Emotions

There are six basic emotions and facial

expressions for these emotions are
universal.
Universal Facial Expressions

Paul Ekman
Universal Facial Expressions

ANGER

Paul Ekman
Universal Facial Expressions

ANGER FEAR

Paul Ekman
Universal Facial Expressions

ANGER FEAR DISGUST

Paul Ekman
Universal Facial Expressions

ANGER FEAR DISGUST

SURPRISE
Paul Ekman
Universal Facial Expressions

ANGER FEAR DISGUST

SURPRISE JOY
Paul Ekman
Universal Facial Expressions

ANGER FEAR DISGUST

SURPRISE JOY SADNESS

Paul Ekman
 Display Rules
Cultural norms for when and how strongly to express emotions.
How do display rules differ in the south as compared
to other parts of the US?
Theories of Emotion

• Does your heart pound

because you are afraid... or
are you afraid because you
feel your heart pounding?
 James-Lange
Theory of Emotion
• Emotion-arousing stimulus causes a
physiological response which directly causes a
subjective experience of an emotion.

Emotion-arousing stimulus. Physiological response Subjective experience of

emotion
 Facial Feedback
• 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.
 Cannon-Bard
Theory of Emotion
• Emotion-arousing
stimulus
simultaneously
triggers:
– physiological response
– subjective experience
of emotion
Schachter’s Two Factor
Theory of Emotion
• To experience
emotion one
must:
– be physically
aroused
– cognitively
label the
arousal
Schachter’s Two-Factor (cont.)
Epinephrine Study:

Injection Told Emotion

Group 1 Epinephrine Will increase

arousal

Group 2 Epinephrine Will have no

effect
Schachter’s Two-Factor (cont.)
Epinephrine Study:

Injection Told Emotion

Group 1 Epinephrine Will increase Mild

arousal

Group 2 Epinephrine Will have no Strong

effect
 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
(“fire all your
guns at once”)
Emotion follows Arousal +
(lags behind) Cognitive label
arousal → Emotion
 Arousal and Performance
Yerkes-Dodson Law

Performance Difficult
• Performance
level Easy tasks
tasks peaks at
lower levels
of arousal for
difficult tasks,
and at higher
levels for
easy or
Low Arousal High well-learned
tasks
 Positive Psychology
- Founded by Martin Seligman (the learned
helplessness guy)
 Subjective Well-Being
Does money buy happiness?
$20,000
Average $19,000
per-person $18,000
after-tax income $17,000 100% Percentage
in 1995 dollars $16,000 90% describing
$15,000
80% themselves as
$14,000
$13,000 70% very happy
Personal
$12,000 60%
income
$11,000
$10,000 50%
Percentage very 40%
$9,000
happy
$8,000 30%
$7,000 20%
$6,000
$5,000 10%
$4,000 0%
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990
2000 Year
When people are asked to reflect on their day...

Kahneman and Deaton, 2010

When people are asked to reflect on their lives...
 Does money buy happiness?
• It depends on how you ask the question.
• Higher incomes are associated with
greater life satisfaction, but not
necessarily with daily reports of joy vs.
negative emotions.
• Emotional well-being (ie, the daily reports
of joy vs. negative emotion) correlates
positively with household income up to
about $80K, but levels out after that.
 Draw lines to match the image to the answer:

Emotion-aro Physiologi Subjective

using cal experience
stimulus. response of emotion

Schachter two-factor

Cannon-Bard theory

James-Lange theory
 Subjective Well-Being
• Adaptation-Level Phenomenon
– tendency to form judgements relative to a “neutral” level
– defined by our prior experience
– China interview
– My first apartment

• Relative
Deprivation
– perception that one is
worse off relative to
those with whom one
compares oneself
– Me watching HGTV’s
Island Hunters
 Happiness is...
Researchers Have Found That However, Happiness Seems Not Much
Happy People Tend to Related to Other Factors, Such as

Have high self-esteem Age

(in individualistic countries)

Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable Gender (women are more often

depressed, but also more often joyful)

Have close friendships or a satisfying Education levels

marriage

Have work and leisure that engage Parenthood (having children or not)
their skills

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
 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
Polygraph Examination
 Polygraph
• 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
 Polygraph
Respiratio
n

Perspiratio
n

Heart rate

Control Relevant Control Relevant

question question question question

(a) (b)
 Are polygraphs reliable?
80

70

60 • 50 Innocents
Percentage
50

40
• 50 Theives
30 – 1/3 of innocent
20
declared guilty
10

0 – 1/4 of guilty
Innocent
people
Guilty
people
declared
Judged innocent by polygraph innocent (from
Judged guilty by polygraph
Kleinmuntz &
Szucko, 1984)
fMRI for mind reading?