PSYC 1000 Chapter Notes -Robert Zajonc, Amygdala, Thalamus
11 Dec 2013
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Emotion: a response of the whole organism involving (1) physiological arousal (heart pounding) (2) expressive behaviours (quickened pace), and (3) conscious experience (thoughts, and panicked feelings) The theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion- arousing stimuli. Cannon-bard theory: arousal and emotion occur simultaneously. The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion. The emotion-triggering stimulus traveled to my sympathetic nervous system, causing body"s arousal. At same time it traveled to the brains cortex, causing awareness of emotion. But most researchers now agree that our emotions also involve cognition. An emotional experience requires a conscious interpretation of arousal: our physical reactions and our thoughts (perceptions, memories, and interpretations) together create emotion. Two-factor theory: to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal. Spillover effect: arousal spills over from one event to the next.
