Emotions
• Violent impulses?
• Control or losing control
• Physiology and psychology and also how we
interpret events, situations and the
requirements of culture
• Without emotions much of the value of life
would be gone in addition other people would
become difficult to understand or predict
• Group formation, motivation, goal direction
are all made possible by emotions
• Disgust helps us avoid noxious substances
• Embarrassment help in appeasement
• Physiological , cognitive and cultural
• Emotions and the Body:
• Primary emotions: Fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust,
contempt
• Secondary: May vary from culture to culture
• Face and emotions: Darwin: Innateness of emotions
• Ekman (1987): Both display and recognition are universal for
the primary emotions
• Also ‘pride’ seems common. Blind people show elation in
similar way
• 80 muscles groups involved in coding emotional displays
•
 Emotions
• Functions of emotions
• Facial feedback
• Both subjective feelings and physiological changes occur when we
‘put on’ the facial expression of an emotion
• Loss of emotional displays (botox) lowers ability to perceive
emotions
• Also function from the beginning as signaling systems. Parents can
tell children different needs from display e.g., sound of crying. Also
vice versa: Infants suck pacifiers longer if it evokes a smile
• Also ‘social referencing’ and the visual cliff
•
• Limits to universality: we are more accurate at recognizing
emotions within our cultural group
• Same displays can have different meanings in different contexts
• Our recognition is influenced by broader contexts e.g., disgust /
anger
• Emotions and the Brain:
• Different parts involved in recognizing, feeling, expressing
and acting on an emotion
• Specific circuitry e.g., disgust area damage limits recognition
and expression
• Most evoke action also e.g., Joy and anger -> approach vs.
disgust / fear -> avoid
• Prefrontal cortex areas are involved
• Right prefrontal -> withdraw i.e., fear and disgust
• Left prefrontal -> approach emotions
• Greater than average activation of left prefrontal have more
positive feelings and ability to recover from negative ones
 Emotions
• Prefrontal also involved in regulation
• Loss of ability to respond to others /
control self and notice others
response
• Amygdala in the limbic system
involved in anger and fear. Evaluating
sensory information and deciding
withdraw or approach
• Inhibitory connection between the
prefrontal cortex and amygdala
• Damage to amygdala leads to an
inability to recognize fear and turning
off their own fear responses
• Animal models: Amygdala damage,
poor fear response
• Damaged pathways, inability to inhibit
fear
• Mirror Neurons: Involved but planned
movement. But also others planned
movements. Respond to fairly limited
kinds of intentional behaviors
 Emotions
• Empathy and recognizing intentions, and • Energy of emotions:
imitating actions and goals
• Empathy does not work for people or • Epinepherine and norepinephrine
groups we dislike
• Pain empathy, fear of events involving • Arousal and the ‘tingling’ sensation
others even involuntary copying of others
posture, actions and emotions -> mood
contagion • The overall footprint of physiological arousal
in unique for different emotions but pattern
• When there is rapport in mood, gestures
of each emotion is shared between people
and posture we cooperate and feel happy
• Collective phenomenon like ‘Happy
networks’ • James-Lange Theory
 Emotions
• Cognitions and Emotions: See are bear • Exams
on a trek. Emotion will depend on Are • Own effort – satisfied, competent, proud
you tired and weak or a biologist
studying bears? • Got Lucky – gratitude, surprise, guilt
• Failure self – regretful, guilty. Resigned
• Stoics: Thinking makes us happy / sad • Others – angry
• Singer-Schacter (1962) Both
physiological arousal and your cognitive • Olympics – Gold, bronze, silver
label for the same matter
• Beliefs, perceptions of situation and
• Some emotions require simple
expectations matter
cognitions or primitive feelings
• Attributions / Appraisals:
 Emotions
• Shame, guilt are more complex cognitively
• Where do such expectations or attributions
come form?
• Culture
• Culture specific emotions – schadenfreude,
hagaii (anguish-frustration) mehameha
(trembling when ordinary sensations are
suspended)
• Primary vs. secondary emotions. Latter may
well be culturally evoked
• Primary emotions considered more
prototypical the world over vs. irritable /
nostalgic
• Primary emotion words earlier in
development
• Some argue that even primary are
culturally determined e.g., whether anger
is useful or destructive. Also some cultural
distinctions e.g., shame / loss of face
rather than anger considered more ‘basic’
• Also cultures determine what emotions
are felt ‘about’ i.e., triggers
 Emotions
• Display rules: When to display /
suppress emotions
• Americans vs Germans: Cold,
aloof vs. insincere
• Japanese: Wide set of rules on
covering emotions with smile
• Emotional work: Display of
emotion in order to fulfil a role
• Gender and Emotion: No evidence that
any gender feels more of a common
emotion. However, differences in
expression and perception by others
• Angry-Male: Happy-Female
• Anger at work – Male high status vs.
Female loss of status
• Women: Greater expectation to smile.
Smile more, gaze more and more
expressive faces, and gestures
• VS. Men only one emotion expressed
more Anger directed at strangers
 Emotions
• Situations may override such gender • Hypothalamus -> Sympathetic NS
differences Epinephrine from ‘inner’ medulla or adrenal
• Also status differences may also mask glands
expression • Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal cortex (HPA)
• Gender differences not culturally universal E.g., • External adrenal releases ‘cortisol’ + sugar
Italian, French Also in Asia both sexes curb and lower inflammation damage
expression

• Low SSE and related health risks may be due

• Stress to chronic effects hypertension, obesity,
• Stress and Body: Selye (1956) GAS diabetes
• Alarm – Fight or flight • Children are vulnerable
• Resistance – chronic response • Not all reactions are the same. Some people
• Exhaustion are more reactive
 Emotions
• Immune System • Makes no difference in serious
(PsychoNeuroImmunology) PNI illness but other wise is correlated
• Killer T cells • Optimists take better care
• Helper T cells
• These circulate in the brain and are • Locus of Control:
regulated by it
• Also telomere. Stress leads to • Rotter Internals vs. Externals
shorter telomeres • Primary control: Over events
• Stress and Cognition • Secondary Control: Altering
• Optimism vs. Pessimism expectations and desires