Emotion
Chapter 18
Monday, November 24, 2003
Emotion and Motivation
Motivation – that which gives energy and
direction to behavior.
Inferred from goal-directed behavior.
Emotion:
A process which evaluates the significance of
events with respect to important goals.
A means of communicating with others.
A motive in its own right.
Obsolete Theories
Concerned with the relationship between
experience, emotion and behavior:
James-Lange – emotion is epiphenomenal to
physiological changes.
Cannon-Bard – physiological changes and
emotion occur at the same time, emotion can
occur independent of physiology.
Limbic System
Includes the cingulate gyrus and
hippocampus.
Broca (1878):
Originally thought to be unrelated to emotion –
forms a ring around the brain stem.
MacLean (1952) – thought to be the primary
circuit for emotion.
Papez Circuit (1937)
Merging of different streams of feeling,
thought, and sensation in limbic areas.
Links the hypothalamus with the cortex.
Includes the cingulate gyrus, hippocampus,
fornix, hypothalamus, and anterior nuclei of
thalamus.
Emotion Doesn’t Map Well
No one-to-one relationship between brain
structure and function.
Emotion is diverse.
Some of the structures in the limbic system
are involved in emotion but others are not.
Other areas of the brain are important beyond
the limbic system.
Not a Single System?
Basic or discrete emotions – fear, anger,
disgust, sadness, joy, surprise.
Moods (anxiety, depression, happiness, peace
or calm).
Preferences and evaluation – negative,
positive, like or dislike, approve, reject.
Cognitive emotions – curiosity, interest,
confusion.
Kluver-Bucy Syndrome
Kluver-Bucy Syndrome – results from
bilateral removal of temporal lobe:
Psychic blindness – didn’t recognize objects
Oral tendencies – put everything in mouth
Hypermetamorphosis – run around and touch
everything
Altered sexual behavior – x-rated
Emotional changes -- fearlessness
Importance of Amygdala
Some Kluver-Bucy symptoms related to removal of
cortex, but most due to removal of amygdala.
Amygdala active with fear and anger.
Amygdala communicates with hypothalamus and
hippocampus.
Emotionally important memories and classical
conditioning (learning).
LeDoux’s research.
Kinds of Aggression
Predatory aggression – attacks against a
different species to obtain food.
Few vocalizations
Aimed at head and neck of prey
Affective aggression – attacks against
members of the same species.
For show – displays and vocalization
Sympathetic ANS arousal.
Affective Aggression
Competitive aggression – for place in a
dominance hierarchy.
Defensive aggression – inescapable threat.
Irritative aggression – aversive stimulus (pain-
induced aggression).
Territorial aggression – defensive.
Maternal aggression – protect young.
Sex-related and female social aggression.
Testosterone
Males are more aggressive than females in
most species.
Testosterone’s effect appears to be prenatal
– unrelated to fluctuations in adult
hormones.
Testosterone is related to dominance and
achievement, task-persistence, success-
related behaviors.
Neurotransmitters
Lower levels of serotonin were found in more
aggressive strains of mice.
Animals with less serotonin more likely to
attack neutral targets.
Depressed humans who commit suicide may
have lower levels of serotonin.
Children with conduct disorder have less
serotonin.
Pain and Pleasure
Both have an affective component.
Sensory pathways involved in pain are
complex, involve multiple areas of the brain,
and not well understood.
Pain and pleasure play a major role in operant
learning and classical conditioning.
Emotion and Pain
Pain is a metaphor for discussing negative
affect.
Emotion (and especially sympathetic arousal)
amplifies the subjective experience of pain.
Cognitive activity (distraction of attention)
decreases subjective awareness of pain.
Placebos can decrease the experience of pain.
Pleasure vs. Well-Being
Emotion may operate using a homeostatic
mechanism with a set point, just as hunger
does.
Well-being appears unrelated to intense
pleasure and unrelated to events in one’s life.
Lottery winners vs paraplegics (Brickman)
More negative affect than positive.
Stress and Anxiety
Stress is the response of the body to any
demand.
Stress is not harmful.
Prolonged stress in a situation where one is
helpless is harmful (lack of control).
Stress contributes to disease.
Cortisol as a measure of stress.
Stress changes brain chemistry.
Social Attachment
Social species have greater emotion.
Attachment permits essential learning.
Attachment permits individuals to regulate
their affect (control emotion).
Emotional expressions generate empathy and
regulate interpersonal behavior.
Emotion Regulation
Anger motivates instrumental behavior to
change things.
However, people must conform to social
expectations about expression.
Controlling emotion is not psychologically
damaging but is what people must learn to
do from infancy.
Venting is Ineffective
Staying angry is harmful.
Venting (expressing affect) is ineffective at
decreasing or eliminating negative affect – if
the person stays angry.
Venting prolongs negative affect.
Venting does not defuse hostility but escalates it
in relationships.
Distraction helps.
Rumination & Perseveration
Perseveration – obsessively returning to
thoughts about one’s problems.
Ruminating (brooding) prevents active
problem solving.
Rumination decreases likelihood someone will
engage in mood-changing activities.
Rumination biases thinking, leading to a vicious
circle of depression.