emotion (affect)
feelings that involve subjective evaluation, physiological processes, and cognitive beliefs
What are the three components of emotion?
- subjective experience
- physical changes
- cognitive appraisals
alexithymia
disorder that causes people to not experience the subjective components of emotions
primary emotions
emotions that are evolutionary adaptive, shared across cultures, and associated with specific physical states; they include anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, and possibly surprise and contempt
secondary emotions
blends of primary emotions; they include remorse, guilt, submission, and anticipation
valence
indicates how negative or positive emotions are on the circumplex model
activation
indicates how arousing emotions are on the circumplex model
arousal
physiological activation (such as increased brain activity) or increased autonomic responses (such as increased heart rate, sweating, or muscle tension)
James-Lange Theory of Emotion
we perceive specific patterns of bodily responses, and as a result of that perception we feel emotion
facial feedback hypothesis
ex: if you smile when you’re sad…you’ll become more happy
Cannon-Bard Theory
the info from an emotion-producing stimulus is processed in subcortical structures. As a result, we experience 2 separate things at roughly the same time: an emotion and physical reaction.
limbic system
consists of brain structures that border the cerebral cortex
what is the amygdala’s role?
- processes the emotional significance of stimuli, and it generates immediate emotional and behavioral reactions.
- it also is involved in the perception of social stimuli when we decipher the emotional meanings of other people’s facial expressions (effect greatest for fear)
what are the two paths information reaches the amygdala?
- “quick and dirty” that processes info nearly instantaneously. It travels through the thalamus–>amygdala
- Somewhat slower, but leads to more deliberate and thorough evaluations. Thalamus—> visual cortex
Schachter-Singer Two-factor Theory
a situation evokes a physiological response, such as arousal, and a cognitive interpretation, or emotion label.
*whatever the person believes caused the emotion will determine how the person labels the emotion.
rebound effect
people think more about something after suppression then before
rumination
involves thinking about, elaborating, and focusing on undesired thoughts or feelings
