Cognitive
Psycholog
y sem-2
Presentator: Moderator:
Tejendra nath Dr. Shilpa Mehta Unit –II: Emotion & Motivation
Emotion
Contents
i. Definition
ii. Characteristics of
Emotion
iii. Types
iv. Theories of emotions
v. Psychological and
Physiological Factors
Definition..
● According to APA,
“Emotion is defined as a complex reaction pattern, involving
experiential, behavioral and physiological elements”.
● It has three components
Cognition Feelings
Actions
Ex:This is a dangerous Ex:I Feel frightened .
situation.
Ex:Run For the nearest exit.
❏ Emotions can be understood as some sort of feelings or affective
experiences which are characterized by some physiological
changes that generally lead them to perform some or the other
types of behavioural acts.
Characteristics of Emotions:
1. Emotional experiences are associated with some instincts:
➢ Every emotional experience is associated with one or the other innate
instinct.
For example, when a child perceives a bull coming towards him (cognition)
he experiences an affective experience in the form of the arousal of
accompanied emotion of fear and consequently tries to run away.
2. Emotions are the product of perception:
Perception of a proper stimulus (object or situation) is needed to start an
emotional experience. The organic changes within the body (favourable or
unfavourable) then, may intensify the emotional experience.
3. Emotions bring physiological changes:
● Every emotional experience involves many physical and physiological
changes in the organism.
● Some of the changes which express themselves as overt behaviour
are easily observable.
For example, the heart beating, reddened eyes, flushed cheeks, choke in
the voice, or an attack on an emotion arousing stimulus.
● In addition to these easily observable changes, there are internal
physiological changes, e.g. changes in the circulation of blood, impact
on the digestive system and changes in the functioning of some
glands like adrenal glands.
4. One emotion can give rise to a number of similar emotions.
5. Emotions rise abruptly but subside slowly. An emotion once aroused,
tends to persist and leaves behind an emotional need.
6. There is a negative connection between the upsurge of emotions and
intelligence. Reasoning and sharp intellect can check sudden upsurge of
emotions. Also under emotional experiences, the reasoning and thinking
powers are decreased.
7.Emotions have the quality of displacement. The anger aroused on
account of one stimulus gets transferred to another situation. The anger
resulting from being rebuked by the boss gets transferred to beat the
children at home.
Kinds of Emotions:
➔ Emotions have both positive as well as negative effects.
1. Negative emotions:
Unpleasant emotions like fear, anger and jealousy which are harmful to the individual’s development are termed
as negative emotions.
2. Positive emotions:
The pleasant emotions like affection (love), amusement, curiosity and happiness which are very helpful and
essential for normal development are termed as positive emotions.
★ By their nature of being both positive and negative, it should not be
assumed that all the positive emotions are always good; and the
negative emotions are bad. While weighing their impact, other factors
like frequency and intensity, nature of situations and the stimuli
aroused should also be considered. Excess of everything is bad.
★ Emotions with too much of intensity and frequency, whether positive
or negative, bring harmful effects. But the so-called negative
emotions are essential for human welfare. The emotion of fear
prepares an individual to face the danger ahead. The child who
has no emotions of fear is sure to get affected because it does not
learn to save itself against a possible danger.
Types
● In emotional psychology, emotions are split into two groups:
1. Basic and
2. Complex.
● Basic emotions are associated with recognizable facial expressions
and tend to happen automatically.
Emotional psychologist Paul Ekman identified six basic emotions that
could be interpreted through facial expressions.
They included happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and
disgust.
He expanded the list in 1999 to also include embarrassment, excitement,
contempt, shame, pride, satisfaction and amusement, though those
additions have not been widely adapted.
● Similarly, in the 1980s, psychologist Robert Plutchik identified eight
basic emotions which he grouped into pairs of opposites,
including joy and sadness, anger and fear, trust and disgust,
and surprise and anticipation.
➔ This classification is known as a wheel of emotions and can be
compared to a color wheel in that certain emotions mixed together can
create new complex emotions.
plutchik's wheel of emotions
Primary: The eight sectors are designed to indicate that there are eight primary
emotions: anger, anticipation, joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness and disgust.
Opposites: Each primary emotion has a polar opposite. These are based on the
physiological reaction each emotion creates in animals.
➔ Joy is the opposite of sadness. Physiology: Connect vs withdraw
➔ Fear is the opposite of anger. Physiology: Get small and hide vs get big and loud
➔ Anticipation is the opposite of surprise. Physiology: Examine closely vs jump back
➔ Disgust is the opposite of trust. Physiology: Reject vs embrace
Combinations: The emotions with no color represent an emotion that is a mix of the 2
primary emotions. For example, anticipation and joy combine to be optimism. Joy and
trust combine to be love.
Intensity: The cone’s vertical dimension represents intensity – emotions intensify as
they move from the outside to the center of the wheel, which is also indicated by the
color: The darker the shade, the more intense the emotion. For example, anger at its
least level of intensity is annoyance. At its highest level of intensity, anger becomes rage.
Or, a feeling of boredom can intensify to loathing if left unchecked, which is dark purple.
● More recently, a new study from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at
the University of Glasgow in 2014 found that instead of six, there may only be four
easily recognizable basic emotions. The study discovered that anger and
disgust shared similar facial expressions, as did surprise and fear.
● Complex emotions have differing appearances and may not be as easily recognizable,
such as grief, jealousy or regret.
➔ Complex emotions are defined as “any emotion that is an aggregate of two or more
others.”
The APA uses the example of hate being a fusion of fear, anger and disgust. Basic emotions, on the
other hand, are unmixed and innate.
➔ Other complex emotions include love, embarrassment, envy, gratitude, guilt, pride, and
worry, among many others.
➔ Complex emotions vary greatly in how they appear on a person’s face and don’t have easily
recognizable expressions. Grief looks quite different between cultures and individuals. Some
complex emotions, such as jealousy, may have no accompanying facial expression at all.
Theories of Emotions:
● The major theories of emotion can be grouped into three main
categories:
1. Physiological theories suggest that responses within the body are
responsible for emotions.
2. Neurological theories propose that activity within the brain leads to
emotional responses.
3. Cognitive theories argue that thoughts and other mental activity
play an essential role in forming emotions.
1. James-Lange Theory:
● American psychologist William James and Danish physiologist Carl
Lange proposed that the physiological changes give rise to
corresponding emotional experiences.
● Accordingly, we are afraid because we run, we are angry because we
strike, we feel sorry because we cry. This theory proposes that we
perceive the situation, physiological changes happens nd then we
notice our emotions.
● Hence, according to this theory, fear, anger or sorrow is not the cause,
but the effect of stirred up state of the body
2. Cannon-Bard Theory:
● Walter B Cannon and Philip Bard
● According to this theory, the felt emotion and bodily reactions in
emotion are independent of each other, both are triggered
simultaneously.
● These theorists propose that, the cerebral cortex receives the sensory
input from the environment, processes it and then passes the results
to the thalamus.Then the thalamic activity produces the emotional
experience and as a switch board mechanism, relays the impulses to
the brain and the hypothalamus at a time.In turn the hypothalamus
reacts with corresponding emotional feeling and stimulates the
sympathetic nervous system, which leads to eventual behavioural
expression of emotional states. In other words, impulses are sent
simultaneously to the cerebral cortex and peripheral nervous system.
3. Cognitive Theory:
● Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer proposed this theory in 1962.
● This is also known as ‘cognitive appraisal theory’, because the intensity
of emotion depends upon the cognitive appraisal of the situation.
● These theorists state that generalized physiological excitation is the
characteristic of emotional state. This emotional state may be
considered a function of a state of physiological arousal and of
cognition (past experience) appropriate to this state of arousal.
● Thus, people experience internal arousal, seek an explanation for it,
identify an external cue and finally label the cue.
● This theory suggests that the physiological arousal occurs first, and
then the individual must identify the reason for this arousal to
experience and label it as an emotion.
● A stimulus leads to a physiological response that is then cognitively
interpreted and labeled, resulting in an emotion.
● Schachter and Singer’s theory draws on both the James-Lange theory
and the Cannon-Bard theory. Like the James-Lange theory, the
Schachter-Singer theory proposes that people infer emotions based on
physiological responses. The critical factor is the situation and
the cognitive interpretation that people use to label that
emotion.
4.)Facial-Feedback Theory of Emotion
● The facial-feedback theory of emotions suggests that facial
expressions are connected to experiencing emotions. Charles Darwin
and William James both noted early on that, sometimes, physiological
responses often have a direct impact on emotion, rather than simply
being a consequence of the emotion.
● The facial-feedback theory suggests that emotions are
directly tied to changes in facial muscles.
➔ For example, people who are forced to smile pleasantly at a social
function will have a better time at the event than they would if they
had frowned or carried a more neutral facial expression.
5.Opponent Process Theory
● According to this theory, a primary a-process— directly activated by an
emotional event—is followed by an opponent process, the secondary b-
process, which gives rise to the opposite emotional state.
● In the first few exposures to an emotion-eliciting event, such an
opponent process can act to return an organism to a state of emotional
homeostasis or neutrality following an intensely emotional episode.
After repeated exposures, however, the State A response weakens and
the State B response strengthens.
➔ Thus, an initially positive emotional experience (e.g., love or
interpersonal stimulation or drug use) can eventually give rise to a
prevailing negative emotional experience (e.g., grief or withdrawal),
➔ Whereas an initially negative emotional experience (e.g., giving blood
or parachuting) can eventually give way to a prevailing positive
experience (e.g., warm-glow effect or exhilaration).
➔ As such, this theory has been commonly used to help explain the
somewhat puzzling behavioral tendencies associated with addictive
behavior and also
love/interpersonal stimulation, drug use, parachuting, donating blood.
Psychological Factors In Emotions
● Our thoughts seem to exert strong effects on our emotions. And this
relationship works in the other direction as well: Being in a happy
mood often causes us to think happy thoughts, while feeling
sad tends to bring negative memories and images to mind.
● In short, there are important links between emotion and cognition—
between the way we feel and the way we think.
(affect—relatively mild feelings and moods—rather than on intense
emotions.)
● In general, we perceive and evaluate ambiguous stimuli more
favorably when we are in a good mood than when we are in a
negative one.
➔ For example, when asked to interview applicants whose qualifications
for a job are ambiguous—neither very strong nor very weak—research
participants assign higher ratings to applicants when they (the
interviewers) are in a positive mood than when they are in a negative
mood
● Another way in which affect influences cognition is through its impact
on the style of information processing we adopt.
➔ A positive affect encourages us to adopt a flexible, fluid style of
thinking, while negative affect leads us to engage in more systematic
and careful processing (e.g., Stroessner & Mackie, 1992). Why?
Perhaps because we interpret negative affect as a kind of danger
● Happy mood can increase creativity—perhaps because being in a
happy mood activates a wider range of ideas or associations than
being in a negative mood, and creativity consists, in part, of combining
such associations into new patterns.
● Another way in which affect can influence cognition involves its impact
on our plans and intentions in a wide range of social situations.
➔ For instance, recent findings reported by Forgas (1998b) suggest that
negotia-tors who are in a good mood adopt more cooperative
strategies and expect better outcomes than ones who are in a bad
mood.
The relationship between affect and cognition has focused on how feelings
influence thought.
● However, when internal reactions are ambiguous, we look outward
—at our own behavior or at other aspects of the external world—for
clues about the nature of our feelings. In such cases the emotions or
feelings we experience are strongly determined by the interpretation or
cognitive labels we select.
● A second way in which cognition can affect emotions is through the
activation of schemas containing a strong affective component.
➔ For example, if we label an individual as belonging to some group, our
schema for this social category may suggest what traits he or she
probably possesses. In addition, it may also tell us how we feel about
such persons. Thus, activation of a strong racial, ethnic, or religious
schema or stereotype may exert powerful effects upon our current
● Third, our thoughts can often influence our reactions to emotion-
provoking events.
➔ For example, anger and resulting aggressive motivation can often be
reduced by apologies and other information that helps explain why
others have treated us in a provocative manner (Ohbuchi, Kameda, &
Agarie, 1989). Further, anger can sometimes be reduced—or even
prevented—by techniques such as thinking about events other than
those that generate anger (Zillmann, 1993). In such instances, the
effects of cognition on feelings can have important social
consequences.
The Physiology of Emotions….
● Physically, when a person experiences an emotion, an arousal is
created by the sympathetic nervous system.The heart rate increases,
breathing becomes more rapid, the pupils dilate, and the mouth may
become dry.
● The systems involved with this activity are-
1. Central nervous system (CNS)- limbic system and cortex.
2. Peripheral nervous system (PNS)- somatic and
autonomic,sympathetic and para-sympathetic.
● The amygdala, a small area located within the limbic system on each
side of the brain, is associated with emotions such as fear and
pleasure in both humans and animals and is also involved in the
facial expressions of human emotions.
➔ When portions of the amygdala are damaged in rats, the animals
cannot be classically conditioned to fear new objects—they
apparently cannot remember to be afraid (R. J. Davidson et al., 2000;
Fanselow & Gale, 2003).
➔ In humans, damage to the amygdala has been associated with
similar effects (LaBar et al., 1995) and with impairment of the ability
to determine emotions from looking at the facial expressions of
others.
● Researchers have found that positive emotions are associated with
the left frontal lobe of the brain whereas negative feelings such as
sadness, anxiety, and depression seem to be a function of the right
frontal lobe.
● Baron Mishra 5th edition.
● Ciccarelli 4th edition
● Psychologydiscussion.net
References ● https://online.uwa.edu/news/emo
tional-psychology
.. ● http://
psychology.iresearchnet.com/
social-psychology/social-
psychology-theories/opponent-
process-theory/
Thank you
