Emotions Defined II

Class 5

Class Business PowerPoint Before Class, even if not final version? YES

Quiz/Test Prep: Use PowerPoints as guide; then readings, class notes:

http://nwkpsych.rutgers.edu/~kharber/emotions/

Syllabus Updates – Next class

"Flat Face" Social Experiment. Anybody do this?

Facial Expression of Emotion: Duchene SmileDuchene Smile: Genuine, real, non-fake smile.

Fake smile Duchene smile

Fake: Zygomatic (mouth) muscles only

Duchene: Zygomatic (mouth) + orbicularis oculi (eyes)

A B

Which is the Duchene (genuine) smile, A or B?

What comes first, thinking or feeling?

Appraisal Theory: Thinking comes first

Example: Wake in panic, it’s 8:30, you have a 9:00 AM class, then you realize—it’s Saturday.

New thought (“Saturday”) new emotion?

Separate Systems Theory: Emotions can come first

Example: Your cousin say’s her new husband is great, she's so happy. He's so funny and silly especially after 4-5 whiskey and waters. You hang up, no problem. Then you feel unease. Why?

Relief

How many whiskeys?

Thinking First vs. Feeling First

tied to

General Arousal vs. Specific Emotion

James: Every emotion tied to distinct body state,

Cannon-Bard: Central Nervous System model of emotions.

1. Emotions produced by brain, not body.

2. Same body change (high vs. low arousal) for all emotions.

3. Brain "labels" arousal as different emotions.

William James Walter Cannon

Schachter & Singer Theory of Emotion

Emotion is arousal + cognition

Fits generally with Cannon-Bard Central Systems Theory

Emotion only occurs if:

a. Body is aroused

b. A reason for arousal is located

c. The labeling of arousal determines emotion

d. Arousal w/o cognition leads to no emotion

Stanley Schachter

Emotion-producing event

Social / Environ-mental information

Physiological Response

Emotion

Schachter and Singer Model of Emotions

+Flowers Delivered

Because you’re special!

Love, Clark

Love, Jason

AffectionTerror

Neutral

Schachter & Singer Experiment (1962)

1. Subject told study concerns effect of new vitamin

2. Given an injection:

a. Epinephrine (epi) or Placebo (saline)

b. Told that shot is arousing (informed) or not told (uninformed)

3. Told to wait in room, fill out survey

4. Also in room is confederate (poses as another subject)

a. Confed either very happy or very angry

5. Question: What emotion will the subject feel?

Results of Schachter & Singer

Confederate’s Behavior

Happy Angry Neutral

Subject’s state

Epi, uninformed

Epi, informed

Placebo, uninformed

Placebo, informed

Happy

Angry

Afraid Neutral

Neutral

Neutral Neutral

Neutral

Neutral

Neutral

Neutral

Neutral

Insomnia and the Attribution Process

Storms and Nisbett, 1970

Richard Nisbett

Idea: Would shifting explanation for night-time nervousness from anxious thoughts to a pill lead reduce insomnia?

Why would this happen? How is this related to Schachter & Singer?

Study Design

Subjects: 42 insomniacs at Yale, all given placebo, but told:

"Arousing Drug Cond" "This drug....will increase your heart rate and...body temp., You may feel like your mind is racing. ..."

"Relaxing Drug Cond" "This drug...will lower your heart rate...body tem. And it will calm your mind ... "

Which condition will sleep better? Why?

"Arousing" Drug

"Relaxing" Drug

X

Storms & Nisbett Study Results

Minutes to Falling Asleep

Separate Systems Approach to Emotions

a. Affective reactions are primary

b. Affect is basic

c. Affect is inescapable

d. Affective reactions tend to be irrevocable, in contrast to cognitive judgments

e. Affect implicates the self: cognitive judgments center on features of objects.

f. Emotions are not always verbalizable

g. Affective reactions don't always depend on thinking

h. Affective reactions can be separated from content knowledge

Robert Zajonc1923-2008

"Circumstantial" Evidence for

Separate Systems Theory of Emotions

1. Physiological:

a. Hemisphere Specificity: Emotional expressions flashed to R hemi. recalled better than to L hemi.

b. Amygdala -- direct link to sensorium, bypasses cortex

2. Developmental: Infants "know" emotions from birth.

3. Cross cultural: All cultures "know" same emotions.

4. Evolutionary: Emotion system existed long before neo-cortex

Amygdala

Zajonc “Mere Exposure” Experiment

Subjects see many cards showing a Chinese character.

Some cards shown repeatedly, others shown only once.

After viewing many cards, subjects asked:

a. Which cards did were shown repeatedly?

b. Which cards they like the most.

X X

MEMORY ACCURACY

At chance level

Better than chance

Mere Exposure Study Main Point

Things seen repeatedly are safe.

We like safe things.

Liking becomes an emotional memory for repeated exposure. Even when conscious memory fails us.

“Preferences” (liking/not liking) “need no inferences” (conscious judgments and evaluations).

Role of Body in Emotion, and Thinking 1st vs. Feeling 1st Debate

If emotions can, sometimes, come first, then emotions should show up in bodily arousal.

Also, if emotions come first, each emotion should be distinct, rather than “general arousal” shaped by thinking.

Therefore, locating emotions in body would support Separate Systems approach.

James’s Peripheral Theory of Emotion

1. Emotions are, literally, feelings.

2. Every emotion accompanied by corresponding change in bodily sensation.

3. Emotions are the sensation of what is going on in the body, arise from the body.

4. Therefore, each emotion is physiologically distinct.

5. Contrast to Cannon-Bard theory – emotions arise in brain, not body. All emotions are basically arousal + cognition.

Testing James’ Peripheral Theory

If emotions require sensation from the body, what group of people might show reduced emotions?

Spinal cord injured. Less feeling in body, therefore (per James) less emotion.

Hohmann (1966): Spinal cord injured (SCI) report less sexual arousal, less fear, less anger.

Bermond (1991): No general loss of emotion.

Research problems? Memory-based research; age; injury emotional numbing

Robt. Zajonc Blood-flow Theory

a. Changing bodily state change in emotion

b. Face is primary source of emotional change

* Umlaut study

* Pencil-in-mouth study

* Face-pose study and picture judgments

(Larson et al., 1992)Sad | | | | | Happy

Ekman's Facial Action Coding System (FACS)

and Emotion Generation

Ekman, et al.: Facial Poses and Emotional Arousal

Facial Pose Heart Rate Galvanic Skin

Response

Happy Low XXXX

Disgust Low XXXX

Surprise Low XXXX

Sadness High Low

Anger High High

Fear High High

So, Are Emotions Distinct?

Cacioppo et al. (1993) conduct a major review of many studies on emotion and bodily change.

Jury is still out, results too conflicted.

Example: 10 comparisons of happiness and anger, 5 show differences, 5 do not.

Separate Systems Hypothesis: Lang, 1985

1. Cognitive/verbal: Awareness

2. Body/physiological: Arousal

3. Behavioral/expressive: Expression

Modes of Emotional Experience: Unified or Independent?

Unified model: [Cognitive and Physiological and Expressive] aspects of emotions must co-occur

Independent model: Cognitive or Physiological or Expressive aspects can occur in any combination

Possible Combinations of Emotional Features as Independent

Awareness Y Y Y Y N N N

Expression Y Y N N Y N Y

Bodily Y N N Y Y Y N

Arousal

Emotions and the Human DilemmaWe know enough to know we don’t know enough.

We need to act in order to survive

Acting requires making choices

Best choices based on complete information

We rarely have complete information

Yet we must chose anyway

Emotions: 1. Help us set priorities

2. Give us cues to action when we lack vital

information

Emotions as Orienting Device: The Phineas Gage Story

Gage a railroad foreman

Blasts out prefrontal lobes with tamping tool

Survives injury, but

Behavior radically changed:

Can’t plan

Impulsive, short tempered, terrible social judgment

Other studies of frontal lobe damage show same pattern:

emotional blunting + poor planning + obsess on details

Prefrontal Damage Sustained by Phineas Gage

Thinking and Emotions

Emotions shift direction of thought:

Mental radar (Herbert Simon, 1967).

Emotions are thought-interrupters

Emotions focus attention on emotion-relevant things

Emotions focus attention on un-solved problems

BUT: Emotions can also be changed by changes in

thinking (in line with Appraisal Theory).

Herbert Simon