Chapter 11 Emotions & Stress (week 8)Book notes:Part 1. Emotions (pg. 302-314) What is emotion? The bodily responses and brain mechanisms underlying happiness and joy, fear and loathing Usually we experience emotions for only a brief time, but prolonged experience of negative emotions (stress) can be bad for our health Emphasizes fear and aggression ( important for survival, and often associated with stress)o Stress: associated with health problems, because it involves nervous system, endocrine system and also the immune system Definition of emotion: (3 parts) Subjective mental state + distinctive behaviors + involuntary physiological changes -or conscious experience (thoughts & feelings) + expressive behavior + physiological (bodily arousal) in lecture PPT slide  Major theories of how we experience emotions (refer to Fig 11.1 for a better idea)A. Folk psychology (feeling triggers autonomic reaction)-information observation suggested that emotions cause the body to reactB. James-Lange theory (autonomic reaction triggers feeling)-argues that bodily response evokes the emotional experience; we experience fear because we perceive the activity that dangerous conditions trigger in our bodyC. Cannon-Bard theory (simultaneous feeling and autonomic reaction-bodily response and emotional experience are simultaneous; and that the brain must interpret the situation to decide which emotion is appropriate-according to this model, the cerebral cortex simultaneously decides on the appropriate emotional experience, and activates the autonomic nervous system (either the sympathetic system to ready body for action or parasympathetic system to help body rest)  Sympathetic nervous system: the “fight or flight” system that generally activates the body for action Parasympathetic nervous system: generally prepares the body to relax and recuperateD. Schacter-singer theory (focus on this for tests)-aka “Two Factor theory”-arousal & thinking, then feeling (first, we respond to stimulus with body response, and context & interpretation, then we feel)-i.e. 1) stimulus (a bear)i.e. rapidly beating heart, shortness of breath, or excessivesweatingi.e. fearful facial expressions, frantic arm movements, or angryshoutingPrivate, subjective feeling2) Body’s response (heart races)2) context & interpretation (bears are dangerous)3) feeling (fear) Schacter-Singer Experiment (important!!! Fig 11.2 on pg.305)(Stanley Schacter proposed a cognitive interpretation of stimuli and visceral states: which emotion we experience depends on cognitive systems that access the context-our current social, physical, and psychological situation) condition: subjects are injected with epinephrine (adrenaline), some were told that there wouldn’t be any effects, and some were told that their heart would race hypothesis: we experience emotions as a result of the activity of the autonomic nervous system(James-Lange theory) Two-parts test: a) see whether the subjects experience one particular emotion as they fill out some forms after injection of epinephrine b) expose subjects to a confederate who acts either happy or angry while filling out forms to test the alternative hypothesis (that our emotional experience is determined by cognitive processes) Results: subjects who were not warned about the sympathetic arousal showed more intense emotional reactions than those that were warned. Among the subjects who were not warned, which emotion they experienced (angry or happy) matched that of the confederate Conclusion: while autonomic responses can intensify our emotional experience, they cannot explain why we have different experiences in different situations. Rather, our cognitive analysis of the environment affects which emotion we experience *this experiment contradicts the James-Lange prediction that specific feelings should be associated with a unique profile of autonomic reactions. *our emotional state is the result of an interaction between physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation (including social factors such as other’ emotions) of that arousal *our emotional experience at one time may affect how we interpret later events Polygraph test (pg. 304) The overall accuracy of it is debated to be accurate between 65% and 95% of the time, but physiologicalvariable like heart rate or skin conductance spike during the telling of a lie makes it easier to believe its reliability Facial expression & core emotions Plutchik proposes there are 8 basic emotions, grouped in 4 pairs of opposites1) joy vs. sadness 2) affection vs. disgust 3) anger vs. fear 4) expectation vs. surprise Keltner and Ekman proposed that there are distinctive expressions for anger, sadness, happiness, fear, disgust, surprise, contempt, and embarrassment (the last two emotions are different in the two schemes)-the facial expressions of these emotions are interpreted similarly across many cultures without explicit training *people from Western and non-Western literate groups tend to agree about emotions represented by photographs of facial expressions, but people from nonliterate groups tend to have some disagreements. Facial feedback hypothesis:-suggest that sensory feedback from our facial expressions can affect our mood-subjects are given a task, such as holding a pencil either under their nose or between their teeth (to take on a sad/happy face), and are probed to see how sad/happy they feel-people who have been simulating a smile report more positive feelings than those who have been simulatinga frown-“making a happy face can actually make you feel happier” Evolution of emotions & purpose of some emotions (pg. 309-311) Certain expressions of emotions are universal among people of all regions of the world, and some nonhuman animals show comparable expressions of some emotions, suggesting that aspects of emotional expression may have originated in common ancestors Purpose of some emotions:o In evolutionary sense, expressions of emotions serve as the first means of communication between the mother and her infant (smile means approval, frown means disapproval for certain behaviors)o Emotions acts as motivational programs, gathering distinct physiological and behavioral componentsto form unified responses to specific