PSYA02 - chap 11: emotion and motivation (with lecture content)

• what are emotions?

  short-lived feelings we have towards an object or situational event; often corresponding to specific facial expressions and physiological changes. Can influence future behaviour
• anxiety evolved in the context of


  specific dangers in ancient times e.g. being mauled by a predator
• What are moods?


  long-lasting, less intense states that are not impacted by a specific object or event. Mood can influence how someone might feel sad or cheerful for a few days with no obvious reason
• what are some sources of emotions?

  reinforcement contingency: happy to obtain reinforcer/avoid punisher; unhappy to obtain punisher/avoid reinforcer

  intensity of reinforcer: happier for a larger reinforcer than a smaller one

  antecedent stimuli: stimulus that signals the availability of a reinforcer (happy) or punisher (unhappy)

  unconditioned reinforcers: different emotions for different unconditioned reinforcers: happy for food, relief for water

  conditioned reinforcers: different emotions for different conditioned reinforcers: happy for good grade, relief for money

  positive punishment: happy to not respond in order to avoid an aversive stimulus

  negative reinforcement: relief after responding in order to avoid aversive stimulus
• what are the local causes of emotions?

  emotions have local causes in the physical environment due to Pavlovian and operant conditioning:

  we get happy when we get rewards/lose punishers

  we get sad when we get punishers/lose rewards
• what are some functions of emotions?

  elicitation of hormonal and physiological responses: rush of adrenaline and fear to avoid a stranger

  arbitrary response for rewards; motivational: fear elicited by a tone to motivate lever pressing to avoid shock

  communication: expressing fear tells other members of your species to stay away from the aversive stimulus

  social bonding: a parent experiencing fear will protect her offspring

  mood state dependency; evaluation of memories: learning something while afraid makes you more likely to recall that information when you are afraid next

  storage of memories: you knew you were afraid when you saw a scary movie last week

  perseveration: fear lasts longer than shock, rats who are still afraid after a shock stopped will press the lever
• how long do these last from shortest to longest: emotion, reinforcer, mood

  reinforcer

  emotion

  mood
• emotions include temporary changes to what?

  hormones and physiology

  behaviour, including thinking and feeling

  facial expression

  sense perception
• what is the opposite emotion to fear?

  disgust
• what are the three principles of emotion according to Charles Darwin?

  serviceable habits

  antithesis

  direct action of the excited nervous system on the body
• what is the first principle of serviceable habits?

  emphasizes that the way emotions are expressed serves a purpose in non-human animals but not people.

  e.g. dogs bearing their teeth is a warning before attack, humans bearing their teeth when displeased but do not attack with them

  e.g. goosebumps make dogs appear larger to be more intimidating but do nothing for us when we're scared
• what is the second principle of antithesis?

  emphasizes how opposite emotions have opposite bodily expressions

  e.g. fear vs disgust facial features
• what is the third principle of direct action of the excited nervous system on the body?

  emphasizes how emotions result in perceivable changes in the nervous system.

  e.g. anger makes capillaries in the skin rush to the surface making our skin appear red

  e.g. expelling excitement via laughter
• what is the basic emotion theory?

  suggests that distinct emotions and their associated cognitive, physiological, and motor responses unfold over time in a very predictable pattern without attention or intention
• what order of events do we think we experience according to William James?

  we perceive a physical stimulus in the environment

  we experience an emotion

  we express that emotion publicly through bodily gestures or moving our facial muscles
• what is the James-Lange theory of emotions?

  environmental event stimulates sensory receptor

  event is processed in the brain, you know the stimulus happened

  muscles and internal organs react to the stimulus (emotion)

  muscles and internal organs send signals to brain that result in conscious awareness of the emotion

  we perceive the physiological response to understand and identify the emotion we're experiencing
• what is the James-Lange sequence of events for an emotion?

  we perceive the physical stimulus

  we express the emotion publicly

  we acknowledge the emotion privately
• How did Cannon counter James's idea that internal organs are extremely important for emotion processing?

  cutting off the central nervous system from the internal organs does not prevent acknowledgement of the emotions

  different physiological responses should occur in different emotional and neural states but internal organ responses can be similar whether accompanied by emotion or not

  internal body structures should be more sensitive than outward structures, but skin is more sensitive to stimulation than intestines
• what is the Cannon-Bard thalamic theory of emotions order of events?

  we perceive the physical stimulus in the environment

  we simultaneously produce bodily or facial expression changes and acknowledge the emotion

  the thalamus mediates emotion
• What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion?

  the thalamus mediates emotional reactions and reports back to the cortex.

  The prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, amygdala, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal grey form an emotion network that gives rise to several emotions such as fear and disgust
• what is the evidence behind the thalamus governing emotions?


  rage is evoked by surgically removing the cerebrum in front of the thalamus but disappears when the thalamus is removed

  tumors on different sides of the thalamus produce different emotions

  anesthesia or impairment produces unregulated crying or laughing
• what is an action unit?

  each emotion has a specific facial expression that we can detect involving movement of the eyebrows, nose, mouth, cheeks, and eyes

  each movement we detect is an action unit
• what are the 4 universal emotions?

  happy, anxious, surprised, disgusted
• what are the action units for "happy"?

  lip corners turned up

  cheeks raised

  dimples
• what are the action units for "anxious"?

  lowered eyebrows

  stretched and pressed lips

  closed eyes
• what are the action units for "surprise"?

  outer and inner eyebrows raised

  dropped jaw

  stretched lips

  raised upper eyelids
• what is emotional contagion?

  when one person observes and then experiences the same emotion as another person
• what is a normal response when you see someone feel pride?

  grant them higher social status
• what is a normal response when you see someone express anger?

  feel anger
• what is a normal response when you see someone experience fear?

  comfort them, defend them, or escape danger
• what is a conditioned emotional response procedure?

  the process of linking an emotional response, through classical conditioning, to a neutral stimulus
• what did Clark Hull propose?

  there are two parts to a conditioned response:

  the physical stimulus related to producing rewards that we encounter in the environment

  the perception of a goal-related stimulus

  i.e. the responses, stimuli and perception keeps an animal responding until it receives reward
• what are frustrative events?

  situations recognized by Abram Amsel in which rewards are not as quickly available as they once were or are omitted entirely, thereby leading to frustration
• what are hunger pangs/aches caused by?

  change in metabolite usage, neuropeptide activity, or source energy
• what other systems does hunger interact with?

  perception, attention, problem solving, categorization, memory, and our priorities for engaging in goal-related behaviour
• what is exteroceptive stimuli?


  a type of stimuli that comes from outside our bodies to indicate a change from one state to another, a stimulus that others can also see, hear, feel, touch etc. that can influence hunger
• What is orosensory stimuli?

  flavor and texture sensations in the mouth
• what is interoceptive stimuli?


  a type of stimuli that comes from within our bodies to indicate a change from one state to another. Private sensation that others cannot see, feel, touch, etc., and respond to it. Can influence hunger
• what is flavor conditioning?

  Pavlovian condition of tasting a food and then 4-6 hours later receiving the calories that it signals. We learn about flavours as signals for calories even with such a large span of time (trace conditioning)
• what hormones affect eating-related behaviour?

  insulin: absorption of blood glucose

  ghrelin: stimulates appetite

  leptin: suppresses appetite