Emotion

1. The components of emotion 2. Types of emotions 3. Gender differences in emotions 4. Cultural differences in motions Although emotion is a difficult concept to define, most psychologists agree that emotions consist of three interacting components: 1.internal psychological arousal, 2. expressive behavior in the face, body, and voice 3. a cognitive appraisal. The Psychological Component The body is intimately involved in feelings of joy, fear, anger, and other emotions. The question is, in what capacity? A Historical Perspective William James was the first psychologist to theorize about the role of bodily functions in emotion. Common sense tells that we smile because we are happy, cry because we are sad, clench our first because we are angry, and tremble because we are afraid. But in 1884, James turned common sense on its head by proposing what he thought was a radical new idea: that people feel happy because they smile, sad because they cry, angry because they clench their firsts, and afraid because they tremble. In other words, the perception of danger causes our heart to pound as you to cover- and its this psychological and behavioral reaction that causes you become afraid. This proposed chain of events, which was also suggested by a Danish physician named Carl Lange, is known as the James-Lange theory f motion. In 1927, psychologist Walter Cannon challenged the James-Lange theory on three grounds. First, said Cannon, bodily sensation alone cannot produce emotion. Indeed, when people are injected with epinephrine- a hormone that energizes the body- they report feeling pumped up and aroused but do not experience any specific emotion. Second, said Cannon, we sometimes feel fear, anger, and other emotions instantly, before all the systems of the body have had time to react. Third the physical changes that do occur are often too general for us to distinguish between different emotions. Fear may make the heart beat faster, but so do anger and love. As an alternative to the James-Lange theory, Cannon and colleague named Philip Bard proposed that emotion originates in the thalamus, the part of the brain that simultaneously relays from the sensory organs to the autonomic nervous system (arousal), skeletal muscles (motor behavior), and cerebral cortex (conscious thought). According to the Cannon-Bard theory, the body and mind are activated independently in the experience of emotion. Thus, if you see a car swerving in your direction, your heart start to pound, youll run, and youll become afraid all at the same time. Brain center of emotion Many emotions are regulated by the limbic system- an evolutionarily primitive set of neural structures. Certain emotional reactions are automatic (trigged instantly by the amygdala); others involve the processing of information in the cerebral cortex. We cannot a pinpoint a single region of the cortex that regulates all feelings, but researches show that approach emotions evoke higher levels of EEG activity in the left hemisphere, whereas withdrawal emotions elicit more activity in the right. Generalized Automatic Arousal When an event prompts an emotional response, the sympathetic nervous system mobilizes the body for an adaptive fight-or-flight response. Afterward, the parasympathetic nervous system restores the body to its premobilized calm state. Specific Patterns of Arousal Are all emotions associated with the same state of arousal, or does each emotion have unique symptoms? Research supports the later alternative. For example, heart rate increases for both anger and fear, but anger increases skin temperature, whereas fear has the opposite effect. Assuming that lying increases stress, law enforcement officials often use the polygraph, an instrument that records multiple channels of arousal. Participants who exhibit more arousal to crime-relevant questions than to control questions are judged to be lying. Many professionals claim that lie-detector tests work, but researchers have uncovered some serious problems with such tests.

2 The Expressive Component Behavioral expressions of emotion serve two functions. They provide us not only with a means of nonverbal communication to others but also with sensory feedback for the self. Nonverbal Communication The face communicates emotion in ways that are understood by people from different countries of the world. Further suggesting that these expressions are innate is the fact that even young infants make the faces that are associated with basic emotions. To measure the activity of facial muscles and their links to emotion, researches use the facial electromyograph (EMG). This device has revealed two distinct types of smiles, one more genuine than the other. Additional nonverbal behaviors that communicate emotion are body language, gaze and touch. Sensory Feedback According to the facial-feedback hypothesis, an expression not only reflects ones emotion but triggers an emotional state as well. Although psychologists disagree over the reason for this effect, research indicates that it does occur. The cognitive component Psychologists have long debated the role of cognitive factors in emotion. Different theories of emotion provide different point of view. According to Stanley Schachter (1964), two factors are necessary to have a specific emotion. First, the person must experience a heightened state of physiological arousal, such as racing heart, sweaty palms, tightening of the stomach, rapid breathing, and so on- the kind of jitteriness you might feel after drinking to much coffee. Second, the person must find a cognitive label or attribution to explain the source of arousal. When people are aroused and do not know why, they determine their emotion by scanning the situation and making an attribution. Though a process of misattribution, arousal from one event can spill over and fuel our emotional reaction to another event. Dimensions of Appraisal According to cognitive theorists, the emotions we experience are determined by our appraisals of the situation we are in. Counterfactual Thinking Sometimes our emotional reactions to outcomes are influenced by counterfactual thinking- the tendency to imagine alternative outcomes that might have happened but did not, as when bronze medalist feel better by imagining a fourth-place finish, whereas silver medalist fell worse by imagining a first-place finish. Is Cognition Necessary? Some psychologists argue that people sometimes react with emotion instantly and without cognitive appraisal and that our emotions and thoughts are controlled by separate anatomical structure within the brain. Others maintain that it is not possible to have emotion without thought, even thought that is quick, effortless, and unconscious. The debate remains unresolved and touches on the related controversy over whether nonhuman animals experience emotions. Types of Emotions Over the years, psychologists have tried to classify human emotions in various ways. Today there is widespread agreement that fear, anger, joy, disgust, surprise, and sadness are basic: each is accompanied by a distinct facial expression, each is shown by infants and young children, and each is found in the words that people of diverse cultures and regions use to describe their feelings. Some researches believe that interest, acceptance, contempt, pride, shame, and guilt should be added to the list. One possibility suggested by Robert Plutchik is that basic emotions provide the building blocks for more complex emotions in the way that three primary colors combine to form the hues of the color wheel. According to Plutchik, the richness of human emotions is accounted for in three ways. First, there are eight basic types of emotions (he ads interest and acceptance to the original six). Second, each type comes in varying shades, or levels of intensity (for example, intense disgust may be felt as hatred or loathing, and mild disgust as boredom). Third, new emotions are formed through mixtures of the eight basic ones (for example, love blends joy and acceptance, contempt blends disgust and anger, nostalgia blends joy and sadness). Using the positive-negative distinction as starting point, James Russell (1980) proposed the circumplex model, a taxonomy that divides all human emotions along two independent dimensions: (1) pleasant or unpleasant, and (2) mild or intense. The result is fourfold circle of

3 emotions that are pleasant and intense (delighted), pleasant and mild (relaxed), and unpleasant and intense (alarmed), unpleasant and mild ((bored) Dynamics of Emotion According to the opponent process theory of emotion, an event triggers a primary state(an unlearned response) which in turn activates an opponent astate (a learned response that is the emotional opposite of the primary state). The opponent state starts later, lasts longer, and gets stronger with repetition. Every positive emotional state in thus balanced in time by its negative counterpart, and vise versa. Are there Gender Differences in emotions? There is stereotype that women are more emotional than men. This belief is found among children and adults from many different cultures. Is the perception of difference a mere illusion? On the one hand, women describe themselves as more emotional- or men as less emotional when asked direct question about emotionality. On the other hand, there is little support for the conclusion that the sexes differ in their actual feelings. Both men and women become saddened by the loss of a loved one, angry when frustrated, fearful when in danger, and embarrassed when they slipup in front of others. Men and women also exhibit facial expression and autonomic reactions to emotion-triggering events. People surely differ in their propensity for certain types of feelings, but these differences say more about us as individuals than as men or women. So what ways are women are more emotional than men? One clear finding is that regardless of how men and women actually feel, they often differ in their public expressions of emotion. Research shows that women disclose their feelings to others more than men do. Women also exhibit more emotion on the face and more muscle activity on the facial EMG. The result is that people in general can read women better than they can men. Why are women more expressive and open than men? One explanation is that girls more than boys are socialized at an early age to talk about their feelings. Researchers who analyze parentchild conversation in the home find that parents talk more about the emotional aspect of events with their daughters than with their sons. Another reason is that although women are permitted to be expressive (except when it comes to rage and anger, emotions that men are allowed to express and women are supposed to contain), men are taught to be stoic- to fulfill the ideal of the strong, silent type. Masculinity norms demand that men publicly suppress their own fears and sorrows. As the saying goes Big boys dont cry. Are there Cultural Differences in emotion? Certain aspects of human emotion seem universal as when people from diverse cultures react to emotion-filled events with similar bodily reactions and facial expressions. Yet there are regional differences a well in the types of antecedent events that stir our various passions. Among the Utki Eskimos fear is triggered by thin ice, rough seas, dangerous animals, and evil spirits. Among Israelis- for whom the fear of terrorism and war are constant fear is awakened most often by interactions with strangers. Culture also shapes the way people categorize their feelings. Based on ethnographies and crosscultural studies of language, James Russell (1991) uncovered some striking differences. For example, although the English language contains more than 2.000 words for categories of emotion, there are only 1.501 emotion words in Dutch, 750 in Taiwanese, 58 among Ifalukian of Micronesia, and 7 among the Chewong of Malaysia. Among the Ilongot, a head-hunting pople of the Philippines, the word ligest is used to describe both anger and grief-intense feelings. Japanese dos not have a word for disappointed, Tahitian lacks a word for sadness and Gujarati lacks a word for excited. Ralph Hupka (1999) combed through the dictionaries of sixty major languages from all regions of the world and found that certain basic emotions such as joy, grief, affection, fear, anger and disgust- are universally represented in words. Some languages, however, have precise emotion words that have no clear counterpart in English. For example, among the Utki Eskimos, naklik refers to the love of babies, sick people, and others in need of protection, whereas niviug is a form of love felt toward those who are charming or admired. Finally, some striking cultural differences can be seen in the display rules that determine when it is appropriate for people to express certain feelings. The release of anger is a prime example.

4 People all over the world exhibit similar patterns of autonomic arousal, but cultures teach us whether to manage that arousal by exploding or by suppressing our rage. Japanese people practice restraint, often masking anger with a polite smile. In Japan, an angry outburst is seen as a shameful loss of control, so it is better to publicly grin and bear it. Can people predict their future emotional state? People have difficulty predicting how theyd feel in response to future emotional events, a process known as affective forecasting. Exhibiting a durability bias, people consistently overestimate the future emotional impact on them of positive and negative events. Pleasure and the pursuit of happiness What is happiness and how is it achieved? Aristotle said it was the reward of an active life. Freud pointed to both work and love. Others have focused on money, power, health and fitness, region, beauty, the satisfaction of basic desires, and achievement of goals. According to some, a sense of well-being springs from an ability to drive pleasure and avoid pain in the events of everyday life. According to others, our well-being emerges from leading a life that enables us to realize our talents, values, potentialities, and sense of self. Consistently, surveys show that 75 percent of Americans describe themselves as happy- and that in 86 percent all nation sampled, the mean ratings more positive than neutral. In general, people who are happy also have cheerful moods, high self-esteem, physical and mental health, a sense of personal control, more memories for positive than negative events, and optimism about the future. The roots of happiness What determines our long-term satisfaction, and why are some people happier in general than others? Researches found that subjective well-being is not meaningfully related to demographic factors such as age, race, ethnic background, IQ, education level, or physical attractiveness. There are three predictive indicators of happiness: (1) social relationships (people with an active social life, close friends, and a happy marriage are more satisfied than those who lack these intimate connections), (2) employment status (employed people are happier than those who are out of work- regardless of income), and (3) physical health (people who are healthy are happier than people who are not). Reflecting the impact of these and other factors, research shows that happiness levels vary and remain relatively stable, from one culture to the next. Cross-national studies have revealed a positive association between a nations prosperity and the subjective well-being of its people. The reason of this association is not clear. It may be that affluence brings pleasure through the satisfaction of basic needs and material possession- or by affording freedom, which makes life more enjoyable. It looks as though having shelter, food, and safety are essential for subjective well-being, but once these basic needs are met, increased affluence, does not appreciably raise levels of happiness. Why does not money contribute more subjective wellbeing? One reason is that our perceptions of wealth are not absolute but relative to certain standards. According to social-comparison theory, people naturally compare themselves to others and feel contented or deprived depending on how they fare in this comparison. Upward comparisons (to others who are better off) triggered negative feelings, and downward comparisons (to others who are worse off) triggered positive feelings. Happy people make more downward comparisons in their lives than do unhappy people. People also use their own recent past as a basis of comparison. According to adaptation-level theory our satisfaction with the present depends on the level of success to which we are accustomed. It also been suggested that people have a certain dispositional level of happiness toward which they gravitate over time.