COMN 2111 Emotions in Communication

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COMN 2111Emotions in Communication

• The Cognitive Unconscious and Conscious Mind in
  Interaction

Lecture 6a
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• EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS

• Our body and our conscious mind always three
  Levels of reaction
• Emotions - bio chemical response to changes
  instant () or (-) evaluation
• Non-verbal reactions to those bio chemical shifts
• Cognitive interpretation of these reactions -
  Feelings

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Our Two Minds Interacting

• The cognitive unconscious (the body-mind)
  communicates using biochemical energy (somatic
  markers) - emotions
• Through them we become conscious pay of stimuli,
  retrieve information from memory, sort out our
  perceptions, and decide things.
• The fuel and the encoding tool of the cognitive
  unconscious.
• Weve already said the cog. unc. and its
  emotions help the conscious mind decide more on
  that
• But we will also discuss how these bio-chemical
  surges emerge from the wordless levels of our
  mind into our conscious internal chatter
• To be interpreted and named as feelings.

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EMOTION AND COGNITION SEPARATED FOR MILLENIA

• Feelings are dangerous
• Rule your feelings, lest your feelings rule you
• Publius Syrus (1st Century BC)
• Feelings are less
• I think therefore I am
• Rene Descartes (1630s)
• Emotions cause a complete loss of cerebral
  control and contain no trace of conscious
  purpose
• P.T. Young (1936) author of widely read
  psychology text

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EMOTION AND COGNITION INTERVOWEN

• The emotions are of quite extraordinary
  importance in the total economy of living
  organisms and do not deserve being put into
  opposition with intelligence. The emotions
  are, it seems, themselves a high order of
  intelligence.
• O.H. Mowrer (1960)

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Shifting our Model of Feelings

• Our culture provides us with a common sense
  model of feeling awareness.
• Something happens in the environment context -
  we notice it consciously and then respond
  physiologically with an emotion.
• Schachters research changes this in 1960. We had
  it backwards.

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Shifting our Model of Feelings

• His hypothesis our body-mind has an Affective
  Appraisal system
• Something happens outside of us and our body
  reacts first a state of Diffuse Physiological
  Arousal (DPA)
• Then our conscious mind notices and seeks an
  answer
• Matches our internal state of arousal to the
  situation
• Names the emotional arousal as a feeling.
• The research story

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Real World Research

• When we are in a state of DPA not only does our
  conscious mind look outward to explain why but
  it finds a self-enhancing reason
• The researchers hypothesis was that strong
  emotions are re-labelled as sexual attraction
  when two conditions are met
• (1) an acceptable object is present (a
  good-looking female), and
• (2) the emotion-producing circumstances do not
  require the full attention of the individual
  your life is not a stake.

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Real World Research

• A 1974 replication of Schacter - the conscious
  mind will use cues in the external environment to
  explain automatically triggered bodily sensations
• Experimental Group The Capilano Suspension
  Bridge 450 long 287 above river. Young men met
  near the end of bridge for interviews. Hi state
  of DPA.
• Control Group Nearby small bridge solid
  construction only 10 above river. Young men met
  near the end of bridge for interviews. Lo state
  of DPA.

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Real World Research

• The bridge really is high above the river and it
  tilts and sways a lot worse when many people on
  it. As I recently found out.
• When you come off the bridge your body feels like
  it has had way too much caffeine red bull high
  buzzing.
• So what happened? They were met by a good looking
  student doing an research on the effects of
  natural beauty on creativity. Very few questions
  then a sketch of a young woman holding out a hand
  and partly covering her face write a story
  about her.

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The Swinging Bridge Data

• The stories were later scored for manifest sexual
  content.
• A story with any mention of sexual intercourse
  received 5 points but if the most sexual
  reference was "girl friend," it received a score
  of 2 "kiss" counted 3 and "lover," 4.
• On completion of the questionnaire, the
  interviewer thanked the subject and offered to
  explain the experiment in more detail when she
  had more time. Gave name and phone number.
  Different name for experimental and control
  group. It was felt that differential calling
  rates might reflect differential attraction to
  the interviewer. And level of attraction related
  to DPA.

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The Swinging Bridge Data

• Subjects on the swinging bridge expressed double
  the amount of sexual content in their creative
  story than people on the solid bridge.
• More of them took her phone number.
• And 50 tried to call her only 12 of the
  control subjects called.
• They were in full DPA - their conscious brain
  found a logical answer to it it must be
  sexual attraction to the experimenter not fear.
• Showed in the non-conscious use of sexual imagery
  about a neutral picture and in their continuing
  interest in the woman.

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In Summary Where Feelings Comes From

• Emotions begin as instant bio-chemical response
  to changes in our environment instant positive
  or negative evaluations, which produce,
• Rapid bodily reactions to those bio-chemical
  shifts (changes of breathing, sweat, muscle
  tension, etc.)
• The conscious brain the left frontal lobes job
  is to match up your internal state with the
  external context to fine cues there to explain
  and interpret these reactions
• The external cue it finds and the bodys
  bio-chemical reaction may have little or nothing
  to do with one another) - Quick and dirty match
  

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Feelings and Mood

• The conscious mind has named the feeling and
  moved on but the bio-chemistry of body hasnt
• Lingers on as a mood
• The sunny day study
• People called on a sunny day - more positive
  about their current state of happiness and life
  in general than people contacted on a rainy day.
• People given a small, almost worthless gift, were
  in a better mood and gave higher ratings to their
  household appliances when interviewed 50 later
  than others people walking near them who were
  stopped and asked at the same time but who had
  received nothing.
•  

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Feelings and Mood

• Bad moods do just the opposite make life and
  other people look more dangerous.
• Our conscious brain has the same problem as it
  does with misattributing arousal if we havent
  figured out why were in a particular moodwe
  sometimes allow that feeling to inform our
  opinion of things in general.

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Feelings and Mood

• Feelings and mood matter mostly when were not
  paying attention, because when we do notice our
  situation, mood doesnt affect our opinions
• In the mood and weather (sunny day) study
• When students were casually asked at the
  beginning of the conversation hows the
  weather, there that is, the weather was
  brought to their consciousness - they didnt let
  it confuse their thoughts about their state of
  life.
• So we dont have to be under the automatic
  control of our moods- we just need to awaken to
  the fact that we are having one.
• Come up with a reason why. Then it no longer
  shapes other unrelated thoughts.

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Affect Infusion Model (AIM)

• Affect- feeling - is most likely to influence
  cognition, judgments and decision making when
  under pressure
• Decision-makers faced with a complex task,
• Are motivated to make an accurate judgment,
• Ambiguity exists,
• A lot of new information needs to be assimilated
• Remember, Damasios research on those who
  couldnt decide anything and how first responders
  decide in quickly changing situations.
• OR WHEN

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Affect Infusion Model (AIM)

• No pressure at all (most common)
• Need to make simple judgments
• Lack personal relevance
• Low demand for accuracy
• Other demands on current information processing
• In the above instances, Decision-makers more
  likely to deduce their judgment from their
  current affective state - how they feel at the
  moment.

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The Role of Feelings in Human Affairs

• We now know that feelings influence
• The judgments people make
• Material recalled from memory
• Attributions for success and failure
• Creativity
• Inductive and deductive reasoning
• The quality our relationships with others
• The quality of our communication acts

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EMOTION RESEARCH OVERVIEW

• Schachter 1960- new understanding of how we feel
• Dutton real life swinging bridge-
  replication-1974

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EMOTION RESEARCH OVERVIEW

• R. Zajonc - emotions shape thought non-conscious
  preference learning -1980.
• Reuven Bar-On starts research in 1980 - coins the
  term Emotional Intelligence in 1985 - to describe
  his approach to assessing emotional competences
  to separate it from measures of IQ
• Mayer and Salovey start their work on the
  potentials for emotionally intelligent behavior
  in the 80s - Couldnt find a mainstream journal
  to publish their research in 1990 3 three years
  later its a sub-discipline of psychology.

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SO WHY ARE FEELINGS AND THE EMOTIONS BEHIND
THEM - SO POWERFUL?

• Daniel Goleman (1995) Emotional Intelligence
  described much of the breakthrough research on
  emotions of the 80s and early 90s and explained
  the answer to our question in terms of our
  brains evolutionary development.
• Lets watch him for a moment.

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THE BRAINS DEVELOPMENT
Video Example
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THE BRAINS DEVELOPMENT QUICK REVIEW

• BRAINSTEM - TOP OF SPINE - AUTOMATIC FUNCTIONS
• LIMBIC SYSTEM - OLDER- FOR PHYSICAL SURVIVAL -
  OPERATES QUICKLY - WITHOUT THOUGHT
• CONTAINS AMYDALA - STORES EMOTIONAL PREFERENCE
  MEMORIES
• WARN US OF THREAT TO SURVIVAL
• NEOCORTEX - PLAN,STRATEGIZE, MORE SLOWLY CONNECTS
  THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

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EMOTION AND COGNITION INTERWOVEN AND IN BALANCE

• A. Damasio - Descartes Error (1994),
• Emotion and Cognition - Usually balanced -
  necessarily operate in tight harmony
• Emotions inform our thoughts - allow us to choose
  - preferences (Zajonc affirmed)
• Remember, Goleman said our brains store our
  memories in difference places the emotional
  aspect the somatic markers in the amygdala
• We will discuss the issue of balance between the
  amydala and the frontal lobes imbalance in our
  next lecture.

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SS 2111The Other Mind
Lecture 6b
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Emotion And Cognition From Harmony to Hi-Jack

• J. LeDoux, The Emotional Brain (1996)
  discovered that the Amygdala the emotional
  memory centre of the unconscious brians Limbic
  System uses very small bits of info (thin
  slices) to assess threat
• And when it perceives one it can hi-jack
  conscious thought - can take over.
• Leading to Flooding, swamping of our conscious
  thought and decision-making processes
• D. Goleman popularizes this idea in 1995 book
  Emotional Intelligence he calls it the
  amygdala hi jack

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THE AMYGDALA HIJACK
Video Example
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THE AMYGDALA HIJACK
QUICK! STRONG! INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR!
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AMYGDALA HIJACK

• Uses the biochemistry of fight/flight
• CHANGES OF BLOOD CHEMISTRY
• BLOOD FLOW
• BREATHING
• BUT CANT DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN REAL THREAT AND
  SYMBOLIC THREAT
• SO WE CAN SAY OR DO THINGS WE REGRET
• Think about last time you lost it on someone
  while you watch this hi-jack from a movie called
  A Few Good Men
• Is this the way to treat your friends if youre
  having a bad day?

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AMYGDALA HIJACK

• Navy lawyer Tom Cruise and two colleagues one
  of whom is Demi Moore are defending two young
  marines- secretly given an order to harass a
  fellow marine they follow it and while hazing
  him he dies. They are accused of murder even
  though they followed a direct order.
• Toms had a bad day. In court Demi Moore made a
  mistake undermined his defense maked him look
  unprepared. Then after court he found out that
  his key witness 2nd in command - has killed
  himself rather than tell the truth about the
  secret order.
• He goes out drinking, comes home hopeless, angry,
  frustrated and deeply sarcastic about Demis
  error and her suggestion that he call the camp
  commander and get out of him under oath that he
  gave the order which the two young men were
  following.

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THE AMYGDALA HIJACK
Video Example
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Amygdala Hijack Summary

• Notice that the drinking helps to reduce the
  control the left frontal lobe exercise over the
  amygdala to maintain balance.
• When Demi suggests that he call the camp
  commander to the stand his amygdala screams
  danger and you can see what happened.
• This happens in groups too. Group actions act
  like alcohol. Consider the Vancouver hockey riot
  (large group alchohol)the day after many of
  rioters were pleading for forgiveness a left
  frontal lobe choice and unable to explain their
  hi jacked behavior from the night before
  captured on video.

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Can We Do Anything to Avoid This Kind of
Imbalance?

• Become more aware of your feelings as you
  interact
• Learn to name them and describe them give the
  left frontal lobe a chance
• See Plutchiks circumplex in text simple, clear
  descriptors of the essentials
• Then talk them out rather than store them up and
  lash out

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Can We Do Anything to Avoid This Kind of
Imbalance?

• Tell the other exactly what you are feeling.
• Identify reasons for your feelings
• Tell them why you are feeling the way you are.
• Anchor in the present
• Stay focused on the feelings you are having in
  this moment.
• Avoid using always and never in your
  descriptions.
• Own your feelings
• Start your sentences with I (Im feeling )
  not You as in (You made me ).
• Say what you want the other to do

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Can We Do Anything to Avoid This Kind of
Imbalance?

• I promise to give you lots more information on
  how to talk to yourself to manage your
  emotional reactions in the lectures on
  self-management at the end of the term.
• See you next week.

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