The document discusses theories of emotion and how they are measured and influenced. It describes four main theories: James-Lange theory states that physiological arousal produces emotional feelings; Cannon-Bard theory says cognition, arousal, and expression occur simultaneously; the facial feedback hypothesis is that facial expressions produce emotions; and Schachter's two-factor theory is that emotion results from physiological arousal and cognitive labeling of that arousal. The document also discusses measuring emotion through body, thoughts, and behavior and how culture influences emotional expression. It summarizes an experiment showing that facial expressions influence humor ratings.

1. Emotion

3. –Subjective
–Physiological
–Behavioral
–Social
Aspects of Emotion

4. Components of Emotion
Cognitive component
• subjective conscious feelings—thoughts,
values and expectations

5. Components of Emotion
Physiological (arousal) component
• controlled by certain brain structures and
autonomic nervous system

6. “Fight or Flight” Restore Calm

7. Components of Emotion
Behavioural component
(emotional expression—facial expressions,
gestures, body position, use of eye gaze, touch
and tone of voice)

8. • Why do we feel emotion?
• What purpose does it serve?
• Are humans the only animals that feel
emotion?
• How many emotions are there?

9. James-Lange Theory
• A stimulus directly produces physiological
changes and behavior, and then these events
produce the feeling of an emotion.
stimulus
Physiological
response
Emotion

10. James-Lange Theory
• Smiling makes you feel happy
• Crying makes you feel sad

11. Class experiment
Hold a pen/pencil in your mouth
Group 1: hold pen with lips
Group 2: hold pen with teeth
Group 3: hold pen in
non-dominant hand

12. Rate the following cartoons for the
level of humour 1 – 5
1 not humourous
2 a bit humourous
3 moderately humourous
4 very humourous
5 extremely humourous

17. Facial Feedback Hypothesis
• Facial feedback is interpreted by the brain as
being a certain emotion.
• Once an emotion is activated, the
whole body becomes aroused.
• Arousal and external stimuli maintain the
emotion after facial feedback initiates it.

18. Facial Feedback Hypothesis:
The modern version of James-Lange theory
Facial
expressions
Emotional
experience

19. Passive Facial Feedback
Participants and apparatus (do not note)
One hundred and eight-nine Japanese
undergraduates (101 males and 88
females) participated.
One hundred and thirteen were
assigned to the experimental condition,
and 76 to the control condition.
Small plastic pipettes
and warmed water
were used.

20. Method
Water dripped on the
participants cheeks or
temples.
Then, the raters rated
their subjective emotion
on a seven point scale.
Experimental
Condition
Control
Condition

21. 0
10
20
30
40
50
Sad Neutral Cheerful Mixed
Cheeks
Temples
Water dropping on the cheeks tended to cause the
sad emotion more often than the cheerfulness.

22. Cannon-Bard Theory
Theory in which the physiological reaction and
the emotion occur at the same time.
Stimulus
Emotion
Physiological
Response

23. Theory of Cognitive Appraisal
(Schachter-Singer 2 factor theory of
emotion)
A two-stage theory stating that for an
emotion to occur, there must be
1.physiological arousal and
2.an explanation for the arousal

24. Two key variables manipulated-
1. Arousal
2. Emotional Explanation for the Arousal were the two
• Participants injected with “suproxin”
– Placebo or Epinephrine
– Participants either informed or misinformed about the
effects of the drug
• Confederate acted angry or euphoric
Schachter and Singer (1962)
Experiment

26. Epinephrine uninformed more angry/happy than
informed because they attributed their arousal
(which was drug induced) to the situation.
• Implication:
Emotions are somewhat arbitrary, depending on
what the most plausible explanation for the
arousal happens to be.

27. Evaluation of Emotion Theories
Emotional responses vary more than any one
theory allows depending on the situation.
Currently no emotional theory is accepted as
completely correct .

28. Three Ways to Measure Emotion
1. Body/Physical
2. Thoughts
3. Behavior

29. Culture and Emotional Expression
Basic emotions are similar
Social rules about display of emotions vary
from culture to culture eg Japanese vs
Italian

30. Three Ways to Measure Emotion
• Body/Physical
– blood pressure
– heart rate
– epinephrine levels
– muscle activity when smiling, frowning, etc.
– neural images
– posture
– tears,
– perspiration
– lie detector readings

31. Three Ways to Measure Emotion
• Thoughts (observed indirectly through)
– spoken and written words on rating scales
– answers to open-ended questions on surveys and
during interviews
– self-assessments or perceptions regarding the
behavior and intentions of others
– other cognitive operations such as rational/logical
thinking

32. Three Ways to Measure Emotion
• Behavior
– facial expressions
– activity level
– alertness
– screaming
– laughing
– smiling
– aggression
– approach/avoidance
– attention/distraction
– insomnia

33. Ethical Issues of Polygraphs
• Lie detectors only 75% reliable
• Some people better at hiding facial/body
expression of emotion

34. Overview of General Theories of Emotion
• James-Lange Theory (arousal and expression
produce emotion)
• ii. Cannon-Bard Theory (cognitions, arousal
and expression are simultaneous)
• iii. Facial-Feedback Hypothesis (expression
produces emotion)
• iv. Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory (emotions
depend on 2 factors—physical arousal and
cognitive labelling of that arousal)

35. Ms Collins Psychology Class Semester 2 2009
Facial Feedback Experiment
Results show that facial expression has an affect on how
humorous a participant found a series of cartoons.
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
4.0
Frown Group Control Group Smile Group