EMOTIONS AND STRESS

2. Bodily arousal:
sweat, pounding heart
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.
An emotion is a full
body/mind/behavior response
to a situation.
Someone cuts you off on the road. You may feel the emotion of anger. Emotions are a mix of:

3. James-Lange
Theory:
Cannon-Bard
Theory
Singer-Schachter/Two-
factor theory: body/brain
 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?

4. 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.
 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.

5. 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.”
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.

6.  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.
The Schachter-Singer “two-factor”
theory suggests that emotions do
not exist until we add a label to
whatever body sensations we are
feeling.

7. 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.

8. Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer
highlighted the role of appraisal in agitation
is fear. labeling consciously experienced
emotions: “this ”
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 .

10. Theories
of
Emotion
Avoiding the highway today
without identifying or
explaining any fear is an
example of the “low road”
of emotion.

11.  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.

12.  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.  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.

15.  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:

16.  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):
malefemale

17. 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

18. 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.

19.  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.

21. 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.

22. 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:

24.  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.

25.  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.

26. Stressors
Appraisal
Thoughts
Feelings
Brain signals
Hormonal
action
Immune
suppression
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.

27. 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.

28.  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
This does NOT mean that stress
causes cancer or AIDS.

29. 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
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

30.  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.”

31.  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.

32.  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.

33.  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.

35. 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.

36. 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.