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Schachter-Singer “Two-factor” Theory:
Emotion = Body Plus a Cognitive Label
The Schachter-Singer
“two-factor” theory
suggests that emotions
do not exist until we add
a label to whatever body
sensations we are feeling.
 I face a stranger, and my
heart is pounding. Is it
fear? Excitement?
Anger? Lust? Or did I
have too much caffeine?
The label completes the
emotion.
In a study by Stanley
Schachter and Jerome
Singer in 1962, subjects
experienced a spillover
effect when arousal was
caused by injections of
what turned out to be
adrenaline.
The subjects interpreted
their agitation to
whatever emotion the
others in the room
appeared to be feeling;
the emotional label
“spilled over” from
others.
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Robert Zajonc, Joseph LeDoux,
and Richard Lazarus:
Emotions without Awareness/Cognition
Theory: some emotional reactions, especially
fears, likes, and dislikes, develop in a “low road”
through the brain, skipping conscious thought.
In one study, people
showed an amygdala
response to certain
images (above, left)
without being aware
of the image or their
reaction.
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Emotion
= a response of the whole organism,
involving (1) physiological arousal, (2)
expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious
experience.
James-Lange Theory
= the theory that our experience of emotion
is our awareness of our physiological
responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.
Cannon-Bard Theory
= the theory that an emotion-arousing
stimulus simultaneously triggers (1)
physiological responses and (2) the
subjective experience of emotion.
Two-factor Theory
= the Schachter-Singer theory that to
experience emotion one must (1) be
physically aroused and (2) cognitively
label the arousal.
When Appraisal Affects Emotion
Stanley Schachter and Jerome
Singer highlighted the role of
appraisal in labeling consciously
experienced emotions: “this
agitation is fear.”
Richard Lazarus noted
that even in emotional
responses that operate
without conscious
thought, “top-down”
cognitive functions such
as appraisal of stimuli (is
that a threat or something
I would enjoy?) can be
involved .
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Detecting Emotion in Others
 People read a great deal of
emotional content in the
eyes (“the window to the
soul”) and the faces.
 Introverts are better at
detecting emotions;
extroverts have emotions
that are easier to read.
 We are primed to quickly
detect negative emotions,
and even negative emotion
words.
 Those who have been
abused are biased toward
seeing fearful faces as
angry, as in the test below.
These faces morph from fear to anger.
Raise your hand when you first see anger under the red box.
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Facial Feedback
= the effect of facial expressions on
experienced emotions, as when a facial
expression of anger or happiness
intensifies feelings of anger or happiness.
Polygraph
= a machine, commonly used in attempts to
detect lies, that measure several of the
physiological responses accompanying
emotion (such as perspiration and
cardiovascular and breathing changes).
Detecting Lies and Fakes
 Polygraphs (detecting
physiological arousal) fail
sometimes at correctly identifying
when people are lying.
 Visible signs of lying: eye blinks
decrease, and other facial
movements change.
Brain signs of lying:
In which image is Paul
Ekman “lying” with a
fake smile?
 A real smile uses
involuntary muscles
around the eyes.
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Culture and Emotional Expression:
Are There Universally Recognized Emotions?
 There seem to be some
universally understood
facial expressions.
 People of various cultures
agree on the emotional
labels for the expressions
on the faces on the right.
 People in other studies
did have more accuracy
judging emotions from
their own culture.
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Emotion Detection and Context Cues
 What emotions do you see below?
How can you tell what emotions he is feeling?
 Because the faces are exactly the same, our detection of
emotion must be based on context: the situation,
gestures, and the tears.
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Is Experienced Emotion as
Universal as Expressed Emotion?
Carroll Izzard
suggested that
there are ten
basic emotions:
those evident at
birth (seen here)
plus contempt,
shame, and
guilt.
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Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Anger
 The catharsis myth
 A flash of anger gives us energy
refers to the idea that
and initiative to fight or otherwise
we can reduce anger by
take action when necessary.
“releasing” it, and we
 Persistent anger can cause more
do this by acting
harm than whatever we’re angry
aggressively (yelling,
about.
punching a pillow).
 Some ways to keep anger from
persisting: distraction, constructive  In most cases,
expressing anger
action, problem-solving, exercise,
worsens it, and any
verbal expression, and allowing
“release” reinforces
others to be wrong.
the aggression, making
it a conditioned habit.
 Sometimes, releasing
anger causes harm, and
results in guilt.
 Instead, try calming
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down and moving on.
Catharsis
= emotional release. The catharsis
hypothesis maintains that “releasing’
aggressive energy (through action or
fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.
Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Happiness
There are behaviors that seem to go with happiness.
Researchers have found that happy people
tend to:
However, happiness seems not much
related to other factors, such as:
 Have high self-esteem (in individualistic
countries)
 Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable
 Have close friendships or a satisfying
marriage
 Have work and leisure that engage their
skills
 Have an active religious faith
 Sleep well and exercise
 Age (example: the woman at the
laptop in the picture)
 Gender (women are more often
depressed, but also more often
joyful)
 Parenthood (having children or
not)
 Physical attractiveness
There also may be a genetic basis for a predisposition to happiness.
Whether because of genes, culture, or personal history, we each
seem to develop a mood “set point,” a level of happiness to which
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we keep returning.
Well-being
= self-perceived happiness or satisfaction
with life. Used along with measures of
objective well-being (for example, physical
and economic indicators) to evaluate
people’s quality of life.
Feel-Good Do-Good
Phenomenon
= people’s tendency to be helpful when
already in a good mood.
Stress: A Focus of Health Psychology
 Many people report being affected by “stress.”
 Some terms psychologists use to talk about stress:
Stress refers to the
process of appraising
and responding to
events which we
 a stressor is an event or condition
consider threatening
which we view as threatening,
or challenging.
challenging, or overwhelming.
 Examples include poverty, an
explosion, a psychology test,
feeling cold, being in a plane,
and loud noises.
 appraisal refers to deciding whether
to view something as a stressor.
 stress reaction refers to any
emotional and physical responses to
the stressor such as rapid heartbeat,
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elevated cortisol levels, and crying.
Stressors
There may be a spectrum of
levels of intensity and
persistence of stressors.
We can also see stressors as
falling into one of three
categories:
Stressors refer to the events
and conditions that trigger
our stress response, because
they are perceived/ appraised
as overwhelmingly
challenging, threatening,
and/or harmful.
catastrophes.
significant life changes.
chronic daily hassles.
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The Body’s Stress Response System
When encountering a sudden trauma or other stressor, our
body acts to increase our resistance to threat and harm.
Phase 1: The “fight or flight”
sympathetic nervous system
responds, reducing pain and
increasing the heart rate.
The core of the adrenal glands
produces norepinephrine and
epinephrine (adrenaline).
This system, identified by
Walter Cannon (1871-1945),
gives us energy to act.
Phase 2: The brain sends
signals to the outer part of the
adrenal glands to produce
cortisol and other stress
hormones. These focus us on
planning adaptive coping
strategies and resisting defeat
by the stressor.
Hans Selye (1907-1982)
indentified this extended
“resistance” phase of the
stress response, followed by:
Phase 3: Exhaustion.
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General Adaptation Syndrome [GAS]
(Identified by Hans Selye):
Our stress response system defends,
then fatigues.
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General Adaptation Syndrome
(GAS)
= Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive
response to stress in three phases – alarm,
resistance, exhaustion.
Effects of Prolonged Stress
 The General Adaptation
Syndrome [GAS] works well for
single exposures to stress.
 Repeated and prolonged stress,
with too much Phase 3 time,
leads to various signs of physical
deterioration and premature
aging:
 the production of new
neurons declines
 neural circuits in the brain
break down
 DNA telomeres (chromosome
tips) shorten,  cells lose
ability to divide,  cells die,
 tissue stops regenerating,
 early aging and death
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Health Consequences of Chronic Stress:
The Repeated Release of Stress Hormones
 The stress hormone cortisol
helps our bodies respond to
brief stress.
 Chronically high cortisol levels
damage the body.
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Coronary Heart Disease
= the clogging of the vessels that nourish the
heart muscle; the leading cause of death
in North America.
Female and Male Stress Response
 In response to a stressor
such as the death of a loved
one, women may “tend and
befriend”: nurture
themselves and others, and
bond together.
 The bonding hormone
oxytocin may play a role in
this bonding.
 Women show behavioral
and neurological signs of
becoming more empathetic
under stress.
 Men under stress are more
likely to socially withdraw
and numb themselves with
alcohol.
 Men are also more likely to
become aggressive under
stress.
 In either case, men’s
behavior and brains show
LESS empathy and less
tuning in to others under
stress.
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Type A PersonalityStress
Heart Disease
 Some personality traits tend
to cluster into personality
types.
 People with a type A
personality are impatient,
verbally aggressive, and
always pushing themselves
and others to achieve.
 People with a type B
personality are more relaxed
and go with the flow.
 In one study, heart attacks
ONLY struck people with Type
A traits.
Accomplishing goals is healthy, but a compulsion to always be
working, with little time spent “smelling the flowers,” is not.29
Type A
= Friedman and Rosenman’s term for
competitive, hard-driving, impatient,
verbally aggressive, and anger-prone
people.
Type B
= Friedman and Rosenman’s term for
easygoing, relaxed people.
Psychophysiological Illness
= literally, “mind-body” illness; any stressrelated physical illness, such as
hypertension and some headaches.
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
= the study of how psychological, neural,
and endocrine processes together affect
the immune system and resulting health.
Lymphocytes
= the two types of white blood cells that are
part of the body’s immune system; B
lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and
release antibodies that fight bacterial
infections; T lymphocytes form in the
thymus and other lymphatic tissue and
attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign
substances.
Pessimism and Heart Disease
It can be helpful
to realistically
anticipate
negative events
that may happen,
and to plan how
to prevent or
cope with them.
Pessimism refers to the
assumption that
negative outcomes will
happen, and often facing
them by complaining
and/or giving up.
Men who are generally
pessimistic are more
likely to develop heart
disease within ten years
than optimists.
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Stress factor: Perceived Level of Control
Experiment: the left and middle rats below
received shocks. The rat on the left was able
to turn off the shocks for both rats. Which
rat had the worst stress and health
problems?
 Only the
middle,
subordinate
rat had
increased
ulcers.
 It is not the
level of
shock, but
the level of
control over
the shock,
which
created
stress.
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Promoting Health: Social Support
 Having close relationships is
associated with improved health,
immune functioning, and longevity.
 Social support, including from pets,
provides a calming effect that
reduces blood pressure and stress
hormones.
 Confiding in others helps manage
painful feelings.
 Laughter helps too.
“Well, I think you’re wonderful.”
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Aerobic Exercise and Health
Aerobic exercise refers
to sustained activity that
raises heart rate and
oxygen consumption.
 Aerobic exercise triggers
certain genes to produce
proteins which guard
against more than 20
chronic diseases and
conditions.
 Aerobic exercise reduces
the risk of heart disease,
cognitive decline and
dementia, and early
death.
Aerobic exercise reduces depression
and anxiety, and improves stress
management, and is correlated with
high confidence, vitality, and energy,
and good mood.
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