PSYC18 - Psychology of Emotion

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PSYC18 - Psychology of Emotion Lecture 6
Professor Gerald Cupchik cupchik_at_utsc.utoronto.ca
S-634 Office Hours Thurs. 10-11, 2-3
T.A. Michelle Hilscher hilscher_at_utsc.utoronto.ca
S-150 Office Hours Thurs. 10-11, 2-3
Course Website www.utsc.utoronto.ca/cupchik
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Stanley Schachter (1922-1997) study, as
well as the work of Cantril and Hunt (1932) and
Landis and Hunt (1932) who replicated the
findings. Nisbett and Schachter (1966) stated
In nature, of course, cognitive and situational
factors trigger physiological processes, and the
triggering stimulus usually imposes the label we
attach to our feeling. This sounds like
McDougall.
Schachter was trained in the lineage of the
leading scholars in experimental social
psychology Kurt Lewin Leon Festinger. He saw
his project in relation to Cannons (1929)
criticism of James theory, to the effect that
the same visceral changes occur in very
different emotional states and in non-emotional
states. Schachter cited Maranons (1924)
fascinating
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Stanley Schachter (1922-1997) Schachter
elaborated his cognitive analysis in terms of
Festingers (1954) notion of evaluative needs,
that is, pressures to understand and label his
bodily feelings of emotional excitement in
terms of his knowledge of the immediate
situation. This could involve a process of
social comparison to determine the relative
appropriateness of ones feelings in a
given situation. The perception-cognition
figure with a gun in some fashion initiates a
state of physiological arousal this state of
arousal is interpreted in terms of knowledge
about dark alleys and guns and the state of
arousal is labeled as fear.
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The Role of Arousal Hohmann (1962) studied the
emotional life of paraplegics and quadriplegics
with spinal cord injuries. Results show
that the higher the lesion the less the feeling
of anger, fear, sexual excitement and grief. So,
the less arousal from the viscera, the less the
emotional experience.
1. The higher the lesion, the less the visceral
innervation 2. Expect decreasing manifestation
of emotion as height of lesion increases Intervie
wed respondents about feelings in situations of
sexual excitement, fear, anger, grief,
sentimentality. Recall emotion arousing incident
prior to injury and comparable feeling after.
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Three Basic Propositions 1. In a state of
arousal for which the individual knows no
immediate explanation, he will label this state
and describe his feelings in terms of available
cognitions. 2. Given a state of arousal with a
completely appropriate explanation (e.g., I feel
this way because of an injection of adrenaline),
no evaluative needs will arise and the individual
is unlikely to label his arousal in terms of
alternate available cognitions. 3. Given the
same cognitive circumstances, the individual will
react emotionally or describe his feelings as
emotional only to the extent that he experiences
a state of physiological arousal.
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Schachter and Singer (1962) 1. Manipulate state
of arousal experimentally. 2. Manipulate extent
of explanation of bodily state. 3. Creation of
situations from which explanatory cognitions may
be derived. The experimental paradigm involved
giving people injections of either adrenaline or
a control solution, saline, under the guise of
testing the effect of a vitamin called Suproxin
on visual acuity.
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Schachter and Singer (1962) Independent
variables 1. Arousal state - Placebo versus
Epinephrine Placebo saline solution (no bodily
effects) Epinephrine causes heart rate and
systolic blood pressure to increase leading to
the experience of tremor, palpitations, and
sometimes flushed or accelerated
breathing. Effects occur within 3-5 minutes.
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Schachter and Singer (1962) Independent
variables 2. Explanation - A doctor who gave
injections to the male subjects either provided
accurate descriptions of the effects of the drug
Suproxin, misinformed subjects, or failed to tell
them anything about the effects. Informed
Precise explanation of the effects of the
epinephrine injection. Direct information from
the doctor about subjective experience. Ignorant
Not informed about any side effects. Misinform
ed Wrong symptoms are described to the
subjectnumb feet, itching sensation, slight
headache.
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Schachter and Singer (1962) Independent
variables 3. Socially relevant cognitions - In
case evaluative needs were stimulated by the
subjects experience of the bodily effects of the
drug, given what they were told about it, two
kinds of role models were provided. These
stooges were ostensibly in the same drug
situation but behaved in distinctly opposite
manners during the waiting period before having
their vision tested. Euphoric stooge playfully
crushes paper to play basketball, etc. Bibb
Latané, who served as the confederate in the
euphoria condition, pointed out that the
confederate exerted a great deal of pressure on
the subject to join him in the euphoric behaviour
and that this constituted a relevant situational
inducement. Angry stooge in response to a
tasteless and inappropriately intrusive
questionnaire.
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Schachter and Singer (1962) Dependent
variables The data comprised self reports of
mood and observed behaviour. Schachter and Singer
maintained that the overall pattern of data in
their experiment support their version of the
two-factor theory of emotion. Results The major
finding was that subjects in the Anger-Ignorant
and Euphoric-Misinformed conditions showed the
highest self-report and greatest behavioural
display of the relevant emotion. No
Anger-Misinformed condition.
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Schachter and Wheeler (1962) Overview Male
subjects viewed a slapstick film under influence
of either epinephrine, placebo, or chlorpromazine
(a sympatholytic agent). They measured laughter
and ratings of funniness of the film.
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Schachter and Wheeler (1962) Independent
Variables Arousal State- Placebo Epinephrine C
hlorpromazine Dependent Measures Mirth amount
of laughter Stimulus rating how funny they
found the film Results Subjects laughed more in
the epinephrine arousal condition but did not
like it more.
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Cupchik and Leventhal (1974) Showed that gender
played a role in the relative independence of
expressive behaviour and evaluation for male
subjects. Male and female subjects were presented
with single-frame cartoons with canned laughter
present or absent as a background. Male subjects
displayed more mirth but their evaluations were
not affected in the canned-laughter condition,
while females showed both increased mirth and
evaluation. This implied greater interrelation
between expression and evaluative feelings for
females compared with males.
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After Schachter Cognitive Social Psychology
Attribution Theory Schachters research spun off
an entire industry having to do with making
accurate and inaccurate (misattribution)
judgments of internal states. For example, he
did research on internalizers and
externalizers in relation to eating behaviour.
Internalizers respond to hunger cues in
the gut and externalizers respond to taste.
We can also say that externalizers respond to
muscular feedback related to satiety cues.
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George Mandlers Information Theory Approach to
Emotion (1962, 1975) This approach emphasized
the active role played by people in interpreting
and understanding the world around them. His
information processing approach to emotion places
an emphasis on the role of meaning analysis and
cognitive evaluation that deals both with
events in the external world and with the
organisms own actions and behaviours. Like
Schachter, Mandler focuses on undifferentiated
arousal. Human beings apparently have
difficulty in discriminating slight changes in
physiological patterns. It is determined by the
meaning analysis that caused it given the
individuals values and environmental events.
This arousal which decays relatively slowly,
will potentiate subsequent feeling states.
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George Mandlers Information Theory Approach to
Emotion (1962, 1975) Discrepancy and
interruption of ongoing plans and actions
signals important changes in the environment and
is the most important cause of the arousal. This
arousal prepares the organism physiologically to
respond to the evoking events. It also signals
consciousness for troubleshooting and
attention, alertness, and scanning of the
environment which entails interpretation, and
analysis both of the stimulus and of ones
capacity to respond effectively to it. So
activity in the sympathetic nervous system
initiates the search for causes. This reorienting
of consciousness calls attention to important
events in the environment. Emotion is bound up
with the troubleshooting function of the mind
because it stimulates the individual to reorient
attention, plans, and activities in a conscious
manner. Furthur, interruption may lead to
expressions of fear, anger, surprise, humor, or
euphoria depending on factors other than the
interruption itself. In the end, this theory is
about mental life and consciousness in general,
and not just about emotion.
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Magda Arnold (1960) Sequence PERCEPTION
APPRAISAL EMOTION Past experience and goals are
an important part of appraisal. Appraisals are
sense judgments. This phrase emphasizes their
direct, immediate, non-reflective,
nonintellectual and automatic nature. They are
judgments about the meaning of situations but are
not in-depth cognitive judgments. Emotions have a
survival purpose and are impulses to action or a
readiness to respond to the environment in a
particular way (e.g., anger and urge to strike
fear and urge to flee).
Assess the object in terms of how it affects us
personally in relation to harm or benefit
desirable or undesirable, valuable or harmful, so
we are drawn toward or repelled by it.
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Drive Reduction Model Situation appraisal sets
in motion physiological responses experienced as
unpleasant tension. When action is complete,
physiological response abates and tension is
reduced. SoEmotion is the felt tendency towards
anything appraised as good or beneficial or away
from anything appraised as bad or harmful. 1.
Feelings are essential ingredients of emotion. 2.
Physiological changes that accompany emotion
provide a basis for felt experience and survival
related purposes. Recognize emotion by appraising
the situation. APPRAISAL SETS IT ALL IN MOTION!
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Nico Frijda (1984) Situational meaning contains
three kinds of awareness 1. Situational meaning
structure 2. Arousal 3. Action tendencies 1.
Situational meaning structure Relevance of
event Seriousness of event Urgency of
event Inescapability
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Nico Frijda (1984) 2. Arousal Autonomic
arousal Schachter and Mandler 3. Action
tendencies States of readiness to respond
associated with emotions including facial
expression. These tendencies establish,
maintain or disrupt a relationship with the
environment. Emotions arise to solve problems
that humans face in encounters with the
environment.
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Nico Frijda (1984) Like Magda Arnold Emotions
are an awareness of action tendencies - of
desires to strike or to flee, to investigate or
be with. Different action tendencies are what
characterize different emotions. Event coding -
Appraisal - Significance evaluation - Action
readiness - Action Appraisal - compare coded
event with concerns Evaluation - diagnose what
can be done about it
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Richard Lazarus (1964) Traumatic film Control,
Intellectualization, Denial, Trauma Appraisal is
affected by expectations and affects
reactions. Emotions are responses to perceived
environments that prepare and mobilize us to
cope in an adaptive manner. Relational meaning
how event affects us How situation will affect
us in terms of good or bad. What person brings to
the situation in terms of expectations, goals,
and intentions. Emotions arise out of personal
meaning that people bring to the situation that
are relevant to their goals and
aspirations. Primary appraisal - assess relevance
of an event for a persons well being
(goals) Secondary appraisal - deal with and
evaluate coping response
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• Eponymy (Boring, 1963)
• Definition Naming a school, movement or paradigm
  after a person.
• Three factors from Boring
• Narrow attention by readers that focuses on
  prominent figures or features associated with a
  school, movement, or paradigm.
• People want heroes and so they focus on
  successful researchers in that way.
• Ambitious researchers need goals, awards and
  honours to activate them. This motive can be
  related to the Action Model.

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And one extra factor from Cupchik in view of
Schachters success with Maranons original
idea. Theatrical eponymy The association of a
scholar with an experimental paradigm because of
its dramatic qualities. See this in relation to
the paradigm from Schachter and Singer (1962) in
which the subject received an injection, with or
without an explanation, and was exposed either to
a euphoric (happy) or angry stooge in a dramatic
scene. Also related to this is the distinction
between personalistic and naturalistic
explanations for developments in
science. Personalistic explanations focus on the
individual (Darwin, Newton, Freud, Einstein) as
the great genius. The personality of the figure
was behind his or her great discoveries.
Naturalistic explanations focus on the
intellectual context in which certain ideas or
problems were salient. The German concept of
Zeitgeist refers to the intellectual spirit of
the times which might have influenced the scholar
to develop what seemed like a new idea.
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COGNITIVE APPROACHES to emotion
Karl Pribram (1967, 1968) 1. He offers a memory
based theory of emotion rather than a viscerally
or arousal based theory. 2. He takes into
account past experience and the present,
emotion-evoking situation. 3. Emotion is related
to the plans or projects rather than the level of
activation. 4. Organized stability is the
baseline from which disturbances or perturbations
occurs. Input that is incongruent with the
baseline produces a disturbance. 5. An important
part of the baseline is continuing activity of
the viscera regulated through the autonomic
nervous system. 6. A mismatch between
expectations and actual bodily changes in heart
rate, sweating, butterflies, and so on, is sensed
as a discrepancy.
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Karl Pribram (1967, 1968) 7. So emotion is
related to ongoing organization of plans,
programs or dispositions. Emotion is a
perturbation, an interruption, disruption of
normal ongoing activity. Pribram extends the
homeostatic model from intraorganic events to
the total organism-environment relation. 8. Emotio
n is an e-motion, a process that takes the
organism temporarily out of motion and effects
control through the regulation of sensory
inputs. 9. Central control through the regulation
of peripheral inputs takes two forms (A)
Inhibition of peripheral inputs while organism
decides what to do. (B) Facilitation of
attention to critical inputs from the
environment.
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Oatley and Johnson-Laird They follow in the
tradition of Mandler and Pribram by focusing on
the interruption of goals. Emotions signal
important events in the environment and prepare
one cognitively and physiologically for
activities that may involve changing ones plans
or goals and altering ongoing behaviour. EMOTIONS
FUNCTION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ACTION! Emotions
emerge at significant junctures in plans.
Emotion signals do this quickly and without the
aid of consciousness. Emotions involve a
readiness to respond in particular ways to
particular stimuli.
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• Oatley and Johnson-Laird
• Emotions are triggered by stimuli that are
  relevant to goals for example
• Anxiety when self-preservation is threatened.
• Anger when plan being carried out is frustrated.
• Happiness when a goal is achieved.
• Complex emotions are not combinations of
  simpler, basic
• emotions. They have added propositional
  evaluation which is
• Social and includes reference to models of the
  self.
• Emotion involves intrasystemic communication
  between modules in the system.
• Emotion involves intersystemic communication in
  the sense that many of our more complex emotions
  communicate information about mutual plans and
  goals of interdependent social actors.

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• Oatley and Johnson-Laird
• So, emotions are mental states with coherent
  psychological functions. They have
• An action readiness component (like Frijda) based
  on an evaluation of something happening that
  affects the persons concerns and the evaluation
  need not be conscious.
• A phenomenological tone or felt quality.
• Emotions are accompanied by
• A conscious preoccupation
• (e.g., anger and thoughts of revenge)
• (B) Bodily disturbance
• (C) Expressive gesture in the face

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Oatley and Johnson-Laird Oatley imagines a
heirarchy of modules in the brain that execute
functions and help us realize our goals. This is
a computational model. SO EMOTIONS HELP US
ARRANGE GOAL PRIORITIES. We are consciously
aware of only the top level of the cognitive
system that contains a model of the systems
goals.
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The Semantic Field of Emotion 0 Generic
emotions emotions and feelings 1 Basic
emotions happiness and elation (They have
intensity duration) 2 Emotional
relations love and hate 3 Caused
emotions gladness and horror 4
Causatives irritate and reassure 5 Emotional
goals desire and avarice 6 Complex
emotions embarrassment and pity
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Rosemans Cognitive Structural Theory For 14
emotions, 5 dimensions or ways of appraising
events (Like the VALUE X EXPECTANCY model we
discussed earlier) 1. Situational State Are the
events one encounters in a particular situation
consistent or inconsistent with ones motives?
Consistency leads to positive emotions and
inconsistency to negative emotions. (Like
Arnolds harmful-beneficial distinction). 2.
Probability How certain are you that a
particular outcome will occur? Uncertainty and
fear or hope. Certainty, joy, sadness, sadness
or disgust.
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Rosemans Cognitive Structural Theory 3. Agency
Who is responsible for events in a particular
situation? Caused by self GUILT Caused by
other ANGER Circumstances beyond ones
control SADNESS 4. Motivational State Do the
events one encounters involve obtaining a reward
or avoiding a punishment? (Appetitive vs.
Aversive Motivation) Obtain reward
JOY Avoid punishment RELIEF 5. Power
Perceive oneself as weak or strong in a
particular situation. Weak FEAR Strong
FRUSTRATION/ANGER