Theories of Emotion Does your heart pound because

Theories of Emotion • Does your heart pound because you are afraid. . . or are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding?

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion Sight of oncoming car (perception of stimulus) Pounding heart (arousal) Fear (emotion) • Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger: – physiological responses – subjective experience of emotion

James-Lange Theory of Emotion • Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli Sight of oncoming car (perception of stimulus) Pounding heart (arousal) Fear (emotion)

James-Lange (cont. ) • Subjects report feeling more sad when viewing scenes of war, sickness, and starvation if their “sad face” muscles are activation. • They also find comic strips funnier if their “happy face” muscles are activated.

Schachter’s Two Factor Theory of Emotion Pounding heart (arousal) Sight of oncoming car (perception of stimulus) Cognitive label “I’m afraid” • To experience emotion one Fear (emotion) must: – be physically aroused – cognitively label the arousal

Schachter’s Two-Factor (cont. ) Epinephrine Study: Injection Told Emotion Group 1 Epinephrine Will increase arousal Mild Group 2 Epinephrine Will have no effect Strong

Schachter’s Two-Factor (cont. ) • Swinging Bridge Study Would you like my phone number?

Reviewing the three Emotion occurs at the same time as arousal Emotion follows (lags behind) arousal Arousal + Cognitive label Emotion

Arousal and Performance Yerkes-Dodson Law Performance level Difficult tasks Low Easy tasks Arousal High • Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or welllearned tasks

Experiencing Emotion • Does money buy happiness? Average per-person after-tax income in 1995 dollars $20, 000 $19, 000 $18, 000 100% $17, 000 90% $16, 000 $15, 000 80% $14, 000 70% $13, 000 Personal income $12, 000 60% $11, 000 50% $10, 000 Percentage very happy 40% $9, 000 30% $8, 000 $7, 000 20% $6, 000 10% $5, 000 0% $4, 000 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Year Percentage describing themselves as very happy

Experiencing Emotion • Adaptation-Level Phenomenon – tendency to form judgements relative to a “neutral” level • brightness of lights • volume of sound • level of income – defined by our prior experience • Relative Deprivation – perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

Happiness is. . . Researchers Have Found That Happy People Tend to However, Happiness Seems Not Much Related to Other Factors, Such as Have high self-esteem (in individualistic countries) Age Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable Gender (women are more often depressed, but also more often joyful) Have close friendships or a satisfying marriage Education levels Have work and leisure that engage their skills Parenthood (having children or not) Have a meaningful religious faith Physical attractiveness Sleep well and exercise

Experiencing Emotion • Catharsis – emotional release – catharsis hypothesis • “releasing” aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

Opponent-Process Theory of Emotion Strong Neutral Strong First experience (a) After repeated experiences (b)

Emotion. Lie Detectors • Polygraph – machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies – measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion • perspiration • heart rate • blood pressure • breathing changes

Emotion- A Polygraph Examination

Emotion- Lie Detectors • Control Question – Up to age 18, did you ever physically harm anyone? • Relevant Question – Did the deceased threaten to harm you in any way? • Relevant > Control --> Lie

Emotion. Lie Detectors Respiration Perspiration Heart rate Control Relevant question (a) Control question Relevant question (b)

Emotion. Lie Detectors Percentage • 50 Innocents • 50 Theives 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Innocent people Guilty people Judged innocent by polygraph Judged guilty by polygraph – 1/3 of innocent declared guilty – 1/4 of guilty declared innocent (from Kleinmuntz & Szucko, 1984)