PSYCHOLOGY OF EMOTIONS

1. EMOTION
MODULE 1

2. Emotions are often confused with feelings and moods, but the three terms are not
interchangeable.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), emotion is defined as “a
complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioral and physiological elements.”
Emotions are how individuals deal with matters or situations they find personally
significant. Emotional experiences have three components: a subjective experience, a
physiological response and a behavioral or expressive response.
Feelings arise from an emotional experience. Because a person is conscious of the
experience, this is classified in the same category as hunger or pain. A feeling is the result
of an emotion and may be influenced by memories, beliefs and other factors.
A mood is described by the APA as “any short-lived emotional state, usually of low
intensity.” Moods differ from emotions because they lack stimuli and have no clear starting
point. For example, insults can trigger the emotion of anger while an angry mood may
arise without apparent cause.

3. Basic And Complex Emotions
Basic / Primary Emotions
• Basic emotions are
associated with
recognizable facial
expressions and tend to
happen automatically.
• Basic emotions, are
unmixed and innate.
Complex/ Secondary Emotions
• Complex emotions have
differing appearances and may
not be as easily recognizable,
such as grief, jealousy or
regret. Complex emotions
are defined as “any emotion
that is an aggregate of two or
more others.”

4. continuing
• Emotional psychologist
Paul Ekman identified six
basic emotions that could
be interpreted through
facial expressions. They
included
1. happiness,
2. sadness,
3. fear,
4. anger,
5. surprise and
6. disgust.
• Some complex emotions,
such as jealousy, may
have no accompanying
facial expression at all.
The APA uses the example
of hate being a fusion of
fear, anger and disgust..
Other complex emotions
include love,
embarrassment, envy,
gratitude, guilt, pride, and
worry, among many
others.

5. Similarly, in the 1980s, psychologist Robert Plutchik identified
eight basic emotions which he grouped into pairs of opposites,
including joy and sadness, anger and fear, trust and disgust, and
surprise and anticipation. This classification is known as a wheel
of emotions and can be compared to a color wheel in that certain
emotions mixed together can create new complex emotions

8. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EMOTION
The biological bases of emotions are diffuse, involving many areas in the brain and many
neurotransmitter systems, as well as the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine
system.
Autonomic nervous system
Emotions are generally accompanied by visceral arousal.
Much of the physiological arousal associated with emotion occurs through the actions of the
autonomic nervous system , which regulates the activity of glands, smooth muscles, and
blood vessels . The autonomic nervous system is responsible for the highly emotional fight-
or-flight response, which is largely modulated by the release of adrenal hormones that
radiate throughout the body. Hormonal changes clearly play a crucial role in emotional
responses to stress and may contribute to many other emotions as well.

9. Activation of the sympathetic nervous system readies the body for vigorous activity,
producing such reactions as increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration. In
contrast, activation of the parasympathetic nervous system influences activity related to
restoration of the body’s resources. Blood is diverted away from large muscles and to the
digestive organs, and digestion itself is facilitated. Research findings indicate that
different emotions are associated with somewhat different patterns of physiological
reactions; so the fact that emotions such as anger, joy, and disgust feel very different
subjectively does appear to reflect different biological reactions.
One notable part of emotional arousal is the galvanic skin response (GSR), an increase in
the electrical conductivity of the skin that occurs when sweat glands increase their
activity. GSR is a convenient and sensitive index of autonomic arousal that has been used
as a measure of emotion in many laboratory studies.

10. The connection between emotion and autonomic arousal provides the basis for the
polygraph, or lie detector, a device that records autonomic fluctuations while a
subject is questioned. The polygraph was invented in 1915 by psychologist William
Marston. A polygraph can’t actually detect lies. It’s really an emotion detector.
It monitors key indicators of autonomic arousal, typically heart rate, blood pressure,
respiration rate, and GSR. The assumption is that when subjects lie, they experience
emotion (presumably anxiety) that produces noticeable changes in these physiological
indicators. The polygraph examiner asks a subject a number of nonthreatening
questions to establish the subject’s baseline on these autonomic indicators. Then the
examiner asks the critical questions (for example, “Where were you on the night of the
burglary?”) and observes whether the subject’s autonomic arousal changes

11. The polygraph has been controversial since its invention. Part of the problem is that people who
are telling the truth may experience emotional arousal when they respond to incriminating
questions. Thus, polygraph tests sometimes lead to accusations of lying against people who are
innocent. Another problem is that some people can lie without
experiencing anxiety or autonomic arousal. The crux of the problem, as Leonard Saxe (1994)
notes, is that “there is no evidence of a unique physiological reaction to deceit”. The polygraph
is a potentially useful tool that can help police check out leads and alibis. However, polygraph
results are not reliable enough to be submitted as evidence in most types of courtrooms.
Some studies do suggest that the accuracy of polygraphs can be increased through the use of
improved procedures. In one of these, known as the directed lie technique, the persons being
tested are instructed to lie in response to some control questions so that comparisons can be
made between their truthful and deceitful responses. It is expected that innocent persons will
show larger reactions when lying in response to control questions than will guilty persons,
because lying is a more unusual and upsetting behavior for them. Some research findings
suggest that the accuracy of polygraph tests is indeed increased by such improved testing

13. Neural Circuits
The autonomic responses that accompany emotions are ultimately controlled in the brain. The
hypothalamus, amygdala, and adjacent structures in the limbic system have long been viewed as
the seat of emotions.
Amygdala is a small area located within the limbic system on each side of the brain, is
associated with emotions such as fear and pleasure in both humans and animals . Amygdala
plays a central role in the acquisition of conditioned fears. According to Joseph LeDoux, the
sensory inputs capable of eliciting emotions arrive in the thalamus, which simultaneously routes
the information along two separate pathways: a fast pathway to the nearby amygdala and a
slower pathway to areas in the cortex. The amygdala processes the information quickly, and if it
detects a threat it almost instantly triggers neural activity that leads to the autonomic arousal
and endocrine (hormonal) responses associated with emotion. The processing in this pathway
is extremely fast, so that emotions may be triggered even before the brain has had a chance to
really “think” about the input. Meanwhile, the information shuttled along the other pathway is
subjected to a more “leisurely” cognitive appraisal in the cortex.

15. LeDoux believes that the rapid-response pathway evolved because it is a highly adaptive
warning system that can “be the difference between life and death.” The amygdala has
been widely characterized as a brain center for emotion in general, but the research
has mainly focused on the single emotion of fear. Hence, Whalen (1998) suggests that it
might be more accurate to characterize the amygdala as the hub of a “vigilance” system.

16. Thalamus
Visual
cortex
Amygdala
Shortcut
facilitates
instant response
Endocrine response:
Hormonal secretions Autonomic
arousal

17. •The prefrontal cortex, known for its role in planning and executive control, appears to
contribute to efforts to voluntarily control emotional reactions. The prefrontal
cortex also seems to modulate emotions associated with the pursuit of goals.
• The front portion of the cingulate cortex has been implicated in the processing of pain-
related emotional distress. This area also is activated when people wrestle with emotion-
laden conflicts about choices.
• a neural circuit called the mesolimbic dopamine pathway plays a major role in the
experience of pleasurable emotions associated with rewarding events. In particular,
this circuit is activated by cocaine and other abused drugs.
• The right and left hemispheres of the brain make different contributions to emotion.
The right hemisphere plays a larger role than the left in the perception of others’ emotions .
When people experience emotions, the left hemisphere seems to mediate positive
emotions, whereas the right hemisphere mediates negative emotions i.e. Positive feelings
such as happiness are associated with greater activation in the left hemisphere, while
negative ones such as sadness are associated with greater activation in the right
hemisphere.

18. Cognitive Component- Subjective Experience
Emotions are potentially intense internal feelings that sometimes seem to have a life of
their own. People can’t click their emotions on and off like a bedroom light. If it was as
simple as that, you could choose to be happy whenever you wanted.
Joseph LeDoux (1996) notes, “Emotions are things that happen to us rather than things
we will to occur”. Actually, some degree of emotional control is possible, but emotions
tend to involve automatic reactions that are difficult to regulate. In some cases these
emotional reactions may occur at an unconscious level of processing, outside of one’s
awareness.
People’s cognitive appraisals of events in their lives are key determinants of the emotions
they experience. A specific event, such as giving a speech, may be highly threatening and
thus anxiety arousing for one person but a “ho-hum,” routine matter for another. The
conscious experience of emotion includes an evaluative aspect.

19. People characterize their emotions as pleasant or unpleasant (Lang, 1995; Schlosberg, 1954).
These evaluative reactions can be automatic and subconscious. Of course, individuals
often experience “mixed emotions” that include both pleasant and unpleasant qualities. For
example, an executive just given a promotion with challenging new responsibilities
may experience both happiness and anxiety.

20. The Behavioral Component: Nonverbal Expressiveness
There are facial expressions, body movements, and actions that indicate to others how a
person feels. Frowns, smiles, and sad expressions combine with hand gestures, the turning
of one’s body, and spoken words to produce an understanding of emotion. People fight,
run, kiss, and yell, along with countless other actions stemming from the emotions they
feel.
Facial expressions can vary across different cultures, although some aspects of facial
expression seem to be universal. Charles Darwin (1898) was one of the first to theorize
that emotions were a product of evolution and, therefore, universal—all human beings, no
matter what their culture, would show the same facial expression because the facial
muscles evolved to communicate specific information to onlookers. For example, an angry
face would signal to onlookers that they should act submissively or expect a fight. In their
research, Ekman and Friesen found that people of many different cultures (including
Japanese, European, American, and the Fore tribe of New Guinea) can consistently
recognize at least seven facial expressions: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, surprise,
sadness, and contempt.

21. Although the emotions and the related facial expressions appear to be universal, exactly
when, where, and how an emotion is expressed may be determined by the culture. Display
rules that can vary from culture to culture are learned ways of controlling displays of emotion
in social settings. For example, Japanese people have strict social rules about showing
emotion in public situations—they simply do not show emotion, remaining cool, calm, and
collected, at least on the outside. But if in a more private situation, as a parent scolding a child
within the home, the adult’s facial expression would easily be recognized as “angry” by
people of any culture. The emotion is universal and the way it is expressed on the face is
universal, but whether it is expressed or displayed depends on the learned cultural rules for
displaying emotion.
Display rules are different between cultures that are individualistic (placing the importance of
the individual above the social group) and those that are collectivistic (placing the importance
of the social group above that of the individual). Whereas the culture of the United States is
individualistic, for example, the culture of Japan is collectivistic. At least part of the difference
between the two types of display rules may be due to these cultural differences

22. James Lange Theory Of Emotion
This theory, proposed independently in the late 1800s by two psychologists,
William James and Carl Lange, emphasizes specific physiological patterns as
causing emotional feelings.
The James-Lange theory says that our brains interpret specific physiological
changes as feelings or emotions and that there is a different physiological
pattern underlying each emotion.

24. Criticisms
First, different emotions are not necessarily associated with different patterns of
physiological responses. For instance, anger, fear, and sadness share similar
physiological patterns of arousal
Second, people whose spinal cords have been severed at the neck are deprived of
most of the feedback from their physiological responses (autonomic nervous
system), yet they experience emotions with little or no change in intensity.
Third, some emotions, such as feeling guilty or jealous, may require a
considerable amount of interpretation or appraisal of the situation. The sequence
involved in feeling a complex emotion like guilt or jealousy points to the influence
of cognitive factors on emotional feelings

25. Cannon – Bard theory of Emotion
Physiologists Walter Cannon (1927) and Philip Bard (1934) theorized that the
emotion and the physiological arousal occur more or less at the same time. Bard
expanded his idea by stating that the sensory information that comes into the brain is
sent simultaneously (by the thalamus) to both the cortex and the organs of the
sympathetic nervous system. The fear and the bodily reactions are, therefore,
experienced at the same time—not one after the other. “I’m afraid and running and
aroused!”

27. Facial Feedback Hypothesis/Theory
The idea that feedback from facial muscles causes emotional feelings originated with Charles
Darwin and evolved into facial feedback theory. The facial feedback theory says that the
sensations or feedback from the movement of your facial muscles and skin are interpreted
by your brain as different emotions. Eg: A person who is forced to smile during a social event
will actually come to find the event more enjoyable.
Criticisms
If feedback from facial muscles caused emotions, then individuals whose facial muscles are
completely paralyzed should not be able to experience emotions, yet they do report feeling
emotions.

28. Thoughts and Emotions
The fact that your thoughts alone can give rise to emotions illustrates the importance of
cognitive factors. Current cognitive theories of emotions can be traced back to the
original research of Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer (1962), whose classic
experiment was the first to show the importance of cognitive interpretation, or appraisal,
in contributing to emotional states.

30. Scachter – Singer Two Factor Theory
The Schachter-Singer cognitive theory was the first to show that cognitive
factors, such as your interpretation of events, could influence emotional
feelings. The Schachter-Singer finding that your cognitive processes, such as
thoughts, interpretations, and appraisals of situations, can trigger emotions
became the basis for today’s cognitive appraisal theory of emotions.

32. Cognitive Appraisal Theory

33. Emotional Intelligence (EQ/EI)

34. Self Awareness
Self awareness is a basic understanding of one’s own personality. It is one of the core
qualities that disclose the capacity of the individual to make a self-reflection and monitor
self. It also involves self observation of the various functions being carried out.
As a person is self-reflective, aware of the feelings, then taking good decisions in crucial
times becomes uncomplicated.
As a person begins to understand their own feelings, it enables us to make informed
choices. To become self-aware, you must be capable of monitoring your own emotions,
recognizing different emotional reactions, and then correctly identifying each particular
emotion. Self-aware individuals also recognize the relationships between the things they
feel and how they behave.
These individuals are also capable of recognizing their own strengths and limitations, are
open to new information and experiences, and learn from their interactions with others.
Goleman suggests that people who possess self-awareness have a good sense of humor,
are confident in themselves and their abilities, and are aware of how other people
perceive them.

35. Self Management
Self Management is all about how a person manages emotions. It allows people to
control their thoughts and feelings. Basically humans get distressed and disgusted when
things are not going our way. But in such conditions are we still able to hold our nerves
and remain adaptable, can we still stay focused and motivated.
The ability to remain calm, self-motivated, showing flexibility is related to internal Self –
Management. This doesn't mean putting emotions on lockdown and hiding your true
feelings—it simply means waiting for the right time and place to express them. Self-
regulation is all about expressing your emotions appropriately.
Those who are skilled in self-regulation tend to be flexible and adapt well to change.
They are also good at managing conflict and diffusing tense or difficult situations.
Goleman also suggests that those with strong self-regulation skills are high
in conscientiousness. They are thoughtful about how they influence others, and they
take responsibility for their own actions.

36. Social Skills
Being able to interact well with others is another important aspect of emotional
intelligence. Having strong social skills allows people to build meaningful relationships
with other people and develop a stronger understanding of themselves and others.
True emotional understanding involves more than just understanding your own
emotions and those of others. You also need to be able to put this information to work
in your daily interactions and communications.
In professional settings, managers benefit by being able to build relationships and
connections with employees. Workers benefit from being able to develop a strong
rapport with leaders and co-workers. Important social skills include active listening,
verbal communication skills, nonverbal communication skills, leadership, and
persuasiveness.

37. Empathy
Empathy makes us understand how other people are thinking and feeling. This is a great
skill to understand very well sometimes one should get into someone else’s shoes. It
makes us be aware of someone’s feelings and act accordingly. It also involves your
responses to people based on this information. When you sense that someone is
feeling sad or hopeless, how do you respond? You might treat them with extra care and
concern, or you might make an effort to buoy their spirits.

38. Motivation
Motivation is the willingness of an individual to do something. It drives an individual to
the goals and targets indirectly.
Motivation generated externally from others may stay for a very short period but inner
and self-motivation makes you much enthusiastic towards the work and duties. It
describes truly what we want and ultimately creates a focus to reach the destination.
It helps in discarding various distractions in between the journey and keeps us moving
forward. It makes a person strong and works magically to turn a failure into learning. As
soon as a person understands the purpose and sense of meaning, work is providing; the
person gets motivated, forgetting all the external odds and tries to approach the goals
with utmost accuracy.
Those who are competent in this area tend to be action-oriented. They set goals, have a
high need for achievement, and are always looking for ways to do better. They also tend
to be very committed and are good at taking initiative.