Transcript Psych 2 Emotion 2nd

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
50% Anger
50% Fear
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.
Actual Facebook status updates:
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
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?
What Emotion is This?
What Emotion is This?
What Emotion is This?
What Emotion is This?
What Emotion is This?
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:
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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.”
• 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
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