Introduction to emotion

Question 1

what is an emotion?

Answer 1

Oxford Eng Dictionary: ‘a strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances, mood/r’ships with others, instinctive/intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning/knowledge’
– Occurs in response to an event
– Also, subject experience – physical changes
– Indv diffs

Question 2

stages of emotional processing

Answer 2

regulation

affective state

appraisal

stimulus presentation

Question 3

the expression of the emotions in man and animals (Darwin, 1972)

Answer 3

Suggested emotional expressions conserved across humans in diff cultures and of diff ages

Emotions evolved for adaptive value in dealing with fundamental life stats (aids survival)

Cross-species similarities in emotional expression (emotions evolved)

Emotions signify what the animal is likely to do next – if behavs beneficial they become effective means of communication and original function/associated action may be lost – opposing messages often signalled by opposing movements/postures

Animals convert emotion based on action about to take

Question 4

basic emotions exist across cultures

Answer 4

(Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise)

Basic emotions innate neural and bodily states that are elicited rapidly and automatically in response to certain stimuli/stations

Should be universal, automatic and have discrete neural and/ bodily state associated with them

Question 5

basic emotions exist across cultures - Ekman and Friesen (1971/2)

Answer 5

Spontaneous expressions

Tribesmen from Papua New Guinea posed emotions - shown to American undergrads – could identify expressions – never met – can be generalised

Question 6

indv functions of emotions

Answer 6

Expressions change info taken in, e.g.:

• Widening of eyes in fear helps to detect threat
• Wrinkling of eyes and nose in disgust helps us avoid ingesting contaminating stimuli
• Senses more alert

Emotions adapt behaviour to help achieve goals

Question 7

indv functions of emotions - Oatley and Johnson-Laird (1987)

Answer 7

Cognitive Theory of Emotion

• Emotions evolved to help indvs chances of survival by managing behaviour to meet one’s goals
• Specific emotions occur to adapt behaviour when progress on specific types of goals interrupted

Question 8

basic emotions exist across cultures but there are culture-specific ‘display rules’

Answer 8

Diffs in display of emotions that may be culturally bound

Gender diffs in emotion reg and expression believed to be rooted in bio and social/cultural factors

Question 9

what sort of evidence would suggest that emotions are innate?

Answer 9

Blind people use same emotional expressions

• Expressions hard-wired into genes
• High degree of correlation

Babies expressions – crying and smiles
- Facial expressions develop in the womb

Question 10

classification of emotions

Answer 10

Simple dual-system theories, e.g. Schneirla (1959) categorise emotions in terms of approach and withdrawal

Jeffrey Gray (1970/80s)
- Behavioural approach (reward) and inhibition (punishment) systems (distinct brain circuits)

Davidson’s ‘valence-asymmetry hypothesis’

• Left-sided prefrontal cortex = approach-related (pos) goals and right-sided PFC = goals requiring inhibition and withdrawal (neg)
• Left and right hem involved in diff emotions

Question 11

circumplex model

Answer 11

(James Russell, 1980)

some neg emotions can be associated with approach responses so more complex models have been proposed, with 2 axes/dimensions – arousal and valence

Widespread support

Question 12

the role of facial expressions of emotion

Answer 12

Lack of replication of embodying emotion study

Question 13

emotion expression - Ekman et al. (1980)

Answer 13

Do facial expressions reflect emotional experience?

Ps watched movies (pos and neg)

• Self-reported subjective experience
• Facial expressions while watching movies videoed
• Coded using FACS – Facial Action Coding System

Ps who showed particular smile movement (‘action unit 12’) reported more happiness

Ps who showed more ‘neg’ facial movements reported more neg emotion

Question 14

emotion expressions - Fridlund (1991)

Answer 14

Are facial expressions shaped by social context?

• Ps viewed ‘pleasant’ video
• 4 conditions:
  1. Alone
  2. Alone but believing friend nearby doing another task
  3. Alone but believing friend also watching same tape
  4. Watching tape with friend
• Smiling measured by EMG
• Smiling increased as settings became more social
• Not as function of self-reported emotion

Smiling affected by context (audience) more than by actual felt emotion?
- Argues facial expressions communicate motives, rather than emotion states

Question 15

emotion expression - Hess et al. (1995)

Answer 15

Similar paradigm to Fridlund

But

• Also varied intensity of emotional stimuli
• Slightly funny v very funny
• And r’ship to other P
• Friend or stranger

Measured:

• EMG
• Skin conductance
• Self-reported emotions

Findings:

• Intensity of smiling affected by sociality of context
• But also (more strongly) by funniness of film
• Social context and internal emotion state play a role
• But effects only emerge with friends
• Emotion expression influenced by emotion state, social context, and r’ship with audience

Question 16

measuring emotional expressions - Ekman and friesen (1978)

Answer 16

Developed FACS

Other tools also developed

EEG

• Facial EMG measures subtle activity in corrugator (frown) and zygomatic (smile) muscles
• EMG pos correlated with emotion perception ability and shows gender diffs (fem > male)
• Measures muscle activity by detecting and amplifying tiny electrical impulses that are generated by muscle fibres when they contract

Question 17

measuring emotional expressions - Kunecke et al. (2014)

Answer 17

Pos correlation between activity in corrugator and average emotion classification accuracy in response to angry and sad faces

Not sig in response to happy faces

Question 18

emotions also social

Answer 18

Emotional expressions key form of interpersonal communication, so it’s imp to consider social functions of emotions

Question 19

social functions of emotions

Answer 19

Wide eyes in fear = threat signal, white of eye helps to quickly direct attention to gaze location

Happy/angry = reinforcers (distinguished from 3 months old) – changing an infant’s behav (operant conditioning)

Sadness = elicits caregiving – increase affiliative bonds when support needed

Question 20

James-Lange theory (1885)

Answer 20

Emotions = sets of bodily responses that occur in response to emotive stimuli

Diff patterns of bodily change code diff emotions

‘The bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exciting fact, and our feeling of the changes as they occur is the emotion’

Question 21

facial expressions can be differentiated on the basis of evoked HR response - Critchley et al. (2005)

Answer 21

HR for correctly identified sad and angry faces > happy or disgusted faces

Expressions of disgust mis-identified as sadness/anger evoked HR changes more typical of sadness and anger than disgust, as predicted by the James-Lange model

Question 22

Cannon-Bard theory (1920s)

Answer 22

Cannon argued against James because:

• Emotions occurred even if brain disconnected from viscera (internal organs)
• Bodily changes not emotion-specific
• Bodily changes too slow
• Stimulation of bodily change doesn’t  emotions

But

• Emotions occurred even if brain disconnected from viscera (less intense)
• Bodily changes not emotion-specific (they are partly)
• Bodily changes too slow
• Stimulation of bodily change doesn’t  emotions (i.e. CCK  panic)

Emotions depend on brain mechanisms

Question 23

2-factor theory of emotion - Schachter and Singer (1962)

Answer 23

Gave (misinformed) Ps adrenaline injections; resulting arousal/emotions interpreted on basis of contextual cues (provided by stooges)

Emotion is function of both cog factors (appraisal) and phys arousal

‘People search immediate env for emotionally relevant cues to label and interpret unexplained phys arousal’

Question 24

appraisal and emotion - Lazarus (1991)

Answer 24

Relational meaning

• Emotions not caused by events in env
• /by intra-psychic factors (i.e. within indv)
• But by person-env r’ships that can change over time and circumstances
• Emotion rooted in appraisal

Question 25

appraisal for emotion - necessary? - Strack et al. (1988)

Answer 25

Hold pen in mouth or teeth exp Some replication failures

Question 26

the emotional brain

Answer 26

Limbic system – earliest suggested emotion networks in the brain MacLean proposed limbic system integrates sensations from world with info from body to generate emotional experience

Question 27

Papez neural circuit of emotion (1937)

Answer 27

Sensory messages concerning emotional stimuli that arrive at thalamus directed to both cortex (thinking) and hypothalamus (feeling) Feelings occur when cingulate cortex integrates signals from hypothalamus with info from sensory cortex Cingulate cortex projections to hippocampus and hypothalamus mediate top-down control of emotional responses

Question 28

modern affective neuroscience

Answer 28

Brain imaging Behavioural exps Lesion studies Electrophys recordings

Question 29

amygdala - plays an imp role in emotion processing

Answer 29

Amygdala lesions in monkeys  changes in social behav (Kluver-Bucy syndrome): Hyper-orality, social disinhibition, absence of emotional motor and vocal (e.g. fear) reactions Lesions in humans result in emotional blunting and reduced fear conditioning, impaired perception of facial expressions of fear Electrical stimulation results in autonomic reactions associated with feelings of fear

Question 30

Joseph LeDoux - 2 amygdala pathways (1986)

Answer 30

Quick and dirty’ subconscious route for fear stimuli to reach amygdala and subsequently affect behaviour via outputs to motor/phys structures – e.g. the sight of a snake on a dirt path with travel from the visual thalamus to the amygdala in a few thousandths of a s Human amygdala contains cells that fire in response to facial expressions and may also react to objects of fear Phys fear response triggered before person consciously aware of snake Second slower pathways travels from thalamus to visual cortex and then to amygdala – stimulus analysed in detail and message relayed to amygdala Abort signals if not needed

Question 31

amygdala response to pictures signalling threat influenced by genes - Hariri et al.

Answer 31

This study found that people carrying the short form (S) of an allele involved in the regulation of the serotonin transporter (the 5-HTTLPR) showed a greater amygdala response to negative emotional faces (fear and anger) compared to those carrying the long form (L/L). This S-allele results in altered transcription and reduced serotonin transporter availability, which is thought to make it less effective at mopping up serotonin so more is present in the synaptic cleft, increasing activation of regions like the amygdala

Question 32

association between number of stressful life events (between ages 21-26) and depression outcomes at 26 as function of genotype - Caspi et al. (2003)

Answer 32

the effect of life events on depression was stronger among indvs carrying an s allele

Question 33

Association between childhood maltreatment (between the ages of 3-11 years) and adult depression (ages 18-26) as a function of genotype

Answer 33

Childhood stress predicted adult depression only among indvs carrying the allele Controversial finding More recently researchers have found that having the s- allele makes individuals more emotionally sensitive in general – this has given rise to the “Orchid hypothesis” Also, the type of stress may be important - social stressors (but not non-social stressors) interact with 5-HTTLPR variation to predict major depressive disorder onset Social stressors may be particularly important for the development of depression. Those with the s-allele but who have strong social support may be protected against the effect of environmental adversity.

Question 34

patients with major depression suffer from following symptoms - depressed mood

Answer 34

Anx Lack of pleasure Helplessness, hopelessness Suicidality Guilt Low self-esteem and confidence

Question 35

patients with major depression suffer from following symptoms - psychotic symptoms

Answer 35

Nihilistic delusions (death, destruction)

Question 36

patients with major depression suffer from following symptoms - cog and bio symptoms

Answer 36

Poor sleep, appetite and concentration Reduced libido Low energy and motiv

Question 37

when you ask depressed people to identify the emotion in faces - Surguladze et al. (2003)

Answer 37

Compared with healthy people, depressed patients less likely to say mildly happy face is happy – less sensitive to pos stimuli Patients with anx and depression often show subtle changes in sensitivity to emotional expressions (emotional bias) compared with healthy people E.g. depressed indvs may be less sensitive to pos expressions/more sensitive to neg expressions (neg emotional bias)

Question 38

antidepressants decrease amygdala response to neg facial expressions - Sheline et al. (2001)

Answer 38

8 weeks SSRI

Question 39

which comes first?

Answer 39

Drugs decrease depression  decreases emotional response? | Antidepressants decrease emotional brain responses  decreased depression

Question 40

disgust - insula cortex

Answer 40

Insula – animal studies - Conditioned taste aversion in rats Human lesion/stimulation studies - Stimulation: perception of unpleasant tastes, nausea, salivation and swallowing (Penfield) - Lesions: decreased subjective experience and recognition of disgust Insula lesions - E.g. patient NK – perceived and felt disgust less

Question 41

what is FACS?

Answer 41

Facial Action Coding System Anatomically based system for describing all observable facial movement for every emotion Each observable component of facial movement called an action unit/AU and all facial expressions decomposed into constituent core AUs

Question 42

what is the 'Orchid hypothesis'?

Answer 42

If an s-allele carrier is raised in a positive, nurturing environment they will thrive but if in a negative, adverse environment they will be particularly negatively affected