VII. Quick Review
Theories of Emotion
The Biological Bases of Emotion
Expression of Emotion
Emotion and Culture
Happiness
Theories of Emotion
- Emotion is a complex, subjective experience that is accompanied by biological and behavioral changes.
- Charles Darwin proposed that emotional expressions are hard-wired and that emotions evolved because they had adaptive value.
- Current evolutionary theorists believe that emotions are innate.
- The James-Lange theory states that people experience emotion because they perceive their bodies’ physiological responses to external events.
- The Cannon-Bard theory states that the experience of emotion and the accompanying physiological arousal happen at the same time.
- Schachter and Singer’s two-factor theory states that people’s experience of emotion depends on physiological arousal and the cognitive interpretation of that arousal.
- People’s experience of emotion depends on how they evaluate their environment.
The Biological Bases of Emotion
- Emotion involves activation of the brain and the autonomic nervous system.
- Information about emotion-evoking events moves along two pathways in the brain.
- The pathway that goes to the amygdala allows people to respond rapidly to events.
- The pathway that goes to the cortex allows people to appraise events more slowly.
- Researchers use autonomic responses to measure emotion.
- The polygraph, or lie detector, is a device that detects changes in autonomic arousal. It is often inaccurate in determining whether or not a person is lying.
- Different emotions differ in pattern of brain activation, neurotransmitters released, and autonomic nervous system activity.
Expression of Emotion
- People worldwide can identify six primary emotions: happiness, sadness, anger,fear, surprise, and disgust.
- The facial-feedback hypothesis states that the brain uses feedback from facial muscles to recognize emotions that are being experienced.
- The two genders express different amounts of emotion. This difference depends on gender roles, culture, and context.
Emotion and Culture
- People in different cultures can identify six basic emotions.
- There are universal physiological indicators of emotion.
- People in different cultures categorize emotions differently.
- Different cultures consider different emotions to be primary.
- The same situation may evoke different emotions in different cultures.
- Nonverbal expressions of emotion differ across cultures.
- Cultural norms determine how and when to display emotions that are not actually felt.
Happiness
- Subjective well-being depends more on attitudes toward circumstances than on the circumstances themselves.
- Circumstances such as social support, marriage, job satisfaction, andreligiosity are positively correlated with happiness.
- Happiness tends to depend on people’s expectations of life and on the way they compare themselves to others.