PSY 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Cortisol, Amygdala, Health Psychology
9 Aug 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Psychologists measure emotions by self-reports, behavioral observations, and physiological measurements: Self-reports: quick and easy but accuracy is limited. Behavioral observations: we infer emotion from people"s behavior and its context - especially facial expressions, microexpressions are very brief and sudden emotional expressions that are hard to control. Physiological measures: any stimulus that arouses emotion alters the activity of the autonomic nervous system (the section of the nervous system that controls the organs such as the heart and intestines, consists of sympathetic and parasympathetic) Sympathetic = chain of neuron clusters just to the left and right of the spinal cord, arouse the body for vigorous action. Parasympathetic = neurons whose axons extend from the medulla and lower part of the spinal cord to neuron clusters near the organs, decreases heart rate and promotes digestion. Both systems are constantly active although one system can temporarily dominate.
