Emotion

1. Emotion

2. Emotion • It is a big concept, not easy to define. • Drever (1964) Emotion involves ‘bodily changes of a widespread character- in breathing, pulse, gland secretion, etc.- and on the mental side, a state of excitement or perturbation, marked by a strong feeling.’

3. RBB 2008 Components of Emotion • Behavioural • laughing, crying, agitation, withdrawal, etc. • Physiological • ANS activity - the ‘fight or flight response’ • Brain activity – PET and MRI Scans • Physiological measures – GSR, EMG • Affective (Feelings) – e.g. happiness, fear, sadness, anger, disgust – these are usually private and subjective

4. RBB 2008 Theories of Emotion

5. Cross-cultural Research supportingBasic Emotions • Ekman – Researched the interpretation of facial expressions cross culturally • Peoples from different cultures consistently selected the same emotion label to describe each facial expression • Infants and Blind children display facial expressions spontaneously – innate. RBB 2008

6. RBB 2008 Cross Cultural Differences • The number and type of complex emotions may vary from culture to culture. • Situations that trigger emotions may vary across cultures • The socially acceptable rules for which emotions should be displayed in certain contexts may vary across cultures.

7. Basic Emotions • Surprise-triggeredby both the unexpected event and what might be “misexpected” event. Briefest emotion, once event is evaluated leads to another emotion . • Fear- unpleasant, possibly the most toxic of all emotions. Varies in intensity from apprehension to terror depending on appraisal of event. • Disgust-a feeling of aversion. Involves getting rid of or away from responses. Disgust related to Contempt difference is contempt directed at people.

8. Basic Emotions • Anger- probably the most dangerous. anger aroused in four different ways: *frustration- interference in your activity or goal *physical threat- threatening injury *psychological- cause by someone’s actions or statement; rejection and/insult *moral/value threat- observing someone violate you most dearly held moral values.

9. Basic Emotions • Happiness- positive emotion; *pleasure- positive physical sensations *excitement- arouse interest, opposite of bored *relief-happiness- to satisfy need *self-concept happiness- something/one enhances view of self. • Sadness-rarely brief; suffering of physical pain, loss, disappointment, or hopelessness; sadness is a form or variation of distress

10. Emotions Misleading • Theory of nonverbal leakage- ways to tell, from facial expression or body movement, feelings the person was attempting to conceal. *emblematic messages- signals of which is very specific, the nonverbal equivalent of a common word or phrase. *masking- using one emotion to cover up true emotion(s) *micro facial expression- brief facial expression lasting ½-1/25 of a second *concealment- (deflection, avoiding); withholding some information *falsify- concealment with added false information

11. Points on Emotion: • Research findings: -distorts perception -most unaware of emotion -awareness comes with emotional regulation -emotions can be out of control -short and long duration -helps cope with large groups of people -made to block conscious awareness -evolved to keep consciousness from playing with us; to deal with consciousness -neurologically found in the Limbic System (amygdala and perhaps other structures) in response to sensory information in most cases -usually directed towards people and objects -expressive: facial expression & other aspects of non-verbal behaviour such as bodily posture; Emotions can be inferred from these expressions. -behavioural: fight, flight, freeze, faint -affective (feelings)-personal and subjective