4.1 Attitudes and Emotions in Organisations
Theme 1 – Attitudes and Emotions
Problem 1 learning goals
1. What is an attitude?
2. What is an emotion?
3. What is a mood?
4. What is a temperament?
5. What is a trait?
6. How do these phenomena differ from each other?
7. How do these phenomena relate to each other?
Reading 1: Moods, Emotions and Traits – Ekman (1994)
1. Duration: Moods can be distinguished from emotions in that they typically last longer while
emotions typically last a matter of seconds or at most minutes. Moods, however, can last for
hours, and sometimes even for days.
2. Moods seem to lower the threshold for arousing the emotions, which occur most frequently
during a particular mood ( Irritable mood can make a person angry more readily).
3. It is more difficult to modulate an emotion if it occurs during a mood ( Person who is in a
irritable mood will not be as able to modulate an episode of anger as that person would be if
not in an irritable mood). Not only should the anger during an irritable mood be more
intense and less controlled, it should decay more slowly.
4. Moods do not own their own unique facial expression while many emotions do.
5. People can usually specify the event that called forth an emotion, and often cannot do so for
a mood. This event may be in the environment, a memory, or imagined.
Moods can be brought forth by (1) changes in one’s neurohormonal, biochemical state (lack of sleep
and food), (2) moods can be generated by a dense emotional experience ( an occasion in which a
specific emotion is called forth at very high intensity, again and again, with little time between each
evocation ( being insulted multiple times in a row, neg emo!)) and (3) by repression of an emotion.
Reading 2: On Emotion, Mood, and Related Affective Constructs – Davidson (1994)
Most of the distinctions made above, can be found wanting when carefully scrutinized.
1. Not all emotions are accompanied by distinctive facial expressions.
2. The idea that emotions are preceded by recognizable antecedents while moods are not also
appears inconsistent with the experimental evidence (bypassing conscious awareness).
3. The time duration criterion is merely descriptive and it is likely that instances of short-lived
mood and longer-lived emotion can be found.
Emotions and mood: a functional account (instead of facial, trigger and duration)
The primary function of emotion is to modulate or bias action and emotions most often arise in
situations where adaptive action is required. The primary function of moods is to modulate or bias
cognition and mood serves are a primary mechanism for altering information-processing priorities
and for shifting modes of information processing ( depressed has more sad and less happy
memories). Moods may also function to shift processing mode as well ( cognitive flexibility).
In a least weak sense, moods may always be present. They provide the affective background, the
emotional color, to all that we do. Emotions can be viewed as phasic perturbations that are
superimposed on this background activity. How do we know if an affective state is an mood or an
emotion? Mood is often a subjective experience. Another important difference between moods an
emotions is the nature of the antecedent events that elicit each.
Emotions are provoked by events that occur quickly and without warning while moods may
be provoked by events that occur over a slower time course. The physiological change in
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response to adaptively a sudden events is almost always the trigger. Triggers of mood are
usually quite different, such as the weather.
Moods and emotions dynamically interact in important ways. Emotions can lead to particular moods
and moods can alter the probability that particular emotions will be triggers. But, precisely what the
eliciting event are in these situations, is very complex.
On temperament and affective styles
Affective style refers to the entire domain of individual differences that modulate a person’s
reactivity to emotional events. Such differences are trait-like constructs that are consistent over time
(so mood is not an affective style). Temperament refers to early consistent differences that are
assumed to be at least in part under genetic control.
Reading 3: Parsing the Emotional Domain from a Developmental Perspective - Goldsmith (1994)
The term emotion is used to describe reactions, states, moods, sentiments, traits and disorders. The
emotional state of an organism is analogous to the processes occurring during interaction of the
magnet and the paper clip (always magnetic but doesn’t always show).
Temperament as emotional traits
Temperamental traits are characteristic individual differences in the way basic emotions (refers to
the organism’s sense that an interpersonal change has occurred) are experienced and expressed.
Emotion involves not only the feeling state mentioned above, but also an associated action tendency.
Emotions are structured as families, with common eliciting and expressive features, including vocalic,
facial, gestural, postural, and instrumental components.
Personality traits have two key expectations:
1. Cross-situational consistency:
The property of cross-
situational consistency is
qualified in at least three
ways. If consistency is to be
expected, the situations must
have common incentive
properties, they must afford
significant behavioral options,
and they must be relevant to
the individual's goals.
2. Temporal stability: temporal
stability is only expected
between periods of major
behavioral reorganization, and
the stability is not expected to
override other sources of
variation. Furthermore,
temperamental continuity
sometimes is apparent only
under conditions of stress,
novelty, or other extraordinary
situations.
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Reading 4: Varieties of affect: emotions and episodes, moods and sentiments – Frijda (1994)
Distinguishing among psychological states – intentionality and dispositional nature:
(1) Many psychological states involve a relationship of a subject with an object. This states are
‘intentionally’ and include emotions. This is also the case for emotional behaviors. Hume has made a
distinction between objects and causes of affective states: emotions have objects by definition,
although one might be unaware of their cause.
The domain of non-intentional affective states is different from the one described above and it
coincides with what we usually call ‘moods’. Moods are often characterized as being global
compared to emotions and do not have a relationship with an object.
Analysis of emotions and moods
Differences between affective states consist of differences in affect, appraisal, action readiness and
physiological response. Affective states are composed of all the above. Moods can be described in
those terms too. However, in emotions, affect, appraisal and action readiness are objects-focused,
whereas with moods these elements lack such focus. Variations in our state of action readiness, as a
moods, are prominently manifest in variations in thresholds for corresponding emotional responses.
Emotion episodes
Emotion events tend to lead to emotion episodes that, typically, last for an hour or more. Emotion
episode is the appropriate term to describe these affective states since they clearly do not represent
moods, because there is an object of focus. The extended duration of an emotional episode may be
caused by the duration of the emotion-arousing event or the magnitude of the aroused emotion.
Activation during an emotional episode tends to persist over time and more acute phases (readiness
& arousal) and less acute phases (feelings & thoughts) succeed one another.
Are emotions, emotion episodes and moods distinct processes?
Yes, but only when the emphasis is on ‘processes’ and not on ‘categories’. All of these affective
processes have a different processes-like focus, so in that they change. But at the same time, these
processes do not necessarily represent different states. Corresponding processes alternate, or may
even be active simultaneously. During an emotion episode, one emotion succeeds another.
Sentiments or emotional attitudes
The dispositional nature of an affective event is the second feature (next to intentionality) that is
useful in distinguishing among psychological states. Sentiments or emotional attitudes are affective
dispositions that we attribute to individuals to account for their propensities to respond affectively,
and to account for individual differences in this regard. They are usually referred to as likes or dislikes
or else by emotion words followed by an object name or generic expression (I hate dogs). They are
mostly acquired by previous experiences or social learning (exception: fear for blood and snakes).
- Emotion words like love and hate tend to refer to sentiments rather than to emotions,
because the refer to ways of seeing and treating a given object.
- Emotions and sentiments stand in close & reciprocal relationship but differ in identifiability.
The structure of sentiments can be described in two ways:
(1) Sentiments consist of cognitive dispositions to appraise an object in a particular way. They
can be understood as cognitive schemas (expectations), information starts appraisal.
(2) Sentiments are dispositions to treat the object in a way corresponding to that of the action
readiness during the emotions; they constitute latent motivations that become acute on
actual or possible confrontation with the object (fear avoiding).
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Emotions and moods are constructs that refer to particular occurrent phenomena, while sentiment
refers to the individual’s cognitions that such occurring phenomena may evoke (not the objects self).
Personality dispositions (traits of temperament)
These are differential propensities to respond to more general and less specific events (sensation
seeking, extraversion, positive affect etc.). Emotional personality dispositions are often referred to by
emotion words. These dispositions can be seen as low thresholds for the response patterns
characterizing different emotions (anger trait for aggressive behavior).
- Some evidence for an innate basis and relative temporal stability.
NB: Emotions and moods (acute) <> Sentiments and personality traits or temperament (dispositional)
Reading 5: Emotions, moods, traits and temperaments – Watson & Clark (1994)
Emotions can be defined as distinct, integrated psychophysiological response systems. It represents
an organized, highly structured reaction to an event that is relevant to the needs, goals, or survival.
An emotion contains three different components:
(1) A prototypic form of expression (typically facial) – fear: eyes wide open, tense lips etc.
(2) A pattern of consistent autonomic changes – rapid increased heart rate, skin conductance
(3) A distinct subjective feeling state – feeling scared, frightened, nervous.
Next to this, each emotion represents a response to specific types of events, and each gives rise to
characteristic forms of adaptive behavior (fear because of perceived danger flight). Because
emotions are reactions to specific circumstances, they are typically short-lived.
A mood is a transient episode of feeling and affect and therefor highly similar to the subjective
component of emotions. But moods, however, are typically much longer in duration. Mood states are
not restricted to the feelings that accompany specific emotions (e.g. non-emotional states).
- Waking consciousness is a continuous steam of affect, most of the time with milder,
attenuated versions of the classis emotions.
- People can experience mixed states of complex combinations of basic emotions (new bf)
- People frequently experience low-activation states that generally signal the absence of any
strong emotion (feeling tired fatigue).
How can we capture the ongoing stream of affect? With an alternative structural approach that
focuses on two broad mood factors: negative affect and positive affect:
NA represents the extent to which an individual is currently upset or distressed. This results
in negative mood states, including feelings of nervousness, dissatisfaction and irritability.
PA reflects one’s current level of pleasure and enthusiasm. People typically experience a
broad range of positive mood states, including cheerfulness, excitement, energy and so on.
NB: These two moods are largely independent of one another (only exception is when experiencing
extremely high levels – and an exception to that it when fear is taken out (rollercoaster)).
Trait affect (/emotional traits) and temperament
Emotional traits are stable individual differences in the tendency to experience a corresponding
mood state (high in the trait of fearfulness more intensely scared). NA and PA are two of the most
important, dispositional emotional traits. Evidence show that scores on NA and PA are strongly stable
over time and across various life situations.
Difference between emotional traits and temperament?
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