Section 1 - Explaining Motivation
MAIN IDEA QUESTION
How does motivation direct and energize behavior?
VOCABULARY
motivation - the factors that direct and energize the behavior of humans and other organisms
instincts - inborn patterns of behavior that are biologically determined rather than learned
drive-reduction approaches to motivation - theories suggesting that a lack of a basic biological requirement such as water produces a drive to obtain that requirement (in this case, the thirst drive)
drive - motivational tension, or arousal, that energizes behavior to fulfill a need
homeostasis - the body's tendency to maintain a steady internal state
arousal approaches to motivation - the belief that we try to maintain certain levels of stimulation and activity, increasing or reducing them as necessary
incentive approaches to motivation - theories suggesting that motivation stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals, or incentives
cognitive approaches to motivation - theories suggesting that motivation is a product of people's thoughts, expectations, and goals - their cognitions
self-actualization - a state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potential in their own unique way
To answer questions about human resolve, psychologists employ the concept of motivation - the factors that direct and energize the behavior of humans and other organisms. The complexity of the concept has led psychologists to develop a variety of approaches. All seek to explain the energy that guides people's behavior in specific directions.
INSTINCT APPROACHES: BORN TO BE MOTIVATED
In first trying to explain motivations, psychologists turned to instincts - inborn patterns of behavior that are biologically determined rather than learned. According to this, people and animals are born preprogrammed with sets of behaviors essential to their survival. These instincts channel behavior in the appropriate directions. EX: Sexual behavior may be a response to an instinct to reproduce, while exploratory behavior may be motivated by an instinct to examine one's territory.
~This concept presents several difficulties. Psychologists do not agree on what, or even how many, primary instincts exist. The total range of instincts has been hypothesized from 18 (William McDougall, 1908) to 5,759 (Bernard, 1924). Much of the variety and complexity of human behavior is learned and thus cannot be seen as instinctual. It is clear that much animal behavior is based on instincts.
~Newer explanations have replaced conceptions of motivations based on instincts... but instincts still play a role in many of the theories. EX: Freud's work suggests that instinctual drives of sex and aggression motivate behavior.
DRIVE-REDUCTION APPROACHES: SATISFYING OUR NEEDS
After rejecting the instincts approach, psychologists first proposed simple drive-reduction theories of motivation to take its place. These approaches suggest that a lack of some basic biological requirement (such as water) produces a drive to obtain that requirement (in this case, the thirst drive). A drive is a motivational tension, or arousal, that energizes behavior to fulfill a need. Many basic drives that are related to biological needs of the species include; hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex. These are called primary drives. In secondary drives, prior experience and learning bring about needs. EX: Some people have strong needs to achieve academically and professionally... their achievement need is a secondary drive that motivates their behavior.
~We usually try to satisfy a primary drive by reducing the need underlying it. EX: We become hungry after not eating for a few hours and may raid the refrigerator, especially if the next scheduled meal is not imminent. EX: If the weather turns cold, we put on extra clothing or raise the setting on the thermostat to keep warm. EX: If our bodies need liquids to function properly, we experience thirst and seek out water.
Homeostasis
Homeostasis - the body's tendency to maintain a steady internal state, underlies primary drives. Receptor cells throughout the body constantly monitor factors such as temperature and nutrient levels. When deviations from the ideal state occur, the body adjusts in an effort to return to an optimal state. Many fundamental needs (food, water, stable body temperature, sleep) operate via homeostasis. EX: When body temperature becomes too low, the blood vessels constrict, and we shiver and seek warmth. When body temperature becomes too high, the blood vessels expand, and we sweat as our bodies try to lower the temperature.
~Although drive-reduction theories provide a good explanation of how primary drives motivate behavior, they cannot fully explain a behavior in which the goal is not to reduce a drive, but rather to maintain or even increase the level of excitement or arousal. Some behaviors seem to be motivated by nothing more than curiosity. EX: Rushing to check e-mail messages. Similarly, many people pursue thrilling activities which don't suggest that people seek to reduce all drives as drive-reduction approaches would indicate. EX: Riding a roller coaster, steering a raft down the rapids of a river.
~Both curiosity and thrill-seeking behavior, then, shed doubt on drive-reduction approaches as a complete explanation for motivation. Rather than seeking to reduce a drive, people and aminals appear to be motivated to increase their overall level of stimulation and activity.
AROUSAL APPROACHES: BEYOND DRIVE REDUCTION
These approaches seek to explain behavior in which the goal is to maintain or increase excitement. This model suggests that if our stimulation and activity levels become too high, we try to reduce them. However, it adds that if our stimulation and activity levels are too low, we will try to increase them by seeking stimulation.
~People vary widely in the optimal level of arousal they seek out, with some people looking for especially high levels of arousal. EX: People who participate in daredevil sports, highstakes gamblers, and criminals who pull off high-risk robberies.
INCENTIVE APPROACHES: MOTIVATION'S PULL
When a luscious dessert appears on the table, its appeal has little or nothing to do with internal drives or the maintenance of arousal. If we choose to eat the dessert, such behavior is motivated by the external stimulus of the dessert itself, which acts as an anticipated reward. This is called an incentive.
-Incentive Approaches to Motivation. These approaches suggest that motivation stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals, or incentives. The desirable properties of external stimuli - grades, money, food, affection, sex - account for a person's motivation.
Although the theory explains why we may succumb to an incentive (such as a mouth-watering dessert), even though we lack internal cues (hunger), it does not provide a complete explanation of motivation because organisms sometimes seek to fulfill needs even when incentives are not apparent. Consequently, many psychologists believe that the internal drives proposed by drive-reduction theory work in tandem with the external incentives of incentive theory - working to "push" and "pull" behavior respectively. EX: At the same time we seek to satisfy our underlying hunger needs (the push of drive-reduction theory), we are drawn to food that appears very appetizing (the pull of incentive theory). Rather than contradicting each other, they work together.
COGNITIVE APPROACHES: THE THOUGHTS BEHIND MOTIVATION
These approaches suggest that motivation is a product of people's thoughts, expectations, and goals - their cognitions. EX: The degree to which someone will study for a test is based on their expectation of how well studying will pay off in terms of a good grade. These theories draw a key distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation - causes us to participate in an activity for our own enjoyment rather than for any concrete, tangible reward that it will bring us.
Extrinsic motivation - causes us to do something for money, a grade, or some other concrete, tangible reward.
EX (intrinsic): a physician works long hours because she loves medicine
EX (extrinsic): a physician works hard to make a lot of money
~We are more apt to persevere, work harder, and produce work of higher quality when motivation for a task is intrinsic rather than extrinsic. In some cases, providing rewards may decrease intrinsic motivation.
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY: ORDERING MOTIVATIONAL NEEDS
Maslow's model places motivational needs in a hierarchy and suggests that before more sophisticated, higher-order needs can be met, certain primary needs must be satisfied. A pyramid represents the model, with more basic needs at the bottom and higher ones at the top. To activate a higher need at the top, a person must fulfill the basic needs at the bottom.
The basic needs are primary drives: water, food, sleep, sex, etc. Safety needs come in the next hierarchy; people need a safe, secure environment in order to function effectively. Physiological and safety needs fill the lower-order needs.
The higher order needs include;
Love and belongingness - the needs to obtain and give affection and to be a contributing member of some group or society
Esteem - the need to develop a sense of self-worth by recognizing that others know and value one's competence
Self-actualization - a state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potentials in their own unique way
Examples of self-actualization;
~A parent with excellent nurturing skills who raises a family
~A teacher who year after year creates an environment that maximizes students' opportunities for success
~An artist who realizes his creative potential
The main feature is that people feel at ease with themselves and satisifed that they are using their talents to the fullest.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is important for two reasons;
1) It highlights the complexity of human needs
2) It emphasizes the idea that until more basic biological needs are met, people will be relatively unconcerned with higher-order needs
EX: If people are hungry, their first interest will be to obtain food - they will not be concerned with needs such as love and self-esteem.
***Maslow's hierarchy of needs has spawned other approaches to motivation. Edward Deci and Richard Ryan in 2008 considered human needs in terms of psychological well-being. The theory was named the self-determination theory, citing that people have three basic needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
Competence - the need to produce desired outcomes
Autonomy - perception that we have control over our own lives
Relatedness - the need to be involved in close, warm relationships with others
APPLYING THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO MOTIVATION
Many of the approaches are complementary rather than contradictory. Employing more than one approach can help us understand motivation in a particular instance.
Section 2 - Human Needs and Motivation: Eat, Drink, and Be Daring
MAIN IDEA QUESTIONS
What biological and social factors underlie hunger?
How are needs relating to achievement, affiliation, and power motivation exhibited?
VOCABULARY
obesity - body weight that is more than 20% above the average weight for a person of a particular height
weight set point - the particular level of weight that the body strives to maintain
metabolism - the rate at which food is converted to energy and expanded by the body
anorexia nervosa - a severe eating disorder in which people may refuse to eat while denying that their behavior and appearance - which can become skeleton-like - are unusual
bulimia - a disorder in which a person binges on large quantities of food, followed by efforts to purge the food through vomiting or other means
need for achievement - a stable, learned characteristic in which a person obtains satisfaction by striving for and attaining a level of excellence
need for affiliation - an interest in establishing and maintaining relationships with other people
need for power - a tendency to seek impact, control, or influence over others and to be seen as a powerful individual
"I was terrified of fat the way other people are afraid of lions or guns"
10 million women (and 1 million men) are estimated to suffer from an eating disorder. These disorders, which usually appear during adolescence, can bring about extraordinary weight loss and other forms of physical deterioration. They sometimes result in death. Why are some people subject to such disordered eating, which revolves around the motivation to avoid weight gain at all costs? And why do so many others engage in overeating, which leads to obesity?
THE MOTIVATION BEHIND HUNGER AND EATING
Two hundred million people in the United States - two-thirds of the population - are overweight. Almost a quarter are so heavy that they have obesity - body weight that is more than 20% above the average weight for a person of a particular height. A billion people from around the globe are overweight or obese. The World Health Organization has said that worldwide obesity has reached epidemic proportions, producing increases in heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and premature deaths.
The most widely used measure of obesity is body mass index (BMI), which is based on a ratio of weight to height. People with a BMI greater than 30 are considered obese, whereas those with a BMI between 25 and 30 are overweight.
~People's perception of what an ideal body looks like vary significantly across different cultures and, within Western cultures, from one time period to another.
EX: In 19th century Hawaii, the most attractive women were those who were the heaviest.
EX: For most of the 20th century - except for the 1920s and the most recent decades - the ideal female figure was relatively full.
EX: Today, in some traditional Arab cultures, obese women are so prized as wives that parents force-feed their female children to make them more desirable
~Regardless of cultural standards, being overweight represents a major health risk.
Biological Factors in the Regulation of Hunger
In contrast to humans, other species are unlikely to become obese. Internal mechanisms regulate not only the quantity of food they take in, but also the kind of food they desire.
Complex biological mechanisms in all species tell organisms whether they require food or should stop eating. One important factor is changes in the chemical composition of the blood. Changes in levels of glucose, a kind of sugar, regulate feelings of hunger. The hormones insulin and ghrelin also play important roles. The brain's hypothalamus monitors glucose levels. Injury to the hypothalamus has radical consequences for eating behavior.
EX: Eating can stop altogether, resulting in starvation, or, so much eating can take place as to increase body weight by 400%.
~One hypothesis suggests that injury to the hypothalamus affects the weight set point - the particular level of weight that the body strives to maintain, which in turn regulates food intake. Genetic factors may determine the weight set point, at least in part. People seem destined, through heredity, to have a set metabolism - the rate at which food is converted to energy and expended by the body. People with a high metabolic rate can eat virtually whatever they want without gaining any weight, whereas others with low metabolism may eat literally half as much yet gain weight readily.
SOCIAL FACTORS IN EATING
External social factors, based on societal rules and on what we have learned about appropriate eating behavior, also play an important role.
EX: You've just finished a full meal and are completely stuffed. The host of the dinner party brings out a banana dessert which he or she has been working on all day. Even though you are full and don't really like bananas, you accept a serving and eat it all.
EX: People customarily eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at approximately the same time every day. We feel hungry as the usual hour approaches, sometimes quite independently of what our internal cues are telling us.
EX: We put roughly the same amount of food on our plates every day, despite that fact that our exercise and activity varies from day to day. We also tend to prefer particular foods over others.
~The amount of food we eat varies by culture. People in the United States eat bigger portions than the people in France.
Q: Why do we rush to the ice cream in the freezer to find solace after a difficult day?
Perhaps when we were children our parents gave us food when we were upset. Through classical and operant conditioning, we may have learned to associate food with comfort and consolation. SImilarly, we may learn that eating, which focuses out attention on immediate pleasures, provides an escape from unpleasant thoughts.
The Roots of Obesity
Determining the causes of obesity has proven to be a difficult task, since biological and social factors are both at play. Psychologists have suggested different reasons involved;
-Oversensitivity to external eating cues based on social factors coupled with insensitivity to internal hunger cues
-Overweight people have higher weight set points
Why would some people's weight set point be so much higher? Obese individuals have a higher level of the hormone leptin, which is designed from an evolutionary standpoint to "protect" the body against weight loss. Another explanation for obesity relates to fat cells in the body. Starting at birth, the body stores fat by either increasing the number of fat cells or increasing the size of the existing fat cells. Furthermore, any loss of weight past infancy does not reduce the number of cells, but rather the size. Consequently, people are stuck with the number of fat cells they inherited at an early age.
~The presence of too many fat cells from an earlier weight gain may result in the set point's becoming "stuck" at a higher level than desirable.
~Some researchers point to the rapid rise in obesity over the last several decades in the United States and argue that the body does not try to maintain a fixed weight set point. Instead, the body has a settling point. The settling point is determined by a combination of our genetic heritage and the nature of the environment in which we live.
EX: If high-fat foods are prevalent in our environment and we are genetically predisposed to obesity, we settle into an equilibrium that maintains relatively high weight. In contrast, if our environment is nutritionally healthier, a genetic predisposition to obesity will not be triggered, and we will settle into an equilibrium in which our weight is lower.
EATING DISORDERS
Eating disorders are among the 10 most frequent causes of disability in young women. One devastating disorder is anorexia nervosa, a disorder where people may refuse to eat while denying their behavior and appearance. Some 10% of people with anorexia literally starve themselves to death. It mainly afflicts females between the ages of 12 and 40, although men and women of any age can develop it. People with the disorder are often successful, attractive, and relatively affluent. The disorder usually begins after serious dieting, which somehow gets out of control. Life begins to revolve around food. People with the disorder may still cook for others, go shopping for food frequently, or collect cookbooks.
A related problem is bulimia, which is a disorder in which people binge on large quantities of food. EX: They may consume an entire gallon of ice cream and a whole pie in a single sitting. After such a binge, the person feels guilt or depression and often induces vomiting or takes laxatives to rid themselves of the food - behavior known as purging. When this process becomes cyclical, it can lead to heart failure.
~Estimates show that between 1% and 4% of high-school age and college-age women have either anorexia nervosa or bulimia. As many as 10% of women suffer from bulimia at some point in their lives.
Q: What are some causes of anorexia and bulimia?
-Some researchers suspect a biological cause such as a chemical imbalance in the hypothalamus or pituitary gland, brought on by genetic factors. Brain scans performed on people with the disease show that they process information about food differently from healthy people.
-Others believe that the cause has roots in society's valuation of slenderness and the parallel notion that obesity is undesirable. People with the disorders become preoccupied with their weight and take to heart the cliche that no one can never be too thin. This may explain why eating disorders increase as countries become more developed and Westernized and dieting becomes popular.
-Finally, some psychologists have suggested that the disorders result from overly demanding parents or other family problems.
-Complete explanations of the disorders are elusive. They likely stem from both biological and social causes. Successful treatment probably encompasses several strategies, including therapy and dietary changes.
THE NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT: STRIVING FOR SUCCESS
While hunger is a potent primary drive, secondary drives may be very powerful while having no clear biological basis. Among the more prominent is the need for achievement. The need for achievement is a stable, learned characteristic in which a person obtains satisfaction by striving for and attaining a level of excellence. These people seek out situations in which they can compete against some standard - such as grades, money, or winning a game - and prove themselves successful.
-They are not indiscriminate when it comes to picking their challenges; They tend to avoid situations in which success will come too easily (unchallenging) and situations in which success is unlikely. These people generally choose tasks that are of intermediate difficulty.
-People with low achievement are motivated by a desire to avoid failure. They seek out easy tasks where they are sure to avoid failure, or they seek out extremely difficult taks where most everyone will fail.
-A high need for achievement generally produces positive outcomes, at least in a success-oriented culture of Western society. These people are more likely to attend college, and once they are in college, they tend to receive higher grades in classes that are related to their future careers. High achievement motivation indicates future economic and occupational success.
Measuring Achievement Motivation
Q: How can we measure a person's need for motivation?
-The measure used most frequently is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). An examiner shows a series of ambiguous pictures and tells participants to write a story that describes what is happening - who the people are, what led to the situation, what the people are thinking or wanting, and what will happen next. Researches then use a standard scoring system.
EX: If the main character strives to beat an opponent, studies in order to do well at some task, or works hard in order to get a promotion shows clear signs of achievement orientation.
THE NEED FOR AFFILIATION: STRIVING FOR FRIENDSHIP
Few of us choose to lead our lives as hermits. Why?
-People have a need for affiliation, an interest in establishing and maintaining relationships with other people. Individuals with a high need for affiliation write TAT stories that emphasize the desire to maintain or reinstate friendships and show concern over being rejected by friends.
-These people are particularly sensitive to relationships with others. They desire to be with their friends more of the time and alone less often, compared with people who are lower in the need for affiliation. Gender is a greater determinant of hwo much time is actually spent with friends: female students spend significantly more time with their friends and less time alone than male students do.
THE NEED FOR POWER: STRIVING FOR IMPACT ON OTHERS
If your fantasies include becoming President of the United States or running Microsoft, your dreams may reflect a high need for power. The need for power is a tendency to seek impact, control, or influence over others and to be seen as a powerful individual.
-These people are more apt to belong to organizations and seek office. They tend to work in professions in which their power needs may be fulfilled, such as business management and teaching. They seek to display trappings of power. They are more likely to collect prestigious possessions, such as electronic equipment and sports cars.
-There are significant gender differences in the need to display power. Men with high power needs tend to show unusually high levels of aggression, drink heavily, act in a sexually exploitative manner, and participate more frequently in competitive sports. In contrast, women display their power needs with more restraint - they are more apt to channel their needs in a socially responsible manner, such as shwoing concern for others or displaying highly nurturing behavior.
Section 3 - Understanding Emotional Experiences
MAIN IDEA QUESTIONS
What are emotions, and how do we experience them?
What are the functions of emotions?
What are the explanations for emotions?
How does nonverbal behavior relate to the expression of emotions?
VOCABULARY
emotions - feelings that generally have both physiological and cognitive elements and that influence behavior
James-Lange theory of emotion - the belief that emotional experience is a reaction to bodily events occurring as a result of an external situation ("I feel sad because I am crying")
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion - the belief that both physiological arousal and emotional experience are produced simultaneously by the same nerve stimulus
Schachter-Singer theory of emotion - the belief that emotions are determined jointly by a nonspecific kind of physiological arousal and its interpretation, based on environmental cues
facial-affect program - activation of a set of nerve impulses that make the face display the appropriate expression
facial-feedback hypothesis - the hypothesis that facial expressions not only reflect emotional experience but also help determine how people experience and label emotions
At one time or another, all of us have experienced the strong feelings that accompany both very pleasant or very negative experiences. Perhaps we have felt the thrill of getting a sought after job, the joy of being in love, the sorrow over someone's death, or the anguish of inadvertently hurting someone. We experiences such reactions on a less intense level throughout our daily lives with such things as the pleasure of friendship, the enjoyment of a movie, and the embarrassment of breaking a borrowed item.
All of these feelings represent emotions. Formally defining what an emotion is has been a difficult task. Emotions are feelings that generally have both physiological and cognitive elements that influence behavior.
EX: How does it feel to be happy?
Physiological-We experience a feeling that is different from other emotions. We experience some identifiable physical changes in our bodies (increased heart rate or "jumping for joy")
Cognitive-Our understanding of the meaning of what is happening prompts our feelings of happiness
~It is possible to feel emotion without cognitive elements. EX: We may react with fear to an unusual or novel situation, or, we may experience pleasure over sexual excitation without having cognitive awareness of understanding of just what makes the situation exciting.
~A current controversy focuses on whether the emotional response predominates over the cognitive response or vice versa. EX: We may enjoy a complex modern symphony without at first understanding it or knowing why we like it. On the other hand, we may first develop cognitions about a situation and then react emotionally (we think about or understand a stimulus or situation, relatign it to what we already know, then react on an emotional level).
~We do know, however, that we can experience emotions that involve little or no conscious thought. EX: We may not know why we are afraid of mice because we understand objectively that they represent no danger, but we still may be firghtened.
THE FUNCTIONS OF EMOTIONS
Life would be considerably less satisfying and even dull if we lacked the capacity to sense and express emotion. Do they serve a purpose beyond making life interesting? Yes they do.
1) Preparing us for action - EX: you see an angry dog charging toward you. Your emotional reaction (fear) would be associated with the physiological arousal of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system (the activation of the "fight or flight" response).
2) Shaping our future behavior - EX: your emotional response to unpleasant events teaches you to avoid similar circumstances in the future
3) Helping us interact more effectively with others - We experience emotions through verbal and nonverbal behaviors. These behaviors can act as a signal to observers, allowing them to understand better what we are experiencing and to help them predict our future behavior.
DETERMINING THE RANGE OF EMOTIONS: LABELING OUR FEELINGS
Words used to describe emotions in the English language reach at least 500. What are the most important, fundamental emotions?
~Some argue that there is no way to categorize them, while others seek to create a hierarchy, dividing them into positive and negative categories and then organizing them into increasingly narrower subcategories. Most lists of basic emotions include happiness, anger, fear, sadness, and disgust. Broader lists include emotions such as surprise, contempt, guilt, and joy.
~NOTE: Substantial differences exist in descriptions of emotions among various cultures, making it difficult to define a basic set of emotions.
THE ROOTS OF EMOTIONS
If you examine our language, you will find that there are dozens of ways to describe our emotions. For the most part, we describe emotions based on the physical symptoms that are associated with a particular emotional experience.
EX: I've never been so angry before; I feel my heart pounding, and I'm trembling all over
EX: I don't know how I'll get through the performance. I feel like my stomach is filled with butterflies
EX: That was quite a mistake I made! My face must be incredibly red
EX: When I heard the footsteps at night, I was so frightened that I couldn't catch my breath
~Consider for instance walking down a dark road and you hear a stranger approaching behind you. It is clear that he is not trying to hurry by but is coming directly toward you. You think about what you will do if the stranger attempts to rob you, or worse, hurt you in some way. While these thoughts are running through your head, something dramatic will be happening in your body; increase in your rate of breathing, acceleration of your heart rate, widening of your pupils (to increase visual sensitivity), dryness in your mouth, digestive system ceases, and sweat glands increase their activity. These physiological changes are likely to occur without your awareness. You most surely would report being fearful.
~Some theorists suggest that bodily reactions cause us to experience a particular emotion. EX: We experience fear because the heart is pounding and we are breathing deeply.
The James-Lange Theory: Do Gut Reactions Equal Emotions?
To William James and Carl Lange, emotional experience is, very simply, a reaction to instinctive bodily events that occur as a response to some situation or event in the environment. "We feel sorry because we cry, afraid because we tremble" - William James
~They suggested that for every major emotion there is an accompanying physiological or "gut" reaction of internal organs - called visceral experience. This pattern of visceral responses leads us to label the emotional experience. In sum, James and Lange proposed that we experience emotions as the result of physiological changes that produce specific sensations. The brain interprets these sensations as specific kinds of of emotional experiences.
~The James-Lange theory has some serious drawbacks. We experience some emotions almost instantaneously (such as the approaching stranger example above). Furhtermore, emotional experiences sometimes occur before there is even time for visceral changes to take place.
A further difficulty is that physiological arousal does not invariably produce emotional experience. EX: A person jogging has an increased heartbeat and respiration rate as well as many of the other physiological changes associated with certain emotions. Yet joggers do not think of such changes in terms of emotion.
Finally, our internal organs produce a relatively limited range of sensations. It is difficult to imagine how each of the myriad emotions that people are capable of experiencing could be the result of a unique visceral change. Many emotions actually are associated with relatively similar sorts of visceral changes, a fact that contradicts the theory.
The Cannon-Bard Theory: Physiological Reactions as the Result of Emotions
Walter Cannon and later Philip Bard suggested an alternative view; the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, which assumes that the physiological arousal and the emotional experience are produced simultaneously by the same nerve stimulus, which emanates from the thalamus in the brain.
~We perceive an emotion-producing stimulus --> the thalamus sends a signal to the autonomic nervous system, producing a visceral response. At the same time, the thalamus communicates a message to the cerebral cortex regarding the nature of the emotion being experienced. The theory accurately filled the gaps in the James-Lange theory.
~However, we now understand that the hypothalamus and the limbic system, not the thalamus, play a major role in emotional experience. In addition, simultaneous occurence of the physiological and emotional responses, which is a fundamental assumption of the Cannon-Bard theory, has yet to be demonstrated conclusively.
The Schachter-Singer Theory: Emotions as Labels
This approach emphasizes that we identify the emotion we are experiencing by observing our environment and comparing ourselves with others. Schachter and Singer's classic experiment found evidence for this.
~In the study, participants were told that they would receive an injection of a vitamin. In reality, they were given epinephrine, a drug that causes responses that typically occur during strong emotional reactions, such as an increase in physiological arousal, including higher heart and respiration rates and a reddening of the face. Group members were then placed individually in a situation where a confederate of an experimenter acted in one of two ways; angry and hostile OR exuberantly happy. How would the participants react emotionally to the confederate's behavior? When asked to report on their own emotional state at the end of the experiment, participants reported feeling angry when exposed to the angry confederate, and happy when exposed to the happy one. The results suggest that participants turned to the environment and the behavior of others for an explanation of the physiological arousal they were experiencing.
~This supports a cognitive view of emotions in which emotions are determined jointly by a relatively non-specific kind of physiological arousal and the labeling of that arousal on the basis of cues from the environment. While later research has determined that there is even more to emotions, Schachter and Singer were right in assuming that we may look to our surroundings to determine what we are experiencing.
Contemporary Perspectives on the Neuroscience of Emotions
Evidence is growing that specific patterns of biological arousal are associated with individual emotions. Researchers have found that specific emotions produce activation on very different portions of the brain. This has been proven through PET brain scans in which particpants were asked about events that made them feel sad (deaths and funerals) and events that made them feel happy (weddings and births). They also looked at photos with different emotional facial expressions. The results were clear; happiness was related to a decrease in activity in certain areas of the cerebral cortex, whereas sadness was associated with an increase in activity in particular portions of the cortex.
~In addition, the amygdala, in the brain's temporal lobe, is important in the experience of emotions. It provides the link between the perception of an emotion-producing stimulus and the recall of that stimulus later. EX: If we've been attacked by a vicious pit bull, the amygdala processes that information and leads us to react with fear when we see a pit bull later (a classically conditioned fear response).
~Scientists speculate that emotion-related stimuli can be processed and responded to almost instantaneously. The immediate response occurs so rapidly that higher-order, more rational thinking, which takes more time, seems not to be involved initially.
Making Sense of the Multiple Perspectives on Emotion
There are as many explanatory theories of emotion as there are emotions. Why are theories of emotion so plentiful? Emotions are not a simple phenomenon, instead they are intertwined closely with motivation, cognition, neuroscience, and a host of related branches of psychology. EX: Evidence from brain imaging studies show that even when people come to supposedly rational, nonemotional decisions - such as making moral, philosophical judgments - emotions come into play.
DO PEOPLE IN ALL CULTURES EXPRESS EMOTION SIMILARLY?
There are six primary emotions tied to facial expressions which are expressed universally by members of the human race; happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, and fear. This recognition is regardless of where they are raised or what experiences they have had. The expression of basic emotions seems to be universal. Why do people express emotions similarly across all cultures?
~One hypothesis is the facial-affect program. Like a computer program, once turned on, the program activates a set of nerve impulses that make the face display an appropriate expression. Each primary emotion produces a unique set of muscular movements.
~The importance of facial expressions is illustrated by the facial-feedback hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, facial expressions not only reflect emotional experience, but they also help determine how people experience and label emotions.
~Overall, facial expressions representing the primary emotions produced physiological effects similar to those accompanying the genuine emotions in other circumstances. (PPT example)