1. What is emotion?

Emotion can be defined as the “feeling” aspect of consciousness, characterized by three elements: a
certain physical arousal, a certain behavior that reveals the feeling to the outside world, and an inner
awareness of the feeling

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EMOTION Physically, when a person experiences an emotion, an arousal is created
by the sympathetic nervous system. to Chapter Two: The Biological Perspective, pp. 60–61. The heart
rate increases, breathing becomes more rapid, the pupils dilate, and the mouth may become dry. Think
about the last time you were angry and then about the last time you were frightened. Weren’t the
physical symptoms pretty similar? Although facial expressions do differ among various emotional
responses (Ekman, 1980; Ekman et al., 1969; Ekman & Friesen, 1978), emotions are difficult to
distinguish from one another on the basis of physiological reactions alone. However, in the laboratory
using devices to measure the heart rate, blood pressure, and skin temperature, researchers have found
that different emotions may be associated with different physiological reactions: Sadness, anger, and
fear are associated with greater increases in heart rate than is disgust; higher increases in skin
conductance occur during disgust as compared to happiness; and anger is more often associated with
vascular measures, such as higher diastolic blood pressure, as compared to fear (Larsen et al., 2008;
Levenson, 1992; Levenson et al., 1992).

Which parts of the brain are involved in various aspects of emotion? As discussed in Chapter Two, the
amygdala, a small area located within the limbic system on each side of the brain, is associated with fear
in both humans and animals (Davis & Whalen, 2001; Fanselow & Gale, 2003) and is also involved in the
facial expressions of human emotions (Morris et al., 1998).

When portions of the amygdala are damaged in rats, the animals cannot be classically conditioned to
fear new objects—they apparently cannot remember to be afraid (R. J. Davidson et al., 2000; Fanselow
& Gale, 2003). In humans, damage to the amygdala has been associated with similar effects (LaBar et al.,
1995) and with impairment of the ability to determine emotions from looking at the facial expressions of
others (Adolphs & Tranel, 2003).

A lot of what we know about the amygdala’s role in emotion comes from the work of Dr. Joseph LeDoux
and his many colleagues and students. (NOTE for the curious, Dr. LeDoux’s Ph.D. advisor was Dr. Michael
Gazzaniga, whose work was discussed in Chapter Two) The amygdala is a complex structure with many
different nuclei and subdivisions, whose roles have been investigated primarily through studies of fear
conditioning (LeDoux & Phelps, 2008). Fear conditioning has been very helpful in relating behaviors to
brain function because it results in stereotypical autonomic and behavioral responses. It is basically a
classical conditioning procedure where an auditory stimulus (conditioned stimulus) is paired with foot
shock (unconditioned stimulus) to elicit autonomic and behavioral conditioned responses (LeDoux,
1996; LeDoux & Phelps, 2008).

LeDoux’s work has provided many insights into the brain’s processing of emotional information and the
role of the amygdala. Emotional stimuli travel to the amygdala by both a fast, crude “low road”
(subcortical) and a slower but more involved cortical “high road” (LeDoux, 1996, 2007; LeDoux & Phelps,
2008). The direct route allows for quick responses to stimuli that are possibly dangerous, sometimes
before we actually know what the stimuli are, but with the awareness provided by the indirect cortical
route (specifically, processing by the prefrontal cortex), we can override the direct route and take
control of our emotional responses (LeDoux, 1996; LeDoux & Phelps, 2008; Öhman, 2008).

LeDoux’s work also provides a mechanism for understanding disorders of emotion, to Chapter Fourteen:
Psychological Disorders, pp. 541–546. It is possible that the direct route may be the primary processing
pathway for individuals with emotional disorders and the indirect, cortical pathway is not able to
override the processing initiated by the direct route. This would result in difficulty or inability to control
our emotions, or the inability to extinguishing fears we’ve already acquired (LeDoux, 1996; LeDoux &
Phelps, 2008).

362 CHAPTER 9

Besides the amygdala, other subcortical and cortical areas of the brain are involved in the processing of
emotional information. Research suggests that emotions may work differently depending on which side
of the brain is involved. One area of investigation has been the frontal lobes. Researchers have found
that positive emotions are associated with the left frontal lobe of the brain whereas negative feelings
such as sadness, anxiety, and depression seem to be a function of the right frontal lobe (R. J. Davidson,
2003; Geschwind & Iacoboni, 2007; Heilman, 2002). In studies where the electrical activity of the brain
has been tracked using an electroencephalograph, to Chapter Two: The Biological Perspective, pp. 67–
68, left frontal lobe activation has been associated with pleasant emotions while right frontal lobe
activity has been associated with negative emotional states (R. J. Davidson, 2003). Furthermore,
increased left frontal lobe activity has been found in individuals trained in meditation, and for the
participants in this study, greater left frontal lobe activity was accompanied by a reduction in their
anxiety as well as a boost in their immune system (R. J. Davidson et al., 2003).

The ability to interpret the facial expressions of others as a particular emotion also seems to be a
function of one side of the brain more than the other. Researchers have found that when people are
asked to identify the emotion on another person’s face, the right hemisphere is more active than the
left, particularly in women (Voyer & Rodgers, 2002). This difference begins weakly in childhood but
increases in adulthood, with children being less able to identify negative emotions as well as they can
positive emotions when compared to adults (Barth & Boles, 1999; Lane et al., 1995). This finding is
consistent with early research that assigns the recognition of faces to the right hemisphere (Berent,
1977; Ellis, 1983).

Other types of emotional processing involve a variety of other brain areas. Have you ever been told to
control your emotions? Or maybe you’ve heard the lyrics from the old Bobby McFerrin song, “Don’t
Worry, Be Happy.” Different brain areas take primary roles based on the different ways you try to
control your emotions, but there is a degree of overlap across several of the strategies. For example,
some common strategies for regulating one’s emotions include distraction, reappraisal, and controlling
the influence of emotions on decision making. All three of these strategies take advantage of the lateral
prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex and, as you might expect from the discussion before, the
amygdala also comes into play ( J. S. Beer, 2009).

However, distraction appears to be supported by activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, and
reappraisal is supported by activity in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex; and both are accompanied by
lower activity in the amygdala ( J. S. Beer, 2009). Furthermore, distraction and reappraisal may engage
more brain areas in general as compared to spontaneous control of emotions in decision making.
Generally, brain areas associated with emotional control are the same brain areas responsible for
control of nonemotional information (Beer, 2009).

THE BEHAVIOR OF EMOTION: EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION How do people behave when in the grip of an
emotion? There are facial expressions, body movements, and actions that indicate to others how a
person feels. Frowns, smiles, and sad expressions combine with hand gestures, the turning of one’s
body, and spoken words to produce an understanding of emotion. People fight, run, kiss, and yell, along
with countless other actions stemming from the emotions they feel.

Facial expressions can vary across different cultures, although some aspects of facial expression seem to
be universal. (See Figure 9.5 for some examples of universal facial expressions.) Charles Darwin (1898)
was one of the first to theorize that emotions were a product of evolution and, therefore, universal—all
human beings, no matter what their culture, would show the same facial expression because the

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motivation and emotion 363

facial muscles evolved to communicate specific information to onlookers. For example, an angry face
would signal to onlookers that they should act submissively or expect a fight. Although Darwin’s ideas
were not in line with the behaviorist movement of the early and middle twentieth century, which
promoted environment rather than heredity as the cause of behavior, other researchers have since
found evidence that there is a universal nature to at least seven basic emotions, giving more support to
the evolutionary perspective within psychology (Ekman, 1973; Ekman & Friesen, 1969, 1971). to Chapter
One: The Science of Psychology, pp. 16–17. Even children who are blind from birth can produce the
appropriate facial expressions for any given situation without ever having witnessed those expressions
on others, which strongly supports the idea that emotional expressions have their basis in biology rather
than in learning (Charlesworth & Kreutzer, 1973; Fulcher, 1942).

In their research, Ekman and Friesen found that people of many different cultures (including Japanese,
European, American, and the Fore tribe of New Guinea) can consistently recognize at least seven facial
expressions: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, surprise, sadness, and contempt (Ekman & Friesen, 1969,
1971). Although the emotions and the related facial expressions appear to be universal, exactly when,
where, and how an emotion is expressed may be determined by the culture. Display rules that can vary
from culture to culture (Ekman, 1973; Ekman & Friesen, 1969) are learned ways of controlling displays of
emotion in social settings. For example, Japanese people have strict social rules about showing emotion
in public situations— they simply do not show emotion, remaining cool, calm, and collected, at least on
the outside. But if in a more private situation, as a parent scolding a child within the

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Figure 9.5 Facial Expressions of Emotion

Facial expressions appear to be universal. For example, these faces are consistently interpreted as
showing (a) anger, (b) fear, (c) disgust, (d) happiness, (e) surprise, and (f) sadness by people of various
cultures from all over the world. Although the situations that cause these emotions may differ from
culture to culture, the expression of particular emotions remains strikingly the same.

display rules learned ways of controlling

displays of emotion in social settings.

recognizing facial

expressions of emotions on

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home, the adult’s facial expression would easily be recognized as “angry” by people of any culture. The
emotion is universal and the way it is expressed on the face is universal, but whether it is expressed or
displayed depends on the learned cultural rules for displaying emotion.

Display rules are different between cultures that are individualistic (placing the importance of the
individual above the social group) and those that are collectivistic (placing the importance of the social
group above that of the individual). Whereas the culture of the United States is individualistic, for
example, the culture of Japan is collectivistic. At least part of the difference between the two types of
display rules may be due to these cultural differences (Edelmann & Iwawaki, 1987; Hofstede, 1980;
Hofstede et al., 2002). to Chapter Thirteen: Theories of Personality, pp. 515–516.

Display rules are also different for males and females. Researchers looking at the display rules of boys
and girls found that boys are reluctant to talk about feelings in a social setting, whereas girls are
expected and encouraged to do so (Polce-Lynch et al., 1998). With adults, researchers looking at the
expression of anger in the workplace found that women are generally less willing than men to express
negative emotions, although factors such as status complicate the findings somewhat (Domagalski &
Steelman, 2007).

SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE: LABELING EMOTION The third element of emotion is interpreting the
subjective feeling by giving it a label: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, shame, interest, and so
on. Another way of labeling this element is to call it the “cognitive element,” because the labeling
process is a matter of retrieving memories of previous similar experiences, perceiving the context of the
emotion, and coming up with a solution—a label.

The label a person applies to a subjective feeling is at least in part a learned response influenced by their
language and culture. Such labels may differ in people of different cultural backgrounds. For example,
researchers in one study ( J. L. Tsai et al., 2004) found that Chinese Americans who were still firmly
rooted in their original Chinese culture were far more likely to use labels to describe their emotions that
referred to bodily sensations (such as “dizzy”) or social relationships (such as “friendship”) than were
more “Americanized” Chinese Americans and European Americans, who tended to use more directly
emotional words (such as “liking” or “love”).
In another study, even the subjective feeling of happiness showed cultural differences (Kitayama &
Markus, 1994). In this study, Japanese students and students from the United States were found to
associate a general positive emotional state with entirely different circumstances. In the case of the
Japanese students, the positive state was more associated with friendly or socially engaged feelings. The
students from the United States associated their positive emotional state more with feelings that were
socially disengaged, such as pride. This finding is a further reflection of the differences between
collectivistic and individualistic cultures. A major goal for psychologists engaged in cross-cultural
research in emotions is to attempt to understand the meaning of other people’s mental and emotional
states without interpreting them incorrectly, or misleadingly, in the language or mindset of the
researchers (Shweder et al., 2008).

2. Facial

Emotion can be defined as the “feeling” aspect of consciousness, characterized by three elements: a
certain physical arousal, a certain behavior that reveals the feeling to the outside world, and an inner
awareness of the feeling

Facial Feedback Theory of Emotion: In the facial feedback theory of emotion, a stimulus such as this
snarling dog causes arousal and a facial expression. The facial expression then provides feedback to the
brain about the emotion. The brain then interprets the emotion and may also intensify it

The facial feedback hypothesis assumes that changing your own facial expression can change the way
you feel. Smiling makes people feel happy, and frowning makes people feel sad. This effect seems to
have an impact on the people around us as well. If this is true, this smiling woman may make the airline
steward handing her the food feel good, too. Is it hard for you to stay in a bad mood when the people
around you are smiling and laughing

cognitive-mediational theory theory of emotion in which a stimulus must be interpreted (appraised) by

In this theory, the most important aspect of any emotional experience is how the person interprets, or
appraises, the stimulus that causes the emotional reaction. To mediate means to “come between” and
in this theory, the cognitive appraisal mediates by coming between the stimulus and the emotional
response to that stimulus.

3.

Emotion can be defined as the “feeling” aspect of consciousness, characterized by three elements: a
certain physical arousal, a certain behavior that reveals the feeling to the outside world, and an inner
awareness of the feeling

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

In the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, a stimulus leads to activity in the brain, which then sends signals
to arouse the body and interpret the emotion at the same time

This theory posits that bodily changes and emotions occur simultaneously instead of one right after the
other. This theory is backed by neurobiological science that says that the once a stimulating event is
detected, the information is relayed to both the amygdala and the brain cortex at the same time. If this
holds true, arousal and emotion are a simultaneous event.

Lazarus’s Cognitive-Mediational Theory

In Lazarus’s cognitive-mediational theory of emotion, a stimulus causes an immediate appraisal (e.g.,

According to the Lazarus’s Cognitive-Mediational Theory, thinking must occur before experiencing
emotion. Thus, a person would first experience a stimulus, think, and then simultaneously experience a
physiological response and the emotion.

4.

Thinking can be defined as mental activity that goes on in the brain when a person is processing
information—organizing it, understanding it, and communicating it to others. Thinking includes memory,
but it is much more. When people think, they are not only aware of the information in the brain but also
are making decisions about it, comparing it to other information, and using it to solve problems.

Thinking also includes more than just a kind of verbal “stream of consciousness.” When people think,
they often have images as well as words in their minds.

These tools are:

- Images: Image is a mental picture formed in the mind in the absence of stimulus. This takes
place when we try to remember the experience of stimulus. We are able to think on the basis of
these images.
- Concepts: Thinking always takes place by using the concepts in the mind. Without concepts
there cannot be thinking, because everything around us is recorded in the brain in the form of
concepts.
- Language: In thinking we not only use concepts, but also language. Generally we think in our
mother tongue or the language which is very familiar to us. Our thinking will flow like stream
because of language.
- Symbols: Symbols like national flag, national animal, logo of a game or organisation, etc, are
symbols of certain things. We use these symbols while thinking.
- Brain: Finally it is the brain which is the seat of all mental processes. Since thinking is also a
higher mental process, the role of brain is crucial. All our experiences are stored in the brain as
engrams. Our thinking takes place on the basis of these engrams. Hence, it is quite obvious that
brain is an essential tool of thinking.

5.

Problem solving is a process of cognition that occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and
behaving in certain ways.

Problem solving occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving in certain ways.
Problems range from figuring out how to cut a recipe in half to understanding complex mathematical
proofs to deciding what to major in at college. There are several different ways in which people can
think in order to solve problems.

Methods people use to solve problems and make decisions

- trial and error (mechanical solution) problem-solving method in which one possible solution
after another is tried until a successful one is found
- algorithms very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems
- heuristic an educated guess based on prior experiences that helps narrow down the possible
solutions for a problem. Also known as a “rule of thumb.”
- representative heuristic assumption that any object (or person) sharing characteristics with the
members of a particular category is also a member of that category.
- availability heuristic estimating the frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easy it is
to recall relevant information from memory or how easy it is for us to think of related examples.

Failure in solving problem is usually due to 3 factors: functional fixedness, mental sets, and
confirmation bias.

- functional fixedness a block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects in terms
of only their typical functions
- mental set the tendency for people to persist in using problem-solving patterns that have
worked for them in the past
- confirmation bias the tendency to search for evidence that fits one’s beliefs while ignoring any
evidence that does not fit those beliefs