Mood, Anxiety and Psychotic Disorders
Summary - Final Exam
Week 5:
Lecture 7
Emotions related to depression are sadness, loss of pleasure, guilt etc. people with anxiety feel
fear, disgust, anger, shame etc. emotions can be events, perceptions (interpretations), appraisals,
physiological changes, propensity for action, and conscious awarenesses. These don’t always
correlate with each other for a given emotion.
These two models above can describe how emotions can be categorised. Some disorders have a
common affect (depression and anxiety). Positive affect is more related to approach behaviour
and negative affect to inhibition or avoidance behaviour. Emotions are related to basic goals. We
try to categorise, understand and predict emotions (shame and embarrassment example, and how
it is categorised in dutch). Bower’s associative network associates many emotions and cognitions
to each other, but for example, a frown could be because of being shortsighted, or from various
emotions. The model of Bower is considered to be too simple. Lang’s three system approach
explains that a stimulus evokes a meaning thought by the receiver of the stimulus, then the
,person responds to it, and this meaning-response influences each other dynamically.
Schachter-Singer two factors model explains that an event causes bodily responses, then you
have a cognitive label to this bodily response in the given context, then you determine the type of
emotion to display or feel. (taking ecstasy causes you to be happy, knowing that you have taken a
substance, but giving someone ecstasy outside of their awareness could give them huge anxiety).
Mandler’s emotion theory: an event causes cognitive processes and arousal, thus this leads to
emotion. Disruption goals that are caused by an event also cause emotion.
Weiner’s theory of emotion:
An outcome of an event provokes evaluation, this evaluation gives a valence to the outcome, and
it also causes an attribution, which causes a distinct emotion
The Lazarus model: mostly concerned with the appraisal of the situation, which is influenced by
your personality and goals, beliefs and knowledge, then this appraisal leads to determining your
action, or you choose to reappraise the situation, which determines the coping mechanism you
will adopt.
,In CBT, this model is used, the situation is not avoided or terminated, instead, it is dealt with
(unless it is a situation in which nothing can be done). Leventhal and Scherer define the emotion
system as being sensory-motor (reflexes), on a schematic level (learned association), and on a
conceptual level (knowledge-based). Stimulus evaluation concerns 5 aspects; novelty,
pleasantness, relevance to goals, coping potential, compatibility with self and norms.
Cognition and Emotion - From Order to Disorder - Chapter 3
Categorical versus dimensional approaches to emotion
Dimensions
The two main dimensions are valence and arousal. Gray labelled arousal into two separate
systems Behavioural Activation System and the Behavioural Inhibition System, with overactivity
and/or under activity in either leading to different emotional consequences. Watson, Clark and
Tellegen have argued that the Valence dimension, (labelled with positive and negative as bipolar
opposites), should be divided into two separate orthogonal dimensions (positive and negative).
Basic emotions
Having core basic emotions are beneficial for theoretical psychology, provides a good
framework and the foundations for a bridge between the study of human emotions and research
into the emotional experiences of other species.
, A formulation of the basic emotion debate in terms of the philosophy of emotion
It was suggested that it is only meaningful to distinguish one emotion from another on the basis
of the appraisal component. there are a number of distinct autonomic states associated with
emotion but that some states may be associated with more than one emotion and hence one
cannot distinguish emotions on the basis of physiology alone. A strong version of the basic
emotion theory is that there is a universal set of appraisal scenarios found in all cultures, that
these appraisal scenarios are distinct from each other, and that they cannot be reduced to more
fundamental appraisal components. A weaker form of the basic emotion theory would be to
argue that there are a number of common and central appraisal scenarios, distinct from each
other, which emerge in human societies and which underlie and shape emotional development.
Due to certain limitations, research concerning the core set of basic appraisal scenarios must
remain theoretical for now.
The arguments for basic emotions
A basic set of 6 core emotions are; happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, anger and
disgust/contempt. One criticism is that surprise can be a part of any of the other emotions given.
Thus, “Surprise” is not unequivocally an emotional state. Ekman suggests nine characteristics
that distinguish basic emotions: distinctive universals in antecedent events; distinct universal
signals; distinctive physiology; presence in other primates; coherence among emotional
response; quick onset; brief duration; automatic appraisal; and unbidden occurrence.
Distinctive universals in antecedent events
Stein has suggested that the concept of basic emotions can most profitably be reduced to one of
the basic appraisal scenarios. The nature of the appraisal associated with each basic emotion is
defined functionally, this emphasis on functionality provides a set of parameters within which to
address the pan-culturally of a core set of appraisal scenarios. Basic emotions are seen as those
that incorporate appraisal processes linked to these pan-cultural, universal goals.
Distinctive universal signals
Some research distinguished emotions through facial expressions, and some through
self-reported affect. Ortony and Turner argue that it is not facial expressions that are universal