Chapter 13

The Subjective and Physiological Nature of Emotions

I. Emotions and Their Subjective Characteristics A. Components of Emotion

The components are subjective affect, facial expressions, physiological arousal, associated behavior, and brain processes.

B. Methods for Uncovering Basic Emotions 1. Category Analysis of Emotion Words

Analyses of the meaning of emotion words resulted in the formation of seven basic categories of emotion.

Emotion prototype: common meaning of all words in a category.

2. Dimensional Analysis of Emotion Words A valence dimension ranges from unpleasantness to

pleasantness. An intensity dimension ranges from low to high.

I. Emotions and Their Subjective Characteristics

3. Evolution Theory Emotions are classified by their ability to aid species

survival. 4. Facial Expressions

Each basic emotion is characterized by a unique facial expression.

5. Conclusions on Categories of Emotion Emotions in a category are qualitatively similar but differ

in intensity.

I. Emotions and Their Subjective Characteristics C. Analyses of Affect

1. Describing Private Affective Experience Qualia: primitive subjective experiences that are not fully

describable. It is difficult to describe affect to a person who is emotionally

blind. 2. Emotional Education

Through this process children learn to label their affective feelings.

3. Emotion Words and Relationships or Causes An emotion word describes the relationship between the

person and the object that produce the emotion. 4. Intensity and Duration of Emotions

Emotions can vary in intensity (e.g., anxiety vs terror) and in duration.

I. Emotions and Their Subjective Characteristics D. Moods

1. Differences between Moods and Emotions Moods are of longer duration, of less intensity, and with less

stimulus awareness than are emotions. 2. An Analogy for Mood

Figure-ground relationship: emotion is to figure as mood is to ground.

3. Time of Day, Day of Week, and Mood Positive mood is higher midday and lower morning and night

and increases from Sunday to Monday. Negative mood increases from Saturday to Monday and then decreases to Saturday.

4. Seasonal Variation and Moods Seasonal affective disorder: very low mood in winter and for

some also in summer.

II. Arousal and Emotional Experience A. Significance of Arousal

Arousal can be the source of emotional feeling, the impetus for attending to the environment, and the motivation for action.

B. James-Lange Theory A specific emotion occurs when we become aware of our body's

unique accompanying pattern of physiological arousal. C. Cognitive Arousal Theory

Affect depends on the interpretation of one's physiological arousal based on information extracted from the situation.

D. Cannon’s Theory of Arousal Physiological arousal indicates an organism's preparedness to

make an emergency response, such as fight or flight response. Action readiness is the preparedness to execute a behavior associated with an emotion.

II. Arousal and Emotional Experience E. Function of Psychological Arousal

1. Physiological Variables Variables that are associated with affect: heart rate,

electrodermal responses, muscle activity, blood pressure, and skin temperature.

2. Methods for Inducing Emotions Real life manipulation: present actual stimuli to induce an

emotion. Directed facial action task: person moves facial muscles to

produce a pattern that matches the facial expression of an emotion.

Relived emotions task: recall memories of previous emotion episodes.

II. Arousal and Emotional Experience F. Arousal Specificity and James-Lange Theory

1. Physiological Specificity of Emotion Each unique affective experience has a hypothesized

physiological response pattern. 2. Research on Physiological Specificity of Emotion

Conclusion of this research is that discrete emotions cannot be differentiated on the basis of physiological response patterns alone.

3. Emotions of Spinal Cord-Injured Individuals Counter to predictions from the James-Lange theory,

emotional experiences were equally intense before and after a spinal cord injury.

II. Arousal and Emotional Experience G. Arousal and Cognitive Arousal Theory

1. Excitation Transfer Experiments Physiological arousal induced from one source

influences emotional experience and behavior induced by another source.

2. Emotion Stimulus as a Source of Arousal Emotion stimuli (gun, snake, nude) produce

physiological arousal.

II. Arousal and Emotional Experience H. Action Readiness and Cannon’s Theory of

Arousal 1. Emergency Responses and Negative Emotions

Discrete emotions prepare us for specific emergency responses.

2. Component Model of Somatovisceral Response Organization Patterns of physiological arousal depend on action readiness,

the situation, and cognitive demands required in the situation. 3. Behaviors for Positive Emotions

Undoing hypothesis: the function of a positive emotion to undo or terminate the effects of a negative emotion.