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PSY1022 - WEEK 2
Assignment

Practice
quiz

Prescribed Readings: Chapter 10 (Emotion) pp. 511 - 527 Digitised

Readings Bernstein readings (Provided for students)

Readings
done

Topic Emotion

Watch
Lecture

TUT week 2

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 5. THE NATURE OF EMOTION
Defining characteristics
The subjective experience of emotion has several characteristics

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 1. Emotion is usually temporary; it tends to have a relatively clear beginning and
end, as well as a relatively short duration. Moods, by contrast, tend to last
longer.

2. Emotional experience can be positive, as in joy, or negative, as in sadness. It

can also be a mixture of both

3. Emotional experience alters thought processes, often by directing attention

towards some things and away from others

4. Emotional experience triggers an action tendency, the motivation to behave in

certain ways.

5. Emotional experiences are passions that you feel, usually whether you want to
or not.You can exert at least some control over emotions in the sense that they
depend partly on how you interpret situations

The objective aspects of emotion include learned and innate expressive displays
and physiological responses.
Physiological responses – such as changes in heart rate – are the biological
adjustments needed to perform the action tendencies generated by emotional
experience.

Emotions

Emotions are transitory positive or negative experiences that are felt as happening
to the self, are generated in part by cognitive appraisal of a situation, and are
accompanied by both learned and innate physical responses

The biology of emotion

Brain mechanisms
Emotions are processed in the limbic system, through facial expressions, and
involving the cerebral cortex.

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 Response in the limbic system

Activity in the limbic system, especially in the amygdala, is central to emotion

Facial expressions

The voluntary facial movements like all voluntary movements are

controlled by the pyramidal motor system

Facial movements associated with emotions, is governed by the

extrapyramidal motor system, which depends on areas beneath the cortex.
Brain damage can disrupt either system.

The cerebral cortex

A third aspect of the brain’s role in emotion is revealed by research on the

cerebral cortex and particularly on differences in the activity of its two
hemispheres in relation to emotional experience.

Mechanisms of the autonomic nervous system

Mechanisms of the autonomic nervous system
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is involved in many of the physiological
changes that accompany emotions

Organisation of the ANS

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 Sympathetic nervous system

The subsystem of the autonomic nervous system that usually prepares the
organism for vigorous activity. (rollercoaster)

Parasympathetic nervous system

The subsystem of the autonomic nervous system that typically influences
activity related to the protection, nourishment and growth of the body

Fight–flight syndrome (fight-or-flight reaction)

A physical reaction triggered by the sympathetic nervous system that

prepares the body to fight or to run from a threatening situation

THE NATURE OF EMOTION - Review Box

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 6. THEORIES OF EMOTION
James’ peripheral theory
James said that recognition of physiological responses is the emotion.

Observing peripheral responses

James saw activity in the peripheral nervous system as the cause of emotional
experience, and his theory is known as a peripheral theory of emotion.

Evaluating James’ theory

Research shows that certain emotional states are indeed associated with
certain patterns of autonomic activity

Components of emotion

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 Autonomic activity and facial expressions

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 Physiology and emotion

James’ theory implies that the experience of emotion would be blocked if a

person were unable to detect physiological changes occurring in the body’s
periphery.

Lie detection
James’ view that different patterns of physiological activity are associated with different
emotions forms the basis for the lie detection industry

Polygraphs

Instruments, called polygraphs, that record heart rate, breathing, perspiration and
other autonomic responses

Control question test

Questions specific to the crime, such as, ‘Did you stab anyone on 6 November
2016?’ Responses to such relevant questions are then compared with responses to
control questions, such as, ‘Have you ever lied to get out of trouble?

Guilty knowledge test

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 Seeks to determine if a person reacts in a notable way to information about a crime
that only the criminal would know

Accuracy of measurement

Most people do have emotional responses when they lie, but statistics about the
accuracy of polygraphs are difficult to obtain. Estimates vary widely, from those
suggesting that polygraphs detect 90 per cent of guilty, lying individuals

Fooling the polygraph

Polygraphs can catch some liars, but most researchers agree that a guilty person
can ‘fool’ a polygraph and that some innocent people can be mislabelled as guilty

Cannon’s central theory

According to Cannon (1927), you feel fear at the sight of a snake even before you start
to run. He said that emotional experience starts in the central nervous system –
specifically, in the thalamus, the brain structure that relays information from most sense
organs to the cortex.

Cannon’s central theory

When the thalamus receives sensory information about emotional events and
situations, it sends signals to the autonomic nervous system and – at the same time
– to the cerebral cortex, where the emotion becomes conscious

Updating Cannon’s theory

An updated version of Cannon’s theory suggests that in humans and other animals,
activity in specific brain areas is experienced as either enjoyable or aversive and
produces the feelings of pleasure or discomfort associated with emotion.

Cognitive theories of emotion

Schachter–Singer theory

In Schachter’s view, feedback about physiological changes may not vary

enough to create the many shades of emotion that people can experience.

He argued instead that emotions emerge from a combination of feedback from

peripheral responses and our cognitive interpretation of the nature and cause of
those responses

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 Attribution
The process of explaining the causes of an event

Excitation transfer theory

The theory that physiological arousal stemming from one situation is carried over to
and enhances emotional experience in an independent situation

Other theories
Schachter focused on the cognitive interpretation of our bodily responses to events,
but other theorists have argued that it is our cognitive interpretation of events
themselves that is most important in shaping emotional experiences

THEORIES OF EMOTION - Review Box

7. COMMUNICATING EMOTION
Innate expressions of emotion
Charles Darwin (1872) observed that some facial expressions seem to be universal.

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 The facial expressions seen today, said Darwin, are those that have been most
effective at telling others something about how a person is feeling

Social and cultural influences on emotional expression

Furthermore, although some basic emotional facial expressions are recognised by
all cultures, even these can be interpreted differently, depending on body language
and environmental cues.

There is even a certain degree of cultural variation when it comes to recognising

some emotions

Expression of emotion
People learn how to express certain emotions in particular ways, as specified by
cultural rules.

Learning about emotions

The effects of learning are seen in a child’s growing range of emotional

expressions. Although infants begin with an innate set of emotional responses, they
soon learn to imitate facial expressions and use them for more and more emotions

Emotion culture
Rules that govern what emotions are appropriate in what circumstances and
what emotional expressions are allowed

Social referencing

Facial expressions, tone of voice, body postures and gestures can do more
than communicate emotion.

The process of letting another person’s emotional state guide our own
behaviour is called social referencing

COMMUNICATING EMOTION - Review Box

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