Cognition and Emotion

1. Emotions consist of 3 components1. Physiological changes that are not

conscious (autonomic, sympathetic, parasympathetic and endocrine system activation); fight or flight response

2. The person’s subjective feeling/interpretation of the emotion also known as APPRAISAL3. Associated behavior as a result of the emotion

1. Lazarus and Folkman: emotion less important than the appraisal and behavior that follows

Lazarus’s Appraisal Theory–Definition: evaluations related to how a

situation will impact one’s well being (Lazarus)• Benefit appraisal = positive emotion (aka Primary)•Harm appraisal = negative emotion (aka Secondary)• Active interpretation (appraisal) is the psychological (cognitive) aspect to emotion (aka Outcome) (Lazarus, 1975)

Lazarus and Folkman’s Research on Appraisals (1984, 1988)

One’s experience of stress can be influenced by:–Threat vs. Challenge appraisal–Belief in one’s coping abilities»Hardiness (Kobasa)

–Motivation, self efficacy, locus of control–Social networks/connections/support

2 Strategies for Dealing with Stressful Situations

• 1. Problem focused coping: aimed at changing/solving the problem

• 2. Emotion focused coping: aimed at dealing with the emotional responses

Coping Styles

Problem Focused

Analyze reasons for errors and correct them

Try again and don’t worry about it

Emotion Focused

Use relaxation techniques to reduce stress

Ignore the situation as if it didn’t really bother you

Approach Avoidance

Biological Factors in Emotion

–LeDoux (1999) describes two biological pathways for emotion in the brain • Short route: from Thalamus to

Amygdala (aka Direct Pathway)• Long route: from Thalamus to Sensory

cortex to Hippocampus to Amygdala to Brain stem to body for response (aka Indirect Pathway)

Long route accounts for the appraisal portion of an emotional response

Existence of both long and short routes allows for greater flexibility/efficiency of responses

The Two Factor Theory: Combining Cognition and Physiology

• Schachter and Singer (1962)– emotion is a function of both cognitive

factors and physiological arousal– people search the immediate

environment for emotionally relevant cues to label and interpret unexplained physiological arousal

Emotion and a Cognitive Process: Flashbulb Memories

• Why are some events so hard to forget, even if we would like to?

– Flashbulb memory: vivid and detailed memories of highly emotional events that are effortlessly encoded (Brown and Kulik, 1977)

– 73 of 80 subjects reported flashbulb memories of personal events

VS

• Role of the Amygdala is critical in flashbulb formation, adding an emotional cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters that assign a significance to the event that separate it from other events

• While emotion can strengthen memories, emotion does not necessarily make memories more accurate

Neisser (1982) Questions Validity/Reliability of Flashbulb Memories

• Flashbulb accuracy can be influenced by the following:1. Narrative Convention (the need to

make the memory a coherent story)2. Place, setting, context and audience3. Our own personal Schemas4. Media coverage (see 9/11 research

from APA article)5. Neisser’s Study

1. Questioned subjects 24 hours after the Challenger explosion, then again 2 years later

2. 40% had distorted/different memories at second reporting

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHULrCMRLUg