Understanding Emotions in Psychology

Introduction

• Public display of excessive emotion by celebrities (Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Kanye West) as examples.
• Public emotional outbursts are not unique to celebrities and are often seen as irrational.
• Emotions are important for meeting goals and improving performance despite occasional failures.
• Emotional blow-ups indicate abnormal emotional functions.

Definition of Emotion

• Emotion: Integrated mind and body response to a stimulus.
• Involves:
  • Physiological arousal
  • Expressive behaviors
  • Conscious experience
• Example: Walking home at night and hearing footsteps.
• Psychological puzzle: How do thinking and feeling interact?
• Key Question: Do bodily reactions trigger thoughts or vice versa?

Theories of Emotion

James-Lange Theory

• Pioneered by William James and Carl Lange.
• Key Idea: Feelings follow bodily reactions to external situations.
• Examples: Feeling sad because you are crying, scared because you are shaking.

Cannon-Bard Theory

• Proposed by Walter Cannon and Philip Bard.
• Key Idea: Bodily responses and emotions occur separately and simultaneously.
• Example: A racing heart and feeling of fear happen together but independently.

Two-Factor Theory

• Developed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer.
• Key Idea: To experience emotion, one must feel physiological arousal and cognitively label it.
• Experiment with college men injected with epinephrine:
  • Subjects' emotions were influenced by an actor's behavior when they weren't informed of the drug's effects.
• Conclusion: Arousal spurs emotion, but cognition directs it.

Zajonc's Theory

• Proposed by Robert Zajonc.
• Key Idea: Some emotions occur separately or before cognitive processing.
• Examples: Reacting to a loud crash before identifying the sound.

Neural Pathways of Emotion

High-Road Pathway

• Used for complex emotions like love and hatred.
• Sensory input travels through the thalamus to the brain’s cortex for analysis.
• Example: Reading a love letter and feeling warmth.

Low-Road Pathway

• Used for basic likes, aversions, and fears.
• Sensory input bypasses the cortex and goes directly to the amygdala.
• Example: Instant reaction to a loud crash or an incoming baseball.

Autonomic Nervous System and Emotion

• Sympathetic Division: Arouses the body in a crisis (e.g., increased heart rate, respiration).
• Parasympathetic Division: Calms the body after the crisis (e.g., slow heart rate, decrease stress hormones).

Optimal Arousal

• Finding the right degree of arousal is crucial (e.g., focusing without freaking out or getting sleepy).
• Biological Signals Overlap: Fear, anger, and sexual arousal share similar physiological responses but feel different.

Brain Activity and Emotion

• Positive Feelings: More activity in the left frontal lobe.
• Negative Feelings: More activity in the right frontal lobe.
• Fear Response: Increased activity in the amygdala.

Conclusion

• Emotions drive significant human behaviors.
• Understanding and reading emotions is crucial for daily interactions.
• Misreading emotions can be dangerous and will be further explored.

Credits

• Written by Kathleen Yale
• Edited by Blake de Pastino
• Consultant: Dr. Ranjit Bhagwat
• Directed and edited by Nicholas Jenkins
• Script Supervisor and Sound Designer: Michael Aranda
• Graphics Team: Thought Café