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Unit 8: Motivation and
Emotion
B – Emotions, Stress and Health
Emotion:
• Emotions include biological component
(physiological response), behavioral
component (expressive behaviors), and
cognition (consciously experienced
thoughts and feelings)
• Controversies:
– Does physiological arousal precede or follow
emotional experience?
– Does cognition always precede emotions?
Theories of Emotion
• James-Lange Theory
– “we feel sorry because we cry”
– Physiological response comes first, then comes experienced
emotion
• Cannon-Bard Theory
– emotion-arousing stimulus triggers the physiological response
and the subjective experience of emotion at the same time
– the two are separate but simultaneous
– one does not cause the other
• Two-factor Theory – Schacter-Singer Theory
– to experience emotion we must be both physiologically aroused
and cognitively label the arousal
Embodied Emotion (Physiology of Emotion)
• Fight-or-flight response is activated
• Sympathetic nervous system (part of autonomic)
causes adrenal glands to secrete adrenalin
(epinephrine) and noradrenalin (norepinephrine)
– Causes sugar to pour into bloodstream, respiration,
heart rate, and blood pressure increase, digestion
slows and energy is diverted to muscles, pupils dilate,
perspiration, blood clots more quickly
• Then, parasympathetic nervous system (part of
autonomic) steps in to stop further arousal so
body eventually returns to normal
Physiology and Specific Emotions
• Similarities
– Fear, anger, sexual
arousal all look very
similar in terms of
physiological
responses
• Differences
– Fear v. rage – finger
temperature and
hormone secretions
differ
– Fear v. joy – different
facial muscles
– These differences
make the JamesLange theory seem
possible
Positive v. Negative Emotions
• Positive emotions
– Linked to left hemisphere
– More baseline frontal lobe
activity correlated with a
more upbeat attitude
– Perhaps due to rich supply
of dopamine receptors in
left frontal lobe (stimulus of
left nucleus accumbens
causes euphoria)
• Negative emotions
– Linked to right hemisphere
Research on emotions of those
with severed spinal cords:
• George Hohmann (1966)
• Those with lower spinal cord injuries
reported little change in their emotions
• Those with higher spinal cord injuries
reported a considerable decrease in
emotional intensity
• Support for James-Lange theory?
The Role of Cognition in Emotion
• Cognition helps us define physiological responses
– Schacter-Singer experiment (1962) – spillover effect – we take
cues from those around us to label our own emotions
• Cognition does not always precede emotion
– LeDoux (2002) – some emotions bypass the cortex going
straight from thalamus to amygdala so some emotional reactions
involve no deliberate thinking – it is easier for our feelings to
overtake our thinking than vice versa because amygdala sends
more neural pathways up to cortex than vice versa
– Lazarus – even such instant reactions require us to use cognitive
appraisal to decide if situation is a threat or not
Detecting Lies
• Polygraph measures changes in breathing, cardiovascular activity,
and perspiration
• Control questions – likely to elicit a white lie so baseline changes
can be established
• Critical questions – if response is weaker than with control, you are
considered to be telling the truth
• Problems: physiological arousal is very similar from one emotion to
the next, tests are wrong about 1/3 of the time
• Guilty knowledge test better – assesses physiological responses to
crime details only known by guilty
• Paul Ekman – expert in micro facial expressions of guilty
• Michael Gazzaniga – working on identifying brain activity when lying
Expressed Emotion
• We read nonverbal cues, body language and facial expressions, to
detect emotion
• Hard to conceal some emotions
– Duchenne smile
• We find it hard to detect faked emotions
– Introverts excel at reading emotions
– Extraverts are easier to read
• Judith Hall – women are generally better at reading emotional cues
and spotting lies
• Men and women are similarly empathic but women express it more
• Women tend to experience emotional events more deeply
• Cultural differences in emotional expression vary
Facial Expressions
• Our facial expressions not only
communicate emotions but also regulate
and amplify them
– i.e. our expressions feed our feelings
• Snodgrass (1986) – behavior feedback
phenomenon
Experienced Emotion
• Carol Izard (1977) – ten basic emotions –
joy, excitement, surprise, sadness, anger,
disgust, contempt, fear, shame, guilt
• Tracy and Robins (2004) – add pride
• Sharon (1996) – add love
Fear
• Adaptive – prepares body for danger
• Learned through association (classical
conditioning), observation
• Biologically we are predisposed to fear things
that threatened our ancestors survival (common
phobias are of snakes, spiders, heights)
• Amygdala is key – gene has been isolated
– Short version results in less of a protein causing more
serotonin to be available
– This makes the amygdala respond more to frightening
situation
Anger
• Chronic hostility linked to heart disease
(Type A personality)
• Catharsis theory of expressing anger for
emotional release doesn’t work
• Expressing anger magnifies it
• Ways to handle anger: wait until you can
respond appropriately, find ways to calm
yourself, forgiveness
Happiness
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Happy people are healthier and live more satisfied lives
Feel-good, do-good phenomenon
Increasing interest in positive emotions (field of positive psychology)
We overestimate the duration of our emotions and underestimate our
capacity to adapt
Limitations of correlation between wealth and well-being (diminishing
returns)
Adaptation-level phenomenon – we compare our current experiences to
recent experiences – following an increase in income, that will then be the
norm as basis for comparison, for example
Relative deprivation – we feel worse off than those we compare ourselves
to
Predictors of happiness – self-esteem (Westerners), social acceptance
(Easterners), optimism, agreeable, close relationships, satisfying work and
leisure, meaningful religious faith, sleep well, exercise
Genes influence personality traits that contribute to happinesss
Stress and Health
• Fields of behavioral medicine, health
psychology, psychoneuroimmunology
• Stress can be good or bad:
– Distress – bad
– Eustress – good
• Stress is a result of how we appraise a
situation
• Short-term stress challenges us but longterm stress can make us sick
Stress Response
• Walter Cannon identified the fight-or-flight
response in the 1920s
• Hans Selye identified GAS (General Adaptation
Syndrome)
– Phase 1 – alarm – sympathetic nervous system is
activated
– Phase 2 – resistance – hormones dumped
– Phase 3 – exhaustion – body is depleted causing
vulnerability to illness, or even death
• Severe stress ages people by shortening the
telomeres on ends of DNA so cells can no
longer divide
Categories of Stressors
• Catastrophes – huge events – rates of
depression and anxiety go up
• Significant life changes – loss of job,
divorce, etc. – more vulnerable to disease
• Daily hassles – everyday annoyances –
for some, may be the most significant
source of stress (Type A personality)
Stress and Disease
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Psychophysiological illness
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
– Lymphocytes
• B – form in bone marrow and fight bacterial infections
• T – form in thymus and attach cancer cells and viruses
– Microphage – identifies, pursues, and ingests harmful invaders and worn out
cells
– Natural killer cells (NK cells) – go after diseased cells
– Immune system activity is influenced by age, nutrition, genetics, body
temperature, and stress
– Stress can cause immune system to react too strongly (autoimmune diseases
like arthritis, lupus, MS)
– Stress can cause immune system to be suppressed (because of competing
energy needs), allowing cancer cells to multiple – doesn’t cause cancer, but may
cause it to progress more quickly
– Women are less susceptible to infections but more susceptible to autoimmune
diseases
– Stress may cause HIV to progress more quickly