Main Topics Notes
1. Emotion Theories - the course uses the functionalist perspective
- folk/ common psychology: people have perceptions of what emotions are, based on
no scientific knowledge
- <3 affects cognition!: perception, judgment, problem-solving, task performance
- emotions are a social signal (of reaction to event & and action tendency; found
precursors of human <3 expressions in animals!)
- <3 tell you that something meaningful has happened; emotions = communication in
the social context (the core of it); <3 arise as indiv (un)consciously evaluates event as
relevant to own goals
functionalist view on - starts with a concern at stake, changes in action readiness (aimed to change or
emotion maintain relationships); both appraisals are conscious (+ unconscious pathway)
- primary appraisal (defines good/ not good, quasi automatic, strong focus on event,
physiologically arousal for reaction) → latency time before action (able to process info
and choose approach → secondary appraisal: consider previous experiences, own
abilities, which outcome want to achieve, choose from ≠ possible responses,
determines which <3!)
- physiological arousal: primary function is provision of energy, mobilization of
organism, prepare for action!; (but little evidence of specific patterns for specific <3)
- what is an emotion?: superordinate hypothetical construct; contains
neurophysiological response patterns (central and autonomous NS), motor
expression (face, voice, gesture), cognitive processing/ evaluation (appraisal),
subjective feeling, action tendency
- action tendency: not necessarily acted out, resulting from evaluation of situation,
defines its specificity (flee for fear, attack for anger)
- subjective feeling: at the end of the process, a er secondary appraisal; overarching
term to communicate w/ a word what happened, a label to be aware of oneself;
reflects physiological changes + one's evaluation of situation; vocabulary in culture
(relfect ≠ in feeling state?)
- <3: crisis response, subsystems of organism become synchronized
Which emotion? - emotions don't just "happen to you", they are a choice of dealing with a particular
situation, what you want to achieve, what you think you are capable of, determines
the emotional reaction!! → influenced by social context
research w/ deaf children - >95% grow up in hearing environment, so fewer communication means (most won't
be fluent on sign language), little communication time; a disadvantage on
social-emotional development
- anger or sadness? → sadness focus on consequence (loss, on oneself), reinstatement
that desired situation is impossible; vs anger focus on cause (of harm), reinstatement
of desired situation is possible
- deaf children feel way more sad than angry in situations: gave up hope to interact
with environment, took time to deal with loss instead of the cause of it
→ <3 have interpersonal function (get the best outcome for you)! It's communication,
and we do this strategically (what works best for indiv, given what they have)
interpersonal functions - fear: avoiding harm
- anger: stop another from harming you
- love: strengthens relationship with other, about bonding, want it back
- jealousy: protecting "mine"
- shame: failed to live up to ego-ideal in context of social norms and values
- pride: reinforces behavior valued positively within social context
James-Lange theory (1885) - perception of event → specific physiological arousal → perception of bodily change
→ subjective feeling (a consequence, <3 is feeling (awareness) of bodily changes as
they occur)
, - BUT: then subjective feeling is open to misinterpretation of bodily symptoms:
blushing bc of temperature? flu? embarrassment?
!! - emotion has direct link w/ specific event, mood state isn't linked to situation, it's a
general feeling (unclear cause, longer duration, lower intensity!)
How do children learn - everyone experiences <3 (universal, innate capacity: vocal and facial at least partly
about emotions? biol based), but when and how they are expressed is learned! (socialization, display
rules, with time sensitivity - when being a young child)
- learn with: self-observation (perceive own body in relation to environment),
observation of others (pick up others'), (verbal) passing on (e.g. facial expressions)
- research with deaf children (CI) & hearing 4yrs children, non-verbal task: sorting
cards based on visual pattern of cards → CI were worse at sorting facial expression;
verbal passing on is also essential for interpretation of facial <3 expressions!!
Emotional intelligence - we need: <3 recognition, others'emotions empathy, <3 awareness, <3 vocabulary,
moral <3, regulation of <3
- influential for our mental health/ social functioning
Evolutionary significance - humans are the most emotional of all animals; can be seen as adaptive behavioral
patterns: provides behavioral flexibility (latency time due to physiological response);
'hot cognition' (<3) helps sort what info is relevant to process
Notes from Literature - one of the decisive factors of <3 elicitation (happens) and differentiation (specificity)
is the interaction btw type of situation and personal significance of event
- Schachter-Singer theory: perception of non-specific arousal elicits <3 = feeling;
simultaneous cognitive evaluation of situational cues & prior experience
differentiates it
- Lazarus (functionalist): while event is the same for all participants, the mix of
emotions (emotional blend! -not clear and single) depended on specific appraisal of
significance of the event by each individual → methodological issue: hard to assess
the nature of cognitive appraisal prior and independent of feeling state
- cultural and individual ≠ in event appraisal: depends on acquired needs, goals and
values (e.g. shame vs guilt in individualistic vs collectivistic); low self-esteem..
- at least some degree of emotion-specific physiological pattern, linked to action
tendency (preliminary evidence)
- interaction of components of <3: evidence for effects of both catharsis (watching <3
expression causes release of one's own) & facial feedback hypothesis (proprioceptive
feedback - biological response to biol state); emotion regulation: reappraisal (control
of appraisal, <3 doesn't happen, e.g. 'it's fake') and suppression/ masking of specific
physiological response (e.g. facial expression) → have different effects
2. Emotion Expression - why? → shows what is important to you, a social communicator to regulate
relationships
- learning display rules (when/ how to express emotions) = emotion socialization
(primary and mostly secondary appraisal → where culture kicks in!)
- facial expression is rarely interpretable alone (o en ambiguous), the surrounding/
context is needed
- study with death children: reading faces requires social learning (not just
overhearing, but also correctly interpreting and understanding causes of emotions,
what is going on); CI, ASD, LD > TD
Emotion Socialization - neonates smile, also during sleep; from age 1m, two kinds of smiles especially
during positive interactions (recognizable by high pitch voice in adults): 1) Duchenne
smiles (½ infants, eye constriction, evoke stronger reaction from environment) and 2)
open mouth smiles (1/10)
- function of smiling: signals joy, that 'it's okay' (from parents to toddlers); powerful
request for positive response from adults, keep doing what you are doing); keep
attention, stimulate attachment, establish and maintain relationship); smiling beh in
infancy (the expression of positive affect per se) is predictive of better psychosocial
, development (a correlation, what is cause/effect??)
- 1-2m, start with social smile: reaction to positive interaction caregiver; at 3m, social
smile to unfamiliar people too; 6-12m laughter, smiling at mastery, referential
smiling (look at caregiver and object)
Expression of negative - less accepted, requires better social skills; need to learn how strongly, when, to
emotions whom
(Buss & Kiel, 2004) - emotion regulation: changes associated w/ activated <3 & process of reduction of
stress; intrinsic or extrinsic (by others, toddlers rely more on caregiver, e.g. social
referencing); facilitate relational goals & signs indiv's internal state in social environ
- differential emotion theory: each <3 has distinct adaptive social function & elicits
specific reaction from the other; sadness = least aversive, + positive support
- preschoolers: ability to modulate facial expression develops before ability to
understand this response
- parents show more warmth to child when he/she expresses positive emotions,
sadness expressions, but ignore/ react negatively to anger → reinforce sadness!!
- threat (stranger walks in, in high chair/ free play on floor) and frustration (toy
removal/ in locked box)
- looks to mother are coded for distinctiveness (anger, sadness, fear) and intensity
- tested whether sadness facial expressions were more likely to happen despite
contextual pressure for anger/ fear; results: mostly supports it!
- in threat: more intense sadness expression at mother
- in frustration: no changes to anger-looks, but more sad-looks at mother (more
beneficial for positive response, her being the cause of anger)
- (not for all episodes: when predominant expression was sadness already, they didn't need to
increase it when looking)
- regulating emotion expression: when emotion experience and expression can
interfere with personal goals → evoke more support (elicit reaction) from mothers
when show sadness (toddlers learned it with experience)
- emotion socialization: differences in culture, parents, peers
- toddlers expressed sadness more frequently and w/ + intensity when looking at
mother & sadness was + intense and frequent during and a er the look → they
modulated facial expressions when looking at mother (maybe weren't sad before)
Culture - approaches: ethnocentrism (own culture is superior, standard), absolutism (all are
equal, no differences between them), relativism (can only understand within each
culture, intracomparisons), universalism (some is universal, but culture influences
development and display)
- <3 expression: there are ≠ words in ≠ languages, which you cannot translate, e.g.
saudade, Schadenfreude, embarrassment, no word for sadness in Thai!!
- agreement about cultural ≠ → emotional antecedents (≠ concerns: indiv
achievement, group harmony…) and expressions
(Jenkins & Ball, 2000) - sadness or fear: threat reducing, evokes more prosocial responses, 6-12 years old
understand these functions (older ones differentiate sadness/fear/anger better)
- social-regulatory aspects of <3: the social consequences of <3 expression, & the
social goals that it is seen to express
- 3 vignettes with story where child displays anger, sadness or fear; asked about
expresser's goals, and the effects of the <3 on recipient's actions and <3
- anger expression = children think that expresser feels dominant, elicited anger and
aggression from other
- sadness & fear expression = children think that it elicits prosocial response from
other (comfort, proximity, goal reinstatement)
- display rules: 3yrs old are already able to pose ≠ <3 (masking) → avoid punishment,
please others (social rules and norms), maintain relationships (older children)
- anger is about goal reinstatement: more % than sadness when goal is seen as
blocked intentionally, aversive conditions present (vs positive are absent as in
