Emotions

Defition
The term emotion is derived from the Latin verb movere
means stir up, agitate, disturb or move. Woodworth has
defined emotion as conscious stirred up state of the
organism.
 Components
There are three components of emotions:
Physiological
Cognitive
Behavioral
 Physiological Component
In daily life we think of feelings. The feelings are most
readily evident changes in an aroused person. Feelings
have immediate motivational significance.
They give rise to many physiological processes in the
cardiovascular system and produce increased blood
pressure. They also stimulate nervous system and
prompt widespread electrochemical activities.
 Cognitive Component
This component serves primarily to influence an
evaluation of given situation, prompting us to become
emotional in one way or another, or not at all.
 Behavioral Component
The behavioral component involves facial, postural,
gestures and vocal responses.
 Changes during Emotions
Internal Changes
External Changes
 External Changes
There are many external or observable changes during
emotion.
The voice changes according to the type of emotion.
Experiments have proved that emotions can be identified
on the basis of voice.
Facial expressions change. We can identify emotion
experienced by a person by looking at his face.
There will be changes in the body language like stiffness of
muscles, twisting of fingers, movements of hands and
legs.
Sweating.
Wrinkles on forehead.
Redness of eyes.
Erection of hairs on the skin, etc.
 Internal Changes
Many internal changes take place during emotions.
These internal changes are the result of stimulation of
the ANS has 2 subdivisions. Sympathetic division
prepares the body for facing emergency either by fight or
by flight, i.e. fights if possible, otherwise escapes from
the situation. It stimulates the adrenal glands and causes
the excess release of adrenaline and nor-adrenaline.
Adrenaline gets circulated all over the body and stimulates
vital organs leading to following internal changes.
Increase in heart rate thereby increase in BP
Increase in rate of respiration
Increase in blood sugar level
Decrease in functioning of GI tract-that is why we do not
experience the feeling of hunger during emotional states.
Changes in frequency of brain waves
Dilatation of pupils
Decreased secretion of saliva and dryness of mouth.
After the emergency or emotional situation is over, the next
step is to restore the energy spent during emotion. This
work is carried on by parasympathetic division.
 Emotions & Cognition
How feelings shape thoughts and thoughts shape feelings:

Perception of Ambiguous Stimuli

Style of information processing
Creativity
Impact on plans and intentions
Emotions & Brain
 Theories of Emotions
James-Lange Theory
Cannon-Bard Theory
Schachtar-Singer Theory
Lazarus Theory
 James-Lange Theory
The James-Lange theory is one of the best-known
examples of a physiological theory of emotion.
Independently proposed by psychologist William
James and physiologist Carl Lange, the James-Lange
theory of emotion suggests that emotions occur as a
result of physiological reactions to events.
This theory suggests that when you see an external
stimulus that leads to a physiological reaction. Your
emotional reaction is dependent upon how you interpret
those physical reactions.
 Facial Feedback Hypothesis
This hypothesis suggests that changes in our facial
expressions sometimes produce shifts in our emotional
experiences rather than merely reflecting them (Larid,
1984; Zajonc & McIntosh, 1992)
In addition , other research suggests that changing our
bodily postures and even the tone of the voices may
influence emotional experiences.
 Cannon-Bard Theory
Cannon first proposed his theory in the 1920s and his
work was later expanded on by physiologist Philip Bard
during the 1930s. According to the Cannon-Bard theory
of emotion, we feel emotions and experience
physiological reactions such as sweating, trembling, and
muscle tension simultaneously.
 Walter Cannon disagreed with the James-Lange theory
of emotion on several different grounds. First, he
suggested, people can experience physiological
reactions linked to emotions without actually feeling
those emotions. For example, your heart might race
because you have been exercising and not because you
are afraid.
Cannon also suggested that emotional responses occur
much too quickly for them to be simply products of
physical states. When you encounter a danger in the
environment, you will often feel afraid before you start to
experience the physical symptoms associated with fear
such as shaking hands, rapid breathing, and a racing
heart.
More specifically, it is suggested that emotions result
when the thalamus sends a message to the brain in
response to a stimulus, resulting in a physiological
reaction. At the same time, the brain also receives
signals triggering the emotional experience. Cannon and
Bards theory suggests that the physical and
psychological experience of emotion happen at the same
time and that one does not cause the other.
 Memory
Our cognitive system for storing and retrieving
information.
According to the model proposed by Atkinson and
Shiffrin in (1968)The memory has three basic tasks.
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Stages
 Encoding
Encoding is the process of getting information into our
memory, If information or stimuli never get encoded it will
not be remembered. There are three main ways in which
information may be encoded:
Visual ( Picture)
Acoustic ( Sound)
Semantic ( Meaning)
 Storage
Storage is the retention of information over time. It help
to maintain the permanent record of encoded
information.
 Retrieval
Retrieval is the process of recalling stored information
from memory. Actually it is the process to recall
information from the long term memory and bring it to
the conscious mind.
There are two main methods of retrieving information:
Recognition
Recall
 Recognition
Recognition is the association of something with
something previously experienced. It involves comparing
new information with the information stored in the
memory. The recognition process is initiated as a
response to sensory cue.
 Recall
Recall is the retrieval of information from the memory
without a cue. It involves remembering facts, event or
other information that is not currently physically present.
 Types of Memory
According to Atkinson and Shiffrin we posses three
distinct systems for storing information. These are:
Sensory Memory
Short-term Memory
Long-term Memory
 Sensory Memory
The memory system that retains representations of
sensory input for brief period of time.
 Short-term Memory
Short term memory is usually refer to as working
memory, it hold relatively small amount of information for
brief periods of time, usually thirty seconds or less.
 Long-Term Memory
The memory system for the retention of large amounts of
information over long periods of time.
 Selective Attention
Our ability to pay attention to only some aspects of the
world around us while largely ignoring others.
 Serial Position Curve
When people try to recall a list of unrelated words, they
usually remember more words from the beginning and
end of the list than from the middle.

This serial position curve provides evidence for the

existence of two distinct memory system, short term
memory and long term memory.
 Chunk
Items containing several separate bits of
information.
 Forgetting
Retroactive Interference
Proactive Interference
 Retroactive Interference
Interference with retention of information already present
in memory by new information being entered into
memory.
 Proactive Interference
Interference with the learning or storage of current
information by information previously entered into the
memory.