Psychology 111 Chapter 11 Emotion and Motivation emotion mental state that is associated with our evaluation of an experience Discrete Emotions Theory humans only experience a small number of distinct emotions even if they combine in complex ways Emotions have biological roots and serve evolutionary functions and emotions precede our thoughts about them The limbic system evolved rst An example of the discrete emotions theory is scrunching one s nose in disgust primary emotions cross cultural evidence has shown there to b 7 universal emotions 7 universal emotions happiness sadness surprise anger fear disgust contempt secondary emotions a combination of the 7 primary emotions that combine to create a vast array of more complex emotions cultural differences cultures differ in display rules Don t affect actual emotions just the overt expression display rules how and when to express emotion physiology of emotion ability to differentiate some primary emotions physiologically Heart rate increases with negative emotions and digestive system slows down with fear and speeds up with anger An example of physiology of emotion is anger fear etc cognitive theories of emotion posit that emotions are products of thinking There are no discreet emotions and there are as many emotions as there are thoughts cognition how we think about things James Lange theory emotions result from interpretations of our bodily reactions to stimuli Cannon Bard when an emotion provoking event leads simultaneously to an emotional and bodily reaction Two Factor Theory the theory that emotion comes from two distinct psychological events The rst factor is an undifferentiated state of arousal and it is general across all emotions The second factor is an attribution or explanation of that arousal Example of the two factor theory is an attractive female on a bridge non verbal expression a large amount of emotional expression is non verbal such as facial expressions gestures and posture nonverbal leakage an unconscious spillover of emotions into non verbal behavior frequently a powerful cue that we are trying to hide an emotion Extremely important to communication For instance texts can often be misinterpreted so people say we need a sarcasm font posture can communicate emotions largely in unconscious ways illustrators gestures that highlight or accentuate speech An example would be pointing or hand arm emphasis manipulators gestures in which one body part strokes bites etc to another body part An example would be twirling hair or biting nails emblems gestures that convey conventional meaning Emblems can be culture speci c so you need to be careful Some examples of emblems include waving nodding or other colorful gestures proxemics the study of personal space the 4 levels of distance public is 12 feet or more social is 4 12 feet personal is 1 5 4 feet and intimate is 0 1 5 feet Personal space varies by culture For instance Latin and Middle Eastern people tend to stand closer to each other We also tend to stand closer to people that we feel we are close to detecting lies not many people are good at detecting lies but some specialists like psychologists and federal of cers are There is little if not any at all correlation between people s con dence in their ability to detect lies and their actual ability to detect lies polygraph a lie detector test that rests on the assumption of a Pinocchio response Pinocchio response records autonomic activity in response to different types of questions Such test yields high rates of false positives so it is biased against those who are innocent Such tests are not permissible in most courts of law happiness may produce enduring psychological and physical bene ts broaden and build theory proposes that happiness may assist in our ability to think more openly views the big picture and thus perform better in tasks come up with better solutions etc Misconceptions of things that make us happy what happens to us money amounts past 50K happiness only declines past age 80 people on the west coast are not actually the happiest and the hedonic treadmill our attitudes adjust to our circumstances what actually makes us happy being married having a lot of friends graduating college being deeply religious exercise political af liation etc etc positive psychology sub eld of psychology that is thought to emphasize human strengths Attempts to aid people in incorporating character strengths and virtues into their lives Some view positive psychology as a bad idea in regards to defensive pessimism defensive pessimism strategy of anticipating failure mentally instead of preparing for negative outcomes motivation psychological drives that propel us in a speci c direction motivational speakers do not cause any long term changes in people s behaviors powerful motivators food and sex drive reduction theory theory proposing that certain drives motivate us to act in ways that minimize aversive states Some examples are hunger thirst and exhaustion We are always attempting to maintain homeostasis level of arousal the strength of drives is affected by arousal Yerkes Dodson Law shows the relation between arousal on one hand and mood and performance on the other hand con icting drives some drives lead us to approach certain stimuli or actions and other drives lead us to avoidance There are 4 possible kinds of con icts approach approach two good things avoidance avoidance two bad things approach avoidance a situation with both good and bad aspects double approach avoidance multiple options with good and bad aspects incentive theories proposes that we are motivated by positive goals an not solely reducing negative states intrinsic goals and satisfactions are internal For instance doing something because you enjoy it extrinsic goals and rewards are external For instance doing something because you will get something out of it Maslow s hierarchy of needs a model proposing that we must satisfy certain primary needs such as hunger thirst safety etc before attempting to satisfy secondary needs more complex things like friendship etc leptin hormone that signals us to reduce appetite and increase the amount of energy used Obese people seem to be resistant to leptin set point a range of body fat and muscle mass we tend to maintain Behavior only matters so much There is mixed research regarding this genes play a role in obesity weight gain external cues can also play a role in obesity weight gain External cues include time of day
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