Defining Emotion, The Evolution of Emotion

Chapter 1 Approaches to Understanding Emotion

Chapter 2 Evolutions to Emotion

- Emotion: psychological state that relates an event, usually out there in the world, but sometimes
in the mind, prepares for an action, internal
- Frontal lobe linked to emotion
- Empathy: mirroring a response
- sympathy/compassion: helping fix a distress in someone
- Concern: something of importance

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- Mood: a low-intensity background feeling
- Emotional disorder: lasts for months or years
- Personality: lifetime
- Temperament: one’s born personality

Elements of an Evolutionary Approach

Selection Pressures

Adaptation

Natural Design for Gene Replication

An Evolutionary History of Human Emotions

Insights from Modern Hunter-Gatherers

Insights from Nonhuman Primates Human Ancestry

Evolution of Symbolic Representation and Language

Emotions as Bases of Human Relationships

 Emotions That Promote Attachment

Emotions and Negotiation of Social Hierarchy Emotions, Affiliation, and Friendship

Collective Emotion and Preference for In-Groups

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1. Describe James' (and Lange's) theory of emotion and explain in what way it differs from the
general theories of his day.

1880s - bodily changes come first then emotion

a fact excites - bodily expression - which leads to an emotion.

An example of this is: an opera excites tears which makes you feel sad.

I. bodily reactions come first (emotions cannot be experienced without)

Ii. processes involved in bodily reactions are instinctive or unconscious.

 Iii. Poses taken voluntarily (like smiling in social situations) may influence emotions.

Facial feedback theory was derived from this principle (any pose of a facial emotion will lead to an
experience of that emotion)

Iv. there are “coarser” (grief, anger) and “subtler”(morals, intellectual) emotions

2. Outline Cannon's criticisms of James' theory of emotion.

1. Emotions can exist without body (physical) expression.

Ex. heartrate increasing is not just from fear but also can be happiness

2. The same behavious occur in different emotional states (and non-emotional states)
3. The visceral system is an insensitive structure - when making someone’s heartbeat
accelerate should make a person afraid. Considering that this does not happen, Cannon
concluded that emotion cannot be stimulated by direct actions on the body
4. Visceral changes are to slow to source emotional feeling
5. Artifitual changes to the visceral system doesnt stimulate emotion

JAMES AND CANNON: KEY DIFFERENCES

JAMES CANNON

Bodily reaction comes first. Brain reaction comes first.

Gut reactions are the source of emotional experiences. Gut reactions are too slow, too common, and too
insensitive to be the source of emotional experiences.

Emotion cannot exist without bodily reactions. Emotion can and does exist without gut reactions.

Creating the bodily reaction to an emotion will promote Creating the bodily reaction to an emotion will not
that emotion. create that emotion.

3. Describe Cannon's (and Bard's) alternative theory of emotion.

The thalamus in the brain (brain centre) controls emotion

Ex. fact - leads to reaction in brain - leads to emotion

4. Diagram and explain the role that the brain and body play in the theories of James and Cannon.

For James, the body acts to create emotion

Cannon, the mind triggers emotion

5. Explain what the words "adaptation" and "survival" mean within the theory of evolution.

Adaptation: modifications that are done in an organism that enable it to adjust to life in a new
environment. An example of an adaptation that us humans have would be a fear of heights or
a fear of snakes as these things may have caused turmoil for our ancestors.

When thinking about survival, is due to adaptations made . these traits were passed down their genes.
“Survival of the fittest”.

6. Outline Darwin's three principles that refer to emotion.

- states of mind had the ability to produce “associated habits”. There are certain reflexive reactions
that accompany emotional states of mind.

Ex. Serviceable habits could be learned in the same way of Pavlov’s conditioned reflexes.
Examples of this include the turning away of the head in disgust, the jump or startle
response, and the attack postures of animals.

- Darwin believed in the principle of antithesis. For every emotion there is an equal and opposite
emotion. For example, happy vs sad. Modes of expression were also included: smile vs. sad
face.
- Darwin also believed the principle of direct action of the nervous system. He believed the process
was entirely involuntary.

7. Give examples of how emotions can be considered adaptive (how they help us survive).

In the prehistoric ages, a venomous snake may have been seen as food, until it bit and started killing off
the tribesmen. The people who weren’t bitten were terrified of the snake.

They conditioned their children and grandchildren to fear these snakes. The generations
preceding knew to fear these snakes. This was an adaptation from an emotion of our
ancestors.

Anger is another adaptive emotion.

 If backed into a corner by a dangerous beast, fear would ensure your death, whereas anger
would be necessary to your survival as it would allow you to fight rather than cower

8. Explain the relationship between Ekman's theory of emotion and Darwin's original work and
principles.

Paul Ekman’s theory is based directly off of Darwin’s third principle (direct action of the nervous system
leading to emotional expression).

Ekman felt that facial expression was important to a person’s experience of emotion. We cannot
consciously produce a full facial expression of an emotion in the total absence of feeling.

Ekman holds that basic emotional facial expressions are innate, which means that we are born with them.

Ekman holds that basic emotional facial expressions are pancultural (universal), meaning that different
cultures react in the same way to facial expressions.

He also believes that human emotion can be measured by measuring the human face. This is true
because expressions of individual emotions are unique but can surprisingly still be measured

9. Describe FACS and explain what it does.

Facial Action Coding System is a method of measuring the human face

Measures facials muscles (ex. A jaw drop)

10. Explain what Ekman means when he claims that facial expressions of emotion are
"pancultural and innate."

Innate meaning that the human is born with facial expressions of emotion

Pancultural that it is universal and shared among cultures

11. Explain what an emotional appraisal is, giving several examples.

People’s cognitive evaluation of a situation determines the emotion (response) in the situation

Ex. feeling excited after a positive first date, feeling anxious before writing a test, a child’s
excitement seeing boxes under a christmas tree
MINI RESEARCH ACTIVITY

What do people think we mean when we talk about emotion?

We can determine that emotion is response to stimuli and it is also the backbone of

who we are as humans.

Do people at large agree on their definitions of emotion?

Do people notice or mention the adaptive nature of emotion? Why or why

not?

None of my participants really discussed the adaptive nature of emotion.

Just because they may not have mentioned it does not mean that they do not experience it or that they
haven’t noticed it, without proper questioning or the proper prompt it may prove difficult to receive the
actual answers we were searching for