Fundamental Issues in Developmental Psychology

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Arousal and Emotion
Whats their use?? Assist in decision
making Readiness
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Yerkes-Dodson Law
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Some arousal is necessary High arousal helpful
on easy tasks As level of arousal increases,
quality of performance decreases with task
difficulty Too much arousal harmful
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Concept of Emotion

• subjective feelings elicited by stimuli that have
  high significance to an individual
• stimuli that produce high arousal generally
  produce strong feelings
• are rapid and automatic
• emerged through natural selection to benefit
  survival and reproduction

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Theories of Emotion

• Common sense might suggest that the perception of
  a stimulus elicits emotion which then causes
  bodily arousal

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Jamess Peripheral Feedback Theory

• perception of a stimulus causes bodily arousal
  which leads to emotion
• support spinal cord injuries, locked-in syndrome

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Schachters Cognition-Plus-Feedback Theory

• Perception and thought about a stimulus influence
  the type of emotion felt
• Degree of bodily arousal influences the intensity
  of emotion felt

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Schachters Cognition-Plus-Feedback Theory

• Degree of bodily arousal influences the intensity
  of emotion felt
• Support experiments with norepinepherine
  injections

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Ekmans Facial Feedback Theory

• Each basic emotion is associated with a unique
  facial expression
• Sensory feedback from the expression contributes
  to the emotional feeling
• Support hold pen between teeth, and world seems
  funnier!

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Ekmans Facial Feedback Theory
Facial expressions have an effect on
self-reported anger and happiness
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Ekmans Facial Feedback Theory
Facial expressions can produce effects on the
rest of the body
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Brain-Based Theory of Emotions

• Amygdala
• evaluate the significance of stimuli and generate
  emotional responses
• generate hormonal secretions and autonomic
  reactions that accompany strong emotions
• damage psychic blindness, inability to
  recognize fear in facial expressions and voice
• stimulation feeling of fear

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Brain-Based Theory of Emotions

• Frontal lobes
• influence peoples conscious emotional feelings
  and ability to act in planned ways based on
  feelings (e.g., effects of prefrontal lobotomy,
  Phineas Gage)

left frontal lobe may be most involved in
processing positive emotions right frontal lobe
involved with negative emotions
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