EMOTION IN A PSYCHOLOGY, Slides of Social Psychology of Emotion

Download EMOTION IN A PSYCHOLOGY and more Slides Social Psychology of Emotion in PDF only on Docsity!

Emotion

Naveen Kashyap, PhD Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati Email: naveen.kashyap@iitg.ac.in

Emotion

Components of Emotion

• An emotion is a complex, multi-component episode that creates a readiness to act

Theories of Emotion

The Cannon-Bard and James-Lange theories – which comes first, action or feelings Cannon-Bard theory – suggests that various emotion provoking events induce simultaneously, the subjective experiences we label as emotions and the physiological reactions that accompany them. James-Lange theory – suggests that subjective emotional experiences are actually the result of physiological changes within our bodies

• facial feedback hypothesis – suggests that changes in our facial expressions produces shifts in our experienced emotions rather than merely reflecting them
• In addition research suggests that changing our bodily postures or even the tone of our voice may influence emotional experiences

Theories of Emotion

Schachter and Singer’s Two-Factor theory –

Emotion provoking events produce increased arousal. In response to these feelings we then search the external environment in order to identify the causes behind them. The factors we then select play a key role in determining the label we place on our arousal and so in determining the emotions we experience

Discovery of appraisals Two-factor theory of emotions – emotions are the result of a combination of an initial state of unexplained arousal & cognitive appraisal for that arousal – mixed support Misattribution of arousal – physiological arousal can be erroneously attributed to subsequent event

Cognitive Appraisal & Emotion

• Themes & dimensions of appraisals
  • People’s appraisals of situations lead to subjective experience of emotions, associated arousal & other components of emotional response - Minimalist appraisal theories – reduce number of appraisal dimensions to a minimum, often based on fundamental themes – emphasises importance of emotion-specific core relational themes (e.g. irrevocable loss for sadness)

Dimensional appraisal theories – identify a range of appraisal dimensions thought sufficient for differences among emotions (e.g. desirability of event & whether it occurs)

Cognitive Appraisal & Emotion

• Conscious & unconscious appraisals
  • Appraisals can occur at unconscious levels – people experience emotion without understanding why
  • Cognitive appraisals in emotion processes similar to other types of cognition - resulting in part from automatic processing & in part from controlled processing