ch.10 ppt – Neurochemistry – Flashcards
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Emotion
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The immediate, specific response to environmental events. Involves subjective evaluation, physiological processes, and cognitive beliefs. Often referred to as affect. We experience emotions subjectively. Degree of intensity varies between individuals. Extremes may indicate psychological problems. Overemotional -> Depression, panic attacks Underemotional -> Alexithymia (e.g. Elliot)
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Mood
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Diffuse, long-lasting emotional states that influence thought and behavior.
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Primary emotions
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Emotions that are evolutionarily adaptive, shared across cultures, and associated with specific physical states.
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Primary emotions 7
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Anger Fear Sadness Disgust Happiness Surprise/Content Pride
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Secondary emotions
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A blend of the primary emotions: Remorse Guilt Submission Anticipation
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Two core aspects of emotion
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Valence Arousal
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Valence
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Positivity or negativity of an emotion. Can be experienced simultaneously (e.g., leaving for college). Separate neurochemistry.
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Arousal
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Physiological activation or increased autonomic response.
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Emotional Development
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Newborns experience pleasure and distress. By 8 - 9 mos. of age, infants display all primary emotions.] Evidence that very young children can recognize emotion. 4 - 7 month old infants dishabituate to different emotional expressions. Social referencing: E.g., Visual cliff
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Positive emotions:
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Newborns smile during REM sleep. 4 - 6 weeks - Smile when awake. 2 - 3 mos. - Smile socially.
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Negative emotions:
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2 mos. - Express anger and sadness 6 -7 mos. - Display fear of strangers 8 mos. - Display separation anxiety
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Theories of emotion
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James-Lange Theory Facial Feedback Hypothesis Cannon-Bard Theory Schacter-Singer Two-factor Theory
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James-Lange Theory
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We feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble; it's not that we cry, strike, or tremble because we are sorry, angry, or fearful. Stimulus: a bear approaching Arousal: heart pumping. crying, trembling, run away Emotion: fear
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Facial Feedback Hypothesis
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A person's facial expressions trigger that person's experience of emotion. Laird (1974)-People with pencil smile rated cartoons as funnier that people with a pencil frown.
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Cannon-Bard Theory
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Mind and body do not experience emotion at the same time. Mind is quick to experience. Body is much slower. Many emotions result in similar body experience.
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Schacter-Singer Two-factor Theory
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Not just "feelings" - Includes a cognitive attribution of arousal.
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Cognition affects emotion
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How individuals label the cause of their arousal determines which emotion they experience. Schacter and Singer's (1962) epinephrine studies
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Misattribution of arousal
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People misidentify the source of their arousal.
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Excitation transfer
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Residual physiological arousal caused by one event can be transferred to a new stimulus.
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Brain regions most important for experiencing emotion:
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1) Amygdala 2) Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)
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Amygdala and emotion
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Quick and dirty: Deliberate Amygdala is involved in processing the emotional content of faces. Damage to the amygdala interferes with ability to detect trustworthiness.
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Quick and dirty:
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Thalamus -> Amygdala. Priority processing. Responds to threat.
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Deliberate
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From thalamus goes first to visual/auditory cortex, then to the amygdala. Confirms threat.
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PFC and emotion
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Lobes of PFC are associated with different affect. Cerebral asymmetry: Left frontal lobe - Positive affect Right frontal lobe - Negative affect Individuals differ in right v. left hemisphere domination, which is associated with mood. E.g., Lobe activation and emotional intensity ratings of film clips Test yourself! Eye movements are associated with lobe denomination.
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Facial expressions
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Facial expressions provide many clues about whether our behavior is pleasing others or not. Two main areas associated with emotion expressions: Eyes Mouth
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Whole face
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Mouths are better
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One feature
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Eyes are better
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Some emotions are cross-cultural:
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Happiness Sadness Anger Disgust Recognition of facial expressions may be biologically-based.
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Duchenne smile
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(a real smile) - Upward turning of corners of mouth, drooping eyelids, and crinkling of the corner of the eyes.
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Pan Am smile
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(a fake smile) - Movement of mouth, but not eyes.
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Display rules
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- Rules that govern how and when people exhibit emotions. Learned through socialization. Differ across cultures Display rules differ between genders: Woman express more emotion than men, except anger and dominance. Does not mean that women experience more intense emotions than men.
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Emotions affect cognition
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Affective forecasting influences our decision making. Allows for quicker and more efficient decision making, but they are often less desirable decisions. Affective responses color our perceptions at the time that we notice an object. When emotions and cognitions are in conflict, emotions often win. Affect as information theory
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Affect as information theory
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We use our current moods to make judgments and appraisals, often when we do not know the source of the mood.
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Somatic markers
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Bodily reactions that arise from the emotional evaluation of an action's consequences. Somatic markers guide us to engage in adaptive behaviors. Gut feelings A lack of arousal may lead to future poor behavior.
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Emotions and interpersonal relationships
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Human beings are social animals. Survival is linked to group belonging. Rejection is associated with limited opportunities to pass on genes (and a whole host of negative social outcomes). Self-conscious emotions
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Self-conscious emotions
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Emotions that developed to cue potential exclusion from our ingroup. Guilt Embarrassment
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Guilt
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A negative emotional state associated with anxiety, tension, and agitation. Not necessarily a bad state. Can reinforce desired behaviors. Feelings of guilt deter behaviors that harm others. Displays of guilt indicate care for others and affirm social bonds. Guilt can be used as a tactic to manipulate others.
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Embarrassment
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Typically occurs after violating a social or cultural norm, losing physical poise, being teased, or experiencing threat to self-image. Restores social bonds Signs of embarrassment (e.g., blushing) elicit sympathy and forgiveness from others.
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Gross's (1999) strategies for regulating negative emotions:
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Humor Thought suppression and rumination(inverse of thought supression) Distraction
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Humor
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Humor increases positive affect. Laughter stimulates endocrine system, improves immune system, and stimulates dopamine, serotonin, and endorphin release. People sometimes laugh during inappropriate moments. Keltner and Bonannoa (1997) - Laughter when talking about a lost spouse was associated with positive mental health and fewer negative feelings (e.g., grief).
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Thought suppression
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Attempting to not to feel or respond to any emotion at all. Very difficult to suppress emotions. Often leads to rebound effects
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rebound effects
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The thoughts you are trying to suppress become hyper accessible.
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Rumination
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Thinking about, elaborating, or focusing on undesired thoughts or feelings. Prolongs mood and impedes implementation of proper emotional regulation.
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Distraction
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Involves doing something or thinking about something other than the troubling emotion. Absorbs attention to take focus away from problem. Distraction can backfire, leading to a new problem. Over-eating, binge drinking, spending too much money ("retail therapy").
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Motivation
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Factors that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. Emotions are our primary source of motivation. Approach people and situations that make us feel good. Avoid people and situations that make us feel bad. Emotions + Motivations = Things Happen!
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Four qualities of motivational states:
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1) Energizing 2) Directive 3) Persist 4) Strength
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Energizing
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Activate behaviors
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Directive
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Guide behaviors toward goal
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Persist
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Continue behavior until goal is reached
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Strength
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Differ depending on interval v. external forces
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Need
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A state of biological or social deficiency. Basic biological needs: Food, water, and air. Biological needs are not enough for survival - We must also fill social needs (e.g., group belonging). Needs lead to goal-directed behavior. Failure to satisfy some needs can lead to psychosocial or physical impairment. Maslow's (1943) Hierarchy of Needs Lacks empirical support
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Self-actualization
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A state that is achieved when one's persona dreams and aspirations have been attained. "What a man can be, he must be" (Maslow, 1968, p. 46).
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Drive
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A psychological state that by creating arousal, motivates an organism to satisfy a particular need. need: food->drive:hunger->behavior:eating
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Homeostasis
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The idea of drive create homeostasis A tendency for bodily functions to maintain equilibrium. Basic drives (e.g., hunger, thirst) help animals to maintain equilibrium.
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Drives
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Deprivation increases drive in direct proportion to the amount of deprivation. Very hungry -> More driven to find food Drive state creates arousal, which encourages you to do something to reduce the drive. More driven to find food -> Late-night snack If behavior consistently reduces a drive, it becomes a habit. Late-night snack satisfies hunger -> Habit Drive motivates behavior by creating arousal. More arousal -> More motivation -> More performance
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Yerkes-Dodson Law
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Performance increases arousal up to an optimal point, and them decreases.
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Pleasure principle
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Drives people to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
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Hedonism
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Originated with the ancient Greeks, refers to humans' desire for pleasantness. We are driven to engage in some behaviors because they feel good.
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Extrinsic motivation
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Motivation to perform an activity because of external goals which an activity is directed. E.g., Receiving a grade, getting a paycheck
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Intrinsic motivation
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Motivation to perform an activity because of the value or pleasure associated with that activity, rather than for an external goal or purpose. E.g., Reading a good book, listening to music Intrinsically-motivated behaviors are more satisfying.
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Adding a motivation
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Adding an external reward to an intrinsically-motivated behavior undermines intrinsic motivation (Lepper et al., 1973). Opposite of what operant conditioning would predict. what to earn a good grade instead of what we learn from the class
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theories undermining extrinsic interest:
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Self-determination theory Self-perception theory
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Self-determination theory
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Removes the feeling that people are choosing to do something for themselves.
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Self-perception theory
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Leads to the perception that the action was performed becomes of the external goal rather than pleasure.
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Self-regulation
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The process by which people change their behavior to attain personal goals. If you set a good goal, you work harder to achieve that goal.
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Self-efficacy
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The expectation that your efforts will lead to success. Bandura - Motivation is directly related to self-efficacy. Low self-efficacy = Low motivation. High self-efficacy = High motivation. However, unrealistic self-efficacy often leads to failure.
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Self Regulation Challenge
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One self-regulation challenge is postponing immediate gratification in pursuit of long-term goals. The ability to delay gratification is predictive of success in life. Delayed gratification in childhood -> Better school grades, higher SAT scores, better health, less substance dependence, better personal finances.
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Delayed gratification strategies
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1) Turning hot cognition into cold cognition (marshmallow to cloud) 2) ignoring 3) Self distraction
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Types of motivation
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Need to belong Eating
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Need to belong
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The need for interpersonal affiliation is a fundamental motive that has evolved for adaptive purposes (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Increased anxiety / low state self-esteem leads to affiliation motives.
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Eating
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Interactions between biology, cultural influences, and cognitions determine eating behaviors. Eating is greatly affected by learning. We have been classically condition to eat at "meal times." Culture plays a large role in what we consider food. We do not consider all nutrient-rich things to be food. People have been known to starve to death rather than eat something their culture does not consider food.
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Eating (Hypothalamus)
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Inhibitory and excitatory feeding messages. Organization of eating behavior. Hyperphagia Aphagia
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Hyperphagia
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Over-eating / obesity (Ventromedial hypothalamus)
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Aphagia
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Stop eating / weight loss (Lateral hypothalamus)
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Eating (hormones)
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Leptin Gherlin
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Leptin
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Involved in fat regulation. Travels to hypothalamus and inhibits eating behavior. Slow-acting Better for long-term fat regulation, not immediate eating inhibition.
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Gherlin
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Plays a role in triggering eating behavior. Originates in the stomach Surges before meals.
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Sexual motivation
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Kinsey and his colleagues published two volumes on human sexuality collective referred to as "The Kinsey Reports:" Sexual Behavior of the Human Male (1948) Sexual Behavior of the Human Female (1953)
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The Kinsey Reports
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revealed that men an women were not different in sexual behaviors and attitudes. Stunning statistics that challenged perceived norms. 50% of respondents engaged in pre-marital sex. Masturbation was common among both men and women. Homosexuality was far more common than previously believed.
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William Masters and Virginia Johnson
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Recorded the first laboratory data on physiological components of sexual behavior. Identified the sexual response cycle.
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Sexual response cycle
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1) Excitement phase 2) Plateau phase 3) Orgasm phase 4) Resolution phase
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Excitement phase
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Vasocongestion-blood starts to flow
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Plateau phase
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Increases in pulse rate, breathing, and blood pressure
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Orgasm phase
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Involuntary muscle contractions throughout the body
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Resolution phase
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Males enter a refractory period; females may experience multiple orgasms.
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Sexual Motivation (hormones)
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Androgens Testosterone Oxytocin
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Androgens
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Males - Related to sexual function
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Testosterone
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Females - Related to sexual desire.
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Oxytocin
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Released during arousal and orgasm. Believed to promote feelings of love and attachment.
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Gender differences:
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Men report a higher level of sexual motivation than women. Men tend to masturbate more often than women. Men spend more time and money trying to obtain sex than women. Men initiate sexual behavior more and refuse sex less often than women. When asked about the ideal number of sexual partners: Women respond 1 - 2 partners. Men respond several dozen partners.
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Sexual strategies theory
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Women and men have evolved distinct mating strategies because they have faced different adaptive problems over the course of human history. Strategies used maximize the probability of passing on genes. For women, intensive care and commitment involved in reproduction. For men, less commitment and longer reproductive availability.
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Women should:
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Be choosier with mates. Chose a mate with adequate resources for raising offspring. Look for qualities that indicate a good caretaker.
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Men should:
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Care about appearance and youthfulness.
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Sexual orientation
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An endurring pattern of romantic attraction, sexual behavior, and erotic fantasies. Both a personal and social identity. Caused by biological and environmental factors. Hormones, brain structures, and genes have all been identified as potential influences of sexual orientation. Studies fail to replicate. Correlational in nature.
