Overview
This lecture covers the definition and key theories of emotion in social psychology, focusing on physiological responses, facial feedback, and the attribution of arousal.
Defining Emotion and Mood
- Emotions are brief, specific psychological responses driven by unmet social goals.
- Moods are more enduring than emotions and have less specific causes.
Universality of Emotional Expression
- The Duchenne smile, identified by Ekman, is a genuine smile showing crow's feet by the eyes.
- About 90% of people in isolated communities can identify happy facial expressions, but less so for other emotions.
Physiological Responses and Theories of Emotion
- Emotional reactions begin with perception, followed by emotion, leading to physiological response.
- Emotions affect the autonomic nervous system: sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (rest).
- James-Lange Theory: emotions occur after visceral arousal and motor reaction.
- Peripheral theories suggest autonomic system activation precedes the central nervous system's interpretation.
Critiques and Alternative Models
- Cannon criticized James-Lange, arguing the central nervous system and hypothalamic arousal trigger emotion and bodily response simultaneously.
- Cannon noted spinal lesion experiments where animals still showed emotion, challenging the James-Lange model.
- James-Lange theory does not account for different emotions arising from the same physiological arousal.
Facial Feedback Theory
- Laird (1984) found that forcing a smile with facial muscles made participants feel happier, supporting a feedback loop between facial expression and emotions.
Two-Factor Theory and Attribution
- Schachter and Singer (1962) proposed the two-factor theory: emotion results from undifferentiated arousal plus situational interpretation.
- In their experiments, uninformed participants attributed arousal to context, while informed participants did not.
Misattribution of Arousal
- Zillman (1978) discovered that arousal from one source (like exercise) could be misattributed to another source (like viewing cartoons or erotic images).
Key Terms & Definitions
- Emotion — brief, specific psycho-physiological response to unmet social goals.
- Mood — enduring affective state with less specific causes.
- Duchenne smile — genuine smile visible by crow’s feet near the eyes.
- James-Lange Theory — emotions follow bodily arousal.
- Cannon’s Critique — central nervous system causes emotion and arousal simultaneously.
- Facial Feedback — emotions influenced by facial expressions.
- Two-Factor Theory — emotion = arousal + cognitive interpretation.
- Misattribution of Arousal — incorrectly assigning the source of emotional arousal.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review the next lecture on related emotional psychology topics.