2. Chapter Overview
How emotions are
related to cognition, and
yet sometimes seem to
bypass cognition
How emotions are
related to the body
Communicating
emotions: detecting,
verbal and nonverbal
expression, and the
influence of culture and
gender
Experiencing emotions
such as anger and
happiness
Stress and
Health
Defining stress, and
how it works
How stress relates to
illness
How people can cope
with stress or reduce it
Promoting health
through pets,
alternative medicine,
and stress reduction
Emotions
3. Someone cuts you off on the road. You may feel the
emotion of anger. Emotions are a mix of:
Bodily arousal:
sweat, pounding heart
Emotion: Arousal, Behavior, and
Cognition
Expressive behavior:
yelling, accelerating
Conscious experience:
(thoughts, especially the labeling
of the emotion)
What a bad driver! I am angry,
even scared; better calm down.
How do these components
of emotion interact and
relate to each other?
Do our thoughts trigger our
emotions, or are they a
product of our emotions?
How are the bodily signs
triggered?
How do we decide which
emotion we’re feeling?
An emotion is a full
body/mind/behavior
response to a situation.
4. James-Lange Theory:
• body before thoughts
Cannon-Bard Theory:
• body with thoughts
Singer-Schachter/Two-
factor theory:
• body plus thoughts/label
Zajonc, LeDoux, Lazarus:
• body/brain without
conscious thoughts
Which came first, the
chicken or the egg? Or did
they evolve together?
Which happens first, the
body changes that go with
an emotion, or the
thoughts (conscious
awareness and labeling of
an emotion), or do they
happen together?
Theories of Emotion:
The Arousal and Cognition
“Chicken and Egg” Debates
5. Our body arousal
happens first, and then
the cognitive awareness
and label for the feeling:
“I’m angry.”
According to this theory,
if something makes us
smile, we may then feel
happy.
James-Lange Theory:
Body Before Thoughts
William James (1842-1910): “We feel afraid
because we tremble, sorry because we cry.”
The James-Lange theory
states that emotion is our
conscious awareness of
our physiological
responses to stimuli.
6. Human body responses
run parallel to the
cognitive responses
rather than causing
them.
Cannon-Bard Theory: Simultaneous Body
Response and Cognitive Experience
The Cannon-Bard theory
asserts that we have a
conscious/cognitive
experience of an
emotion at the same
time as our body is
responding, not
afterward.
Adjusting the Cannon-Bard
Theory
Emotions are not just a
separate mental experience.
When our body responses
are blocked, emotions do not
feel as intense.
Our cognitions influence our
emotions in many ways,
including our interpretations
of stimuli: “Is that a threat?
Then I’m afraid.”
7. I face a stranger, and my
heart is pounding. Is it
fear? Excitement?
Anger? Lust? Or did I
have too much caffeine?
The label completes the
emotion.
Schachter-Singer “Two-factor” Theory:
Emotion = Body Plus a Cognitive Label
The Schachter-Singer
“two-factor” theory
suggests that emotions
do not exist until we add
a label to whatever body
sensations we are
feeling.
In a study by Stanley
Schachter and Jerome
Singer in 1962, subjects
experienced a spillover
effect when arousal was
caused by injections of
what turned out to be
adrenaline.
The subjects interpreted
their agitation to
whatever emotion the
others in the room
appeared to be feeling;
the emotional label
“spilled over” from
others.
8. Robert Zajonc, Joseph LeDoux,
and Richard Lazarus:
Emotions without Awareness/Cognition
Theory: some emotional reactions, especially
fears, likes, and dislikes, develop in a “low road”
through the brain, skipping conscious thought.
In one study, people
showed an amygdala
response to certain
images (above, left)
without being aware
of the image or their
reaction.
9. When Appraisal Affects Emotion
Stanley Schachter and Jerome
Singer highlighted the role of
appraisal in labeling consciously
experienced emotions: “this
agitation is fear.”
Richard Lazarus noted
that even in emotional
responses that operate
without conscious
thought, “top-down”
cognitive functions such
as appraisal of stimuli (is
that a threat or
something I would
enjoy?) can be involved .
11. Emotion can include the
appraisal of the stimulus such
as, is it a threat or not?
Theories
of Emotion
Avoiding the highway today
without identifying or
explaining any fear is an
example of the “low road”
of emotion.
12. Embodied Emotion:
The role of the autonomic nervous system
The physiological arousal felt during various emotions is
orchestrated by the sympathetic nervous system, which triggers
activity and changes in various organs.
Later, the parasympathetic division calms down the body.
13. Embodied Emotion:
How Do Emotions Differ in Body Signs?
It is difficult to see
differences in
emotions from tracking
heart rate, breathing,
and perspiration.
There is also a large
overlap in the patterns
of brain activity across
emotions.
There are some small
differences; for
example, fear triggers
more amygdala activity
than anger.
A general brain pattern:
hemispheric differences
Positive
“approach”
emotions (joy,
love, goal-
seeking)
correlate with
left frontal
lobe activity.
Negative
“withdrawal”
emotions
(disgust, fear,
anger,
depression)
correlate with
right
hemisphere
activity.
14. Are there universal forms of emotional expression seen on
human faces across all cultures?
Are there differences by individual, culture, or gender in
how emotions are expressed?
What is the relationship between emotional expression
and the inner experience of emotion?
What emotion do we see in these faces and body
positions?
If these emotions are hard to read, is it because it’s a
different culture from your own, or because it’s a
performance?
15. Detecting Emotion in Others
People read a great deal of
emotional content in the
eyes (“the window to the
soul”) and the faces.
Introverts are better at
detecting emotions;
extroverts have emotions
that are easier to read.
We are primed to quickly
detect negative emotions,
and even negative
emotion words.
Those who have been
abused are biased toward
seeing fearful faces as
angry, as in the test below.
These faces morph from fear to anger.
Raise your hand when you first see anger under the red box.
16. Detecting Lies and Fakes
Polygraphs (detecting
physiological arousal) fail
sometimes at correctly identifying
when people are lying.
Visible signs of lying: eye blinks
decrease, and other facial
movements change.
Brain signs of lying:
In which image is Paul
Ekman “lying” with a
fake smile?
A real smile uses
involuntary muscles
around the eyes.
17. Gender and
Emotional Expression and Detection
Women seem to have
greater and more
complex emotional
expression.
Women are also more
skilled at detecting
emotions in others.
However, this is an
overgeneralization.
People tend to
attribute women’s
emotionality to their
dispositions, and
attribute men’s
emotions to their
circumstances.
We also see some emotions as
being more “male,” changing our
perception of a gender-neutral face
based on the emotion (below):
How about now?Male or female?
18. Culture and Emotional Expression:
Are There Universally Recognized Emotions?
There seem to be some
universally understood
facial expressions.
People of various cultures
agree on the emotional
labels for the expressions
on the faces on the right.
People in other studies
did have more accuracy
judging emotions from
their own culture.
19. An Evolutionary Theory of the Origins
of Emotional Facial Expressions
People blind from birth show the same
facial expressions as sighted people.
This suggests that the origin of facial
expressions must be largely genetic.
Why would we have facial expressions
in our genetic code? Could facial
expressions improve the survival of our
ancestors?
Perhaps sneering at someone might be
like a wolf’s snarl, warning competitors
to back off.
The “surprised” facial expression
allows us to take in information.
Shared smiles build protective social
bonds, which may explain why we
smile more when facing someone.
20. Emotion Detection and Context Cues
What emotions do you see below?
How can you tell what emotions he is feeling?
Because the faces are exactly the same, our detection of
emotion must be based on context: the situation,
gestures, and the tears.
21. Linking Emotions and
Expressive Behaviors:
Facial Feedback
The facial feedback effect: facial position
and muscle changes can alter which
emotion we feel.
In one study, people whose faces were
moved into smiling or frowning positions
experienced a change in mood.
Fake a relaxed smile, and you might feel
better!
It’s not just about faces. In one
experiment, extending a 1) middle finger
or 2) thumb while reading led to seeing
characters with 1) hostility or 2) positive
attitude.
The guy at the top, though forced
into a smiling position, ended up
feeling happier than the other guy.
22. Carroll Izzard
suggested that
there are ten
basic emotions:
those evident at
birth (seen here)
plus contempt,
shame, and
guilt.
Is Experienced Emotion as
Universal as Expressed Emotion?
23. Two Dimensions of Emotion
James Russell sees our
emotional experience
in two dimensions:
1.from pleasant to
unpleasant
2.from low to high
arousal.
We experience this
image in dimensions
of up/down and
left/right.
24. A flash of anger gives us energy
and initiative to fight or otherwise
take action when necessary.
Persistent anger can cause more
harm than whatever we’re angry
about.
Some ways to keep anger from
persisting: distraction, constructive
action, problem-solving, exercise,
verbal expression, and allowing
others to be wrong.
The catharsis myth
refers to the idea that
we can reduce anger by
“releasing” it, and we
do this by acting
aggressively (yelling,
punching a pillow).
In most cases,
expressing anger
worsens it, and any
“release” reinforces the
aggression, making it a
conditioned habit.
Sometimes, releasing
anger causes harm, and
results in guilt.
Instead, try calming
down and moving on.
Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Anger
25. Happiness is:
a mood.
an attitude.
a social phenomenon.
a cognitive filter.
a way to stay hopeful,
motivated, and connected to
others.
The feel-good, do-good
phenomenon: when in a good
mood, we do more for others.
The reverse is also true: doing
good feels good.
Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Happiness
26. Happiness
has its ups
and downs.
Levels of
happiness, as
well as other
emotions, can
vary over the
course of a week
(we like the
weekend), and
even over the
course of a day
(don’t stay awake
too long!).
Over the Course of a Week
Over the Course of a Day
27. “How far are you up a 10-step ladder toward
the best possible life?” The answers
worldwide:
People in Chad and Tanzania are not feeling successful.
Brighter color
means feeling
higher up the
ladder.
28. Wealth and Well-Being:
A Change in Goals
In the late 1960s, students entering college had a
primary goal of developing a meaningful life philosophy.
Since 1977, being very well-off financially has become
more of a primary goal for first year students.
29. Can Money Buy Happiness?
Money seems to buy
happiness when it lifts
people out of extreme
poverty. Otherwise, money
doesn’t seem to help our
mood much.
1.The average level of
income (adjusted for
inflation) and purchasing
power has increased in the
United States.
2.The percentage of people
feeling very happy, though,
has not followed the same
trend of improvement.
30. When we step into the sunshine, it seems very bright at
first. Then our senses adapt and we develop a “new
normal.” If a cloud covers the sun, it may seem “dark” in
comparison.
The “very bright” sensation is temporary.
The adaptation-level phenomenon: when our wealth or
other life conditions improve, we are happier compared to
our past condition.
However, then we adapt, form a “new normal” level, and
most people must get another boost to feel the same
satisfaction.
31. Adapting Attitudes
Instead of Circumstances
Because of the adaptation-level phenomenon, our level of
contentment does not permanently stay higher when we
gain income and wealth; we keep adjusting our expectations.
It is also true that misfortune, disability, and loss do not
result in a permanent decrease in happiness.
In both cases, humans tend to adapt.
32. Relative Deprivation
If the average income has risen by
10 percent in your area, it might be
hard to feel great about a 5 percent
rise in your income because of
People who were satisfied with their
own lives might become less
satisfied if other people get more
power, recognition, and income.
We can affect our happiness by
choosing the people to whom we
compare ourselves.
However, the tendency is to
compare ourselves to people who
are more successful.
relative
deprivation:
feeling
worse off by
comparing
yourself to
people who
are doing
better.
33. Correlates of Happiness
There also may be a genetic basis for a predisposition to happiness.
Whether because of genes, culture, or personal history, we each
seem to develop a mood “set point,” a level of happiness to which we
keep returning.
There are behaviors that seem to go with
happiness. Whether they are the cause or the
effect of happiness is not clear, but it can’t
hurt to try them.
Researchers have found that happy people
tend to:
However, happiness seems not
much related to other factors, such
as:
Have high self-esteem (in individualistic
countries)
Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable
Have close friendships or a satisfying
marriage
Have work and leisure that engage their
skills
Have an active religious faith
Sleep well and exercise
Age (example: the woman at the
laptop in the picture)
Gender (women are more often
depressed, but also more often
joyful)
Parenthood (having children or
not)
Physical attractiveness
34. Look beyond wealth for satisfaction.
Bring your habits in line with your goals; take control
of your time.
Smile and act happy.
Find work and leisure that engages your skills.
Exercise, or just move!
Focus on the needs and wishes of others.
Work, rest, …and SLEEP.
Notice what goes well, and express gratitude.
Nurture spirituality, meaning, and community.
Make your close relationships a priority.
Possible Ways to
Increase Your Chances
at Happiness
35. Health Psychology
Emotions, as well as
personality, attitudes,
behaviors, and
responses to stress,
can have an impact on
our overall health.
Health psychology
studies these impacts,
as part of the broader
field of behavioral
medicine.
Topics of study in
health psychology
include:
the phases of stress response
and adaptation
how stress and health are
affected by
• appraisal of stressors
• severity of stressors
• personality types
• perceived control
• emotion or problem focus
• optimism
• social support
• exercise
• relaxation
• religious faith and
participation
36. Stress: A Focus of Health Psychology
Many people report being affected by “stress.”
Some terms psychologists use to talk about stress:
a stressor is an event or condition
which we view as threatening,
challenging, or overwhelming.
Examples include poverty, an
explosion, a psychology test,
feeling cold, being in a plane,
and loud noises.
appraisal refers to deciding whether
to view something as a stressor.
stress reaction refers to any
emotional and physical responses to
the stressor such as rapid heartbeat,
elevated cortisol levels, and crying.
Stress refers to the
process of appraising
and responding to
events which we
consider threatening
or challenging.
37. Clarifying the Components of Stress
Stress isn’t something
that happens to you; it’s
a process in which you
participate.
The process includes the
stressor (event or
condition), cognitive
appraisal, body response,
and coping strategies.
The advantage of
breaking “stress” into
these components is that
we can see options for
altering each of these
different factors.
What could this
person do to
reduce his level
of suffering
from stress?
38. Appraisal:
Choosing How to View a Situation
Questions to ask yourself when facing a
possible stressor:
Is this a challenge, and will I tackle it?
Is it overwhelming, and will I give up?
There are few
conditions* that are
inherently and
universally stressful;
we can often choose
our appraisal and
our responses.
*extreme, chronic
physical threats or
challenges (such
as noise or
starvation)
39. Beneficial and Harmful Stress Effects
A brief experience of stress can be beneficial:
improving immune system response
motivating action
focusing priorities
feeling engaged, energized, and satisfied
providing challenges that encourage growth,
knowledge, and self-esteem
Extreme or prolonged stress, causes problems:
mental and physical coping systems become
overwhelmed and defeated rather than strengthened
immune functioning and other health factors decline
because of damage
The key factor is whether there is a
chance for recovery and healing.
40. Stressors
There may be a spectrum of
levels of intensity and
persistence of stressors.
We can also see stressors as
falling into one of four*
categories:
catastrophes.
significant life changes.
chronic daily hassles.
low social status/power.
Stressors refer to the events
and conditions that trigger
our stress response, because
they are perceived/ appraised
as overwhelmingly
challenging, threatening,
and/or harmful.
*the text focuses on the
first three.
41. Catastrophic Events/Conditions
Appraisal is not essential in a
catastrophic event. Most
people agree that the event is
harmful and overwhelming
Examples include earthquakes,
floods, hurricanes,
war/combat, and wildfires.
It can be one single event or
chronic harmful conditions.
Short-term effects
include increased heart
attacks on the day of the
event
Long term effects include
depression, nightmares,
anxiety, and flashbacks.
Bonding: both the trauma
and the recovery are
shared with others.
42. Even supposedly “happy” life changes, such as marriage,
starting college or a new job, or the birth or adoption of a
child, can bring increased challenge and stress.
Change is often challenging.
New roles, new priorities, and new tasks can put a strain on
our coping resources.
The challenge, and the negative impact on health, increases
when:
the changes are painful, such as a death in family, loss of
job, or heart attack.
the changes are in a cluster, and there are too many at
once.
43. Chronic Daily Difficulties
Daily difficulties can be
caused by facing too many
tasks, too little time, and too
little control.
Daily difficulties can be
caused by the lack of social
power and freedom:
being bullied
living in poverty
living under oppressive
political conditions
44. When encountering a sudden trauma or other stressor, our
body acts to increase our resistance to threat and harm.
The Body’s Stress Response System
Phase 1: The “fight or flight”
sympathetic nervous system
responds, reducing pain and
increasing the heart rate.
The core of the adrenal glands
produces norepinephrine and
epinephrine (adrenaline).
This system, identified by
Walter Cannon (1871-1945),
gives us energy to act.
Phase 3: Exhaustion.
Phase 2: The brain sends
signals to the outer part of the
adrenal glands to produce
cortisol and other stress
hormones. These focus us on
planning adaptive coping
strategies and resisting defeat
by the stressor.
Hans Selye (1907-1982)
indentified this extended
“resistance” phase of the
stress response, followed by:
45. General Adaptation Syndrome [GAS]
(Identified by Hans Selye):
Our stress response system defends,
then fatigues.
46. Effects of Prolonged Stress
The General Adaptation
Syndrome [GAS] works well for
single exposures to stress.
Repeated and prolonged stress,
with too much Phase 3 time,
leads to various signs of physical
deterioration and premature
aging:
the production of new
neurons declines
neural circuits in the brain
break down
DNA telomeres (chromosome
tips) shorten, cells lose
ability to divide, cells die,
tissue stops regenerating,
early aging and death
47. Female and Male Stress Response
In response to a stressor
such as the death of a loved
one, women may “tend and
befriend”: nurture
themselves and others, and
bond together.
The bonding hormone
oxytocin may play a role in
this bonding.
Women show behavioral
and neurological signs of
becoming more empathetic
under stress.
Men under stress are more
likely to socially withdraw
and numb themselves with
alcohol.
Men are also more likely to
become aggressive under
stress.
In either case, men’s
behavior and brains show
LESS empathy and less
tuning in to others under
stress.
48. How does stress increase our
risk of disease?
This is the subject of a new field
of study: psycho-
neuroimmunology, the study of
how interacting psychological,
neural, and endocrine processes
affect health.
Psychologists no longer use the
term “psychosomatic” because
it has come to mean an
imagined illness.
We now refer to
psychophysiological illness, a
real illness caused in part by
psychological factors such as
the experience of stress.
Studying the Stress-Illness Relationship
50. Stress Increases
The Risk of Illness
Here we see psycho-
neuroimmunology in action:
psychological factors, such as
appraisal, thoughts, and
feelings.
neurological factors, such as
brain signals engaging the
stress response system.
immunology, such as stress
hormone exposure which
suppresses the immune system.
51. Psychoneuroimmunology Example:
The Impact of Stress on Catching a Cold
In a group
exposed to
germs, those
experiencing
stress were
more likely to
catch a cold.
This tradeoff between
stress response and
immune response may
help our bodies focus
energy on managing
stress.
52. Stress, AIDS, and Cancer
Because the stress response
suppresses the immune
response, exposure to
stress obviously worsens
the development of AIDS in
those exposed to HIV.
Reducing stress slows the
progression of AIDS.
Stress may weaken the
body’s defenses against
the replication and
spread of malignant cells
AIDS = Acquired
Immune Deficiency
Syndrome
Cancer: the stress link is
not as clear
This does NOT mean that stress
causes cancer or AIDS.
53. Many factors contribute
to heart disease.
Biological: genetic
predisposition to high
blood pressure and high
cholesterol
Behavioral: smoking,
inactivity, and high-fat
diet
Psychological: chronic
stress, and personality
styles that worsen the
experience of stress
Stress and Heart Disease
In coronary heart/artery disease,
the blood vessels that provide
oxygen and nutrients to the heart
muscle itself become clogged,
narrowed, and closed.
Clogging of the coronary artery
54. Type A PersonalityStress
Heart Disease
Some personality traits tend
to cluster into personality
types.
People with a type A
personality are impatient,
verbally aggressive, and
always pushing themselves
and others to achieve.
People with a type B
personality are more relaxed
and go with the flow.
In one study, heart attacks
ONLY struck people with Type
A traits.
Accomplishing goals is healthy, but a compulsion to always be
working, with little time spent “smelling the flowers,” is not.
55. Pessimism and Heart Disease
It can be helpful
to realistically
anticipate
negative events
that may happen,
and to plan how
to prevent or
cope with them.
Men who are generally
pessimistic are more
likely to develop heart
disease within ten years
than optimists.
Pessimism refers to the
assumption that
negative outcomes will
happen, and often facing
them by complaining
and/or giving up.
56. Depression and Heart Disease
Why does depression
appear so often with
heart disease? Does one
cause the other?
One possible answer is
that the two problems
are both caused by
chronic stress.
There may be an
intervening variable:
excessive inflammation.
57. Health Consequences of Chronic Stress:
The Repeated Release of Stress Hormones
The stress hormone cortisol
helps our bodies respond to
brief stress.
Chronically high cortisol levels
damage the body.
58. Promoting Health
Some ways to
reduce the health
effects of stress
include:
address the
stressors.
soothe emotions.
increase one’s
sense of control
over stressors.
exchange
optimism for
pessimism.
get social support.
Ways that help some people to reduce
levels of stress, and to improve health:
aerobic exercise
relaxation and meditation
participation in communities of faith
alternative medicine
59. Coping with Stress
Risk: magnifying
emotional distress,
especially if trying to
change something that’s
difficult to change (e.g.
another person’s traits).
Risk: ignoring the
problem.
We might focus on this
style of coping when we
perceive the stressor as
something we cannot
change.
Problem-focused coping
means reducing the
stressors, such as by
working out a conflict, or
tackling a difficult
project.
Emotion-focused coping
means reducing the
emotional impact of
stress by getting
support, comfort, and
perspective from others.
60. Stress factor: Perceived Level of Control
Only the
middle,
subordinate
rat had
increased
ulcers.
It is not the
level of
shock, but
the level of
control over
the shock,
which
created
stress.
Experiment: the left and middle rats below
received shocks. The rat on the left was able
to turn off the shocks for both rats. Which
rat had the worst stress and health
problems?
61. Promoting Health: Social Support
Having close relationships is
associated with improved health,
immune functioning, and longevity.
Social support, including from pets,
provides a calming effect that
reduces blood pressure and stress
hormones.
Confiding in others helps manage
painful feelings.
Laughter helps too.
“Well, I think you’re wonderful.”
62. Aerobic Exercise and Health
Aerobic exercise triggers certain
genes to produce proteins
which guard against more than
20 chronic diseases and
conditions.
Aerobic exercise reduces the
risk of heart disease, cognitive
decline and dementia, and early
death.
Aerobic exercise refers
to sustained activity that
raises heart rate and
oxygen consumption.
Ultimate (Frisbee): you must run
often to “get open” for a pass, then
run more to cover the other team
and block their passes.
63. Aerobic Exercise and Mental Health
Aerobic exercise reduces
depression and anxiety, and
improves management of
stress. How do we know?
Aerobic exercise is correlated
with high confidence, vitality,
and energy, and good mood.
Is there causation? Perhaps
depression simply reduces
exercise.
One study establishing
causation: mildly depressed
young women randomly
assigned to an exercise group
showed reduced depression
caused by exercise alone.
64. Lifestyle Modification
In one study, a control group was given diet, medication,
and exercise advice.
An experimental group practiced lifestyle modification,
a plan to slow down the pace of one’s life, accept
imperfection, and renew faith.
Result: modifying
lifestyle led to
reduced heart
attack rates.
65. Relaxation and Meditation
Use of relaxation techniques
can reduce headaches, high
blood pressure, anxiety, and
insomnia, and improve immune
functioning.
People who meditate can learn
to create a relaxation response:
relaxed muscles, lower blood
pressure, and slowed heart rate
and breathing.
Meditation also increases brain
activity associated with positive
emotions.
Steps to get the relaxation
response: focus attention on
breathing, a focus word, and
relaxing muscles from toes
upward.
66. Religious Involvement and Health
While attendance at religious services may not directly save
lives, it may make other healthy practices more likely.
Religious
attendance
seems to have
results,
especially for
men,
comparable to
the benefit of
physically
healthy lifestyle
choices.
67. Religious Involvement and Health:
Intervening Factors
The health impact of religious involvement may be indirect.
Health may improve because of the lifestyle and emotional
factors associated with religious involvement, and not [just]
the faith.
68. Complementary and Alternative Medicine
These various types of medicine are “alternative” as they wait
for broader acceptance and more empirical support.
Some, like acupuncture and hypnosis, seem effective but may
be based on a strong placebo effect.
69. As with other areas of psychology, a study of
emotions, stress and health teaches us:
the body constantly interacts with the mind.
psychological phenomena have connections to
physiological phenomena.
More than 2000 years ago, in a Sanskrit text called the
Santi Parva, it was written, “There are two kinds of
diseases, physical and mental. Each springs from the
other. None of them can be seen existing
independently.”
Behavioral Medicine Lesson
Notes de l'éditeur
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Instructor, this definition of emotion may not seem to say much. However, it differentiates an emotion from a mood, which is NOT a response to a situation, and an attitude, which is a predisposition to act in a certain way in a situation. It also differentiates an emotion from one’s affect, which are the outwardly expressive signs, especially facial expression and other nonverbal behaviors, that seem to be related to emotions.
Students may need a reminder that “arousal” means a wide range of energetic bodily responses, and not just sexual arousal. As we’ll review later, this arousal refers to activation of the sympathetic nervous system, including pounding heart, increased breathing, energy, sweating, etc.
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Instructor: the last bullet is a preview of the facial feedback hypothesis presented later in this chapter under the topic of expressed emotion.
The James–Lange theory is one of the earliest theories of emotion, developed independently by the William James (1842-1910) from the United States and Carl Lange (1834-1900) from Denmark.
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Walter Cannon (1871-1945) and Philip Bard (1898-1977) developed their model of emotion in the first half of the 20th century.
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Stanley Schachter (1922-1997) and Jerome Singer (d. 2010) developed the “two-factor” theory of emotion in 1962.
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Richard Lazarus (1922-2002) notes that some “top-down” cognitive functions such as threat-appraisal can be involved, but these emotional responses can still operate without conscious thought.
Joseph LeDoux (b. 1949) and Robert Zajonc (1923-2008) proposed their ideas in the second half of the 20th century.
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Instructor: the labels “approach” and “withdrawal” are not from this text, but are included here to help make sense of the correlation. The left hemisphere is good for analyzing details (up close, approaching) and the right hemisphere is good for understanding the big picture.
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Instructor: another term for expressed emotion (the emotional signs of emotion that we can detect in others) is “affect” (pronounced with the first syllable stressed).
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Instructor: you can challenge students by asking them to make quicker judgments about similar images. “Which one in the first row is closer to “joy”? [left is happy, right is surprise]. Which one in the second row is “sad”? [left is sad, right is afraid]
Which one in the last row is “angry”? [left is anger, right is disgust]. See if students can see the differences in the nose and eyes in the image on the right.
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Another possible evolutionary example: the expression of “disgust” might close the nostrils to block breathing of toxic fumes.
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We seem biologically ready for emotional experience (sadness) to trigger a related facial expression (drooping eyes, frown).
How connected are these feelings and expressive behaviors? Does the connection work in the other direction? Will frowning make me sad?
(The images from the book have labels removed. You can remind students of the bandages/rubber band placement.)
Exercise you can do with students: with a box of straws, have students alternately 1) hold the end of the straw pursed in their lips only, head tipped down, and 2) hold the straw sideways in their mouths, in gritted teeth, pushed back so that lips are stretched and pushed back, head held back. In each case, ask them to think about a person 1) who lives in the room/house next door, and 2) who lives across the hall/street. Take a poll to see if people felt more negatively about 2) and more positively about 1).
About the man at the top feeling happier, you can ask your students: was this because of the facial feedback effect, or because the guy at the bottom was more uncomfortable?
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Instructor: the goal of students in the past decade may not ensure their well-being, or at least not their happiness. Evidence seems to show that striving for wealth is less likely to lead to happiness than striving for intimacy, contribution to society, and personal growth (Kasser, 2011, cited by Myers on page 482).
You can invite students to interpret this data. Note that it applies to college first-year students. Is it possible that this reflects changing attitudes about what college is about? Maybe in the 1960’s, college students were there as more of a luxury, and were spending time searching for a new set of guidelines for life. Perhaps in the 1980’s, students may have entered college more pragmatically, thinking about how they need to earn enough after graduation to pay for the inflated cost.
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Instructor: this graph and its comments can be explained in part by two upcoming concepts, adaptation and relative deprivation. You can add that this pattern of increased wealth not correlating with increased happiness applies when comparing nations as well comparing different time periods.
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Instructor, you could introduce this slide by saying, “If you are stuck in depression, you may need treatment. However, in general, there are steps you can take to maximize your likelihood and degree of feeling content, satisfied, and even having more days of feeling joy.”
Brainstorm other ideas for happiness. One omission that might not come up: have an appropriate locus of control, not assuming either powerlessness or total ability to prevent bad things from happening. A related idea, which some students may know as part of the “Serenity Prayer”: know what you’re able to change/influence and focus on what you’re able to do, rather than focusing your attention on roadblocks, limitations, and other factors you can’t change.
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The answer to the slide question will develop over the course of the this section. However, what we’re looking for here is student’s ability to separate the factors, to see that the stressor (whatever’s on his laptop) could be addressed, or his appraisal and other parts of his stress reaction could be changed.
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Instructor: the fourth category refers to the daily challenge of managing poverty, powerlessness, being a persistent target for injustice, discrimination, bullying, other low social/economic freedom, or facing oppression as a society or as a subgroup. For example, some readers of this text live under regimes or with competing groups that monitor and control their lives, lacking freedom and risking unexpected violence.
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Instructor: here again is a more complete list of the proposed fourth category, which has been combined with “Daily Hassles” to become “Chronic Daily Difficulties.” The fourth category refers to the daily challenge of managing poverty, powerlessness, being a persistent target for injustice, facing oppression as a society or as a subgroup, discrimination, bullying, or other low social/economic freedom.
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Stress exposure has also been found to delay the healing of wounds.
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By next edition of this text, there will probably also be a slide about stress and neurological decline; research in 2011 and 2012 shows an impact of stress on factors related to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Implication of the relationship between stress and AIDS: reducing fearful avoidance of people with AIDS and discrimination against populations seen as being at risk of AIDS might reduce the stress of these populations and prevent or slow the progression of the disease. This is something to consider when one’s fearful or discriminatory impulses kick in, for those people not part of these populations.
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Stress increases the risk of heart disease over decades and causes immediate heart attacks. However, stress can also increase cholesterol levels and artery clogging factors in the space of weeks (the accountant study in the text) and prevent the liver from filtering cholesterol and fat from the blood.
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Suppressing negative emotions only worsens the risk of heart disease. Reducing risk comes from a genuine change in attitude and treatment of factors related to negative emotions.
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The role of this intervening variable may explain why increasing levels of Omega-3 fatty acids seems in some reports to have an impact on the incidence of both depression and heart disease.
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Instructor: this can serve as an overview of the rest of the chapter, though the topics coming up won’t always tie this well to the theme of promoting health. One section, on optimism, does not have its own slide; this is because the section does not offer new material except for some correlational studies that don’t provide evidence that improving optimism causes improvements in health.
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Instructor: if you are not familiar with the sport of “Ultimate,” here’s a two-sentence summary. You and up to six teammates make passes (with a disc, usually not a “Frisbee” brand) to each other down a field to score by catching the disc in an end zone. Any incomplete pass is a turnover and the defense instantly picks up the disc and becomes the offense, making passes to move the disc toward the other end zone.
Another comment to make about aerobic exercise in Ultimate: you can’t run with the disc, so catching the disc and looking for a teammate to throw to gives you a running break of about two to ten seconds (the time limit for making the next pass).
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Instructor: before clicking to make any bullets appear, you might make an introductory comment to connect to the previous slide, such as “One component of healthy lifestyle modification is spending more time in relaxation.”
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This quote is from the first complete English translation of the Mahabharata by Kisari Mohan Ganguli in the late 1800s; the wording is slightly different than in the text.
Myers refers to the Santi Parva as a “sage” but it is actually a philosophical chapter in a larger text called the Mahabharata, composed between approximately the sixth and first centuries B.C.E. in present-day India and Pakistan. The Mahabharata is one of the longest poetic works in the world; it has about 100,000 verses and many long prose passages, about 1.8 million total words.