Chapter 11: Emotion By the end of this lecture you will be able to: Discuss the statement “why emotions”. Define emotions + Explain the different faces of emotion. Examine the concepts of primary and secondary emotions. +Differentiate between primary and secondary emotions. Explain the functions of facial expressions. «Identify the limits to the cain of universality of emctenWhy emotions? Emotions developed to meet the challenges of life: Bind people together. Motivate them to reach goals. Help them make decisions and plans. When faced by two appealing and justifiable career choices, you might choose the one that “feels right” m eating tainted or poisonous food. ; \Definition of emotion 3 major components in defining emotions: + Physiological changes in the face, brain and body. + Cognitive processes such as interpretations of events, Hec bye We mwensons + Cultural influences that shape the experience of emotion. Sab ott ane ae teat “stEmotion and the body + Research on physiological aspects of emotion suggest that people are born with basic/ primary emotions: — Includes fear, anger, saddess, joy, disgbat and contempt. + These have : oe heey Bop + distinctive physiological patterns vy" A ~* SEHIESHEMTUINY facial expressions ee ring event is the same all over the worldExamples of primary emotions a Fear follows perception = = of threat P & ca sadness follow perception of lossSecondary emotions + Includes all the variations and blends of emotion that vary from one culture to another OR that depend on negogutive complexity. a Ap Pi aM TABLE 8.1 On of the Range of EmonsNeuroscientist and other researchers are studying the biological aspects of emotions: * Facial expressions. +: Brain regions and circuits.The face of emotion + The most obvious place to look for emotion is on the face, where emotions are often visibly expressed. harles Darwin (1872) argued that human facial expressions are innate These expressions evolved because they allowed our ancestors to tell the difference between a friendly stranger and hostile one.Does Modern Psychology support Darwin’s Claim? + Modern psychologists have supported Darwin’s ideas about the evolutionary functions of emotions. i + Paul Ekman and his colleagues have gathered to abundant evidence for the universality of 7 basic.“ facial expressions of emotion od p z mine we sl Ekman and Friesen (1976) faces = Disgust : Started with 6 : . : emotions, and then contempt was added to the list Nira+ In every culture they have studied, a large majority of people recognize the emotional expressions portrayed by those in other cultures. + Even members of isolated tribes such as the Foré of New Guinea or the Minangkaba if West Sumatra can recognize the emotions expressed in Rictyres of foreign people Ekman studied different cultures: Brazil — Chile- Estonia - Germany — Greece — Hong Kong- Italy — Japan - New Guinea — Scotland - Sumarta — Turkey — United States+ Lately some researchers have argued that pride is also a basic human emotion (adaptive function to motivate people to achieve and excel). * Children as young as 4 years old, and people from isolated culture in Africa can reliably identify facial expressions of pride. + Blind athelites will spontaneously throw their arms in the air in a victory stance, even though they have never seen anyone do it.Ekman and his associates developed a special coding system to analyze and identify each of the nearly 80 muscles of the face, as well as combinations of muscles associated with various emotions. They found out that when people try to hide their feelings and put on an emotion, they generally use different groups of muscles that they do for authentic emotions. For Example:: when people pretend to be sad, only 15% manage to get the eyebrows, eyelids and forehead wrinkle right Authentic Smiles last only 2 seconds. FalseySmiles last 10 seconds or more.Functions of facial expressions 1. Facial expressions don’t only reflect internal feelings, they also influence them. + In the process of facial feedback the facial muscles send messages to the brain about the basic emotion being expressed: Asmile tells us we are happy... a frown tells us we are sad + When people are told to smile and look pleased, their positive feelings increase, while when told to look angry-or-displeased, their positive feelings decrease. If you put on an angry face, your heart rate will rise faster than if you put on a happy faceFunctions of facial expressions 1. Facial expressions don’t only reflect internal feelings, they also influence them. scles Facial feedback fea helps us process emotions If you put on an angry face, your heart rate will rise faster than if you put on a happy faceSo what about botoxed people... botox paralyzes the facial muscles used in frowning?1 ane heu be Sek Law Linwlr om OYE > aoa AO v + Botox hindered the ability to process the sentence evoking sadness and anger + Less accuracy in recognizing positive and negative emotions in photographs of human eyes2. Evolved to help communicate emotional states to others and provoke response fromLimits? There are cultural and social limits to the universal readability of facial expressions: People are better at identifying emotions expressed by others in their own ethnic, national or regional group than they are at recognizing emotions of foreigners. Within a culture, facial expressions can have different meanings depending on the situation. ‘The context in which the expression occurs is also important. People to tend to interpret identical facial expressions/in very different ways depending on what 6lSe theysare-observing in the social context:Could be seen as disgust when alone. However, when observing the social context — it could be interpreted as AngerEmotion and the brain Various part of the brain are involved in different components of emotional experience: Recognizing another person’s emotion. Feeling a specific emotion.‘ / fy"! Expressing an emotion. cm anes a/ pidgin Acting on an emotion. 5 ff Ly EG. People who have stroke Beeb brain areas involved in the experience of disgust are often unable to », feel disgusted. g \+ Most emotions motivate a response of some sort: Embrace or approach people who make you happy Attack people who Withdraw from food makes you angry that disgusts youThe prefrontal regions of the brain are involved in these impulses to approach or withdraw. Regions of Regions of left right prefrontal prefrontal cortex are specialized for the motivation . od to approach BY od others ‘People having greater than average activation of the left areas, compared with — the right, have: * more positive feelings * a quicker ability to recover from negative emotions. * Gr ater ability to suppress negativeRegulation of emotions * Parts of the prefrontal cortex are also involved in the regulation of emotion. * Helping in modifying and controlling emotions. A loving mother becomes indifferent to her child’s TallaThe Amygdala The amygdala (in the limbic system) plays a key role in emotion, especially anger and fear. It is responsible for evaluating sensory information and determining its emotional importance, making the initial decision to approach or withdraw. It instantly assess danger or threat. This initial response might be over ridden by more accurate appraisal from the cortexThis is why you jump with fear when you suddenly feel a hand on your back in a dark alley, and why your fear disappears when the cortex registers that the hand belongs to a friend People with damage in the amygdala often have difficulty recognizing fear in other people. People with damage in the cortex may have difficulty turning off their own fear responses.Emotion and Culture All humans are capable of feeling primary emotions — the ones with distinctive hallmarks in the brain, face and nervous system. But they might differ in their abilities to experience secondary emotions, including variations such as schadenfreude, hagaii or mehameha. German use schadenfreude to explain the feeling of joy at another's misfortune. Japaneese speak of hagaii [?) helpless anguish tinged with frustration. Tahitians have mehameha[2] trembling sensation when ordinary categories of perception are suspended, for example at twilight eduction iis osinate fm SNEREpOS 1S CARDS TN aThe difference between primary emotions and the cultural variations of complex emotions is reflected in language. People everywhere consider the primary emotions to be prototypical examples of the concept of emotion. Prototypical emotions are reflected in the emotion words that young children learn first — e.g.: happy, sad, mad. As children grow up they use less prototypical and more culture specific emotions- e.g.: hostile, anxious.Other psychologists don’t think much of the primary- secondary distinction of emotion. They argue that there is no aspect of emotion that is not influenced by culture. Although anger is universal, the way it is experienced varies from culture to culture. Cultures even define what emotions are considered to be primary or secondary. For example: Anger is regarded as a primary emotion is Western culture, while shame and loss of face are more central emotions in Asian cultures. Cultures-also determine much of what people feel emotional-about. For example: disgust is universal, but the content of,what produces disgust changes, across Cultures.Communicating emotions + The way emotions are displayed depends of the culture’s display rules. + In some cultures grief is expressed by weeping, in others by tearless resignation, and in others by dance, songs and drink. awtias cond ne finely NO ote CR ey olive tes Tos Americans smile more frequently than are ns » => This doesn't mean that American's are friendlier. It is because 5 ant they differ in their notions of when a smile is appropriate. (: Read page 405 — what is the difference between German, American and Japanese in regards to “Smile”.cnobon tke Hog Ged enatisn > SHorengbiobon $ adae feet Le reid x fae ee wel # eee pple We stig bet FAW ghow seh + Display rules also governs body language © Body language: nonverbal signals of body movement, posture, \) gesture and gaze ‘> a ny = ; Many aspects of bodylanguage are specific to particular cultures In Texas it is the sign of In Italy and other parts of Europe it the university football team means you are i “2 saying that a man’s wife is unfaithful to him — which is a9 serious insult “+ Display rules tells us how and when to show an emotion that we don’t feel. Acting out an emotion we don’t feel because it is socially appropriate is called emotion work. It is part of regulating our emotions when with others,Gender and emotions Although women are more likely than men to suffer from clinical depression, there is little evidence that one sex feels any of the everyday emotions more often than the other. The difference has to do with how and when emotions are expressed and how they are perceived by others. +In Becker's research (2007) Participants often rated angry faces as masculine and happy faces as feminine. -Women who don't smile when others expect them to are often disliked, even if they are smiling as often as men. -Women also talk about emotions more than men do. They are more likely to acknowledge emotions that shows vulnerability. On the other hand, in North America, men express only one emotion freely] anger *Men are expected to mask and control negative feelings. They use vague terms to explain that they are worried or afraid.+ However, the influence of the situation over rides gender rules. + No gender differences in emotional expression will be found in a football match.Moreover, another constrain on gender differences is the status of the participants. A man is as likely as a women not to show their anger and control their temper towards their boss. Both will also do similar emotion work when the situation or job — requires it. Eg: male and female flight attendants. Even if gender differences exist they are not universal. In sum, the answer to “which sex is more emotional?”is: Sometimes men Sometimes women And sometimes neither It depends on the situation, circumstance and culture.