Psychology Chapter 12 Study Guide  Emotion is a full body/mind/behavior response to a situation  Theories of emotion  James-Lange theory – body before thoughts  Cannon-Bard theory – body with thoughts  Singer-Shater theory (two factor theory) – body + thoughts, then label  Zajonc-LeDoux-Lazanes theory –body/brain without conscious thoughts  James-Lange  States that emotion is our conscious awareness of our physiological responses to stimulus  Our body arousal happens fast and then the cognitive awareness  Cannon-Bard theory  Asserts that we have a conscious cognitive experience of an emotion at the same time our body is responding not afterward  Human body responses run parallel to the cognitive responses rather than causing them  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 interpretation of stimuli  Schachter-Singer  Two factor theory  Suggests that emotions do not exist until we add a label to whatever body sensations we are feeling  Spill over affect your mood affected by others (study = adrenaline test)  Highlighted the role of appraisal  Zajonc-LeDoux-Lazanes  Some emotional reactions especially fears likes and dislikes develop in a low road to the brain skipping conscious thought  Amygdala response without being aware of image/reaction  Appraisal effects emotion  Schachter and singer highlighted the role of appraisal being consciously experienced emotions  Lazurus: even in emotional responses that operate without consciousness thought “to down” cognitive functions such as appraisal of stimuli can be involved  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  Ater parasympathetic nervous system calms down the body Abby Carroll 1  Embodied emotion  Hard to see difference in emotion from tracking heart rate breathing and perspiration  Large overlap in patterns of brain activity across emotions  Small differences, fear triggers more amygdala activity than anger does  General brain pattern – hemispheric difference  Positive “approach” emotions (joy love goal-seeking) correlate with left hemispheric activity  Negative “withdrawal” emotions (disgust, fear, anger, depression) correlate with right hemispheric activity  Emotions of others  Emotion content in eyes and faces  Introverts are better at detecting emotions  Extroverts emotions are easier to read  Primed to detect negative emotions quickly, even negative emotion words  Those who are abused are biased to see fearful faces as angry  Lies and fakes  Polygraphs (detecting physiological arousal) fail sometimes at correctly identifying when people are lying  Visible signs of lying – eye blinks decrease ad other social movement change  Real smile- involuntary muscle around the eyes  Gender and emotional expression and detection  Women have greater and more complex emotional expression  Women are more skilled at detecting emotions  Overgeneralization people tend to attribute women’s emotionality to their dispositions attribute more to circumstances  Some emotions more male (anger)  Universal emotions  Some universally understood facial expressions  People more accurately identify emotions from their own culture  Origins facial expressions  People who are blind form birth show same facial expressions as sighted people – origins of expressions are genetic  Face  Facial dieback effect – facial position and muscle position can alter which emotion that we feel  People’s faces were moved in frowning and smiling positions means that they had a change in mood  Middle finger up is associated with hostility, thumbs up associated with happiness Abby Carroll 2  Anger  Flash anger = energy  Persistent anger causes more harm  Catharsis – release – refers to the idea of reducing anger by releasing it may reinforce anger  Happiness  A mood, attitude, social phenomenon, cognitive function stay hopeful and motivated, and connected to others  Feel good – do good phenomenon: when in a good mood we do more good for others – doing good, feels good  Levels of happiness vary over a week/day  Money can make people happy, if it uplifts them from extreme poverty  Have an increase in money, spend more money  Adaptation level phenomenon – when our wealth of other life conditions improve we are happier to our past conditions however then we adapt to form a normal level, people need another boost to feel the same satisfaction  Loss and disability – not a permanent decrease in happiness  Relative derivation – feeling worse off by comparing yourself to people who are doing better  Stress  Stressor- an overall event or condition which we view as threatening challenging or overwhelming  Appraisal – deciding whether something is a stressor  Stress reaction refers to any emotional and physical responses to the stressor such as rapid heartbeat or an increase in cortisol levels  Stress refers to the process apprising and responding to events we view to be threatening and challenging  Component of stress  Process stressor – level/conditions , cognitive appraisal, body response, coping strategies  Appraisal – choosing how to view a situation  Few conditions inherently and universally stressful (extreme chronic physical threats/challenges)  Harms and benefits  Brief experience beneficial  Improving immune system  Motivating action  Focusing priorities Abby Carroll 3       Feeling engages energized and satisfied  Providing challenges encourage growth knowledge self-esteem  Prolonged stress  Mental physical coping systems become overwhelmed and fail  Immune function decreases Stressors  Spectrum of levels of intensity and persistence of stressors  Refer to the events and conditions that trigger our stress response because they are perceived as overwhelmingly challenging threatening and or harmful  Four categories  Catastrophes  Life changes  Chronic daily hassles  Low social status/power Catastrophes  Appraisal not really needed most people agree that the event is harmful/overwhelming  Can be one single event or chronic/harmful conditions  Short term effects – increased heart attacks on day of the event  Long term effects - depression nightmares anxiety flashbacks  Bonding - both the trauma and recovery shared with others Major life changes  Even supposedly happy life changes (marriage, college, new job, birth/adoption of a child) can bring increased challenge and stress  Change is often challenging  New roles and priorities new tasks can put a strain on coping resources Chronic daily differences  Too many tasks too little time little control  Bullied, poverty, oppressive, political conditions Body response to stress system  General adaption syndrome (GAS)  Alarm reaction  Phase one: fight/flight – sympathetic nervous system responds reducing pain increasing heart rate core of the adrenal glands produces norepinephrine and epinephrine (adrenalin) identified by Walter Cannon (1871-1945)  Resistance  Phase 2: brain sends signals to the outer part of the adrenal glands to produce cortisol and other stress hormones focus on adopting copint strategies and resisting defeat by the stressor Abby Carroll 4       Exhaustion  Phase three Prolonged stress  GAS works well to single exposures to stress  Too much phase three lads to physical deterioration and premature aging  Productions new neurons decline  New circuits brain break down  DNA telomeres (chromosome tips) shorten and cells lose the ability to divide and then die and tissue stops regenerating leading to early aging and death Male/female response  Women tend and befriend: nurture themselves/others bond together  Bonding hormone oxytocin  Women behavioral/neurological signs are more empathetic under stress  Men socially withdrawal and turn to alcohol  Men are more likely to be aggressive  Behavior and brain show less empathy and less turning to others under stress Stress – illness relationship  New field in psychology: psychoneuroimmunology the study of how interacting psychological neural and endocrine process affect health  Psychologists no longer use the term psychosomatic because it has come to mean an imagined illness  Psychophysiological illness a real illness caused in part by psychological factors such as stress  Psychological appraisal thoughts feelings  Neurological factors – brain signals engaging the stress response system  Immunology stress hormone exposure which suppresses the immune system  Stressors  appraisal  thoughts  feelings  brain signals  hormonal action  immune suppression  risk of illness Stress AIDS cancer  AIDS – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome  Cant acquire through stress  Stress response suppresses immune response, exposure to stress obviously worsens development of AIDS in those exposed to HIV  Decrease in stress slows progress in AIDS  Cancer – link to stress isn’t really clear  May worsen body’s defenses against replication Heat disease and stress Abby Carroll 5        Coronary heart/artery disease the blood vessels that provide oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle itself becomes clogged narrowed and closed  Biological – genetic predisposition to high blood pressure and cholesterol  Behavioral: smoking inactivity high fat diet  Psychological: chronic stress personality styles personality styles that worsen experience of stress Type A personality  Type A personality impatient verbally aggressive always pushing themselves and others  Type B more relaxed and go with the flow  One study people who had heart attacks were only type A Pessimism and heart disease  Refers to the assumption that negative outcomes will happen and often facing them by complaining and giving up  Pessimistic men more likely heart disease within 10 years than optimists Depression and heart disease  2 problems may both be caused by stress  Intervening variable excessive inflammation Health consequences of stress  Stress hormone cortisol helps bodies respond to brief stress  Chronically high cortisol levels damage the body Promote health  Address stressors  Soothe emotions  Increase ones sense cortisol over stressors  Exchange optimism for pessimism  Social support  Aerobic exercise  Relax and meditate  Participation communities of faith  Alternative medicine Cope stress  Problem focusing stress – means reducing stressors such as by taking on a difficult project  Risk: magnifying emotional distress especially by tying to change something that’s difficult to change (person’s traits)  Emotion focused coping means reducing the emotional impact of stress by getting support comfort and perspective from others  Risk ignoring the problem Abby Carroll 6         May follow style coping when perceive stressor something we can’t change Stress perceived level cortisol  Not level of shock level of control of shock with created stress Social support  Improved health immune functioning longevity  Provides a calming effect that reduces blood pressure and stress hormones  Laugh  Confiding in others to help manage painful feelings Aerobic exercise  Refers to sustained activity that rises heart rate and oxygen consumption  Triggers certain genes produce certain proteins which guard against more than 20 chronic diseases and conditions  Decrease in depression and anxiety improves management of stress  Correlated increase confidence vitality energy and good mood  Perhaps depression reduces exercise Lifestyle modification  Slow down pace of one’s life accept imperfection renew faith  Decrease heart attack rates Relaxation and meditation  Relaxation techniques reduce headaches increase blood pressure anxiety and insomnia and improve immune functioning Religious involvement in health  Health impact may be indirect  Health may improve because of lifestyle and emotion Medicine  Acupuncture hypnosis may be a placebo Abby Carroll 7