Understanding Emotions

Understanding Emotions: Theories, Components, and Neuroscience

• Emotions are a combination of physiological experience and awareness of a feeling, identified as happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, fear, and surprise, and are universally recognized.
• Emotions have two major components: a physical sensation and a conscious, subjective experience or feeling.
• The James-Lange peripheral theory of emotions suggests that early autonomic responses result in an emotional experience. Facial expressions might affect the way we feel.
• The Stanislavski method cultivates the "art of experiencing" and attempts to recreate the inner, psychological causes of behavior.
• The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that both the subjective and physical responses occur simultaneously and independently.
• The limbic system, including the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala, is involved in emotion processing and evolved to ensure the survival of the individual and the species.
• Contemporary theories of emotion suggest that a stimulus is processed by the sensory cortex, activating structures involved with emotion such as the brainstem, hypothalamus, and amygdala.
• Emotional expression manages approach and withdrawal behaviors, helps avoid danger, and communicates nonverbal communication.
• The Yerkes-Dodson law states that emotions contribute to general arousal and predict performance.
• Emotional expression has a biological basis, with the basic six emotions (anger, sadness, happiness, fear, disgust, and surprise) being universal across human cultures.
• Different parts of the amygdala participate in a variety of processes, including emotion, reward, motivation, learning, memory, and attention.
• Facial expression is necessary but not sufficient to express and interpret emotions correctly. Recent neuroscience investigations are beginning to uncover specific neural representations of at least 15 distinct emotions.

Understanding Stress and Its Effects

• Stress is a subjective experience resulting from the perception of danger or threat.
• The experience of stress is highly variable and idiosyncratic from one person to the next.
• Stressors are sources of stress perception that activate a predictable series of reactions known as fight or flight.
• Walter Cannon identified that various stressors stimulate the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.
• Hans Selye extended Cannon's findings and observed a consistent reaction, which he labeled the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).
• GAS is related to stress and experience three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
• Chronic stress can lead to suppression of the immune system and make individuals more vulnerable to disease.
• Cortisol, a stress hormone, increases calcium entering neurons, leading to increased neurotransmitter release and potential toxicity to neurons.
• PTSD is an anxiety disorder arising in response to an extremely stressful situation and characterized by intrusive memories, recurrent dreams, avoidance, hyperarousal, and high levels of vigilance.
• PTSD is caused by exposure to natural disasters, accidents, assaults, and abuse, and combat is one of the most common experiences related to its development.
• Treatment for PTSD typically consists of cognitive-behavioral therapy with or without antianxiety or antidepressant medication.
• Propranolol, which blocks the effects of glucocorticoids in the brain, might prevent PTSD when administered immediately following a traumatic event.

Understanding Stress and Its Effects

• Stress is a subjective experience resulting from the perception of danger or threat.
• The experience of stress is highly variable and idiosyncratic from one person to the next.
• Stressors are sources of stress perception that activate a predictable series of reactions known as fight or flight.
• Walter Cannon identified that various stressors stimulate the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.
• Hans Selye extended Cannon's findings and observed a consistent reaction, which he labeled the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).
• GAS is related to stress and experience three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
• Chronic stress can lead to suppression of the immune system and make individuals more vulnerable to disease.
• Cortisol, a stress hormone, increases calcium entering neurons, leading to increased neurotransmitter release and potential toxicity to neurons.
• PTSD is an anxiety disorder arising in response to an extremely stressful situation and characterized by intrusive memories, recurrent dreams, avoidance, hyperarousal, and high levels of vigilance.
• PTSD is caused by exposure to natural disasters, accidents, assaults, and abuse, and combat is one of the most common experiences related to its development.
• Treatment for PTSD typically consists of cognitive-behavioral therapy with or without antianxiety or antidepressant medication.
• Propranolol, which blocks the effects of glucocorticoids in the brain, might prevent PTSD when administered immediately following a traumatic event.

Understanding Psychological Disorders

• Approximately 26% of Americans meet DSM criteria for a psychological disorder, with mood and anxiety disorders being the most common.
• Schizophrenia disrupts perception, reason, emotion, movement, and social engagement, with positive and negative symptoms.
• Different outcomes over time for people diagnosed with schizophrenia after 15 years.
• Genetic contribution for schizophrenia is observed through concordance rates, which are about 50% in identical twins and 17% in fraternal twins.
• Brain changes in schizophrenia include enlarged lateral ventricles, smaller hippocampus, and lower activity in the frontal lobes.
• Major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder are two types of mood disorders, with adult women nearly twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with MDD.
• Brain changes in MDD include a smaller hippocampus, disturbance in circadian rhythms, and abnormalities in serotonin activity.
• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is caused by seasonal variations in light that interfere with circadian rhythms.
• Anxiety disorders share a core element of anxiety, with genetic predisposition supported by twin and adoption studies.
• Neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and GABA participate in the management of anxiety, with benzodiazepines enhancing GABA-induced inhibition.
• Treatment for anxiety disorders typically combines medication with cognitive-behavioral therapy.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by repetitive, intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, with lower activity in the orbitofrontal cortex responsible for some of the rigid, ritualistic behavior observed in OCD.

Understanding Psychological Disorders

• Approximately 26% of Americans meet DSM criteria for a psychological disorder, with mood and anxiety disorders being the most common.
• Schizophrenia disrupts perception, reason, emotion, movement, and social engagement, with positive and negative symptoms.
• Different outcomes over time for people diagnosed with schizophrenia after 15 years.
• Genetic contribution for schizophrenia is observed through concordance rates, which are about 50% in identical twins and 17% in fraternal twins.
• Brain changes in schizophrenia include enlarged lateral ventricles, smaller hippocampus, and lower activity in the frontal lobes.
• Major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder are two types of mood disorders, with adult women nearly twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with MDD.
• Brain changes in MDD include a smaller hippocampus, disturbance in circadian rhythms, and abnormalities in serotonin activity.
• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is caused by seasonal variations in light that interfere with circadian rhythms.
• Anxiety disorders share a core element of anxiety, with genetic predisposition supported by twin and adoption studies.
• Neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and GABA participate in the management of anxiety, with benzodiazepines enhancing GABA-induced inhibition.
• Treatment for anxiety disorders typically combines medication with cognitive-behavioral therapy.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by repetitive, intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, with lower activity in the orbitofrontal cortex responsible for some of the rigid, ritualistic behavior observed in OCD.