PSYB10H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Periaqueductal Gray, Goose Bumps, Orbitofrontal Cortex
Chapter 6: Emotions
• Writer George Orwell and Medical Doctor Miklos Nyiszl have both experiences something called
sympathy breakthrough
o Sympathy breakthrough-a phenomenon often experienced during combat when the enemy is not
seen as an enemy anymore but a human and a person
• Sympathy can be a powerful trigger of altruistic behaviour
• Emotions can be guides of thought and actions as it can influence
o How they reason
o What people perceive
o And what they deem right and wrong
• Emotions can trigger action
o Like to respond to specific goals, threats and opportunities of the environment
• Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre called effect of emotion “magical transformations” as they can shift and
individuals’ way of thinking and acting
• Social psychology believes that emotions can aid in reason and are vital for healthy relationships, good
functioning and effective pursuit of the good life
Characterizing Emotion
• Emotion: Brief, specific psychological and physiological responses that help humans meet goals, many
of which are social
• Emotions can last anywhere from a few seconds (ex. Facial expressions) with psychological responses
(sweaty palms, blushing, or goose bumps) to feeling blue for a few days or even depression that can last
a few weeks to months
• Emotions are specific; you can have a “intentional object”-you know exactly what to direct your
emotions towards
• Emotion can help others achieve social goals as they can motivate us to act in a way that will in turn
effect or relationships and the ways we act in our social environment
• Emotions motivate behaviour that make stronger social relationships
The Components of Emotion
• The claims that are made by scientists about emotions depend on which component of emotion that they
were focusing on
• William James: argued that the essence of emotion is determined by the bodily response that’s produced
(i.e. heart rate, sweaty palms and muscle tension)
• Charles Darwin: emotions are based on expressive behaviors, gestures, facial movements, vocalizations
and postural movements; these movements can be used to signal others of the individuals’ internal state
• Emotions arise due to appraisal processes (-the ways people evaluate events and objects in their
environment based on their relation to current goals) and these appraisals trigger different emotions
known as core relational themes (- distinct themes such as danger or fairness that define the core of
each emotion)
• Stages of Appraisal
o Primary Appraisal Stage-An initial, automatic positive or negative evaluation of ongoing events
based on whether or not they are relevant to one’s goals
o Secondary Appraisal Stage-An evaluation in which people determine who is responsible for
event, if it is consistent with social norms how fair it is, why they feel the way they do about an
event, consider possible ways of responding to the event and weigh future consequences of
different courses of action
• Appraisal processes start the emotion and then the emotions get involved with several response systems
(i.e. brain regions, stimuli of neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin)
• Emotions engage bodily responses (breathing, heart beat, muscle movement etc.)
• Then emotions are expressed with facial expressions, posture and physical touch
• Emotion can also be expressed through language, art. Poetry and music
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Social Psychologists know that orbitofrontal cortex and periaqueductal grey are activated when feeling
sympathy
• Sympathy can also be detected through slowing of heart rate, altruistic behaviour, vocalizations and
patterns of touch
Universality and Cultural Specificity of Emotion
• Darwin saw that the Fuegian people greeted him and his colleagues with flailing arms, so Darwin
realized that the action of open arms conveyed warmth and kindness, which seems to be a universal
expression of emotion
• Evolutionarily components of emotion (i.e. facial expression, vocalization, physiological responses)
were common adaptive responses to threats and opportunities to survival faced by humans but other
emotion like love and compassion also play a role in maintaining reproductive relationships which is
also important for survival of species so some components of motion should be universal
• Culturally some components of emotions can be strongly influences by values, role, institutions and
socialization practices that vary among cultures, so certain components of emotions should also vary
Darwin and Emotional Expression
• Darwin observed that human expressions are similar to the expressions of mammals
• Darwin proposed his principle of serviceable habits- Emotional expressions are remnants of full blown
behaviours that helped our primate and mammalian predecessors meet important goal in the past
• Darwin’s 3 hypotheses about emotions:
o Universality-all humans use their facial muscles to communicate similar emotions
o Similarity of emotions between primates and mammals
o Blind people (who haven’t seen the emotions that people make) will show similar expressions to
everyone else as its encoded in the human nervous system
The Universality of Facial Expression
• Darwin asked missionaries if the had seen different expressions in the countries they missioned at they
said no
Cross-Cultural Research on Emotion Expression
• Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen took more than 3000 photos of people that are well trained in
expressions (i.e. actors) and showed those photos to people of different cultures and they were still able
to identify the emotions being portrayed
o One of the biggest flaws in this study was that all these people have seen western media
• Therefore, they had to find a culture that hasn’t seen western media before so the went to Papua New
Guinea tribe named Fore) and they were still able to choose the right emotion with an 80-90% accuracy
• When Americans were shown clips of the Fore people they were able to identify all emotions except
fear
• When cultures were given the chance to use their own words to describe expressions they used words
that matched their culture
o EX. If they lived in an interdependent country they used terms that showed teamwork like
harmony instead of terms like pride, so if the Fore people could have chosen their own words the
results would have slightly varied
Emotional Expression in Other Animals
• When Darwin claimed that other primates and mammals had similar facial expressions it stood true for
chimpanzees as they have very similar facial expressions as humans
• Chimps have similar displays when they feel threatened (=human anger and whimpers (=human
sadness)
• Some non human primates also made a display called “silent bared teeth display” which showed
affiliation in a friendly fashion
Emotional Expression among the Blind
• Jessica Tracy and colleagues saw that emotions like pride and shame were universal through tribes,
primates, and blind/sighted Olympians
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Characterizing emotion: emotion: brief, specific psychological and physiological responses that help humans meet goals, many of which are social, emotions can last anywhere from a few seconds (ex. Poetry and music: social psychologists know that orbitofrontal cortex and periaqueductal grey are activated when feeling sympathy, sympathy can also be detected through slowing of heart rate, altruistic behaviour, vocalizations and patterns of touch. The universality of facial expression: darwin asked missionaries if the had seen different expressions in the countries they missioned at they said no. If they lived in an interdependent country they used terms that showed teamwork like harmony instead of terms like pride, so if the fore people could have chosen their own words the results would have slightly varied. Emotional expression among the blind: jessica tracy and colleagues saw that emotions like pride and shame were universal through tribes, primates, and blind/sighted olympians.
