1. Emotion
Chapter 11
©1999 Prentice Hall

2. Emotion
 Defining Emotion.
 Elements of Emotion 1: The Body.
 Elements of Emotion 2: The Mind.
 Elements of Emotion 3: The Culture.
 Putting the Elements together: Emotion and
Gender.
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3. Emotion
 A state of arousal involving facial and body
changes, brain activation, cognitive
appraisals, subjective feelings, and
tendencies toward action, all shaped by
cultural rules.
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4. Elements of Emotion 1: The Body
 Primary and secondary emotions.
 The face of emotion.
 The brain and emotion.
 Hormones and emotion.
 Detecting emotions, Does the body lie?
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5. Elements of Emotion 1: The Body
 Primary emotions
 Emotions considered to be universal and biologically
based. They generally include fear, anger, sadness,
joy, surprise, disgust, and contempt.
 Secondary emotion
 Emotions that develop with cognitive maturity and
vary across individuals and cultures.
 Three biological areas of emotion are
 facial expressions,
 brain regions and circuits, and
 autonomic nervous system.
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6. Universal Expressions of Emotion
 Facial expressions for primary emotions are
universal.
 Even members of remote cultures can recognize
facial expressions in people who are foreign to
them.
 Facial feedback.
 Process by which the facial muscles send messages to
the brain about the basic emotion being expressed.
 Infants are able to read parental expressions.
 Facial expression can generate same expressions in
others, creating mood contagion.
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7. The Face of Anger
 Anger is universally
recognized by
geometric patterns on
the face
 In each pair, the left
form seems angrier
than the right form
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8. Facial Expressions in Social Context
 Across and within cultures, agreement often
varies on which emotion a particular facial
expression is revealing.
 People don’t usually express their emotion in
facial expressions unless others are around.
 Facial expressions convey different meanings
depending on their circumstances.
 People often use facial expressions to lie about
their feelings as well as to express them.
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9. The Brain and Emotion
 The amygdala.
 Responsible for assessing threat.
 Damage to the amygdala results in abnormality to
process fear.
 Left prefrontal cortex
 Involved in motivation to approach others.
 Damage to this area results in loss of joy.
 Right prefrontal cortex
 Involved in withdrawal and escape.
 Damage to the area results in excessive mania and
euphoria.
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10. Hormones and Emotion
 When experiencing an intense emotion, 2
hormones are released.
 Epinephrine
 Norepinephrine
 Results in increased alertness and arousal.
 At high levels, it can create the sensation of
being out of control emotionally.
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11. The Autonomic Nervous System
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12. Detecting Emotions: Does the Body Lie?
 Polygraph testing
relies on autonomic
nervous system arousal.
 Typical measures:
 Galvanic Skin Response
 Pulse, blood pressure
 Breathing
 Fidgeting
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13. Polygraph Tests
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14. Polygraph Tests
 Empirical support is weak
and conflicting.
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15. Polygraph Tests
 Empirical support is weak
and conflicting.
 Test is inadmissible in most
courts.
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16. Polygraph Tests
 Empirical support is weak
and conflicting.
 Test is inadmissible in most
courts.
 It is illegal to use for most
job screening.
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17. Polygraph Tests
 Empirical support is weak
and conflicting.
 Test is inadmissible in most
courts.
 It is illegal to use for most
job screening.
 Many government agencies
continue to use for
screening.
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18. Elements of Emotion 2: The Mind
 How thoughts create emotions.
 The two factor theory of emotion.
 Attributions and emotions.
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19. Two-factor Theory of Emotion
 Physiological arousal
 Sweaty palms
 Increased heart rate
 rapid breathing
 Cognitive Label
 Attribute source of
arousal to a cause
 To have an emotion,
both factors are
required
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20. Attributions and Emotions
 Perceptions and attributions are involved in
emotions.
 How one reacts to an event depends on
how he or she explains it.
 For example, how one reacts to being ignored
or winning the silver instead of the gold
medal.
 Philosophy of life is also influential.
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21. Elements of Emotion 3: The
Culture
 Culture and emotional variation.
 The rules of emotional regulation.
 Display rules.
 Body language.
 Emotion work.
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22. Culture and Emotional Variation
 Culture determines what people feel angry, sad,
lonely, happy, ashamed or disgusted about.
 Some cultures have words for specific emotions
unknown to other cultures.
 Ex. Schadenfreude
 Some cultures don’t have words for emotions that
seem universal to others.
 Tahitian and sadness
 Differences in secondary emotions appear to be
reflected in differences in languages.
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23. The Rules of Emotional Regulation
 Display Rules
 When, where, and how emotions are to be expressed
or when they should be squelched.
 Body Language
 The nonverbal signals of body movement, posture
and gaze that people constantly express.
 Emotion Work.
 Acting out an emotion we do not feel or trying to
create the right emotion for the occasion.
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24. Putting it all together: Emotion
and Gender
 Physiology and intensity.
 Sensitivity to other people’s emotions.
 Cognitions.
 Expressiveness.
 Factors which affect expressiveness.
 Emotion work.
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25.  Physiology and intensity
 Women recall emotional events more
intensely and vividly than do men.
 Men experience experience emotional events
more intensely than do women.
 Conflict is physiologically more upsetting
for men than women.
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26. Possible reasons for differences
in physiology and intensity.
 Males autonomic nervous system is more reactive
than females.
 Men are more likely to rehearse angry thoughts
which maintains anger.
 Women are more likely to ruminate which
maintains depression.
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27. Sensitivity to Other People’s Emotions
 Factors which influence one’s ability to
“read” emotional signals:
 The sex of the sender and receiver.
 How well the sender and receiver know each
other.
 How expressive the sender is.
 Who has the power.
 Stereotypes and expectations.
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28. Cognitions.
 Men and women appear to differ in the
types of every day events that provoke their
anger.
 Women become angry over issues related
to their partners disregard.
 Men become angry over damage to
property or problems with strangers.
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29. Expressiveness
 In North America women:
 Smile more than men.
 Gaze at listeners more.
 Have more emotionally expressive faces.
 Use more expressive body movements.
 Touch others more.
 Acknowledge weakness and emotions more.
 Compare to women, men only express
anger to strangers more.
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30. Factors Influencing Emotional
Expressiveness
 Gender roles.
 Cultural norms.
 The specific situation.
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31. Emotion Work and Gender.
 Women work hard at appearing warm,
happy and making sure others are happy.
 Men work hard at persuading others they
are stern, aggressive and unemotional.
 Why?
 Gender roles and status.
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