PSY 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Parasympathetic Nervous System, Sympathetic Nervous System, Autonomic Nervous System
Chapter 12: Emotions, Stress, and Health (pgs 383- 417)
12.1 The Nature of Emotions
- Emotions: a combination of cognition, physiology, feelings, and actions
Measuring Emotions
- You measure emotions by various methods
I. Self Reports
- Asking people how they feel
- Quick and easy
- Limited accuracy
II. Behavioral Observations
- Infer from people’s behavior and its context
- Especially watch facial expressions
- Microexpressios: very brief, sudden emotional expressions
o Infrequent
o Cannot rely on them for much information
III. Physiological Measures
- Any stimulus that arouses emotion alters the activity of the autonomic
nervous system (organs like heart/ intestines)
o Consist of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system
1. Sympathetic: chains of neurons just left and right of the spinal
cord that arouse the body for vigorous action (fight or flight)
• Indicator of strong emotion but does not tell us what
emotion someone is feeling
2. Parasympathetic: consists of neurons whose axons extend from
the medulla and the lower part of the spinal cord to neuron
clusters near the organs
- Decreases the heart rate and promotes digestion and other nonemergency
functions
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- Both systems are constantly active, but one system can temporarily
dominate
Emotion, Arousal, and Action
- William James: founder of American Psychology
I. The James Lange Theory of Emotions
- Your interpretation of a stimulus evokes autonomic changes and sometimes
muscle actions. Your perception of those changes is the feeling aspect of
your emotions
Ex. Running from a bear: you don’t run away because you are afraid, you
feel afraid because you perceive yourself running away
a. Decreased Body Reaction
- Pure autonomic failure: automatic nervous system stops regulating the
organs
II. Schachter and Singer’s Theory of Emotion
- The intensity of the physiological states (the degree of the sympathetic
nervous system) determine the intensity of the emotion, but a cognitive
appraisal of the situation identifies the emotion
Do we have a few basic emotions?
- Basic emotion criteria:
o Emerge early in life without requiring much experience
• Problem: all emotional expressions emerge gradually
• Similar across culture
• Own facial expression and characteristic psychology
I. Producing Facial Expressions
- Duchenne smile: full expression, including the muscles around the eyes
II. An alternative to basic emotions
- Circumplex model: emotional range on a continuum from pleasure to
misery and along other continuum from arousal to sleepiness
Usefulness of Emotions
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Document Summary
Chapter 12: emotions, stress, and health (pgs 383- 417) Emotions: a combination of cognition, physiology, feelings, and actions. Infrequent: cannot rely on them for much information. Indicator of strong emotion but does not tell us what emotion someone is feeling: parasympathetic: consists of neurons whose axons extend from the medulla and the lower part of the spinal cord to neuron clusters near the organs. Decreases the heart rate and promotes digestion and other nonemergency functions. Both systems are constantly active, but one system can temporarily dominate. Your interpretation of a stimulus evokes autonomic changes and sometimes muscle actions. Your perception of those changes is the feeling aspect of your emotions. Running from a bear: you don"t run away because you are afraid, you feel afraid because you perceive yourself running away: decreased body reaction. Pure autonomic failure: automatic nervous system stops regulating the organs.
