336 Study Guide: Theories and Concepts of Emotion

THEORIES CH 1. ​ Motivation ○​ Energy + Direction ​ Self Determination Theory ○​ Extrinsic motivation can’t explain all behavior; intrinsic motivation drives much of human behavior ​ Autonomy (choose own path/behavior), competence (skills/mastery),...

THEORIES CH 1. ​ Motivation ○​ Energy + Direction ​ Self Determination Theory ○​ Extrinsic motivation can’t explain all behavior; intrinsic motivation drives much of human behavior ​ Autonomy (choose own path/behavior), competence (skills/mastery), relatedness (connected socially) ○​ Extrinsic/Intrinsic on continuum ​ Regulatory Focus Theory ○​ Motivation varies on outcome being pursued ​ approach/promoting: working towards something ​ avoiding/preventing: working to avert something ​ Not mutually exclusive ​ Common Sense View ○​ Event -> Feeling -> Behavior ​ James-Lange Theory ○​ Emotions based on sensations from muscles/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 what stimulus means for concern ​ Plutchik ○​ Emotions are functional, quickly and efficiently facilitating actions that affect the world ○​ Emotions are responses/reactions to object and events in environment ○​ Emotions must be inferred than observed ​ Four aspects ​ Appraisal ​ Feeling ​ Physiological changes ​ Behavior ○​ NOT LIKE A SQUARE ​ Core affect ○​ Subjective feeling as defining aspect of emotion ○​ Non-specific arousal ○​ Event may cause valence and arousal but not necessary ​ Event -> Valence & Physiological Arousal -> Feeling ○​ The Circumplex Model (Russell, 2003) ​ Emotional feelings form a circle defined by dimensions of pleasantness and arousal ​ Not possible to feel strong positive and negative emotions  ​ The Evaluative Space Model ○​ Dimensions of positive and negative activation ​ Independent of each other ○​ Arousal is built-in ​ High +/- is high arousal/activation ○​ Circles are similar but rotated differently ​ Basic/Discrete Theory ○​ Event -> Appraisal -> Emotion -> Observable Behavior ○​ 3 propositions ​ Each emotion thought to serve a district function ​ Serve to coordinate individual aspects of emotion to produce package of responses to respond to situation ​ The categories reflect distinction among natural occurring categories of human psychological experience ​ Some categories should be inherent in human nature despite culture ​ Component Process Model ○​ Event -> Appraisals -> Emotion ○​ People interpet environment using ALL-PURPOSE appraisals NOT CATEGORICAL appraisals ○​ Each appraisal has independent effects ​ Combined effects across appraisal produce emotion ​ Psychological Construction (Barrett, 2013) ○​ Event -> Valence & Arousal -> Feeling & Appraisals, Cogn. Changes, Action Tendencies, Observable Behavior ○​ Different aspects of emotion are LOOSELY correlated ○​ Emotion categories are LEARNED concepts ​ Closely aligned to Schacter-Singer ○​ Emotional experiences are created from psychological construction ​ Schacter & Singer (1962) ○​ Confusing results ○​ Words and concepts used to describe emotions are learned and based on what we think we’re supposed to feel at the time CULTURE CH 3. ​ Cultures are ways of interpreting, understanding, and explaining what’s going on in the world ​ Sadness and pe’a pe’a (1973) ○​ Sadness: loss/absence of loved one ○​ Pe’a pe’a: infection, illness, or overwork ​ Loss of energy, withdrawn, decreases activity, downcast expression ​ Swidler (2001) ○​ Hollywood Love ○​ 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 or injury like a successful hunt, celebration, death of a loved one ​ Amae (Japanese): pleasurable dependence on another, being taken care of ​ Hyper vs. Hypo-cognized emotions ○​ Hyper: culture has an elaborate network of associations and distinction, leading to increased vocabulary ○​ Hypo: culture and language have little cognitive elaboration/detail ​ Individualism vs. Collectivism ○​ Western (Individual) and Eastern (Collective) ​ Power Distance ○​ Vertical: attend closely to social hierarchy, encouraging emotions and behaviors that respect status differences ○​ Horizontal: typically minimize attention to status differences EMOTION AND BRAIN CH 6. ​ Amygdala ○​ Small, almond shaped structure in EACH temporal lobe ○​ Receives input from sense ○​ Damage ​ Klüver-Bucy Syndrome (in animals): pattern of emotional changes with removal of both anterior temporal lobes and amygdalae ​ Urbach-Wiethe Disease (in humans): calcium damage to amygdalae ​ Fearless behavior, panic induced by suffocation ○​ Fear Conditioning (1990) ​ Lesions to amygdala showed weaker fear conditioned responses ○​ Functions of memory (Phelps, 2004-5) ​ Directs attention toward stimuli with emotional implications ​ Facilitates activity in hippocampus (adjacent) that stores vivid memories of personal experience ​ Reward Circuit ○​ Nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area (NA) primary input strongly respond to rewarding stimuli ​ Sometimes responds to punishment ​ Dopamine is primary neurotransmitter ​ Wanting/Liking ○​ Stimulus is perceived as pleasant based on person’s preference ○​ 3 microcircuits ​ One active during anticipation of and movement toward likely reward ​ Another while reward is being consumed ​ Last involved in learning to predict future rewards and punishments ​ Hypothalamus ○​ Below thalamus, above brain stem  ○​ Body’s thermostat, regulates physiological variables and behavior to maintain homeostasis ○​ When stressed, triggers pituitary to release cortisol ○​ Collects sensory information from outside the body ​ Homeostasis ○​ Body’s regulation of temperature, hydration, oxygen levels, sugar levels, salt levels, etc. within a healthy range ​ Prefrontal ○​ Front of motor and premotor areas ○​ Active in cognitive functions ​ Planning, working memory, and inhibition of impulses ○​ Activated when using cognitive appraisal to reduce emotional intensity ○​ Inhibits activation of amygdala ​ Amygdala communicates with prefrontal cortex, informing of possible emotional consequences of a decision and enabling selecting of a good outcome ○​ Gage (1848) ​ Less polite, used more profane language ○​ Elliot ​ Lack of emotional reactivity ​ Dopamine ○​ Ventral tegmental area to nucleus accumbens active after unpredicted reward and decreases when reward failed to appear ​ Attention increases and facilitates learning about how to get reward ○​ Less activated in depression ​ Pharmaceutical treatment increases ○​ Important in cognitive operation in frontal lobes ○​ Antipsychotic drugs block dopamine synapses ○​ Stimulant drugs increase in dopamine receptor activity in NA ​ Drug abuse increases activity but sometimes indirectly blocks something that inhibits its release ​ Serotonin ○​ Involved in sleep, memory, appetite control, nausea ○​ SSRIs used to treat depression ​ Oxytocin ○​ Uterine contractions, milk extraction in breast feeding ○​ Increase during sexual arousal and orgasm ○​ Nasal spray elicits ​ Men more attracted to their partner but not other women ​ Willingness to trust but effects inconsistent ​ Increases attention to social cues, magnifies inclinations already felt ​ Meta-Analyses ○​ Lindquist (2012)  ​ Brain structure ​ Tested selective activation of hypothesized structures ​ Result: different emotions CANNOT be distinguished ○​ Vytal & Hamann (2012) ​ Pattern of brain activity ​ Examined patterns of activation across every voxel and identified regions that are consistently more active in one emotion that in others ​ Result: different emotions CAN be distinguished NERVOUS SYSTEM CH. 7 ​ Autonomic Nervous System ○​ Set of neurons communicating between CNS and visceral organs (heart, lungs, arteries, stomach, intestines, genitals, and sweat glands) ○​ Important in maintaining homeostasis ○​ Two branches ​ Sympathetic: fight or flight ​ Increased heart rate, breathing rate, sweating, and blood flow to muscles ​ Inhibits digestion ​ Pupil dilation ​ Decreased blood flow to stomach and intestines ​ Parasympathetic: rest and digest ​ Maintenance and growth activities ​ Decreases heart rate and slower breathing ​ Increased salivation and digestive system ​ Insulin release promotes storage of energy in liver and fatty tissue ​ Facilitates sexual arousal, dilates vessels leading to genitals ​ Hormones and Endocrine System ○​ Control of interior body ○​ Insulin released from pancreas, cells take in more glucose for energy ○​ Growth hormone (pituitary) cell reproduction ○​ Cortisol ​ Increase in blood sugar ​ Encourages live to release glucose ​ Promotes breakdown of muscles and fat to produce more glucose ​ Long-term promotes storage of fat (waist) ​ Increased blood pressure ​ Cortisol and Mornings ○​ Peaks after waking and declines throughout day ○​ Smaller waking cortisol linked to depression, economic hardship, and severe stress during childhood ○​ Larger waking cortisol linked to negative daily emotions, depression ​ Blunted  ​ Responses to stressful experiences later in the day, some cortisol response 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 ○​ Mood-enhancing; sharp drops linked to depression ○​ Complex relationship between mood ​ Mood responds to change in levels rather than absolute levels like puberty and menopause ​ Testosterone ○​ Sexual motivation, mood-enhancing effects (minor depression with low TE) ○​ Increases aggression, cortisol decreases ​ High ratio of TE to cortisol correlates with increased aggressive behavior and increases risk-taking behavior ​ Measures ○​ Heart rate (beats per min) and Cardiac interbeat interval (time between beats) ○​ Blood pressure (volume of blood in each heartbeat) ​ Systolic: pressure of blood on arteries while ventricles contract ​ Diastolic: pressure while ventricles are relaxed, between beats ​ Mean arterial: average pressure across systole, diastole ○​ Respiration rate ○​ Electrodermal activity (increase in speed of electrical conductivity by the skin due to increased sweat) ○​ Cardiac pre-ejection period (time in ms between onset of ventricular contraction, opening of aortic valve ○​ Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (difference in respiration rate while inhaling vs exhaling) ​ Pure Autonomic Failure ○​ ANS ceases to influence the body; people report feeling emotions less intensely ​ Incurable, unknown causes, middle age ​ Locked In Syndrome ○​ Lose almost all output from the brain to the muscles and ANS ​ Still feel sensations like touch and pressure ○​ Caused by stroke or damage to part of the brainstem ○​ Key areas of the pons and medulla are damaged where axons travel from the brain to spinal cord ○​ Person retains ability for eye movement while completely paralyzed ​ Intellectually alert and capable of surviving for several years ​ Effects of cortisol ​ General Adaptation Syndrome ○​ Alarm: brief period of high arousal ​ Mediated by sympathetic nervous system, hormones adrenaline, cortisol ○​ Resistance: period of prolonged, moderate arousal in response to some stressor ​ Mediated primarily by endocrine system (cortisol continues) ○​ Exhaustion: reaction to prolonged stressor characterized by weakness, fatigue, loss of appetite, and lack of interest