This summary contains all the content from the slides, including additional notes from the lectures. And sometimes some further explanations with information from the book "Emotion Science" by Elaine Fox. Knowing all from this summary is more than enough to get a good grade in the final exam ;)
,Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Why study emotions ................................................................................................................................................. 4
What is emotion? ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
How do emotional stimuli affect attention .............................................................................................................. 5
Questions & Controversies ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Historical background ................................................................................................................................................... 5
How do emotions arise ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Neglect of emotions in psychology ........................................................................................................................... 7
How to study emotions ................................................................................................................................................. 8
The nervous system .................................................................................................................................................. 9
Contemporary theories of emotions .............................................................................................................................. 11
Evolutionary theory of emotion .............................................................................................................................. 11
Social constructivist theories .................................................................................................................................. 12
Cognitive appraisal theories.................................................................................................................................... 12
Other Problem with theory of James ...................................................................................................................... 13
Perception, attention and emotion ................................................................................................................................ 17
Sensation and perception ....................................................................................................................................... 17
How emotional stimuli affect perception & attention ........................................................................................... 18
Amygdala and its connections ................................................................................................................................ 21
Emotion and awareness .......................................................................................................................................... 21
Emotion and memory ..................................................................................................................................................... 23
What is memory ...................................................................................................................................................... 23
Can affect enhance memory ................................................................................................................................... 24
is memory better for parts of the scene ................................................................................................................. 25
At what stage does emotion affect memory .......................................................................................................... 26
Effect of mood on memory ..................................................................................................................................... 27
Emotions and Decision-making....................................................................................................................................... 28
What is decision making ......................................................................................................................................... 28
Rationality ............................................................................................................................................................... 28
Types of decision making ........................................................................................................................................ 29
Dual process thinking .............................................................................................................................................. 31
Somatic marker hypothesis..................................................................................................................................... 32
Applied issues in Cognition and Emotion........................................................................................................................ 34
Fascination by lie detection .................................................................................................................................... 34
What is a lie ............................................................................................................................................................. 34
Types of lies............................................................................................................................................................. 34
Lie detection and emotion ...................................................................................................................................... 34
Emotion-cognition interaction to solve applied issues ............................................................................................... 37
Society and morality -> judicial, societal problem .................................................................................................. 37
Emotions and language -> clinical problems .......................................................................................................... 38
, Introduction
Why study emotions
• Emotions are an integral part of our lives, they shape our experiences of the world around us
o Memory, Attention, Decision-making, Regulation of social behavior, Communication, Health
• Emotions occur on different levels
o facial expressions, bodily changes, feelings, actions, neural responses
• are shared, but also individual differences
• Disorders of emotional processing (autism, phobias, psychopathy)
What is emotion?
• Problems of definition
• What is difference between emotions, moods, feelings
Emotion
• Definition: discrete and consistent response to an internal or an
external event which has a particular significance for the organism
(Scherer)
o Evoked -> there is a trigger
o Internal -> eg from a memory, realization about something
o Consistent: if you are angry you demonstrate that by a similar way always
▪ Coordinated response of brain, autonomic NS and behavior to circumstances
o Discrete: not prolonged in time
▪ Emotions are brief -> are in a moment
• Emotions are embodied
o Not abstract, can not be observed, you have to have a body to have emotions (can not exist without
body responses)
o Eg when scared release of hormones is required to run away
• Emotions are not very susceptible to topdown control
o Takes time for the body to calm down, can not just turn them of
• Emotions are not encapsulated, penetrate other psychological processes
o “the whole world looks gray when you are sad”
• Biasing actions: when you are scared you run away
• Can be measured with physiological outputs (eg increase in heart beat, neurotransmitter in brain) or
behavioural changes (eg smoke more when anxious)
Mood
• Definition: a diffuse affective state of often lower intensity than emotion, but considerably longer in
duration (-> prolonged)
• Moods are ”states of emotion” (Damasio, 1999) -> tend to become continuous over long periods of time
• More diffuse and objectless than emotions
• More difficult to study because less pronounced responses to triggers
o Same measurement methods as emotions
o Moods are often induced by asking people to recall traumatic events or read negative or positive
statements
Feelings
• Feelings are subjective representation of emotions
o Feelings associated with the emotions are private to the individual
• Some researchers believe that this is the most important component (Mesquita et al., 2007)
• Can only be measured by subjective report
Other aspects of affective life
• Attitudes – relatively enduring, affectively coloured beliefs, preferences and predispositions towards objects
and persons
o You have a believe about people, event -> has a emotional component
o Organizes your behavior
o Makes our world more structured
• Affective style – relatively enduring stable dispositions that bias an individual toward perceiving and
responding with a particular emotional quality, emotional dimension or mood
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