Chapter 11

Nature of Emotion:Five Perennial Questions

FIVE QUESTIONS

5. What is the difference between emotion and mood?

2. What causes an emotion?

4. What good are the emotions?

3. How many emotions are there?

1. What is an emotion?

Feelings• Subjective Experience• Phenomenological

Awareness• Cognition

Bodily Arousal• Physiological Activation• Bodily Preparation for Action• Motor Responses

EMOTION

Sense of Purpose• Goal-Directed Motivational State

• Functional Aspect

Social-Expressive• Social Communication• Facial Expression• Vocal Expression

SignificantLife Event

WHAT IS AN EMOTION?

Figure 11.1 Four Components of Emotion

Feelings• Aversive• Negative• Feeling of distress

Bodily Arousal• Decreased heart rate• Low energy level

Sadness

Sense of Purpose• Wanting to take action to overcome or reverse separation or failure

Social-Expressive• Inner Eyebrows raised• Corners of lips lowered• Crying, trembling

Separation from a Loved One, Failure on an

Important Task

Four Components of Sadness

Definition of Emotion

Emotions are short lived, feeling-arousal-purposive-expressive phenomena that help is adapt to the opportunities and challenges we face during important life events

Different aspects of emotion complement and coordinate with one another

Relationship Between Emotion and Motivation

WHAT CAUSES AN EMOTION?

SignificantSituational

Event

CognitiveProcesses

BiologicalProcesses

Feelings

Sense of

Purpose

Bodily Arousal

Social-

Expressive

Figure 11.3 Causes of the Emotion Experience

Two-Systems View

Figure 11.4 Two-Systems View of Emotion

SignificantStimulus Event

Parallel, Interactive, & Coordinated Output to Activate and Regulate Emotion

Chicken-and-Egg Problem

Plutchik (1985)

• Cognition versus biology debate as a chicken-and-egg quandary.

• Emotion is a chain of events that aggregate into a complex feedback system.

EmotionSignificantStimulus

Event

Figure 11.5 Feedback Loop in Emotion

How Many Emotions Are There?

Basic Emotions

Negative EmotionsTreat and Harm

Positive EmotionsMotive

Involvement and Satisfaction

Themes of Basic Emotions

Fear Arises from a person’s interpretation that

the situation he or she faces is dangerous and a threat to one’s well being

Common fear activating situations are rooted in the anticipation of physical or psychological harm, a vulnerability to danger, or an expectation that one’s coping abilities will not be sufficient

Fear motivates defense Can provide motivational support for

learning new coping responses

Anger

Belief that the situation is not what it should be

Most passionate emotion Also most dangerous Angry person becomes stronger and

more energized Increases one’s sense of control,

sensitivity, and awareness of the injustices of what other people do

Disgust Involves getting rid of or getting

away from a contaminated, deteriorated, or spoiled object

Function of disgust is rejection Plays a positive motivational role in

our lives Ex. We engage in behaviors like

washing the dishes, brushing our teeth, taking showers, and working out to avoid an out-of-shape or “disgusting” body

Sadness Most negative, aversive emotion Arises principally from experiences of

separation or failure Motivates the individual to initiate

whatever behavior is necessary to alleviate the distress-provoking circumstances before they occur again

Ex. The rejected lover apologizes, sends flowers, or telephones to repair the broken relationship

Feels miserable but can motivate and maintain productive behavior

Joy Desirable outcomes bring joy- success at

a task, personal achievement, progress toward a goal, getting what we want, gaining respect, receiving love or affection, receiving a pleasant surprise

Opposite emotion of sadness Joy facilitates or willingness to engage in

social activities Joy has a “soothing function” Allows us to preserve psychological well-

being

Interest

Most prevalent emotion in day to day functioning

Some level of interest is ever-present

Interest creates desire to explore, investigate, seek out, manipulate, and extract information from the objects that surround us

What Good Are The Emotions?

Coping Functions

Emotion Stimulus Situation Emotional Behavior Function of Emotion

Fear ThreatRunning, flying away

Protection

Anger Obstacle Biting, hitting Destruction

Joy Potential mate Courting, mating Reproduction

Sadness Loss of valued person

Crying for help Reunion

Acceptance Group member Grooming, Sharing Affiliation

Disgust Gruesome objectVomiting, pursing away

Rejection

Anticipation New territory Examining, mapping Exploration

Surprise Sudden novel object

Stopping, alerting Orientation

Table 11.1 Functional View of Emotional Behavior (Plutchik, 1980)

Social Functions

2. Influence how others interact with us.

4. Create, maintain, and dissolve relationships.

3. Invite and facilitate social interaction.

1. Communicate our feelings to others.

Emotions

What Is Difference Between Emotion And Mood?

Antecedents

Action-Specificity

Time course

Criteria

Everyday Mood

Positive affect and Negative affect are independent ways of feeling.

Positive Affects

Everyday, low-level, general state of feeling good.

“The Emotions aren’t Always immediately

Subject to reason, but they are always

immediately subject to action”

~ William James