PSYC18H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Emotion Classification, Emotional Expression, Social Emotions
Document Summary
More in the textbook but these are just a list of few. Do expressions influence emotions: rene descartes put forth this idea of bi-directionality between the body and emotional expression. Let"s explore the first question of emotions influencing expressions. Basic emotions: an automatic process causes specific bodily activations which leads to specific emotional expression, all automatic. It should have served some survival purpose in our ancestral past: must originate in the subcortical (older) regions of the brain, these are the regions of the brain that we share with reptiles too. Step 1: automatic appraisal mechanism detects elicitors: this process is fast and unconscious, appraisal of the situation is automatic with no judgment. Step 2: neuromotor affect programme sets in motion elements of emotion system: for example, fear has its own programme, happiness has its own, hard to stop once in motion, involuntary. In every situation this programme should be the same.
