Week 1
Hoofdstuk 1 & 4
H1.
When we think about our lives, it is often the affective qualities of various situations that
immediately come to mind. Scientific studies on emotions focus on different components of
emotions. Importantly, most components of emotions are present in our lives. Most would say
that feelings (feelings) are the most important salient aspect of emotions (defined by the valence
(negative to positive) and arousal (calming to arousing) of an experience, is a biologically
adaptive cue that can influence how an event is remembered and possibly how it is integrated
into memory). It is that which influences your feelings, thoughts and memories. A recurring
problem in emotion science is that different research traditions focus on different aspects of
emotions and therefore ask different things (during research).
Emotions are universal and innate
There are several researchers who assume that emotions are given by biological evolution.
Emotions or affect programs were selected by evolution because they provided a solution to
ancient problems for our ancestors.
Functies van emoties
1. The ability to find food, drink and shelter
2. The skill to mate and find sexual partners
3. The skill to protect oneself and protect offspring
4. The skill of avoiding danger
5. The skill to escape from life-threatening situations
It is important to remember that this is viewed from a human perspective. These complex
processes are viewed from multiple perspectives: behavioural, physiological etc. and can happen
independently. Emotions are considered a complex response to meaningful events. Emotions use
extensive metabolic support from the body in relation to arousal processes.
Adrenaline → pump of energy. Emotions are therefore embodied processes that have
physiological as well as cognitive and behavioural implications for an organism. Organisms do
not necessarily have to learn "fear" but respond to physiological experiences in the body
(selective learning process). There are basic emotions according to Ekman: anger, fear, joy,
,sadness and disgust that occur in multiple cultures and in facial expressions. The function of
emotions is to make rapid coordination of the body.
Emotions are social constructs
Another perspective is that emotions are not biological entities at all, but are socially constructed.
Like language, emotions are learned behaviours that occur only in a specific culture. Instead of
there being universal basic emotions, there is a set of different emotions that are culturally
determined.
The independent self is a form of individualism caused by internal factors such as personal
motivations. The interdependent self, in contrast, is a more collectivist approach, where external
factors come into play (an external factor is, for example, the social context).
Emotions are the result of perception of bodily changes
There are two main approaches to the scientific studies of emotions. The first is the assumption
that emotions arise because we become aware of bodily changes. James (William James) argued
that we see a certain object and this causes activation in the automatic nervous system (ANS).
Lange came to the same conclusion around the same time, hence the name James-Lange theory.
You are not running because you are afraid, but you are afraid THAT you are running.
Dus:
Something happens → activation ANS (sweating, heart beats faster) → cognitive assessment,
behaviour and subjective state of feelings
Damasio extended the theory and developed his own hypothesis. Besides the activation of the
ANS, there are also biochemical and hormonal indicators of the bodily internal state that are
noticed by the brain. This is Damasio's somatic-marker hypothesis. According to Damasio, there
is also the as-if loop: The "body loop" represents actions of the body itself, while the "as-if loop"
is associated with the brain representation of the expected/expected body action. Another
difference between the James-Lange theory and Damasio's somatic-marker hypothesis is that,
according to Damasio, consciousness is not necessarily required to notice these internal changes.
According to James, emotions are equivalent to conscious states of feelings.
Emotions are the result of cognitive judgments
According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, feelings are caused by our beliefs about the world
and our relationships with people to us. He viewed anger as an impulse that comes from
,evaluating that you or your friends were offended in some way. The idea is that how we evaluate
or assess the meaning of events around us determines the kind of emotion we experience.
Cognitive valuations, then, are evaluations of the relationships between the self and the
environment.
Event → cognitive appraisal → ANS activation, behavior and subjective state of being
The neuroscientific and cognitive approaches
The focus of the book itself is on the scientific approach to emotions through a cognitive and
neuroscientific lens. Even within psychological science, there is relatively little interaction
between social, cognitive and clinical psychologists studying emotions. A more explicit
integration of neural and psychological approaches to emotions is likely to lead to a fuller and
deeper understanding of how emotions influence cognitive processes and vice versa.
Is there an emotion centre in the brain?
It has been assumed that the brain contains an area or centre dedicated to emotions (limbic
system). However, the idea that emotions are limbic and subcortical, while cognitions are
cortical, is too simplistic. There is no region of the brain devoted to emotion. Although there is
no emotion centre in the brain, there are certain brain regions that seem to play a particularly
important role in emotions. It is important to note that there are different ideas about how
important the brain is. Studies on non-primates such as rats have focused primarily on
subcortical structures. But research in primates has focused on cortical areas.
There is now a distinction between the two areas: human-cortical and animal-cortical vision.
Differences human and animal
In terms of the human brain, a key difference from other animal species is the relative expansion
of the neocortex relative to other brain regions. The physical expansion of the human neocortex
and forebrain is called encephalization and means that there are distinct quantitative differences
in the anatomy of the human brain compared to other mammals. Many psychologists have
pointed out that cognitive processing plays an important role in human emotions. In addition,
emotions are largely developed through language, for example.
Although emotion processing has not shifted from subcortical to cortical areas, it is possible that
the focus of emotion processing has shifted slightly upward. Empirical evidence pointing to the
possibility of a subtle reorganisation of the neural basis of emotions in humans comes from the
fact that damage to the cortex disrupts emotional processing in humans much more than in rats.
, Basic neuroanatomy
There are no brain areas unique to emotions, but there are areas of the brain that are crucial for
developing normal emotions. From top to bottom, the human brain can be divided into three
major areas:
1. Cerebrum: the large brain consists of the neocortex. The cerebrum is also divided into
four lobes (frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes). See image below.
2. Midbrain
3. Brain stem
The brain is divided into two hemispheres: left and right. All structures in the brain occur twice,
once on the left and once on the right. Although we often talk about brain structures in the
singular, we must remember that there are actually two parts.