Chap 12.-Emotions, Stress, and Health, sem 231.pptx

Chapter 12 Emotions, Stress, and Health PSYCHOLOGY David G. Myers C. Nathan DeWall Twelfth Edition Chapter Overview  Introduction to Emotion  Expressing Emotion  Experiencing Emotion  Stress and Illness  Health and Coping Emotion: Arousal, Behavior, and Cognition (part 1)  Emotions ar...

Chapter 12 Emotions, Stress, and Health PSYCHOLOGY David G. Myers C. Nathan DeWall Twelfth Edition Chapter Overview  Introduction to Emotion  Expressing Emotion  Experiencing Emotion  Stress and Illness  Health and Coping Emotion: Arousal, Behavior, and Cognition (part 1)  Emotions are adaptive responses that support survival.  Emotional components  Bodily arousal  Expressive behaviors  Conscious experiences Emotion: Arousal, Behavior, and Cognition (part 2)  Theories of emotion generally address two major questions:  Does physiological arousal come before or after emotional feelings?  How do feeling and cognition interact? Historical Emotion Theories (part 1)  James-Lange Theory: Arousal comes before emotion.  Experience of emotion involves awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.  Cannon-Bard Theory: Arousal and emotion happen at the same time.  Emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion.  Human body responses run parallel to the cognitive responses rather than causing them. Historical Emotion Theories (part 2)  Schachter-Singer two-factor theory: Arousal + Label = Emotion  Emotions have two ingredients: physical arousal and cognitive appraisal.  Arousal fuels emotion; cognition channels it.  Emotional experience requires a conscious interpretation of arousal. Emotions and the Autonomic Nervous System  The arousal component of emotion is regulated by the autonomic nervous system’s sympathetic (arousing) and parasympathetic (calming) divisions.  In a crisis, the fight-or-flight response automatically mobilizes the body for action.  Arousal affects performance in different ways, depending on the task.  Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks. Emotional Arousal Physiology of Emotions  Different emotions have subtle indicators.  Brain scans and EEGs reveal different brain circuits for different emotions.  Depression and general negativity: Right frontal lobe activity  Happiness, enthusiasm, and feeling energized: Left frontal lobe activity Experiencing Emotion (part 1)  Izard isolated 10 basic emotions that include physiology and expressive behavior.  Joy, interest-excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, and guilt  Two dimensions that help differentiate emotions:  Positive-versus-negative valence  Low-versus-high arousal Experiencing Emotion: Anger  Causes  With threat or challenge, fear triggers flight but anger triggers fight—each at times is an adaptive behavior.  Anger is most often evoked by misdeeds that we interpret as willful, unjustified, and avoidable.  Smaller frustrations and blameless annoyances can also trigger anger. Experiencing Emotion: Anger (part 2)  Consequences of anger  Chronic hostility is linked to heart disease.  Emotional catharsis may be temporarily calming, but does not reduce anger over the long term.  Expressing anger can make us more angry.  Controlled assertions of feelings may resolve conflicts, and forgiveness may rid us of angry feelings.  Anger communicates strength and competence, motivates action, and expresses grief when wisely used. Experiencing Emotion: Anger (part 3)  Individualist cultures encourage people to vent anger; collectivist cultures are less likely to do so.  The Western vent-your-anger advice presumes that aggressive action or fantasy enables emotional release, or catharsis.  Better ways to manage anger:  Wait  Find a healthy distraction or support  Distance yourself Experiencing Emotion: Happiness (part 1)  State of happiness influences all facets of life  Feel-good, do-good phenomenon  People’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood  Subjective well-being  Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life  Used along with measures of objective well-being to evaluate people’s quality of life Evidence-Based Suggestions for a Happier Life  Take control of your time  Act happy  Seek work and leisure that engage your skills  Buy shared experiences rather than things  Join the “movement” movement  Give your body the sleep it wants  Give priority to close relationships  Focus beyond self  Count your blessings and record your gratitude  Nurture your spiritual self Stress and Illness  Stress: The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging  Stressors appraised as threats can lead to strong negative reactions.  Extreme or prolonged stress can cause harm. Stressors: Things That Push Our Buttons  Catastrophes: Unpleasant, large-scale events  Significant life changes: Personal events; life transitions  Daily hassles: Day-to-day challenges Stress Response  Cannon viewed the stress response as a “fight- or-flight” system.  Selye proposed a general three-phase (alarm– resistance–exhaustion) general adaptation syndrome (GAS).  Facing stress, women may have a tend-and- befriend response; men may withdraw socially, turn to alcohol, or become aggressive. Stress Effects and Health (part 3)  Stress hormones suppress the immune system.  Animal studies: Stress of adjustment in monkeys causes weakened immune systems.  Human studies: Stress affects surgical wound healing and development of colds. Low stress may increase the effectiveness of vaccinations.  Stress does not make people sick but does reduce the immune system’s ability to function optimally.  Slower surgical wound healing; increased vulnerability to colds; decreased vaccine effectiveness Reducing Stress  Aerobic exercise  Sustained activity increases heart and lung fitness; reduces stress, depression, and anxiety  Can weaken the influence of genetic risk for obesity  Increases the quality and “quantity” of life (~2 years) Faith Communities and Health  Faith factor  Religiously active people tend to live longer than those who are not religiously active.  Possible explanations include the effect of intervening variables, such as the healthy behaviors, social support, or positive emotions often found among people who regularly attend religious services.