Emotion

Prepared by Dipesh Upadhyay

 Topics Covered
• Emotions: nature, types and functions
• Theories of Emotions: James-Lange, Cannon
Bard, and Schachter-Singer
• Emotions and Health
• Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Emotion

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 Emotions
• Emotions are intense feelings that are directed at
someone or something (Frijda, 1993)
• An acute disturbance of the organism as a whole,
psychological in origin involving behavior, conscious
experience and visceral (strong feelings often
associated to viscera- heart, lung and stomach)
functioning (P.T. Young, 1943)
• Feelings that generally have both physiological and
cognitive elements and that influence behavior

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 Affect, Emotion and Mood
• Affect is A broad range of feelings that people
experience which may include both mood and
emotions
• Emotions are intense feelings that are
directed at someone or something.
• Moods are feelings that tend to be less
intense than emotions and that lack a
contextual stimulus i.e. its not targeted to
someone or something.
 Physiology of Emotion
• Limbic system is
involved in emotional
states
– Includes the
amygdala,
hypothalamus
• Frontal lobes
modulate emotions

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Physiology of Emotion

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How Fear works through our Brain

•When you’re faced with a potentially

threatening stimulus— information
arrives in the thalamus (blue) and is
relayed simultaneously along two
pathways.
•Crude, archetypal information rapidly
travels the direct route to the
amygdala (red), triggering an almost
instantaneous fear response
•More detailed information is sent
along the pathway to the visual
cortex (blue), where the stimulus is
interpreted

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 Components of emotions

– Cognitive: thoughts, beliefs and expectations

– Physiological: Internal physical changes related
to arousal i.e. heart rate, blood pressure,
perspiration, and other involuntary bodily
responses
– Behavioral: Outward signs of an emotional
state

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 Functions of Emotions
• Preparing us for action: Emotions act as a link between
events in our environment and our responses, associated
with physiological arousal of the sympathetic division of
the autonomic nervous system, the activation of the
“fight-or-flight” response
• Shaping our future behavior: promote learning that will
help us make appropriate responses in the future
• Helping us interact more effectively with others:
communicate the emotions we experience through our
verbal and nonverbal behaviors, act as a signal to
observers, allowing them to understand better what we
are experiencing and to help them predict our future
behavior
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 Primary Emotions- are they
universal across the cultures???
• Fear, surprise, anger, disgust, happiness,
sadness
• Basic emotions are innate (inborn)

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Six Primary Emotions

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 Primary Emotions
• Six basic emotions expressed universally by
members of the human race
• Experiment by Paul Ekman- studied members
of an isolated New Guinea jungle tribe who
had had almost no contact with Westerners
(Ekman, 1972)- could recognize emotions in
similar patterns
Theories of Emotion

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 The James-Lange Theory
– Do gut reactions equal emotions?
– Emotions are a result of physiological changes that
produce specific sensations
– The brain interprets these sensations as specific kinds
of emotional experiences
– The theory has some serious drawbacks
• emotional experiences frequently occur even before there
is time for physiological changes
• Physiological arousal does not invariably produce
emotional experience i.e. while running
• our internal organs produce a relatively limited range of
sensations
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 The Cannon-Bard Theory
– Assumes that both physiological arousal and the
emotional experience are produced
simultaneously by the same nerve stimulus, which
emanates from the thalamus in the brain
– thalamus sends a signal to the autonomic nervous
system
– thalamus also communicates a message to the
cerebral cortex
– we now understand that the hypothalamus and
the limbic system, not the thalamus, play a major
role in emotional experience
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 Schachter-Singer Theory
– Emphasizes that we identify the emotion we are
experiencing by observing our environment and
comparing ourselves with others
– Experiment in two groups: the participants
exposed to the angry confederate reported that
they felt angry, while those exposed to the happy
confederate reported feeling happy (both groups
given injection of epinephrine)
– Supports a cognitive view of emotions
– when the source of physiological arousal is
unclear, we may look to our surroundings to
determine what we are experiencing 17
 Contemporary Perspectives
– researchers have found that specific emotions
produce activation of very different portions of the
brain i.e. brain imaging techniques
• Amygdala: Provides a link between the perception of an
emotion-producing stimulus and the recall of that
stimulus later
• Hippocampus: Aids in the consolidation of memories
– emotions are such complex phenomena,
encompassing both biological and cognitive aspects,
that no single theory has been able to explain fully
all the facets of emotional experience
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 Contemporary Perspectives
• Six basic emotions expressed universally by
members of the human race
• Experiment by Paul Ekman- studied members
of an isolated New Guinea jungle tribe who
had had almost no contact with Westerners
(Ekman, 1972)- could recognize emotions in
similar patterns
 External Constraints on Emotions
• Organization’s influence
– Emotional labor
– Felt Vs. Displayed emotions
– Emotional dissonance
• Culture’s influence
– Global, national and local culture
– Gender’s role
 Emotional Labor
A situation in which an employee
expresses organizationally desired
emotions during interpersonal
transactions.
 Felt versus Displayed Emotions
Felt Emotions
An individual’s actual emotions.

Displayed Emotions
Emotions that are organizationally
required and considered appropriate in a
given job.
Emotional dissonance
Discomfort due to difference in felt and
displayed emotions
 Daniel Goleman on Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional Intelligence is a set
of skills that underlie the
accurate assessment,
evaluation, expression, and
regulation of emotions
• Emotional intelligence is the
basis of empathy for others,
self-awareness, and social
skills.
• It encompasses the ability to
get along well with others.

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 Emotional intelligence (EI)
• a person’s ability to perceive emotions in the
self and others,
• understand the meaning of these emotions,
and
• regulate and communicate one’s emotions
accordingly
 Emotional Intelligence encompasses
According to Goleman there are five key
elements to EI:
• Self-awareness.
• Self-regulation.
• Motivation.
• Empathy.
• Social skills.
 Self-awareness
• Self-awareness is knowing one’s feelings – in
terms of here and now.
• Only when we are aware of our feelings, can
we effectively use them to make good
decisions.
Self- regulation
• Self- regulation refers to the ability to
appropriately manage one’s emotions so they
facilitate, rather than interfere with the
decision or task at hand.
• Also, those with a high EI have the ability to
delay immediate gratification in pursuit of the
goal and objective.
• They have control over their emotions, rather
than their emotions having control over them.
Motivation
• Motivation is the ability to persevere in the
face of setbacks and challenges.
• They are undaunted by failure and
frustrations, they take the initiative, and they
strive to improve and move forward in pursuit
of the goal.
• Even in the face of adversity, one’s
commitment and motivation never wavers.
Empathy
• Empathy is rooted in the ability to know – or
sense – what other people are feeling. Empathic
people are capable of showing kindness and
compassion towards others when they are in
distress or hurting – even if you don’t feel these
same feelings.
• This allows for the ability to bring together a
diverse group of people and opinions to unite for
a common cause.
• Clearly you can see the high correlation between
leadership and high emotional intelligence.
Social skills
• Social skills are seen as the ability to handle
both your own emotions, and the emotions of
others in a productive, as opposed to
destructive manner.
• People with high emotional intelligence
optimally utilize “soft skills” to effectively
communicate, actively listen, collaborate and
unify others.
Impact of EI on Organization Behavior
• Selection
• Decision Making
• Creativity
• Motivation
• Leadership
• Interpersonal Conflict
• Negotiation
• Customer Services
• Job Attitudes
• Deviant Workplace Behaviors
 Culture and Emotion
• Cultural similarities and
differences: some are culturally
universal emotions, but each
culture has its own display rules
governing how, when, and
where to express emotions
• Gender and emotion

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