Emotions

What are Emotions and Moods?

 Emotions
Emotion is a complex psychological event that
involves mixture of events
1. Physiological response ( arousal)
2. An expressive reaction ( distinctive facial
expression, body posture, or vocalization)
3. Some kind of subjective experience ( internal
thought and feelings)
 Emotion:
More Than a Feeling
A feeling state involving a pattern of facial and bodily
changes, cognitive appraisals, and beliefs.

Physiological
Cultural Influences
Changes (in body
(shape experience and
and facial Emotion expression of emotion)
muscles)

Cognitive Processes (interpreting the emotional

situation)
 Difference Between Emotions and
Moods
 Emotions (affect) refers to feelings that involve subjective
evaluation, physiological processes, and cognitive beliefs
 Emotions are immediate response to environmental
events, such as being cut off in traffic or getting a nice gift
 Moods are diffuse and long lasting emotional states that
influence rather interrupt thought and behavior
 Many times people who are in good moods have no idea
why they feel the way they do
 According to some psychologists, moods reflects people’s
perceptions of whether they have personal resources
necessary to meet environmental demands
 How are Emotions Adaptive
 Emotions are adaptive because they prepare and guide
behaviors such as;
 Running away when you encounter dangerous animals
 Because humans are social animals many emotions
involve interpersonal dynamics
 People feel hurt when teased, angry when insulted,
happy when loved, proud when complimented
 People interpret emotions facial expressions of
emotions to predict the behavior of other people
 Facial expressions provide many cues about whether
our behavior is pleasing to others or whether it is likely
to cause them to reject, attack
I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk now. She
looks like she is feeling …………………

Angry
What a face. I think he needs to find
something to do. He looks ………………….

Bored
Maybe I should explain things more clearly
because she looks …………………………

Confused
That group of boys are being horrible and
they are making the boy sat down feel
…………

Embarrassed
I think all her Christmas’s have come at
once. She looks …………………..

Excited
Something isn’t going right for someone.
She is getting …

Frustrated
 I wonder what his mum will say? I
wonder if he’s feeling ………………………?

Guilty
Wow this looks fun. Both the boys look
…………

Happy
I think he wants to be picked. He is
looking ……………………..

Hopeful
I think that the boy on the left wishes he
had that top. He looks like he is feeling
………..

Jealous
The other girls won’t let her join in. She is
feeling ………………………….

Left out
Look at this bundle of loveliness. This baby
is feeling …………..

Loved
The teacher is showing everyone his
work. I bet he feels ……………..

Proud
Oh dear I wonder what has happened.
They both look …………..

Sad
I think they’ve been watching horror films.
They both look …………….

Scared
Did something just happen that he wasn’t
expecting. He looks ………….

Surprised
I think he has the weight on his shoulders.
He looks ……………………

Worried
Not a care in the world, curled up with a
good book. She looks …………………….

Relaxed
 How Do People Experience Emotions
• The Emotional Experience (Arousal)
 virtually all emotions leads to psychological arousal
 Muscle tense, heart rate speeds up, blood pressure and respiration
rates skyrocket
 These emotional symptoms arise from activity of the autonomic
nervous system as it prepares the body’s muscle and organs to
fight-or-flight response
 One usually experience emotions in situations that are significant
for one reason or another
 It is adaptive to the body to react quickly in such cases, and the
rapid onset of psychological arousal serves that function well
 Psychologist have developed instruments for objective
measurement of arousal ( polygraph or lie detector test)
 How Do People Experience Emotions
• The emotional experience: Subjective norms
 Experiencing emotions is much more than just facial experience
 Your thoughts, your perceptions, the things you notice in the environment all
change when you experience an emotion, but it is difficult to measure internal
experience internally
1. Anger
 The causes of anger are many
 Generally people tend to get angry when their expectations are frustrated
 Is it better to express your anger or hold it in?
 Psychologist remain undecided about the benefits of “venting” anger or blowing
off steam
 On the one hand, expressing your feeling may have cathartic effect : the
expression of anger can lead to an emotional release that is ultimately calming.
On the other hand, getting physically angry could well increase the chances you
will get angry again
 When you express anger and get the calming effect that follows, you reinforce
or reward the response
 Encouraging people to express their feelings of anger leads to more expression
of anger in future
 How Do People Experience Emotions
Disgust
 Disgust is a marked aversion towards something
distasteful
 It is easy to appreciate why this emotion is an
important tool for adaptive mind, especially as a
mechanism to ensure that we select and reject
the appropriate foods
 The experience of disgust seems to be universal
but the emotion takes a while to develop in all of
its various forms
 How Do People Experience Emotions
Happiness
 Little relationship exists between observable
characteristics such as age, sex. race, or income ,
and experience of happiness instead people tend
to gain or loose happiness as a result of
comparison they make either with others (social
comparison) or things or experiences from the
past
 People set standards for satisfaction and they are
happy to the extent that these standards are
maintained or surpassed
 Common Sense Theory of
Emotion

In the common sense theory of emotion, a stimulus (snarling

dog) leads to an emotion of fear, which then leads to bodily
arousal (in this case, indicated by shaking) through the
autonomic nervous system (ANS)
 Theories of Emotion
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Facial muscles send messages to the brain that both
identify the emotion we are feeling and intensify it.

Lazarus’ Cognitive Theory

Based on a “cognitive appraisal”, we decide if the situation is
positive, negative, or neutral.

A positive or negative appraisal triggers both physiological

arousal and the feeling of an emotion.
Facial Feedback Hypothesis: Even the forced alteration of a person’s facial experience can
change the person’s experience of emotion. The women on the left ( smiling because of the
pen in the mouth) will more likely to report happy than woman on the right.
 Facial Feedback Theory of
Emotion

In the facial feedback theory of emotion, a stimulus such as

this snarling dog causes arousal and a facial expression. The
facial expression then provides feedback to the brain about the
emotion. The brain then interprets the emotion and may also
intensify it.
Comparison of Theories of Emotion

.
Comparison of Theories of Emotion