Understanding Emotion and Motivation: The Science Behind Human Behavior

1. Emotion Chapter 18 Monday, November 24, 2003

2. Emotion and Motivation • Motivation – that which gives energy and direction to behavior. • Inferred from goal-directed behavior. • Emotion: • A process which evaluates the significance of events with respect to important goals. • A means of communicating with others. • A motive in its own right.

3. Obsolete Theories • Concerned with the relationship between experience, emotion and behavior: • James-Lange – emotion is epiphenomenal to physiological changes. • Cannon-Bard– physiological changes and emotion occur at the same time, emotion can occur independent of physiology.

4. Limbic System • Includes the cingulate gyrus and hippocampus. • Broca (1878): • Originally thought to be unrelated to emotion – forms a ring around the brain stem. • MacLean (1952) – thought to be the primary circuit for emotion.

5. Papez Circuit (1937) • Merging of different streams of feeling, thought, and sensation in limbic areas. • Links the hypothalamus with the cortex. • Includes the cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, fornix, hypothalamus, and anterior nuclei of thalamus.

6. Emotion Doesn’t Map Well • No one-to-one relationship between brain structure and function. • Emotion is diverse. • Some of the structures in the limbic system are involved in emotion but others are not. • Other areas of the brain are important beyond the limbic system.

7. Not a Single System? • Basic or discrete emotions – fear, anger, disgust, sadness, joy, surprise. • Moods (anxiety, depression, happiness, peace or calm). • Preferences and evaluation – negative, positive, like or dislike, approve, reject. • Cognitive emotions – curiosity, interest, confusion.

8. Kluver-Bucy Syndrome • Kluver-Bucy Syndrome – results from bilateral removal of temporal lobe: • Psychic blindness – didn’t recognize objects • Oral tendencies – put everything in mouth • Hypermetamorphosis – run around and touch everything • Altered sexual behavior – x-rated • Emotional changes -- fearlessness

9. Importance of Amygdala • Some Kluver-Bucy symptoms related to removal of cortex, but most due to removal of amygdala. • Amygdala active with fear and anger. • Amygdala communicates with hypothalamus and hippocampus. • Emotionally important memories and classical conditioning (learning). • LeDoux’s research.

10. Kinds of Aggression • Predatory aggression – attacks against a different species to obtain food. • Few vocalizations • Aimed at head and neck of prey • Affective aggression – attacks against members of the same species. • For show – displays and vocalization • Sympathetic ANS arousal.

11. Affective Aggression • Competitive aggression – for place in a dominance hierarchy. • Defensive aggression – inescapable threat. • Irritative aggression – aversive stimulus (pain-induced aggression). • Territorial aggression – defensive. • Maternal aggression – protect young. • Sex-related and female social aggression.

12. Testosterone • Males are more aggressive than females in most species. • Testosterone’s effect appears to be prenatal – unrelated to fluctuations in adult hormones. • Testosterone is related to dominance and achievement, task-persistence, success-related behaviors.

13. Neurotransmitters • Lower levels of serotonin were found in more aggressive strains of mice. • Animals with less serotonin more likely to attack neutral targets. • Depressed humans who commit suicide may have lower levels of serotonin. • Children with conduct disorder have less serotonin.

14. Pain and Pleasure • Both have an affective component. • Sensory pathways involved in pain are complex, involve multiple areas of the brain, and not well understood. • Pain and pleasure play a major role in operant learning and classical conditioning.

15. Emotion and Pain • Pain is a metaphor for discussing negative affect. • Emotion (and especially sympathetic arousal) amplifies the subjective experience of pain. • Cognitive activity (distraction of attention) decreases subjective awareness of pain. • Placebos can decrease the experience of pain.

16. Pleasure vs. Well-Being • Emotion may operate using a homeostatic mechanism with a set point, just as hunger does. • Well-being appears unrelated to intense pleasure and unrelated to events in one’s life. • Lottery winners vs paraplegics (Brickman) • More negative affect than positive.

17. Stress and Anxiety • Stress is the response of the body to any demand. • Stress is not harmful. • Prolonged stress in a situation where one is helpless is harmful (lack of control). • Stress contributes to disease. • Cortisol as a measure of stress. • Stress changes brain chemistry.

18. Social Attachment • Social species have greater emotion. • Attachment permits essential learning. • Attachment permits individuals to regulate their affect (control emotion). • Emotional expressions generate empathy and regulate interpersonal behavior.

19. Emotion Regulation • Anger motivates instrumental behavior to change things. • However, people must conform to social expectations about expression. • Controlling emotion is not psychologically damaging but is what people must learn to do from infancy.

20. Venting is Ineffective • Staying angry is harmful. • Venting (expressing affect) is ineffective at decreasing or eliminating negative affect – if the person stays angry. • Venting prolongs negative affect. • Venting does not defuse hostility but escalates it in relationships. • Distraction helps.

21. Rumination & Perseveration • Perseveration – obsessively returning to thoughts about one’s problems. • Ruminating (brooding) prevents active problem solving. • Rumination decreases likelihood someone will engage in mood-changing activities. • Rumination biases thinking, leading to a vicious circle of depression.