Emotion, Stress, and Health

1
Emotion, Stress,and Health
chapter 13
2
Overview
chapter 13

• Nature of emotion
• Emotion and culture
• Nature of stress
• Stress and emotion
• How to cope

3
Emotion
chapter 13

• A state of arousal involving facial and bodily
  changes, brain activation, cognitive appraisals,
  subjective feelings, and tendencies toward
  action, all shaped by cultural rules

4
The body
chapter 13

• Primary emotions
• Emotions considered to be universal and
  biologically based, usually thought to include
  fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust, and
  contempt
• Secondary emotion
• Emotions that develop with cognitive maturity and
  vary across individuals and cultures

5
Your turn
chapter 13

• Which of the following is a primary emotion?
• 1. Love
• 2. Suspicion
• 3. Joy
• 4. Jealousy

6
Your turn
chapter 13

• Which of the following is a primary emotion?
• 1. Love
• 2. Suspicion
• 3. Joy
• 4. Jealousy

7
Universal expressions of emotion
chapter 13

• Facial expressions for primary emotions are
  universal.
• Even members of remote cultures can recognize
  facial expressions in people who are foreign to
  them.
• Facial feedback
• Process by which the facial muscles send messages
  to the brain about the basic emotion being
  expressed

8
The brain and emotion
chapter 13

• The amygdala
• Responsible for assessing threat
• Damage to the amygdala results in abnormality in
  processing fear.

9
The brain and emotion
chapter 13

• Mirror neurons
• A class of neurons, distributed throughout the
  brain, that fire when an animal sees or hears an
  action and carries out the same action on its own
• Far more evolved and varied in humans than in
  other animals
• Help us recognize others intentions

10
Hormones and emotion
chapter 13

• When experiencing an intense emotion, two
  hormones are released.
• Epinephrine
• Norepinephrine
• Results in increased alertness and arousal
• At high levels, can create sensation of being out
  of control emotionally

11
The autonomic nervous system
chapter 13
12
How thoughts create emotions
chapter 13

• Perceptions and attributions are involved in
  emotions.
• How one reacts to an event depends on how he/she
  explains it.
• For example, how one reacts to being ignored or
  winning the silver instead of the gold medal
• Philosophy of life is also influential.

13
Culture and emotion
chapter 13

• Culture determines what people feel angry, sad,
  lonely, happy, ashamed or disgusted about.
• Some cultures have words for specific emotions
  unknown to other cultures..
• E.g., schadenfreude
• Some cultures dont have words for emotions that
  seem universal to others.
• Tahitian and sadness
• Differences in secondary emotions appear to be
  reflected in differences in languages.

14
Rules of emotional regulation
chapter 13

• Display rules
• When, where, and how emotions are to be expressed
  or when they should be squelched
• Emotion work
• Acting out an emotion we do not feel or trying to
  create the right emotion for the occasion
• Body language
• The nonverbal signals of body movement, posture,
  and gaze that people constantly express

15
Gender and emotion
chapter 13

• In North America women. . .
• smile more than men.
• gaze at listeners more.
• have more emotionally expressive faces.
• use more expressive body movements.
• touch others more.
• acknowledge weakness and emotions more.
• Compared to women, men only express anger to
  strangers more.

16
Factors influencing emotional expressiveness
chapter 13

• Gender roles
• Cultural norms
• The specific situation

17
The physiology of stress
chapter 13

• General Adaptation Syndrome
• Alarm
• Resistance
• Exhaustion
• Goal is to minimize wear and tear on system.

18
Your turn
chapter 13

• During which phase of the General Adaptation
  Syndrome is a person most vulnerable to disease?
• 1. Alarm
• 2. Resistance
• 3. Exhaustion

19
Your turn
chapter 13

• During which phase of the General Adaptation
  Syndrome is a person most vulnerable to disease?
• 1. Alarm
• 2. Resistance
• 3. Exhaustion

20
Current approaches
chapter 13
21
Stressors and the body
chapter 13

• Work-related problems
• Noise
• Bereavement and loss
• Poverty, powerlessness, and low status

22
Explanatory styles
chapter 13

• Optimists
• Take better care of themselves when sick
• Cope better
• Draw on friends in hard times

23
The sense of control
chapter 13

• Locus of control
• A general expectation about whether the results
  of your actions are under your own control
  (internal locus) or beyond your control (external
  locus)
• Feelings of control can reduce or even eliminate
  the relationship between stressors and health.

24
Your turn
chapter 13

• Suppose you have several difficult exams coming
  up soon. If your thought is Theres no way I
  can study enough to get an A in psychology, then
  what is your locus of control?
• 1. Internal
• 2. External

25
Your turn
chapter 13

• Suppose you have several difficult exams coming
  up soon. If your thought is Theres no way I
  can study enough to get an A in psychology, then
  what is your locus of control?
• 1. Internal
• 2. External

26
Benefits of control
chapter 13

• When exposed to cold viruses, those who are out
  of control are more likely to develop colds.
• Low-income individuals with high levels of
  control report similar quality of life to
  high-income individuals.
• Managers and executives have fewer illnesses.
• African-Americans reporting more control have
  fewer problems with hypertension.
• Nursing home residents with greater control are
  more alert, happier, and live longer.

27
Limits of control
chapter 13

• Primary control an effort to modify reality by
  changing other people, the situation, or events
• A fighting back philosophy
• Western cultures
• Secondary control an effort to accept reality by
  changing your own attitudes, goals, or emotions
• A learn to live with it philosophy
• Eastern cultures

28
Emotions and illness
chapter 13

• Hostility and heart disease
• Type A personality determined to achieve, sense
  of time urgency, irritable, quick to respond to
  threat or challenge, impatient with obstacles.
• Type B personality calmer, less intense
• Cynical or antagonistic hostility is a major risk
  factor for heart disease

29
Positive emotions
chapter 13

• Longitudinal study of 180 Catholic nuns found
  that longevity was related to frequency of
  positive emotions
• Happiness
• Interest
• Love
• Hope
• Etc.
• Nuns whose life stories contained the most
  positive emotion words lived an average of nine
  years longer.

30
Emotional inhibition
chapter 13

• A personality trait involving a tendency to deny
  feelings of anger, anxiety, or fear stressful
  situations cause heart rate and blood pressure to
  rise sharply
• People with this trait are more likely to fall
  ill than people who can acknowledge feelings.

31
Letting grievances go
chapter 13

• Confession divulging private thoughts and
  feelings that make you ashamed or depressed
• Can also give up thoughts that produce grudges
  and replace them with different perspectives.
• Forgiving thoughts

32
Cooling off
chapter 13

• Relaxation training
• Learning to alternately tense and relax muscles,
  lie or sit quietly, or meditate by clearing the
  mind
• Lowers stress hormones, enhances immune function
• Massage therapy
• Exercise

33
Solving the problem
chapter 13

• Emotion-focused and problem-focused coping
• Effective cognitive coping methods
• Reappraising the situation
• Learning from the experience
• Making social comparisons
• Cultivating a sense of humor

34
Looking outward
chapter 13

• Friends can help
• People who have network of close connections live
  longer than those who do not.
• After heart attack, those with no close contacts
  were twice as likely to die.
• Relationships can also cause stress.
• Giving support to others can be a valuable source
  of comfort.

35
When friends arent helpful
chapter 13

• Many are stressed by the responsibility of caring
  for others.
• In close relationships, the support person may
  also be the source of stress.
• Married couples who argue in a hostile way have
  increased elevations of stress hormones and
  weakened immune systems.
• Friends may be unsupportive or block your
  progress toward a goal.