James Lange Theory Arousal Comes Before Emotion feelings i e fear follow body s response james lange theory theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion arousing stimuli Cannon Bard Theory Arousal and Emotion Occur simultaneously body s responses are to similar and change too slowly to cause different emotions bodily responses and experiences emotions occur separately but simultaneously heart begins to pound as you experience fear emotion triggering stimulus travels to brain s cortex and sympathetic nervous system at the same time Cognition can define emotion Schachter and singer an emotional experience requires a conscious interpretation of arousal our physical reactions and our thoughts together create emotion two factor theory to experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal spillover effect a stirred up state can be experiences as one emotion or another depending on how we interpret it and label it arousal fuels emotion cognition channels it Cognition may not precede emotion Zajonc LeDoux and Lazarus we have many emotional reactions apart from or even before our interpretation of a situation emotions traveling high road travel by the thalamus to the brain cortex where it would be analyzed and labeled before the command is sent out via the amygdala low road neural shortcut that bypasses the cortez stimulus travels from the ear or the eye directly to the amygdala amygdala sends more neural projections up to the cortex than it receives back ou brains process a lot of info without our conscious awareness emotions arise when we appraise an event as harmless or dangerous Emotions and our automatic nervous system stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine taking an exam while being moderately aroused is a good thing The physiology of emotions insula neural center deep inside the brain insula is activated when certain social emotions are felt and lights up in brain scans emotions differ within brain circuits and the muscles that show the emotion on the outside right frontal lobe activity associated with sadness and negative emotions positive moods trigger left frontal activity Detecting emotions in others good at reading facial and body expression experience can sensitize us to particular emotions our brains are naturally good detectors of subtle expressions too hard to tell differences in facial cues and expressions of a liar and a truth teller introverts read others emotions well while extroverts are easy to read Gender emotion and nonverbal behavior gender neutral faces man with angry expression and woman with happy expression women generally surpass men on reading ppl s emotional cues intuition women convey emotions in more complex ways than men women describe themselves as empathetic more than men do women more likely to express empathy Culture and emotional expression gestures have different meanings in different cultures the telltale signs of a simple emotion normally are consistent throughout the world smiles are both social and emotional events born blind still exhibit similar or same simple expressions as those with sight we read faces in context countries that encourage individuality display the most visible emotions The effects of facial expressions expressions amplify and regulate emotion your facial expressions fuel your emotions facial feedback effect tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings Experiences Emotion 10 basic emotions joy interest excitement surprise sadness anger disgust contempt fear shame guilt more complex emotions are a mixture of two or more of the above basic emotions Anger anger triggers fight in flight or fight chronic hostility is linked to heart disease encouraging ppl to vent their rage is common in individualistic cultures catharsis emotional release can achieve catharsis through aggressive action or fantasy expressing anger can be temporarily relieving if it does not make us feel guilty or anxious expressing anger more often fuels anger even more anger primes prejudice many angry outbursts can create habits 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 The short life of emotional ups and downs in the long run emotional ups and downs tend to even out happiest days friday and saturday ppl tend to rebound from an unhappy day to an unusually happy day the next day usually even tragedy is not permanent major disability leaves ppl less happy than average but a lot more happy than ppl with depression we overestimate the duration of our emotions and underestimate our resiliency and capacity to adapt Wealth and well being wealth does correlate with well being across the world those with lots of money are typically happier richer ppl generally experience greater well being plateau effect once one has enough money to afford basic needs more and more starts to mean less and less raising low incomes helps a lot more for happiness than raising high incomes in every country those who strive hardest for wealth have the lowest well being those striving for intimacy personal growth contribution to the community all experience higher quality of life adaption level phenomenon our tendency to form judgements of various stimuli relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience if income increases we suddenly feel happy but then get accustomed to that level of wealth and then search for something else to give us that feeling or more Happiness is relative to our own experience wealth Happiness is relative to other s success always comparing ourselves to others relative deprivation the sense that we are worse off than others with whom we compare ourselves with when expectations soar above attainments the result is disappointment counting your blessings and thinking of all the other deprivation in the world makes you more satisfied Predictors of Happiness genes matter about 50 of the difference is heritable cultural differences relationship qualities matter health psychology provides psychology s contributions to behavioral medicine stress the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events called stressors and how we appraise as threatening or challenging Stress some basic concepts stress occurs more with the how we appraise it stress arouses and motivates us to conquer problems those who are stressed but not