceases to influence the body; people report feeling emotions less intensely because it is incurable with unknown causes.
• Effects of cortisol

Explore scientific theories, research method, falsifiability, and correlation. Understand hypercognized emotions, cultural power distance, and individualism. Learn about psychological constructionism and reductionism.