Introductory Psychology I: Emotions & Motivation (Fall 2024) PDF

Introductory Psychology I Fall 2024 Emotions Learning objectives Explain how emotions are characterized, and describe 6 basic emotions Explain why the activation of emotions in humans largely depends on an individual’s personal appraisal of their situation Describe four observa...

Introductory Psychology I Fall 2024 Emotions Learning objectives Explain how emotions are characterized, and describe 6 basic emotions Explain why the activation of emotions in humans largely depends on an individual’s personal appraisal of their situation Describe four observable changes that co-occur with changing emotional states in humans Emotion Mental states or feelings associated with our evaluation of our experiences Several theories on what causes our emotions, but lots of data that explains how we experience them Characterizing emotions: The circumplex model Valence: Ranging from unpleasant to pleasant (or negative to positive), this describes if the emotion is promoting aversion or attraction Arousal: Ranging from low activation to high activation, this refers to the physiological arousal of the nervous system Emotions as adaptations Six “basic” emotions Expression and characterization universal across cultures But, the exact situations that cause expression sometimes varies with the specific cultural norms and traditions Surprise: Direct attention Stems from a violation of expectancy Directs our attention towards important stimuli Once our attention is directed, emotions specific to that stimulus usually follows Mouth Open Eyes Agape Ears perk Happiness: Move towards beneficial things Short term: Drive us towards things we like (e.g., eating something sweet, getting a like on your post) Long term: Satisfaction of completing difficult goals that often involve sacrifice Smile Raised eyebrows Sadness: Energy conservation; recalibrate goals Like physical pain, emotional pain can help us learn to avoid doing the “wrong” things, and assist in goal pursuit When we are sick or hungry, we feel depressed When our goals aren’t working out, we feel depressed Downwards contour of mouth and eyebrows Fear: Avoiding harm & Anticipating danger Short-term: Drive us away from things we don’t like (can cause harm) Long-term (anxiety): Uncertainty about safety, how to achieve goals, etc. Raised eyebrows Open eyes Mouth may be open Anger: Preparing to fight Prepares us to engage is potentially aggressive conflict Often seen as threat gesture before combat Showing of teeth Scrunching nose and flare nostrils  Disgust: Avoiding sickness and disease Cues that illicit disgust are universal Example across 9 cultural regions Variation in facial features may include: Sticking out tongue or lip Scrunching face Squinting/closing of eyes Curtis et al., 2004  Cross-Cultural Agreements of Emotions Ekman & Friesen 1972, 1975; Ekman et al. 1987 Emotions from birth Crying at birth Crying in response to distress Smile in response to mothers care Disgust to bad tastes Emotions in congenitally blind children What comes first? The thought or the feeling?  Cognitive Theories of Emotion James-Lange theory emotions result from our interpretations of our bodily reactions to stimuli Cannon-Bard theory an emotion-provoking event leads simultaneously to an emotional and bodily reaction As a species, we are “generalist specialists” The cortex allows us to create abstract goals Often, our goals are driven by “instinctual” desires for resources, status, mates, etc. However, the way we achieve these goals varies dramatically, and our neocortex can produce solutions to achieving these goals in unique and abstract ways This is why what activates emotion is best understood at the level of the individual We appraise (think), then feel, then think again! The human emotional response: what can we observe? Facial expression Posture Vocalizations Behavioural patterns Facial expression E.g. Smile vs frown Communicates social information to others Eckman and colleagues spent an impressive career characterizing emotions based on facial expressions, and analyzing the cross- cultural nature of these emotions, their reactions, and the ability to recognize them We are pretty good at determining if a smile is forced Posture E.g. Upright vs. slouched Particularly important in communicating social status Vocalizations E.g. Vocal “bursts” Humans are capable of accurately identifying 24 kinds of emotion based on basic vocalizations, and this is mostly cross-cultural https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/vocs/map.html# Behavioural patterns E.g. Laughing and crying Laughing A high arousal response characterized by facial changes, contraction of rib muscles, short vocalisations Occurs in all cultures and emerges in early infancy Thought to occur in primates and some other mammals Mostly social (~95% of laughing occurs in presence of others)  Physiology of laughter Cortisol ↓ Epinephrine ↓ Immune Factors ↑ Berk et al.,  Laughing is contagious….sometimes Provine et al., Making Connections: Laughter and the Brain Crying A high arousal response characterized by vocalizations and tears The production of tears as an emotional response is unique to humans, but other animals display similar behavioural patterns that may serve a similar function (i.e. communicating distress) Crying Present at birth and most common in infants However, it persist across all stages of life and is usually associated with severe emotional distress and grief in adults Is crying in adults a by-product of infant crying, or did it serve an explicit purpose for our ancestors? Introductory Psychology I Fall 2024 Motivation Learning Objectives Describe the need/drive theory of motivation and describe what motivates us towards food and sex Understand the arousal theory of motivation and describe The Yerkes–Dodson Law Describe Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Defining motivation The impulses – especially wants and needs – that propel us to behave in a manner to sustain life The underlying causes of motivation are deeply biological in nature It is thus often something we cannot consciously control or a state we can mentally choose to be in But if we can understand what motivates us, we can change things around us that positively influences our motivation  Linking Motivation to Emotions Motivation is a theoretical construct used to explain the initiation, direction, intensity, persistence, and quality of behaviour, especially goal-directed behaviour Motives are hypothetical constructs used to explain why people are doing what they are doing Emotions are biological states brought on by neurophysiological changes that govern our motives Best viewed in tandem Simple motives Instincts: Innate (unlearned) patterns of behaviour that are common to members of a species Drive theory of motivation Drives cause individuals to behave in a certain way in order to satisfy needs We are attempting to maintain a level of psychological homeostasis Examples: Sex drive (Libido controlled by sex hormones) Hunger drive (Insulin-Glucagon system) Sexual motivation Sexual desire (libido) largely influenced by sex hormones, but neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine appear to play a role Males desire sex more frequently, females experience more variability in their sex drive Hunger and eating The brain regulates hunger and energy metabolism (Recall: The hypothalamus is involved in homeostasis and hormone regulation) Hormones also play a strong role Ghrelin, which is released by the digestive tract while we are in a fasting state communicates with the hypothalamus to increase hunger Leptin, which is released by adipose tissue after we eat communicates with the hypothalamus to reduce hunger Incentives Incentive refers to the value of a goal or reward The greater the incentive, the greater the motivation Reinforcers as Drives Primary Reinforcer (intrinsic reward): A stimulus that naturally rewards behaviour (food, water, comfort, sex, drugs, rock n’ roll) Conditioned Reinforcer (external reward): A formerly neutral stimulus that acquires a capacity to reward behaviour through a history of pairing with a primary reinforcement Reinforcement vs Incentives Reinforcement and Punishment Direct consequences following behaviour History of experience with the consequence Incentive and Disincentive Cognitive representation determines behaviour No experience necessary Intelligent adults and older children Arousal theory of motivation Physiological arousal drives an organism's motivation Arousal: Activation of the sympathetic nervous system that results in physiological responses such as increased heart and respiration rates, and psychological responses such as degree of alertness and awareness The Yerkes–Dodson Law Low Mediu High m Individual emotional reactivity plays an important role in the impact of arousal Bray et al., 2015 Evidence for arousal theory?: the need for stimulation Humans, and other animals, clearly have a need to be continuously stimulated This need could potentially be explained by arousal theory – when animals aren’t at an optimal level of arousal, they look for ways to reach that level of arousal Making Connections: Sensory Deprivation How is our consciousness altered during sensory deprivation? Given what we’ve discussed about motivations, what might be an explanation for this altered deprivation? What about more complex psychological motives? Drive theory along with incentives do an adequate job at explaining how our behaviour is influenced by our motivation to achieve basic physiological needs (i.e. food, water, sex) But what about more complex psychological needs such as belonging, achievement, being entertained, etc Hedonic vs Eudaimonic motivation Hedonic motivation is the notion that we are psychologically driven to seek pleasurable sensations and avoid negative ones Eudaimonic motivation states that we are psychologically driven to fulfil purpose and meaning Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Maslow (1962) suggested that needs function within a hierarchy arranged in the following order of priority: 1) Physiological needs (sleep, thirst) 2) Safety needs (freedom from danger, anxiety, or psychological threat) 3) Love needs (acceptance from parents, teachers, peers) 4) Esteem needs (mastery experiences, confidence in one’s ability) 5) Needs for self-actualization (creative self-expression, satisfaction of curiosity)  Self-actualization Highest stage of Hierarchy of needs individual Basic and uniquely development human needs Involves search for truth, goodness, Once the needs of one beauty, wholeness, level have been justice, and satisfied, they can meaningfulness progress to the next hierarchical level Ascending to higher levels makes one less animal-like and more human-like Appraisal of Maslow’s Hierarchy Ultimately, Maslow’s hierarchy addressed an important question regarding how humans go about fulfilling complex psychological needs, despite little scientific evidence From an evolutionary perspective, it makes a lot of sense that humans would be hardwired to strive for purpose and meaning rather than only seeking short- term pleasure  The happy life Recall: Broadly, positive emotion drives us (motivates us) towards goals Despite the criticisms of Maslow, many of the scientifically identified correlates of happiness are related to the higher levels of his hierarchy Being married Having many friends Graduating college Being deeply religious Political affiliation Level of gratitude Giving to others Being in the midst of flow Long-term variation in happiness We often try to predict our future emotional states (affective forecasting) but are not great at it and display consistent durability bias The hedonic treadmill describes individual variation in happiness, as well as fluctuations over time Are we becoming less happy? Twenge et al., 2023  Social media and happiness Twenge et al., 2018  Social media and happiness Increased screentime/decreased non-screen activities negatively impact affect Social media impacts young girls more General Facebook usage correlates with negative affect One week without facebook results in fewer depressive symptoms REMEMBER: Social media is carefully curated, often targeted, and not a true representation of others lives Twenge et al., 2018 What’s going on in Canada…? World Happiness Report, 202 What’s going on in Canada…? World Happiness Report, 202 What can we do? Focus on building quality social relationships Focus on working towards things you care about (i.e., are intrinsically motivated by) Reduce social media use, or at the very least make a mindful effort to identify how it might be affecting your mental health (e.g., comparing one’s self to others)