PowerPoint® Presentation by Jim Foley

© 2013 Worth Publishers

Chapter 12 Emotions, Stress, and

Health

Chapter Overview

How emotions are related to cognition, and yet sometimes seem to bypass cognition

How emotions are related to the body

Communicating emotions: detecting, verbal and nonverbal expression, and the influence of culture and gender

Experiencing emotions such as anger and happiness

Stress and Health

Defining stress, and how it works

How stress relates to illness

How people can cope with stress or reduce it

Promoting health through pets, alternative medicine, and stress reduction

Emotions

Someone cuts you off on the road. You may feel the emotion of anger. Emotions are a mix of:

Bodily arousal: sweat, pounding heart

Emotion: Arousal, Behavior, and Cognition

Expressive behavior: yelling, accelerating

Conscious experience: (thoughts, especially the labeling

of the emotion) What a bad driver! I am angry, even scared; better calm down.

How do these components of emotion interact and relate to each other? Do our thoughts trigger

our emotions, or are they a product of our emotions?

How are the bodily signs triggered?

How do we decide which emotion we’re feeling?

An emotion is a full body/mind/behavior

response to a situation.

James-Lange Theory: • body before thoughts

Cannon-Bard Theory: • body with thoughts

Singer-Schachter/Two-factor theory: • body plus thoughts/label

Zajonc, LeDoux, Lazarus: • body/brain without

conscious thoughts

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or did they evolve together?

Which happens first, the body changes that go with an emotion, or the thoughts (conscious awareness and labeling of an emotion), or do they happen together?

Theories of Emotion: The Arousal and Cognition “Chicken and Egg” Debates

Our body arousal happens first, and then the cognitive awareness and label for the feeling: “I’m angry.”

According to this theory, if something makes us smile, we may then feel happy.

James-Lange Theory: Body Before Thoughts William James (1842-1910): “We feel afraid because we tremble, sorry because we cry.”

The James-Lange theory states that emotion is our conscious awareness of our physiological responses to stimuli.

Human body responses run parallel to the cognitive responses rather than causing them.

Cannon-Bard Theory: Simultaneous Body Response and Cognitive Experience

The Cannon-Bard theory asserts that we have a conscious/cognitive experience of an emotion at the same time as our body is responding, not afterward.

Adjusting the Cannon-Bard Theory

Emotions are not just a separate mental experience. When our body responses are blocked, emotions do not feel as intense.

Our cognitions influence our emotions in many ways, including our interpretations of stimuli: “Is that a threat? Then I’m afraid.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .

Summary: Theories of Emotion

Emotion can include the appraisal of the stimulus such as, is it a threat or not?

Theories of

Emotion

Avoiding the highway today without identifying or explaining any fear is an example of the “low road” of emotion.

Embodied Emotion: The role of the autonomic nervous system The physiological arousal felt during various emotions is

orchestrated by the sympathetic nervous system, which triggers activity and changes in various organs.

Later, the parasympathetic division calms down the body.

Embodied Emotion: How Do Emotions Differ in Body Signs?

It is difficult to see differences in emotions from tracking heart rate, breathing, and perspiration.

There is also a large overlap in the patterns of brain activity across emotions.

There are some small differences; for example, fear triggers more amygdala activity than anger.

A general brain pattern: hemispheric differences

Positive “approach” emotions (joy, love, goal-seeking) correlate with left frontal lobe activity.

Negative “withdrawal” emotions (disgust, fear, anger, depression) correlate with right hemisphere activity.

Emotional Expression

Are there universal forms of emotional expression seen on human faces across all cultures?

Are there differences by individual, culture, or gender in how emotions are expressed?

What is the relationship between emotional expression and the inner experience of emotion?

What emotion do we see in these faces and body positions?

If these emotions are hard to read, is it because it’s a different culture from your own, or because it’s a performance?

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.

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.

Gender and Emotional Expression and Detection

Women seem to have greater and more complex emotional expression.

Women are also more skilled at detecting emotions in others.

However, this is an overgeneralization. People tend to attribute women’s emotionality to their dispositions, and attribute men’s emotions to their circumstances.

We also see some emotions as being more “male,” changing our perception of a gender-neutral face based on the emotion (below):

How about now? Male or female?

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.

An Evolutionary Theory of the Origins of Emotional Facial Expressions People blind from birth show the same

facial expressions as sighted people. This suggests that the origin of facial expressions must be largely genetic.

Why would we have facial expressions in our genetic code? Could facial expressions improve the survival of our ancestors?

Perhaps sneering at someone might be like a wolf’s snarl, warning competitors to back off.

The “surprised” facial expression allows us to take in information.

Shared smiles build protective social bonds, which may explain why we smile more when facing someone.

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.

Linking Emotions and Expressive Behaviors:

Facial Feedback The facial feedback effect: facial position

and muscle changes can alter which emotion we feel.

In one study, people whose faces were moved into smiling or frowning positions experienced a change in mood.

Fake a relaxed smile, and you might feel better!

It’s not just about faces. In one experiment, extending a 1) middle finger or 2) thumb while reading led to seeing characters with 1) hostility or 2) positive attitude.

The guy at the top, though forced into a smiling position, ended up feeling happier than the other guy.

Carroll Izzard suggested that there are ten basic emotions: those evident at birth (seen here) plus contempt, shame, and guilt.

Is Experienced Emotion as Universal as Expressed Emotion?

Two Dimensions of Emotion

James Russell sees our emotional experience in two dimensions: 1. from pleasant to

unpleasant 2. from low to high

arousal.

We experience this image in dimensions of up/down and left/right.

A flash of anger gives us energy and initiative to fight or otherwise take action when necessary.

Persistent anger can cause more harm than whatever we’re angry about.

Some ways to keep anger from persisting: distraction, constructive action, problem-solving, exercise, verbal expression, and allowing others to be wrong.

The catharsis myth refers to the idea that we can reduce anger by “releasing” it, and we do this by acting aggressively (yelling, punching a pillow).

In most cases, expressing anger worsens it, and any “release” reinforces the aggression, making it a conditioned habit.

Sometimes, releasing anger causes harm, and results in guilt.

Instead, try calming down and moving on.

Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Anger

Happiness is: a mood. an attitude. a social phenomenon. a cognitive filter. a way to stay hopeful,

motivated, and connected to others.

The feel-good, do-good phenomenon: when in a good mood, we do more for others. The reverse is also true: doing good feels good.

Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Happiness

Happiness has its ups

and downs.

Levels of happiness, as well as other emotions, can vary over the course of a week (we like the weekend), and even over the course of a day (don’t stay awake too long!).

Over the Course of a Week

Over the Course of a Day

“How far are you up a 10-step ladder toward the best possible life?” The answers worldwide:

People in Chad and Tanzania are not feeling successful.

Brighter color means feeling higher up the

ladder.

Wealth and Well-Being: A Change in Goals

In the late 1960s, students entering college had a primary goal of developing a meaningful life philosophy.

Since 1977, being very well-off financially has become more of a primary goal for first year students.

Can Money Buy Happiness? Money seems to buy happiness when it lifts people out of extreme poverty. Otherwise, money doesn’t seem to help our mood much. 1. The average level of

income (adjusted for inflation) and purchasing power has increased in the United States.

2. The percentage of people feeling very happy, though, has not followed the same trend of improvement.

Adaptation-Level Phenomenon

When we step into the sunshine, it seems very bright at first. Then our senses adapt and we develop a “new normal.” If a cloud covers the sun, it may seem “dark” in comparison.

The “very bright” sensation is temporary. The adaptation-level phenomenon: when our wealth or

other life conditions improve, we are happier compared to our past condition.

However, then we adapt, form a “new normal” level, and most people must get another boost to feel the same satisfaction.

Adapting Attitudes Instead of Circumstances

Because of the adaptation-level phenomenon, our level of contentment does not permanently stay higher when we gain income and wealth; we keep adjusting our expectations.

It is also true that misfortune, disability, and loss do not result in a permanent decrease in happiness.

In both cases, humans tend to adapt.

Relative Deprivation

If the average income has risen by 10 percent in your area, it might be hard to feel great about a 5 percent rise in your income because of

People who were satisfied with their own lives might become less satisfied if other people get more power, recognition, and income.

We can affect our happiness by choosing the people to whom we compare ourselves.

However, the tendency is to compare ourselves to people who are more successful.

relative deprivation: feeling worse off by comparing yourself to people who are doing better.

Correlates of Happiness

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 we keep returning.

There are behaviors that seem to go with happiness. Whether they are the cause or the effect of happiness is not clear, but it can’t hurt to try them.

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

Look beyond wealth for satisfaction. Bring your habits in line with your goals; take control

of your time. Smile and act happy. Find work and leisure that engages your skills. Exercise, or just move! Focus on the needs and wishes of others. Work, rest, …and SLEEP. Notice what goes well, and express gratitude. Nurture spirituality, meaning, and community. Make your close relationships a priority.

Possible Ways to Increase Your Chances

at Happiness

Health Psychology

Emotions, as well as personality, attitudes, behaviors, and responses to stress, can have an impact on our overall health.

Health psychology studies these impacts, as part of the broader field of behavioral medicine.

Topics of study in health psychology include:

the phases of stress response and adaptation

how stress and health are affected by • appraisal of stressors • severity of stressors • personality types • perceived control • emotion or problem focus • optimism • social support • exercise • relaxation • religious faith and

participation

Stress: A Focus of Health Psychology Many people report being affected by “stress.” Some terms psychologists use to talk about stress:

a stressor is an event or condition which we view as threatening, 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, elevated cortisol levels, and crying.

Stress refers to the process of appraising and responding to events which we consider threatening or challenging.

Clarifying the Components of Stress

Stress isn’t something that happens to you; it’s a process in which you participate.

The process includes the stressor (event or condition), cognitive appraisal, body response, and coping strategies.

The advantage of breaking “stress” into these components is that we can see options for altering each of these different factors.

What could this person do to reduce his level of suffering from stress?

Appraisal: Choosing How to View a Situation Questions to ask yourself when facing a possible stressor: Is this a challenge, and will I tackle it? Is it overwhelming, and will I give up?

There are few conditions* that are inherently and universally stressful; we can often choose our appraisal and our responses.

*extreme, chronic physical threats or challenges (such as noise or starvation)

Beneficial and Harmful Stress Effects

A brief experience of stress can be beneficial: improving immune system response motivating action focusing priorities feeling engaged, energized, and satisfied providing challenges that encourage growth,

knowledge, and self-esteem Extreme or prolonged stress, causes problems: mental and physical coping systems become

overwhelmed and defeated rather than strengthened immune functioning and other health factors decline

because of damage The key factor is whether there is a

chance for recovery and healing.

Stressors

There may be a spectrum of levels of intensity and persistence of stressors. We can also see stressors as falling into one of four* categories: catastrophes. significant life changes. chronic daily hassles. low social status/power.

Stressors refer to the events and conditions that trigger our stress response, because they are perceived/ appraised as overwhelmingly challenging, threatening, and/or harmful.

*the text focuses on the first three.

Catastrophic Events/Conditions

Appraisal is not essential in a catastrophic event. Most people agree that the event is harmful and overwhelming

Examples include earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, war/combat, and wildfires.

It can be one single event or chronic harmful conditions.

Short-term effects include increased heart attacks on the day of the event

Long term effects include depression, nightmares, anxiety, and flashbacks.

Bonding: both the trauma and the recovery are shared with others.

Even supposedly “happy” life changes, such as marriage, starting college or a new job, or the birth or adoption of a child, can bring increased challenge and stress.

Change is often challenging. New roles, new priorities, and new tasks can put a strain on

our coping resources. The challenge, and the negative impact on health, increases

when: the changes are painful, such as a death in family, loss of

job, or heart attack. the changes are in a cluster, and there are too many at once.

Major Life Events/Changes

Chronic Daily Difficulties

Daily difficulties can be caused by facing too many tasks, too little time, and too little control.

Daily difficulties can be caused by the lack of social power and freedom: being bullied living in poverty living under oppressive

political conditions

When encountering a sudden trauma or other stressor, our body acts to increase our resistance to threat and harm.

The Body’s Stress Response System

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 3: Exhaustion.

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:

General Adaptation Syndrome [GAS] (Identified by Hans Selye):

Our stress response system defends, then fatigues.

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

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.

How does stress increase our risk of disease?

This is the subject of a new field of study: psycho-neuroimmunology, the study of how interacting psychological, neural, and endocrine processes affect health.

Psychologists no longer use the term “psychosomatic” because it has come to mean an imagined illness.

We now refer to psychophysiological illness, a real illness caused in part by psychological factors such as the experience of stress.

Studying the Stress-Illness Relationship

How the immune system works, before stress plays a role:

Stress Increases The Risk of Illness

Stressors

Appraisal

Thoughts

Feelings

Brain signals

Hormonal action

Immune suppression

Risk of illness

Here we see psycho-neuroimmunology in action: psychological factors, such as

appraisal, thoughts, and feelings.

neurological factors, such as brain signals engaging the stress response system.

immunology, such as stress hormone exposure which suppresses the immune system.

Psychoneuroimmunology Example: The Impact of Stress on Catching a Cold

In a group exposed to germs, those experiencing stress were more likely to catch a cold.

This tradeoff between stress response and immune response may help our bodies focus energy on managing stress.

Stress, AIDS, and Cancer

Because the stress response suppresses the immune response, exposure to stress obviously worsens the development of AIDS in those exposed to HIV.

Reducing stress slows the progression of AIDS.

Stress may weaken the body’s defenses against the replication and spread of malignant cells

AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

Cancer: the stress link is not as clear

This does NOT mean that stress causes cancer or AIDS.

Many factors contribute to heart disease. Biological: genetic

predisposition to high blood pressure and high cholesterol

Behavioral: smoking, inactivity, and high-fat diet

Psychological: chronic stress, and personality styles that worsen the experience of stress

Stress and Heart Disease

In coronary heart/artery disease, the blood vessels that provide

oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle itself become clogged,

narrowed, and closed.

Clogging of the coronary artery

Type A PersonalityStress 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.

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.

Men who are generally pessimistic are more likely to develop heart disease within ten years than optimists.

Pessimism refers to the assumption that negative outcomes will happen, and often facing them by complaining and/or giving up.

Depression and Heart Disease

Why does depression appear so often with heart disease? Does one cause the other?

One possible answer is that the two problems are both caused by chronic stress.

There may be an intervening variable: excessive inflammation.

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.

Promoting Health

Some ways to reduce the health effects of stress include: address the

stressors. soothe

emotions. increase one’s

sense of control over stressors.

exchange optimism for pessimism.

get social support.

Ways that help some people to reduce levels of stress, and to improve health: aerobic exercise relaxation and meditation participation in communities of faith alternative medicine

Coping with Stress

Risk: magnifying emotional distress, especially if trying to change something that’s difficult to change (e.g. another person’s traits).

Risk: ignoring the problem.

We might focus on this style of coping when we perceive the stressor as something we cannot change.

Problem-focused coping means reducing the stressors, such as by working out a conflict, or tackling a difficult project.

Emotion-focused coping means reducing the emotional impact of stress by getting support, comfort, and perspective from others.

Stress factor: Perceived Level of Control

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.

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?

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.”

Aerobic Exercise and Health 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 refers to sustained activity that raises heart rate and oxygen consumption.

Ultimate (Frisbee): you must run often to “get open” for a pass, then run more to cover the other team and block their passes.

Aerobic Exercise and Mental Health

Aerobic exercise reduces depression and anxiety, and improves management of stress. How do we know?

Aerobic exercise is correlated with high confidence, vitality, and energy, and good mood.

Is there causation? Perhaps depression simply reduces exercise.

One study establishing causation: mildly depressed young women randomly assigned to an exercise group showed reduced depression caused by exercise alone.

Lifestyle Modification In one study, a control group was given diet, medication,

and exercise advice. An experimental group practiced lifestyle modification,

a plan to slow down the pace of one’s life, accept imperfection, and renew faith.

Result: modifying lifestyle led to reduced heart attack rates.

Relaxation and Meditation Use of relaxation techniques

can reduce headaches, high blood pressure, anxiety, and insomnia, and improve immune functioning.

People who meditate can learn to create a relaxation response: relaxed muscles, lower blood pressure, and slowed heart rate and breathing.

Meditation also increases brain activity associated with positive emotions.

Steps to get the relaxation response: focus attention on breathing, a focus word, and relaxing muscles from toes upward.

Religious Involvement and Health While attendance at religious services may not directly save lives, it may make other healthy practices more likely.

Religious attendance seems to have results, especially for men, comparable to the benefit of physically healthy lifestyle choices.

Religious Involvement and Health: Intervening Factors

The health impact of religious involvement may be indirect. Health may improve because of the lifestyle and emotional factors associated with religious involvement, and not [just] the faith.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine These various types of medicine are “alternative” as they wait for broader acceptance and more empirical support. Some, like acupuncture and hypnosis, seem effective but may be based on a strong placebo effect.

As with other areas of psychology, a study of emotions, stress and health teaches us:

the body constantly interacts with the mind.

psychological phenomena have connections to physiological phenomena.

More than 2000 years ago, in a Sanskrit text called the Santi Parva, it was written, “There are two kinds of diseases, physical and mental. Each springs from the other. None of them can be seen existing independently.”

Behavioral Medicine Lesson