Expressed and Experienced Emotion

Detecting Emotion• All of us communicate verbally and nonverbally.• Experience can sensitize us to particular

emotions.– Abused children are much quicker than other children

at recognizing the signals of anger.

Anger Fear50% Anger 50% Fear

Detecting Emotions

• Our brains can easily detect subtle expressions.– A glimpse of a face for just one tenth of a second is

enough for people to judge somebody's trustworthiness.

Detecting Emotion: Deception• While out brains are very good at detecting most emotions

one emotion we are not very good at detecting is deception or deceiving expressions.– The common belief is that you can tell if somebody is lying

by looking them in the eyes.– When tested people were only 54% accurate at telling if

somebody was lying by looking them in the eyes. This is slightly better than a coin toss or chance.

– However some people are more sensitive to physical cues of deception.

Detecting Emotion: Technology• Gestures, facial expressions, and tones of voice are all

absent in electronic communication.– This is why it is easy for many people to misread text or emails.

dang it.. when when I said lets go have dinner i did not mean it as a date...

Why in the world are you mad??? Wait i know... I didn't put lol after that last statement so you took it wrong

Actual Facebook status updates:

He just said “I love you” and I texted back “I love YOUTUBE” real fast. I don`t feel the same

Gender and Emotion: Women• Is women’s intuition superior to men’s?

– Women generally surpass men at reading peoples emotional cues.– This nonverbal sensitivity also gives women an edge in spotting lies.– Women also have a greater emotional literacy…they can describe

more complex emotional reactions.-Example…males might say “I feel bad”, females might say “It will be bittersweet, I will fill happy and sad”-This could also be explained by the fact that women generally use more vocabulary during the day than men.

Gender and Emotion: Anger

• Imagine an angry face…• Now is that face male or

female?• 75% of the people in an

Arizona State University study said male.

• Anger is an emotion that many people associate with males even though many people see females as being more emotionally expressive.

Gender and Emotion: Empathy• Women are likely to describe themselves as empathic

however, in a study that measured the physiological effects of empathy they found that there is a much smaller gap than is reported in surveys.

• Females are more likely to express their empathy than males.

Although males and females did not differ in self-reported emotions or physiological responses while viewing emotional films, the women's faces showed much more.

Culture and Emotional Expression

• Are nonverbal expressions of emotion universally understood?– Some are and some

are not• The American “thumps

up” and “A-OK” signs are considered insults in other countries.

Culture and Emotional Expression• Facial expressions are somewhat universal.

– A smile is a smile world wide– Simple facial expressions

• Even isolated groups of people share universal facial expressions.• Facial expressions even among the blind are universal.

• Lets see how good you are at detecting emotions from facial expressions from people in different cultures!

What Emotion is This?

HAPPINESS

What Emotion is This?

SURPRISE

What Emotion is This?

FEAR

What Emotion is This?

SADNESS

What Emotion is This?

ANGER

What Emotion is This?

DISGUST

Culture and Emotional Expression

• Although cultures share a universal facial language for basic emotions, they differ in how much emotion they express.– Cultures that encourage more individuality display

more visible emotions.

The Effects of Facial Expressions• Do our facial Expressions influence our

feelings?• Expressions not only communicate

emotion, they also amplify and regulate it.– Try it…fake a big smile– Now Scowl

• Facial Feedback = the effect of facial expressions on experienced emotions.– When a facial expression intensifies

emotional feelings.• Pencil Experiment• Botox Experiment

Experienced Emotions• How many emotions are there?

– Carroll Izard identified 10 basic emotions:• Joy• Excitement • Surprise• Sadness • Anger• Disgust • Contempt• Fear• Shame• Guilt

– All other emotions are combinations of these 10 emotions

Fear: What is the function of fear?

• Fear can be debilitating and contagious.– 1903 Chicago theatre fire.

• Fear is the bodies alarm system.• Fear also protects us from harm.• Fear of punishment can restrain us.• Common fear against enemies can

also cause groups of people to bond.

• Fearful expressions also improve sensory reactions by improving peripheral vision and speed eye movements.

Learning Fear

• Through our experiences and possibly conditioning we learn to fear many things.

• Learning by observation can also expand our list of fears.– Almost all wild monkeys

fear snakes, yet lab monkeys do not.

– This means that we may learn many of our fears from parents or friends.

Biology of Fear• We may be biologically prepared to learn some fears more quickly

than others.– Monkeys, snakes, and flowers– Humans quickly learn to fear snakes, spiders, and cliffs because

these are fears that probably helped our ancestors to survive.

Biology of Fear• The Amygdala is crucial in

learning fears.– Rabbits, tones, and shocks– People with phobias show

high Amygdala activity and people that are very courageous show low Amygdala activity. (There are always extremes)

• Phobia = an intense fear of a specific objects or situations.

Biology of Fear• Experience does help to shape our fears,

however so do our genes.– In twins, ones level of fearfulness is

similar to the others, even when they have been raised apart.

• We have also discovered a gene that influences the amygdala’s response to frightening situations.– People with the short version of this

gene have less levels of a protein that speeds up reuptake of serotonin.

– With more serotonin available to activate the amygdala neurons, people with this short gene are more fearful.

ANGER!

• Societies that are more individualistic tend to vent their anger or experience catharsis.

• Catharsis = emotional release• Catharsis Theory = Releasing

anger (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.– Can be temporarily calming…

but most of the time this will just cause more anger.

– “Venting to reduce anger is like using gasoline to put out a fire.”

Anger• Best ways to handle

anger:– Time and waiting– Do not deal with

anger in ways that cause you to sulk or rehearse your anger.

• Calm your self by exercising or playing an instrument or talk to a friend.

• Forgiveness is the best way to deal with anger

Happiness• People who are happier

perceive the world as safer, feel more confident, make decisions more easily, are more cooperative and tolerant, and live healthier more satisfying lives.

• Feel-good, do-good phenomenon: People are more likely to be helpful when in a good mood.

Happiness Cycle• Positive moods rise over the

early to middle part of the day.

• Stressful events trigger bad moods. But by the next day the gloom nearly lifts away.– People usually rebound

from bad days to a better than usual day.

• In the long run our mood tends to balance.

Wealth and Well-being• Well-being = self-

perceived happiness or satisfaction with life.

• Money can buy some happiness– Richer countries are

somewhat happier than poorer ones.

• Once one has enough money to provide for their basic needs gaining more and more money will matter less and less.

Happiness and Prior Experience

• Adaptation-level phenomenon = our tendency to judge various stimuli relative to those we have previously experienced.– If your current income increases we will feel an

initial surge of pleasure and then adapt to this new level of income and consider it normal.

Happiness and Others• Happiness is relevant not only

to our past experiences but also to our comparisons with others.

• Relative deprivation = the perception that we are worse off relative to those whom we compare ourselves.– When expectations rise

above attainments happiness drops.

Predictors of Happiness