Understanding Emotion: Theories and Components

• Emotion is a full-body response to a situation, encompassing physiological arousal, expressive behavior, and conscious experience.

Components of Emotion

• Physiological arousal involves bodily changes orchestrated by the sympathetic nervous system.
• Expressive behavior refers to actions related to the emotion.
• Conscious experience includes subjective feelings and thoughts.

Autonomic Nervous System

• The sympathetic nervous system is arousing, increasing heart rate, breathing, pupil dilation, and sweating.
• The parasympathetic nervous system is calming, decreasing heart rate and breathing.

Brain Activity and Emotion

• The left frontal lobe is associated with positive emotions like joy and love.
• The right frontal lobe is associated with negative emotions like fear and anger.

Emotion Theories

• The James-Lange Theory posits that arousal precedes emotion.
• The Cannon-Bard Theory suggests arousal and emotion occur simultaneously.

Emotional Expression and Perception

• People can accurately read emotions in eyes and faces.
• There is a bias toward quickly detecting negative emotions.
• Abused individuals tend to perceive fearful faces as angry.
• Behavior can influence thoughts and feelings.

Specific Emotions - Anger

• Anger can provide energy and initiative.
• Chronic anger is linked to heart disease.
• Catharsis doesn't reduce anger, but expressing anger can increase it.
• Coping strategies for anger: wait, distract, distance.

Specific Emotions - Happiness

• Happy people are more cooperative, make better decisions, and are healthier.
• Happiness increases helping behavior.
• Positive psychology focuses on studying happiness and life satisfaction.
• Individuals have a set point for happiness.
• Factors related to happiness: self-esteem, optimism, relationships, engaging work, sleep, and exercise.
• Factors not strongly related to happiness: age, gender, and attractiveness.
• Happiness is judged relative to past experiences.
• Adaptation to changes means new things become the new norm.

Money and Happiness

• Money increases happiness for those in poverty, but the effect diminishes once basic needs are met.

Stress Defined

• Stress is the process of appraising and responding to stressors.
• A stressor is an event viewed as threatening or challenging.
• Appraisal is deciding if an event is a stressor.
• A stress reaction is the physical or emotional response to stress.
• The stress response system includes "fight or flight," the sympathetic nervous system, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol.
• The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) has stages of alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
• Type A personalities (competitive, impatient, angry) are more prone to heart attacks.
• Type B personalities are easygoing and relaxed.
• Pessimists have a higher risk of heart disease.

Coping with Stress

• Problem-focused coping involves addressing the stressor directly.
• Emotion-focused coping involves managing the emotional stress response.
• Uncontrollable threats trigger the strongest stress response.
• Lack of control increases stress hormones and health problems.
• Optimists tend to perceive more control and cope better.
• Internal locus of control is the belief that you control your fate.
• Internal locus of control is associated with better achievement, health, and less depression.
• External locus of control is the belief that outside forces control your fate.
• External locus of control is associated with less motivation and more anxiety.
• Self-control, the ability to delay gratification, is associated with better health, school performance, and overall success.
• Self-control requires energy and attention.

Promoting Health

• Close relationships improve health and increase longevity.
• Social support reduces stress hormones and blood pressure and strengthens the immune system.
• Religious involvement is linked to better health and a longer life due to self-control, social support, positive emotions, and relaxation.
• Emotions from one situation can affect others.

Social Influence - Obedience

• Obedience includes the presence of an authority figure, prestigious authority, proximity to an authority figure, depersonalization or distance from the victim, and the absence of defiance in role models.
• In Milgram's study, 60% obeyed to the end, showing the power of social influence.
• Situations can drive ordinary people to do terrible things; avoid the fundamental attribution error.

Social Influence - Conformity

• Conformity involves adjusting behavior to align with a group.
• More likely when feeling insecure, in a large group, with unanimous agreement, admiring group status, and a culture that encourages respect.

Social Influence - Group Behaviors

• Social facilitation enhances performance on easy tasks and worsens performance on complex tasks when others are present.
• Social loafing causes reduced effort in a group when individual accountability is low.
• Deindividuation is when arousal and anonymity in a group lead to a loss of self-awareness and restraint.
• Group polarization is when discussion with like-minded people intensifies beliefs.
• Groupthink is when harmony overrides critical thinking.

Social Relations: Antisocial and Prosocial - Prejudice

• Prejudice is an unjustified negative attitude toward a group.
• Components of prejudice: stereotypes, negative emotions, predisposition to discriminate.
• Explicit prejudice is conscious and openly expressed.
• Implicit prejudice is unconscious biases.
• Targets of prejudice: race, gender, LGBTQ+ (high risk for hate crimes).
• Roots of prejudice: social inequities, the just-world phenomenon (the belief that people get what they deserve).
• In-group bias (Us vs. Them mentality).
• Negative emotions increase in-group favoritism.
• Scapegoat theory views prejudice as an outlet for anger.
• Cognitive shortcuts and categorization can lead to stereotyping and the other-race effect.
• Victim blaming is justifying prejudice by blaming victims.

Social Relations: Antisocial and Prosocial - Aggression

• Aggression is physical or verbal behavior intended to harm.
• Biological factors of aggression: genetic, neural (amygdala, frontal lobes), biochemical (testosterone, alcohol).
• Media influence on aggression: pornography and video games.
• Pornography: Repeated exposure can reduce the perception of sexual aggression's severity and increase acceptance of coercion.
• Violent pornography increases punitive behavior towards women.
• Video games can prime aggression, decrease empathy, and desensitize people to violence.

Social Relations: Antisocial and Prosocial - Attraction

• Factors influencing attraction: proximity (mere exposure effect), physical attractiveness, and similarity.
• Lasting relationships involve equity, self-disclosure, and positive interactions and support.

Social Relations: Antisocial and Prosocial - Altruism

• Altruism is an unselfish concern for others.
• The bystander effect is decreased helping when others are present.
• Helping behavior is increased when you are in a good mood.

Social Relations: Antisocial and Prosocial - Conflict

• Conflict is perceived incompatibility in goals or ideas.
• Effects of conflict: diabolical images of the other, communication breakdown, and threats.
• Peacemaking involves contact, cooperation, communication, and conciliation.

Personality Defined

• Personality is the way you usually think, feel, and act consistently over time and in different situations.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Personality comes from a battle inside you: impulse vs. restraint.
• Mental health issues were treated by helping people dig into their unconscious minds.

Freud’s 3 Parts of Personality

• Id (devil on your shoulder): Only cares about what feels good right now.
• Superego (angel on your shoulder): Your moral compass cares about what’s right and what society says is good or bad.
• Ego (the negotiator): The realistic part that tries to balance the Id and the Superego.

Oedipus Complex

• Freud's idea that young boys go through a weird phase where they are jealous of their dad and attached to their mom

Defense Mechanisms

• Mental tricks the Ego uses to protect you from bad feelings (like anxiety).
• Repression: Forgetting a horrible memory (bad breakup).
• Denial: Pretending you’re not mad after a fight, even though you are.
• Projection: Accusing someone else of being angry when really, you’re the angry one.

Assessing the Unconscious

• Freud wanted to "dig out" hidden feelings through things like free association and dream analysis.

Critiques of Freud

• Freud focused too much on parents and not enough on friends and peers.
• Difficult to scientifically prove most of his theories.

Humanistic Theories of Personality

• Humanists believe people are naturally good and want to become the best version of themselves.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• People have different levels of needs, and once you satisfy one level, you progress to the next.
• Pyramid Levels (bottom to top): Basic needs (food, water, shelter), Safety needs (feeling safe and secure), Love and belonging (friends, family, relationships), Self-esteem (feeling confident and respected), Self-actualization (reaching your full potential).

Rogers' Person-Centered Perspective

• People grow best when they have genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathy.

Critiques of Humanism

• Some people say it makes people selfish.
• Rogers said “evil” behavior is caused by society, but some argue people can just be bad, even without a bad environment.

Trait Theory of Personality

• Your personality is composed of stable traits.
• A trait is a typical way you act or feel.

The Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN)

• Openness (creative, curious vs. prefers routine).
• Conscientiousness (organized, responsible vs. careless).
• Extraversion (outgoing, talkative vs. reserved).
• Agreeableness (kind, trusting vs. suspicious).
• Neuroticism (anxious, moody vs. calm).
• Traits get more stable as you get older.
• Conscientious people have larger frontal lobes.

Reciprocal Determinism

• Your environment shapes you, and you shape your environment back.

Psychological Disorder

• A syndrome marked by significant disturbance in cognition, emotion, or behavior.
• Suicide Risk is higher with anxiety or depression.

Suicide and Self Inury

• Suicide risk can increase as depression lifts.
• Women are more likely to be depressed.
• Men are more likely to die by suicide.
• Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is often linked to bullying, harassment, or stress.
• Motivations for NSSI: relieve emotional pain, guilt, or fit in.

Violence and Disorders

• People with disorders are more likely to be victims.
• Better predictors of violence: substance use, previous violence, brain damage, and gun availability.

Anxiety Disorders

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Excessive worry with autonomic arousal, agitation, sleep disruption, and impairment.
• Panic Disorder: Recurrent panic attacks with chest pains, trembling, and intense fear.
• Specific Phobia: Persistent, irrational fear of object/situation; desire to avoid.
• Social Anxiety Disorder: Intense fear of being watched and judged.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Unwanted, repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions).
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Intrusive memories, nightmares, withdrawal, anxiety, hypervigilance, and sleep issues.

Understanding Anxiety Disorders

• Learning Factors: Classical conditioning (association of objects/places with fear).
• Learning Factors: Operant conditioning (avoidance = reduced anxiety = reinforced behavior).

Mood Disorders

• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): Symptoms (need 5+ for 2 weeks): depressed mood, loss of interest, appetite/sleep changes, fatigue, guilt, concentration problems, and suicidal thoughts.
• Most MDD episodes self-terminate but may recur, and is more common in women.
• Bipolar Disorder: Alternating depression and mania.
• Mania symptoms: Euphoria, impulsivity, racing thoughts, and irritability.
• Bipolar disorder affects men and women equally and has a strong genetic component.
• Depression = ↓ activity, ↓ norepinephrine, and serotonin.
• Mania = ↑ norepinephrine.

Schizophrenia

• Positive symptoms: Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech or behavior.
• Negative symptoms: Flat affect, muteness, reduced social interaction, anhedonia.
• Typically appears in late adolescence or early adulthood.
• Men have more severe cases.
• Brain Abnormalities: Excess dopamine receptors, frontal lobe dysfunction, thalamus activity during hallucinations, and brain shrinkage.
• Biological Risk Factors: Low birth weight, maternal diabetes, older paternal age, oxygen deprivation, famine, extreme maternal stress, and prenatal viral infections.

Genetics and Schizophrenia

• Higher risk if an identical twin has schizophrenia (especially with a shared placenta).
• Multiple genes are involved, and environmental triggers are also needed.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

• Presence of two or more distinct identities.
• Support for DID: Different brain wave patterns, abuse coping.
• Skepticism about DID: Role-playing, therapist suggestion.

Personality Disorders

• Inflexible, enduring behavior patterns impairing social functioning.
• Categories: Anxious, Eccentric/Odd, Dramatic/Impulsive.
• Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD): Lack of conscience/remorse, low emotional intelligence, and impulsivity.
• APD Risk factors: genetic predisposition, childhood abuse/neglect, smaller amygdala, and underactive frontal lobes.

Eating Disorders

• Anorexia Nervosa: Compulsion to lose weight despite being underweight.
• Bulimia Nervosa: Binge eating followed by purging.
• Anorexia is more common in competitive, high-achieving, protective families.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

• Intellectual Disability: Evident before age 18, IQ below 70, and deficits in adaptive functioning.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Social deficiencies and repetitive behaviors.
• ASD Includes poor communication between brain regions related to perspective-taking.
• ASD includes impaired theory of mind and is approximately 80% heritable.

What is Therapy?

• Therapy is any treatment that helps someone feel better emotionally or mentally.
• Biomedical Therapy: Using medications or medical treatments to reduce symptoms of mental disorders.

Types of Therapeutic Approaches

• Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud): Goal to release deep, hidden (unconscious) emotions and conflicts.
• Psychodynamic Therapy: Focus on finding patterns in meaningful relationships, especially early ones like those with parents, to understand your current feelings.
• Humanistic Therapies: Helping people grow into their best selves by encouraging self-awareness and self-acceptance.
• Behavior Therapy: Fix destructive behaviors by using the science of how people learn.
• Counterconditioning: Teaching a new positive response to something you used to fear or dislike.
• Aversive Conditioning: Making a bad behavior feel unpleasant.
• Operant Conditioning Therapy: Good behaviors are rewarded so they happen more often. Token Economy System: Giving tokens or points for good behavior that can be traded for prizes.
• Cognitive Therapies: changing negative thought patterns, challenges irrational thoughts and teaches positive self talk.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Combines cognitive and behavioral strategies to change both thoughts and actions that are part of mental health issues.
• Group Therapy: Therapy is done with a group of people facing similar problems.

Group Therapy Benefits

• Therapy Effectiveness includes realizing you're not alone and practice social skills in a safe setting.
• Evidence-Based Practice: Using treatments that research has proven to work.
• Randomized Clinical Trials: Research studies where some people get the therapy and some don’t (control group) to see if it genuinely helps.

Biomedical Therapies (Using Medication)

• Psychopharmacology: Study of how drugs affect the mind and behavior.
• Antipsychotic Drugs help reduce hallucinations or delusions, mainly for schizophrenia by blocking dopamine (a brain chemical) that’s too active in schizophrenia.
• Anti-Anxiety Drugs calm down physical agitation and anxious thoughts.
• Antidepressant Drugs: Boost mood by increasing serotonin or norepinephrine in the brain.
• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): Uses electric currents to cause controlled seizures for severe depression when nothing else works which may help "reset" brain pathways and promote new brain cell growth (neurogenesis).
• Depression → Antidepressants like Prozac
• Bipolar Disorder → Mood Stabilizers like Lithium
• ADHD → Stimulants like Adderall