General Psychology I Lecture Notes - Emotions

**Course : General Psychology I.** **Teacher :** Ass.-Prof. Dr. Dominik Mihalits, MSc., BA.pth **Type of Delivery :** Lecture **ECTS :** 3 **HPW :** 2 **Schedule :** Tuesday morning - 9:30 - 11:45 **Course Description** Starting with a historical overview of the development of general psychol...

**Course : General Psychology I.** **Teacher :** Ass.-Prof. Dr. Dominik Mihalits, MSc., BA.pth **Type of Delivery :** Lecture **ECTS :** 3 **HPW :** 2 **Schedule :** Tuesday morning - 9:30 - 11:45 **Course Description** Starting with a historical overview of the development of general psychology and its methods, the basics from perception, memory and learning psychology are taught. Classical and current theories and models of sensory and memory systems and learning theories (including classical and operant conditioning) are taught. **GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY** ====================== General Psychology is a specific branch within the total undertaking of Psychology - **Universal Aim :** General Psychology targets similarities - rather than differences (e.g. Differential Psychology) General Psychology is focused on processes and mechanism in which mental phenomena occur not so much on their contents Universalism and Functionalism apply as main ideas of general-psychological research - **PSYCHOLOGY OF EMOTIONS** ========================== Thematic Overview of the Lecture: - - - - **Concept and Term Definitions - Emotion** ------------------------------------------ ***Source** :* Latin e-movere - move away, remove, dislodge - - - Emotion was seen as a loss, disruption of order of a former balanced state of the psyche Feelings -------- Feelings are seen as emotional components - - - Affect ------ - - - - *\'\' In psychology, the word **\'\'affect\'\'** is used to mean anything that is emotional\'\'* - Mood ---- - - - - - *\'\' Emotions, Solomon says, are judgments rather than feelings \[\...\] emotions are conceptually sophisticated intentional states that have objects outside of the body\'\'* - Philosophical Roots of Emotions ------------------------------- Key traditions of Aristotle and Plato - - After Plato and Aristotle... - - - - Psychological Perspective regarding Emotions -------------------------------------------- \'\' *We define emotions as episodic, relatively, short-term, biologically-based patterns of perception, experience, physiology, action and communication that occur in response to specific physical and social challenges and opportunities \[\...\] emotions regulate the individual\'s relation to the external environment\'\'* - Psychological-Developmental Perspective regarding Emotions ---------------------------------------------------------- \'\' *Emotions are a kind of radar and rapid response system, constructing and carrying meaning across the flow of experience. Emotions are the tools by which we appraise experience and prepare to act on situations\'\'* - **EARLY EMOTION THEORIES** ========================== - James-Lange Theory ------------------ According to William James (1884) and Carl Gustav Lange (1885) - - *James W. (1884). What is Emotion? Mind, 9 (34), 188-205* - *Lange, C.G. (1885). Om sindsbevægelser: Et psykofysiologisk studie. Copenhagen: Kronar* - Due to similarity summarized as ***James-Lange Theory*** 1. a. 2. b. 3. c. **Basic \'\'Common - Sense\'\' Assumption** **Original Theory of James** ***\***reactions can be voluntary or involuntary* **Original Theory of James** ***\***reaction = emotion* Cannon-Bard Theory ------------------ Walter Bradford Cannon / Philip Bard ( a doctoral student of Cannon\'s) - 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. - **Discussed brain areas:** 1. 2. A stimulus is processed by (\'older\') parts of the brain and triggers (parallel) to an arousal of the autonomic nervous system as well as to the experience of emotion. Schachter & Singer Two-Factor Theory ------------------------------------ (cognitive-physiological approach) - *\'\'Precisely the same state of physiological arousal could be labeled joy or fury or jealousy or any of a great diversity of emotional labels depending on the cognitive aspects of the situation\'\'* **CURRENT EMOTION THEORIES** ============================ Evolutionary Theories --------------------- ***Charles Darwin (1872 / 1998)*** - - - - - *Leading the way - Buck (1983) , Ekman & Friesen (1971), Horstmann (1975), Keltner & King (2003)* ### **Basic assumption of Evolutionary Theory** - - - - Plutchik (1980,1984) identified stereotypical responses to problems of adaptation - ***Examples:*** +-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | **Emotions and | | | | | Adaptive | | | | | Problems** | | | | +=================+=================+=================+=================+ | *Adaptive | *Emotion* | *Behaviour* | *Outcome* | | Problem* | | | | +-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | Threat | Fear, terror | Running away of | Protection | | | | flying away | | | Obstacle | Anger, rage | | Destruction | | | | Biting, hitting | | | Potential mate | Joy, ecstasy | | Reproduction | | | | Coursty, mating | | | Group member | Acceptance , | | Affiliation | | | trust | Grooming, | | | Sudden novel | | sharing | Orientation | | object | Surprise | | | | | | Stopping, | | | | | alerting | | +-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ Current theories focus on approaching the main concern of survival of the gene *\'\'A particular feature of a species\'s natural architecture will spread over generations because it enhances the possibility of dealing successfully with recurring reproductive opportunities.\'\'* - Basic Emotions -------------- Silvan Tomkins (1962,1963) and subsequently Carroll Izard (1977, 2007) and Paul Ekman (1992): - Criteria for classifying \'*basic*\' emotions: - - - - As science has progressed, the set up of \'basic emotions\' has changed as well. **Evolutionary Theory Assumption:** Components )e.g. feelings- facial expression - change in autonomic activity) are co-occurring every time we have an emotion i.e. components of emotions *cohere* because... - - Critical evaluations (e..g small reproduction rates for disgust) **In Sum** Biologically prepared signal stimuli reliably elicit affect programs designed to respond adaptively Appraisal Theories ------------------ *Starting point* : Very few objects of events inevitably case the same emotion in all people - - ***Major current appraisal theorists:*** - - - - \'\'Appraisal is the mental process that allows you to detect objects and events in your environment and evaluate their significance for you immediate well-being\'\' *Characteristics:* - - - ***Specific Appraisal Patterns*** - - - E.g. Studies found that fear occurs when circumstances are appraised as novel, negative, uncontrollable and insistent with expectations ### Magda Arnold (1960) \'\' Cognitive Appraisal Theory\'\' **Thesis**: first step in emotion is an appraisal of the situation; initial appraisal leads to emotions and arouses both adequate actions and the actual emotional experience (including accompanying physiological changes) - **Main Assumption** : Organisms are constantly evaluating whether the environment is beneficial or harmful for them (\'\'simple appraisal of good or bad for me\'\') - this leads to an action tendency - ### ### Richard Lazarus (1968) Cognitive mediational theory (stress research) - - 1. 2. a. **! Basis of all modern appraisal theories !** Speaking of primary & secondary appraisals, see also Scherer (2001) Distinction between: - - (Learned) secondary appraisals (high-order mental processes), e.g. interpreting a harmless snake as un-dangerous ### Frijda (1988,p.349) *(\...) emotions are lawful phenomena and thus can be described in terms of a set of laws of emotion (\...)* *(\...) emotions emerge, wax, and wane according to rules in strictly determined fashion (\...)* *Input some event with its particular kind of meaning; out comes and emotion of a particular kind. That is the law of situational meaning (\...) It is meanings and the subject's appraisals that count - that is, the relationship between events and the subject's concerns, and not events as such. Ths, there goes a personal loss that is felt as irremediable, and out comes grief, with a high degree of probability.* ### ### Componential Theories (Scherer, 2009) Different components of emotion can be caused independently by different appraisals - Components might be - Components of emotions could be due to different objects or events + might also proceed independently - innumerable ways to produce highly nuanced emotional experiences **Emotions as tightly bound packages or sets of loosely connected pieces? - Is a still ongoing question** **In Sum** \*correlation does not equal causation interested in the quality of the occurrence , rather than the quantity (intensity could be on different levels), however the occurrence remains the same Appraisal Psychological Constructionism ----------------------------- Tries to explain the huge variation in how emotions look and feel - Emotions as psychological realities (emotions as individually constructed) Discrete feeling states are modeled into a psychological reality by the mental processing )perception / interpretation) - How are primitive felling states (=core affects) transferred into specific emotional experiences Emotions are the result of applying learned categories to the experience *Major theorists* : Barrett, 2006 ; Lindquist & Gendron ; Russel, 2003, 2009 ### Categorisation (Barrett,2006 ; Lindquist & Gendron,2013) Mental process of structuring and attributing meaning to experience... - Mental processes of structuring and attributing meaning to experiences... - By learning to recognise emotion and to label it (e.g. joy) - general affective responses are shaped into discrete ones - Emotion categories within a given culture and language group come from a social consensus - ### Core Affect (e.g. Russel, 2003) - As the innate component of emotion - *Composed between 2 dimensions:* 1. Pleasant vs. Unpleasant (valence; how well one is doing) 2. Activated vs. Deactivated (activation; level of experienced energy) *Thesis:* Any given emotion can be described as a blend of pleasantness and activation ### Psychological Constructionism (Circumplex Emotion Model 1980)  From Core Affect (Russel, 2009, p.1259) to a specific emotion... *''Core affect is a neurophysiological state that underlies simply feeling good or bad, drowsy or energized. Psychological construction is not one process but an umbrella term for the various processes that produce:* a. *a particular emotional episode's components (such as facial movement, vocal tone, appraisal, subjective experience,\...)* b. *associations among the components* c. *the categorisation of the pattern of components as a specific emotion* **In Sum** Key Concepts ------------ There is no uniform and standard definition of what emotions are (different aspects of definitions must be integrated to operational definition) - We need to distinguish between the concepts of mood, feeling and emotion to use emotion as a scientific concept - Emotions are transdisciplinary objects (esp. prominents roots and long research tradition in philosophy) There are different theories of how emotions come about... - Classical ones (James-Lange Theory, Cannon-Bard Theory & Two-Factor Theory) ***More recent ones:*** - *Evolutionary theories* (emotions are biologically evolved ; there is a set of universally recognised facial expressions of emotion) - *Cognitive appraisal theories* (emotions are elicited and differentiated by evaluations \[appraisals\] of the environment with respect to the current goal and interests) - *Psychological constructionist theories* (emotions are not stable biological entities but are constructed by mental processes, such as categorisation) **Psychological Constructionism** - constructionism focuses more on the individuals perception of emotions and experiences in contrast with rather collectivistic tendencies of evolutionary and appraisal theory **NATURAL SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES TO EMOTIONS** ============================================= Measuring Emotions ------------------ ### Natural Scientific Paradigm The hypothetico-deductive model... *What is considered scientific?* - Starting point: Logical Positivism )empirical is either the directly perceptible by the senses or the measurable) - ***Popper***: Therefore, scientific statements need to be falsifiable - that means that scientific statements must be refutable to be scientific! - Deduction as core process - hypothesis-testing - Falsification - Probation of the theory (no proof of the truth) Experimental Laboratory ----------------------- Ethical Guidelines.... American Psychological Association (APA) - Scientists should not create a situation in which the intensity of participants emotions surpasses those that they typically experience in daily life - Experimentally induced emotions should be promoted by experiences that are, or are likely to be, encountered in everyday life rather than by very unusual interventions - Emotions should be extinguishable - particularly if they are negative or painful - and alleviated before the participant leaves the laboratory How to experimentally induce emotions... - Affective Images - Recall of Emotional Memories - Films - Music - Scripted Social Interaction Theory-driven approach ---------------------- - According to underlying emotion theory, different components (s) are to be assessed High variance in specificity (core affect vs. discrete emotional states) *Different techniques / strategies...* - Questionnaires - Facial Expression - Brain-physiological parameters ### Questionnaires Verbal measures to rate some aspects of experience on a scale - E.g. Likert response scale - - E.g. Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) *Questionnaires of nonverbal formats:* - Feeling states represented by images - E.g. Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) ***PANAS, Bradley & Lang, 1994***  ***Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM), Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988*** ### Facial Expressions Guillaume - Benjamin Duchenne de Boulogne (1862/1990) - *Thesis:* different combinations of facial muscles trigger different expressions of emotion - Contraction of facial muscles by electric stimulation - photographs - aimed to codify pictures into universal taxonomies of mental states Further developed into and used as Component Method (using objective coding systems) Facial Action Coding Scheme (FACS) , Ekman & Friesen (1978) - As an anatomically based coding system - - Facial expressions result from 44 different action units (AU) - Observation is very time consuming, therefore they use tools such as: - ***Facial EMG (Cacioppo et al.,1990)*** To assess facial expressions that are not detectable by visual inspection by measuring the electrical discharge od contracted facial muscles Judgement Method - Refers back to Darwin (1872 / 1998) - Physiological Parameters of the Nervous System ---------------------------------------------- CNS - EEG - fMRI Peripheral Nervous System - E.g. Heart Rate ### Physiological Parameters of the Nervous System CNS - EEG - 1. 2. - Recording from cortex - limits in depth but strengths in assessing activation in larger regions (anterior versus posterior / left hemisphere versus right hemisphere) - fMRI - - - - Peripheral Nervous System - Linking physiological responses to stimuli to related emotions e.g. - - - THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN =================== ''*Of two things concerning emotions, one must be true. Either separate and special centers, affected to them alone, are their brain-sear, or else they correspond to processes occurring in the motor and sensory centers already assigned...''* - ***William James, 1890, p.473*** Two major concepts about the neural correlates of human emotions (Lindquist et al., 2012) - Locationist account - Psychological constructionist account Locations Account ----------------- - ''*These models constitute a locationist account of emotion because they hypothesize that all mental states belonging to the same emotion category (e.g. fear) are produced by activity that is consistently and specifically associated with an architecturally defined brain locale \[\...\] or anatomically defined networks of locales that are inherited and shared with other mammalian species''* - ***Lindquist et al., 2012*** ### Psychological constructionist account (Lindquist et al., 2012) *Thesis:* The psychological function of individual brain regions is determined, in part, by the network of brain regions it is firing with 1. 2. 3. 4. **Psychological constructionist account - Lindquist et al., 2012** - Critics on the locationist account, e.g. - - Specific brain regions as 'hubs in the networks' - *'the functions of distinct brain areas \[\...\] are best understood within the context of the other brain areas'* -   Shared representations for Emotion Perception and Production - *Thesis :* overlapping brain circuits become active both when somebody experiences an emotion and when perceiving the emotion expressed by somebody else Mirror Neurons (di Pellegrino et al., 1992) - *have been claimed to underlie a large variety of psychological functions, including understanding of others goal and states imitation, speech perception, embodied simulation, empathy and emotion recognition (Niedenthal, 2012, p.63)* - *Today intense debate about the precise role of mirror neurons in emotion understanding* The Neurochemistry of Emotions ------------------------------ Less in the spotlight of emotion research (neuromodulators act on extended brain networks and have widespread and unspecific effects) - Serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine, opioids, and oxytocin - - - The emotional neurochemistry of the brain remains largely unknown Functions of Emotions --------------------- - Adapting to environment - - Behavioral preparation and motivation - - Communication - Conveying emotions as important for satisfying needs ; social function (from dyads to social institutions) EXPRESSION OF EMOTION ===================== Where do facial expressions come from and why do they occur? - Contraction of coordinated muscle groups - - *2 functions:* 1. 2. Recognisable facial expressions as a sign of evolution Facial muscles as 'special' muscles ----------------------------------- - Attached to the skin and working in groups vs. moving joints - - Feedbacking via mechanoreceptors, sensitive to changes vs. proprioceptors providing constant information - 'Old' controversy on innate vs. learned acquisition of facial expressions - ***Evolutionary perspective*** : facial expressions are innate and universal - - ***Learning Perspectives*** : culture-specific situational elicitors and interpretations - - Biological and social / cultural determinants of facial expression are intertwined Another (paranoid) debate... ---------------------------- What is actually expressed : 'true' emotion or an intention? 1. #### ***Facial Expressions*** : represented the expresser's internal emotional state )e.g.Ekman, 1972; Izard, 1971 ; Tomkins,1962) a. 2. #### Behavioural Ecology (e.g.Fridlund, 1992) b. c. Sensory Feedback ---------------- Facial Feedback Hypothesis : Does smiling make you happier? - *Thesis:* Facial expression → Feedback (trigeminal nerve) → activation / modulation of further emotional experience - - Emotion perception (= recognising the meaning underlying the emotion expression of others) - - Facial expression - what else, *Bodily expressions :* - Specific patterns of body movement are associated with emotions - tested by point-light display portrayal - High accuracy in identifying emotion due to bodily expression (even in the point-light display condition) Vocal Expression ---------------- *Basic thesis :* there are patterns of vocalisation associated with specific emotions *Approaches of research:* - Analysis of sound by testing single features - - Analysis of sound by testing a combination of features - - Analysis of sound by comparing animal vocalisations with ideas of harmony - Analysis of people's interpretation of vocalisations - Emotion as a \'whole' - the question of contextualisation - Aviezer, Trope & Todorov (2012): real-life facial expressions *Basic hypotheses:* - - *'\'\[\...\] we created compounds of intense negative faces combined with positive bodies and vice versa''* ***Aviezer, Trope & Todorov (2012) ; real-life facial expressions*** - ***a winning face on a winning body*** - ***winning face on a losing body***  **Aviezer, Trope & Todorov (2012) : real-life facial expressions** *''Specifically, losing faces were posed as more positive when the poser viewed them on winning bodies than on losing bodies \[\...\]. Conversely, winning faces were posed as more negative when the poser viewed them on losing bodies than on winning bodies''* Conclusion: - THE ROLE OF COGNITION IN EMOTION PSYCHOLOGY =========================================== On the relation of cognition and emotion ---------------------------------------- Cognition - as all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating (Myers, 2013, p.174) Emotion and cognition as interdependent processes - Cognition as possible altering factor for emotion - Emotional states as influencing cognitive processes - Representation Theory --------------------- - Our knowledge - information we have - is represented / stored in cognitive structures - - - - - *Basic Thesis:* Different nodes are associatively liked by experience : if one node gets activated, other associated notes get activated too (spreading activation) ***Representation Theories*** *Associative Network Models* *(e.g. Collins & Loftus, 1975)* Representation Theories - Associative Network Models ---------------------------------------------------- *Assumptions* : there are not only nodes that stand for information on concepts (such as cats / university) but also for emotional state - *Thesis :* We have mental representations of what we know about emotions - Associative network of emotions (most 'famous' theory by Bower , 1981, 1991)  ***Representation Theories*** *Associative Network Models* *(Bower, 1981)* ### Representation Theories - Embodies simulation models (e.g. Niedenthal, 2007) - Knowledge as not separate from sensory and motor systems - Not all sorts of knowledge is stored in the same abstract form - Remembering involved reactivating sensory-motor states - Especially for storing emotional contents - recalling as a form of 're-living' ***On the relation of cognition and emotion*** *Embodies simulation model, Niedenthal (2007, p.1003)* Emotion and Perception ---------------------- Emotional states alter perception as they influence attention Objects that appear threatening or provoke fear / anxiety most strongly capture attention - considered consistent with evolutionary theory! - The capturing of attention due to emotional objects happens quickly - The attention tends to stay with the emotional object once it is attended - Scope of attention is also affected by emotional state Emotion and Memory ------------------ ***Mood-Congruent Memory*** - ***Mood-State Dependent Memory*** - - Emotion and Judgement --------------------- ***Mood-Congruent Judgement ,** e.g. Johnson and Tversky (1983)* - ***Affect-As-Information Model*** - ***Appraisal Tendency Framework (Lerner & Keltner, 2001)*** - - Emotion and Decision-Making --------------------------- - Somatic marker hypothesis - - Evaluation of an outcome may be influenced by emotions that have been aroused independently - Tendency to value specific properties of an outcome that fit the motivational implications of emotional state - Key Concepts ------------ Natural Scientific Approaches frequently use experiments or measure (such as by using questionnaires) different aspects of emotions Neuroscientific theories of emotion can be roughly put into two categories : Locationism and psychological constructionism - Locationism refers to the belief that specific areas of the brain are responsible for the experience of particular emotions - Psychological constructivism hold that emotions are the result of fundamental cognitive functions, which are not specific to emotions and which result from widespread and flexible cortical-subcortical networks Research on the expression of emotion is currently focused on single components, mainly on facial expression. In the future, research on expression needs to be address expression regarding the whole body experience There is still and ongoing debate on the questions whether emotion and cognition are separate mental processes There are two ways to theorize the influence of emotional states on memory 1. The Associative Network Models 2. Embodies Simulation Models Perception (e.g. attention), judgement and decision-making processes are influenced by models and/or by discrete emotions EMOTIONS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ============================ **From the individual to the relation of individual and society: Emotion concepts and Social Sciences** - Theorising Emotions within Psychoanalysis - Conceptualizing Emotions Sociologically - Social Scientific Paradigm -------------------------- On the particular of Psychology as a Science - Walach (2009) : Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences as two complementary sides - - Psychology as both, natural and social science ---------------------------------------------- - Walach (2009) / Schutz (1953) : Human beings as both natural being asn spiritual being = double being - - - - EMOTIONS & PSYCHOANALYSIS ========================= Key insights of Freud's psychoanalysis... - Concepts of libido - - *Mental life is divided into three domains...* 1. The Conscious 2. The Preconscious 3. The Unconscious **Instances of personality** - Id, Ego, and Superego - - - - - - **Ego Defense** - Ego works to reduce the tension between id and superego (unconsciousness 'protection' of the self) - - Vicious cycle of repression of an id impulse - resulting in severe behavioral pathology *Terminology :* - Affect, emotion and feeling are considered to be 'synonymous' - Freud preferred to talk about *Affekt (affect)* - What does it mean for capsulating emotions? For the case of anxiety... *"And what is an affect in the dynamic sense? It is in any case something highly composite. An affect includes in the first place particular motor innervations or discharges and secondarily certain feelings; the latter are of two kinds--- perceptions of the motor actions that have occurred and the direct feelings of pleasure and unpleasure which, as we say, give the affect its keynote."* Linkage to the study of hysteria *'\[...\] the core which holds the combination we have described together is the repetition of some* *particular significant experience. This experience could only be a very early impression of a very* *general nature, placed in the prehistory not of the individual but of the species. To make myself more* *intelligible---an affective state would be constructed in the same way as a hysterical attack and, like* *it, would be the precipitate of a reminiscence"* - *"Do not suppose that the things I have said to you here about affects are the recognized stock-in-trade of normal psychology. They are on the contrary views that have grown up on the soil of psychoanalysis and are native only to it. What you may gather about affects from psychology---the James-Lange theory, for example---is quite beyond understanding or discussion to us psycho-analysts."* - Key insights of Freud's Psychoanalysis -------------------------------------- *"Emotions that are repressed - for Freud, anxiety and guilt being the most prominent - can be transmuted into different emotional expressions through the ego defences \[\...\]."* - Ideas plus pleasure-unpleasure sensations together constitute an effect as a metal (psychological) phenomenon - Affect being at the dawn of mental life, when ideas first become associated with sensations of pleasure - unpleasure. The latter are primarily connected with gratification and / or lack of gratification of instinctual drive derivatives (instinctual wishes) - The development of affects and their differentiation from one another constitute an aspect of ego and superego development - ***(Brenner, 1980)*** Study Examples -------------- - Freud's method : observation of patients in clinical settings, interwoven with theoretical inferences - - - Psychology as a Social Science ------------------------------ *"\[...\] the social researcher is confronted with facts, events and data of a whole new structure. His observational field, the social world \[...\], has a specific structure of meaning and relevance for the people who live, think and act within it"* - **Schutz, 1953, p.3** Wearing the social scientific glasses in which psychology offers different objects - objects of '*the social world'* - *Central Aim :* Understanding complexes of meaning and reconstructive description of data - CONCEPTUALIZING EMOTIONS SOCIOLOGICALLY ======================================= Sociology studies modern and contemporary societies Sociology as the... *"the science that deals with social groups: their internal forms or modes of organization, the processes that tend to maintain or change these forms of organization, and the relations between groups"* - ***(Johnson, 1961, p. 2)*** **Social Constructionism** ***Central sentence*** : *'what people feel is conditioned by socialisation into culture and by participation in social structures'* - *(**Turner & Stets, 2005, p.2**)* Emotions as ('primarily') social constructions Social Constructionism & Emotions - Gordon (1990) ------------------------------------------------- - *Thesis :* the origin of emotions is not in biology but in culture - The nature of an emotional response is unclear until it is labelled by a name provided by culture - Elements of Emotions (*Turner & Stets, 2005, p.9)* -------------------------------------------------- 1. Biological activation of key body systems 2. Socially constructed definitions and constraints on what emotions should be experienced and expressed in a situation 3. The application of linguistic labels provided by culture ato internal sensations 4. The overt expression of emotions through facial, vocal nad paralinguistic moves 5. Perception and appraisal of situational objects or events Emotions and Rationality ------------------------ *Assumption*: emotions guide decisions (consciously and unconsciously) - People pursue actions with anticipated positive (emotional) outcomes - avoiding those that lead to negative (emotional) consequences - Emotion as 'force' that keeps human behaviour 'on track' - -  ### What's special about a sociological perspective? - Looking at complexes of interconnections among person, situation, structure, and culture - Key Concepts ------------ The study of Emotions can also target emotions as a social object - Social Scientific Approaches frequently use qualitative frameworks, case studies (everyday experiences), group discussions, but also media analyses - Form the perspective of Psychoanalysis, emotions are examined in the microcontext, applying Freud's key insights (such as the concept of repression and ego theory) to the explanation of emotions (here, mostly anxiety and guilt are focused) - Discursive Psychology takes into accounts for the specific socio-cultural settings of emotional experiences and interpretations and considers the impact of language and the production of speech on emotions Sociology looks at complexes of interconnections among person, situation, structure, and culture and therefore conceptualises emotions as shot through by macro-structures (≠individualism) - Cultural Theory -- one sociological strand of theory -- conceive emotions as collective ways of acting and being; they are cultural acquisitions determined by the circumstances and concepts of a particular culture, community, society