Define emotion
- There is no consensus on what emotion is
an emotion episode involves
– A triggering event (which can be external or internal)
– Bodily responses and communicative (esp. facial) expressions
– Action tendency/readiness
– Changes in the ways we think
Charles Darwin and emotion
Darwin assumed that emotions:
1) are a class of mental states;
2) are usually caused by emotion-specific
appraisals of events; and
3) often cause emotion-specific bodily changes
- Darwin’s idea that emotion expressions correspond to different
emotion categories in a one-on-one manner also inspires
contemporary basic emotions theorists - He used a range of research methods: intra- and intercultural
studies of facial emotion recognition; observations of emotional
expressions in children and in blind-born people, and crossspecies comparisons of emotional expressions - Based on the data, Darwin concluded that facial expressions of
emotions, as well as recognition of others’ emotional expression,
is inherited - Moreover, Darwin’s research methods also influenced most of the
methods for studying emotional expressions today
William James and emotion
- assumed that
subjective emotional experience is caused by
changes in the body resulting from perception of an important event.
E.g. we experience fear because we are trembling
This theory is called the James–Lange theory, the
first theory of emotion
What was James approach to emotion
- James (1884) defined that “the bodily changes follow directly the
perception of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur is the emotion”
Explain the James-Lange theory of emotion
- Stimulus
- Bodily responses
(Physiological responses are specific to different emotions) - Emotion
(Experience of emotion is the result of interpretation of physiological responses
What did Cannon (1927) and Bard (1982) say
They hypothesised that the feeling of emotions happens at the same time but separately from physical changes in the body
Emotional events have two separate effects on the brain
1) stimulate the ANS to elicit the physiological
arousal that prepares the body to respond to a
threat, and simultaneously,
2) cause the cerebral cortex to perceive emotions
What is the importance of thalamus according to Cannon and Bard
The thalamic theory of emotion
- According to their theory, the physiological arousal, mediated by
the autonomic nervous system (ANS), is general and nondiscriminatory, and is not causal for emotion
- Moreover, the brain is capable of eliciting emotion even without
receiving information from the peripheral nervous system
- While the thalamus controls experience of emotion, the cerebral
cortex controls the expression of emotion
- Stimulus (the two pathways are seperated by the thalamus )
- pathway 1 is the bodily responses (physiological arousal, mediated by the ANS, is general and non-discriminatory)
- pathway 2 emotion (subjective feelings of emotion is mediated by the cerebral cortex)
What did Schachter and Singer (1962) say about emotion
- proposed that emotion is determined
by an interaction between two components: a physiological
arousal and a cognition regarding the recognition to the situation
triggering this physiological arousal - Physical arousal is considered to be undifferentiated by nature,
diffuse and non-specific to an emotion - It is the interpretation of the situation which leads to the
identification of the emotion felt - Notably, for an emotion to occur, a link between the physiological
arousal and a relevant explanation to the situation is necessary
What is the two factor theory (Schachter and Singer)
- Stimulus
|
\/ - Bodily responses
(Undifferentiated physical arousal non-specific to an emotion)
|
\/ - Cognitive interpretation
(Interpretation of the situation determines the emotion felt)
|
\/ - Emotion
What are the characteristics of basic emotions according to Ekman (1992)
- are present in non-human species
- are triggered rapidly and automatically, and appear spontaneously
for a short duration - have specific trigger conditions, patterns of autonomic nervous
system activity, patterns of neural activities, and expressive
patterns for each emotion
Example - Ekman 1982 - anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise are universal facial expression
Facial expressions of basic emotion
- Ekman and his associates have demonstrated the universality of
emotional facial expressions by showing that western facial
expressions were well recognised in a preliterate New-Guinea
culture (Ekman & Friesen, 1971) - Facial expressions are considered as the pivot in communication
between human beings (Ekman, 1982) - Facial expression of each of the basic emotions has distinct
adaptive functions - Expressive behavior is also suggested to be fundamental in child
development (Izard & King, 2009)
Problems with basic emotion theories
- Evidence of the distinctness of physiological patterns of basic emotions
has been inconsistent - For instance, it was found that the patterns of emotional responses of
fear and anger did not overlap. However, their differences can be better
explained by appraisals (Stemmler et al., 2001)
Dimensional approach
- Positive and negative affect
The orthogonal positive and negative affect dimensions emerge
after rotating the pleasantness-arousal circumplex model (Watson
& Tellegen, 1985)
There is evidence that positive and negative affects are linked to
different neurobiological networks (Rohr et al., 2013)
Moreover, it is suggested that positive affect and negative affect
corresponds to extraversion and neuroticism respectively (Meyer
& Shack, 1989)
What is Scherer’s appraisal theory (2001,2009)
emotion is multidimensional and
comprises five components:
a) a stimulus or situation appraising component enabling the elicitation and
differentiation of emotions
b) a physiological component (bodily changes);
c) a motor expression component both in terms of facial and vocal
expression as well as posture and gestures;
d) a motivational component including action tendencies (e.g. approaching or
avoiding) and finally
e) a subjective feeling component reflecting felt emotional experience
Critiques of dimensional theories of emotion
As these models are based on verbal reports, the bi-dimensional
structure may actually reflect the structure of the language
There is no real consensus on the elementary dimensions.
Different proposals of a third dimension have been raised. And
Fontaine et al. (2007) have shown with multi-national data that
four dimensions are necessary
The dimensional approach centers only on subjective feeling; yet
the underlying elicitation mechanisms are likely not bipolar
What is the component process model Scherer’s (2001, 2009)
it regards cognitive appraisal as a process in which we continuously
appraise and reappraise our environment
The CPM divides appraisal into four different stages:
1) relevance check
2) implications check
3) coping potential check
4) normative significance evaluation
Each stage contains specific appraisal dimensions called stimulus
evaluation checks
Appraisal theories of emotion
Appraisal theories of emotion has two central premises:
– emotion is an information processing system
– an evaluative cognitive processing, known as appraisal, determines the
elicitation of an emotion
Specifically, when an event occurs, an individual would evaluate
this event based on a set of standard criteria
These evaluations are often automatic and unconscious
Different emotions can be described by different patterns of
appraisal – a claim with considerable empirical support
What does Barret 2001 say about psychological primitives
Core affects – neurobiological states
that can be described as pleasant or
unpleasant with varying degree of
arousal, a neurophysiologic
barometer of bodily states
Emotion concepts – collections of
knowledge sculpted by prior
experience that people use to
categorise core affects
The role of working memory
Lazarus theory of emotion
According to Smith and Lazarus (1990), the appraisal process
results in identification of a “core relational theme“, and each
distinct theme results in a distinct emotion
– E.g., an ambiguous danger or threat produces anxiety; loss and
helplessness produce sadness; offense to oneself or those one identifies
with produces anger, and so on
Two global appraisal issues are identified:
– Primary appraisal – whether and how the encounter is relevant to the
person’s well-being
– Secondary appraisal – the person’s resources and coping options
Scherers appraisal theory
According to Scherer (2001, 2009), emotion is multidimensional and
comprises five components:
a) a stimulus or situation appraising component enabling the elicitation and
differentiation of emotions
b) a physiological component (bodily changes);
c) a motor expression component both in terms of facial and vocal
expression as well as posture and gestures;
d) a motivational component including action tendencies (e.g. approaching or
avoiding) and finally
e) a subjective feeling component reflecting felt emotional experience
Critiques of appraisal theories of emotion
The claim that appraisal is a cause of emotion is incompatible with
the claim that appraisal is a part of emotion. In fact, whether
appraisal and emotion are dissociable is questionable
That appraisal is a cause of emotion is also difficult to test, as it
requires manipulation of appraisal independent of other variables
(e.g. the event)
Moreover, not all theorists accept the idea of automatic and
unconscious appraisal, which is difficult to measure empirically
That said, the role of appraisal in emotion is well-accepted
