Lecture+10+ +Perceiving+and+Predicting+Emotion

8/13/2019 Lecture+10+ +Perceiving+and+Predicting+Emotion

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REMINDER:

PLEASETURNOFFYOURPHONES


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PSYCHOLOGYOFEMOTION:

PERCEIVINGANDPREDICTING

EMOTION

Wesley G. Moons, Ph.D.

University of California, Davis

Department of Psychology


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PREDICTINGTHEFUTURE

!Affective forecasting (Gilbert & Wilson)! Predicting ones own future affective response! Hypothetical event

! Construal process

! Durability bias! Emotion lasts less time than predicted

! Intensity bias (Buehler & McFarland, 2001)!

Emotion initially weaker than predicted

! Overall term: Impact Bias! Combined effect of intensity and durability biases! Overestimating the impact an event will have


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IMPACTBIASINAFFECTIVEFORECASTING

E

motionIntensity

Time

Forecast

Actual

EmotionalEvent


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ESTABLISHEDFORECASTINGERRORS

! Impact bias demonstrated in:1. Getting dorm assignment (or not)2. Breaking up3. Political loss or victory4. Negative personality feedback5. Not getting the job6. Receiving tenure as a faculty member (or not)7. Missing a train8. Getting picked on a dating game (or not)

! In all cases, people overestimated the impact of the event! Errors larger for negative than positive events


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MISCONSTRUAL

! Definitions! Construal = an interpretation or

imagination of how something will be

! Misconstrual = An incorrect construal! When predicting for an event, we first construe what that

event would be like:! This party will be awesome!

! We then forecast our affective response to that construal:! Im going to be really happy.

! If we misconstruethe event we arent predicting ourreactions to the right event! Instead of being happy, Im bored.


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INACCURATETHEORIES

! Theories about the intensity and duration of emotioninfluence affective forecasts

! People never really get over losing their first love.! Winning the lottery fixes all your problems.

! Such beliefs influence our forecasts:! If Jimmy breaks up with me, Ill never be happy again.! If only I could win the lottery, I would be happy forever.

! Different cultures can have different theories! Within culture, people know/endorse different theories

! Inaccurate theories make affective forecasts inaccurate


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MOTIVATEDDISTORTIONS

! Sometimes people want to feel a certain way! Or believe they should feel a certain way

! Example: Caring for terminally ill partner! Predict enormous grief upon partners death

! People often feel some relief however! People dont wantto predict relief

! So they only predict grief

! Other examples! Of course, Id be happy if you and my ex dated.! Id be happy with any gift you give me.! Getting married to you will be the happiest

moment of my life.


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UNDERCORRECTION

! People often make an initial judgment andcorrect from there! Anchoring and adjustment! Examples

! How old is Hillary Clinton?! In what year did Benjamin Franklin fly that kite?

! We also anchor (initial forecast) and adjust(correction) in our when affective forecasting! How would you feel if your best friend moved away:

!Anchor: Id be devastated!!Adjustment: But I guess she could visit and text.

! Undecorrection is an insufficient tempering of anextreme initial forecast! By default, we overestimate and undercorrection means

that our final forecasts would still be too extreme


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FOCALISM

! Excessive focus on central event! Failure to take peripheral information into account

! Imagine losing your apartment keys:! Central:

! Fear of where they could be!Anger at self for losing them!Annoyed to waste time searching

! Peripheral:! Friend to help you look and make you laugh! Work that needs to be done before deadline!Apartment manager can let you in

! Failure to recognize co-occuring factors during the event! Forecasting for the event in a vacuum

! Focalism increases extremity of negative and positive forecasts


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IMMUNENEGLECT

! Psychological Immune System (defenses/coping)! Rationalization! Attribute blame to non-self! Self-enhancement

! Imagine a break-up! Defenses kick in to make us feel better

! He was a jerk.! Im fantastic.

! Defenses work best outside of awareness! Inability to take them into account consciously

! Failure to incorporate defenses into forecast! Because they occur outside of our awareness

! Immune neglect increases impact bias for ONLY negative events.! Coping and defense strategies only related to negative events


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SELECTIVEMEMORY

! Predict how missing the trainwill make you feel! Based on prior missed train experience! Most extreme instance more accessible

! Extreme examples more easily retrieved! Remember when you fell asleep in class! Less likely to remember all the times you

got away with it

! More likely to remember the time you werecalled on by professor

! Biased memory selection biases forecast! Extreme memory leads to extreme forecast


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Euro Asian

Forecast Experience

CULTURALDIFFERENCES

! East Asians typically more holistic than European-Americans! More attention to non-central, peripheral information

! Culture influences focalism! Asians and Asian-Americans include peripheral info more

! Reduced impact bias! Forecasts may be accurate

for Asians and Asian-Americans

! Experiment:! Euro and Asian samples! Forecast happiness! Week when 68 reached


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AFFECTIVEFORECASTINGANDBEHAVIOR

! Forecasting Motivates Behavior! Leads to preparatory behaviors

! Study example! Playing dating game! Will be selected or not by date! First, can choose dose of happiness inducing pill! More anticipated negative affect in response to

rejection, the higher the dosage selected

! May be a primary source of motivation! We are motivated by our forecasts to take action

!Avoid negative and approach positive


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EMPATHICACCURACY

! Empathic accuracy! Ability to accurately perceive specific emotions and thoughts

experienced by others

! Every day mind-reading

! Target is visible and cues available! Facial expression! Body posture! Voice tone! Speech content

! Typical study procedure:1. Target is videotaped describing an emotional event2. Target reports emotions and thoughts felt at moments during video3. Perceiver watches tape and reports targets emotions and thoughts


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IMPORTANCEOFEMPATHICACCURACY

! Different from:! Empathy! Sympathy! Perspective-taking

! Some better than others:! More attentive! More motivated! More sympathetic

!Associated with mostly positive relationship outcomes! Positive effect on adolescents social adjustment

! Buffers adolescents against adjustment problems when peerrelationships are poor

! But negative during a couples disagreement! Better understanding of partners negative thoughts and feelings

toward the self

!Temporary increase in distress in empathic romantic partners


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EMPATHICFORECASTING

! Empathic forecasting:! Predicting other peoples emotional

reactions to hypothetical events

! Similarities:! Construal of event (like affective forecasting)! Consideration of others (like empathic accuracy)

! Differences! Affective forecasting: Judgment is about self rather than other! Empathic accuracy: Judgment is about whats in front of us rather than

an imagined hypothetical event

!Affective vs. empathic forecasting errors! Similar durability bias for self and other when predicting positive event! Others expected to feel bad for longer than the self after negative event

! More extreme for strangers than close others


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THEEND!

Lecture+10+ +Perceiving+and+Predicting+Emotion

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