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Summary Emotion Exam One
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This is a summary of the book chapters needed for the first exam of the course Emotion
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SUMMARY EMOTION EXAM ONELiterature:
- Psychology of Emotion – Niedenthal & Ric; Chapter 1, 2, 4, 5, 8
CHAPTER ONE: THEORIES OF EMOTION
Definition emotion: episodic, relatively short-term, biologically-based patterns of perception,
experience, physiology, action and communication that occur in response to specific physical and
social challenges and opportunities
Two-Factor theory of Emotion – Schachter&Singer 1962
Stimulus Emotion
Arousal Label
The arousal gets labeled by the nature of the circumstances you find yourself in and an emotion
would result. Contemporary emotion scientists believe there is more to emotion than arousal.
We compare theories based on:
• Antecedents of emotion (what caused it)
• Biological givens (Innate emotional capacities)
• The integration of emotional experience components
Evolutionary theories
Darwin’s studies demonstrated cross-species continuity and universality of several facial
expressions of emotions. He theorized that facial expressions were serviceable habits that solves
the problem that elicited it. E.g., The facial expression of disgust is designed to expel things from
the mouth and prevents the intake of smells through the nose, this protects us from possible
contamination. Darwin also thought expressions to be a useful communicative tool because it tells
other members of the species about the current situation.
Antecedents:
Adaptive problems are challenges to survival or opportunities for reproduction. The signs of
these dangers or opportunities are called signal stimuli. These signal stimuli cause a particular
emotion because that emotion confers an adaptive behavior. In theory, emotions are associated
with action tendencies, which prepares a person to address challenges and take advantage of an
opportunity.
Biological givens:
Basic emotions are innate neural and biological states that are elicited rapidly and automatically
by signal stimuli. Criteria for basic emotions are that they must be universal expressions, have
discrete physiology, be present in other primates and be automatic appraisals of evaluations of
the environment. The agreed upon basic emotions are surprise, anger, joy, fear, disgust and
sadness.
William James (1890) proposed that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) can make us feel
discrete emotions by creating different kinds of arousal. This is called the peripheralist position.
, This view was attacked by scientists who believed arousal to be non-specific and the ANS too slow
to support discrete emotions.
Levenson (1990) did an experiment with a method called the Directed Facial Action Task, in which
he points at a certain facial muscle and asks the participant to contract it. After establishing
different kinds of emotional facial expression, he measured physiological profiles. It turned out
that the six basic emotions had different ANS patterns.
Integration of Experience:
Evolutionary theories say that the components of an emotion occur in concert every time you have
an emotion. The components coincide because they are integrated in an affect program. An affect
program is an innate brain system that tells the body what to do when faced with a particular
event. However, affect programs can change to include knowledge gained through individual
experience. Most convincing evidence in favor of coherence comes from studies linking facial
expressions to self-reported feelings.
Stimulus Emotion
Affect program
Biologically prepared signal stimuli reliably elicit affect programs designed to respond adaptively
Appraisal theories
Appraisal theories do not recognize signal stimuli because the same event can trigger different
emotions in different individuals. They claim that the emotion is determined by how the person
appraises the situation. Appraisal is the mental process that allows you to detect objects and
events in your environment and evaluate their significance for your immediate wellbeing.
Appraisals are experienced on a continuum (e.g. scale of 1-10). In appraisal theory, this type of
continuum is known as a dimension. Examples of dimensions are novelty (change-familiarity),
goal significance and agency (self-other). Individuals assign values to appraisals rapidly and often
unconsciously.
Antecedents:
Specific emotions result from distinct patterns of appraisals. Appraisal researchers first map out
the relationship between a particular appraisal pattern and the resulting emotion to predict
someone’s emotional reaction. For instance, fear occurs when circumstances are appraised as
novel, negative, uncontrollable and inconsistent with expectations.
Biological givens:
Arnold (1960) claimed that appraisals are innate. More recently researchers distinguished fast,
automatic primary appraisals and secondary appraisals that involve higher mental processes.
Primary appraisals that can be considered innate are appraisals of novelty and of valence (avoid-
approach). These seem to be present in newborns and animals. Secondary appraisals are most
likely learned.
Integration of experience:
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