Emotions &� Personality Traits

March 14/15

Quiz #14

• 1. What are the two most important emotions according to the textbook?
• 2. Name one theory of emotion.
• Bonus:
• 3. What is displacement?
• 4. Describe the Id and the Superego.

Intro to Emotion

• Write two emotions on the board.

Biological Component of Emotions

• Emotion: state of feeling – positive and negative
• How do emotions impact us physiologically?
• Anxiety- triggers activity

of the sympathetic nervous

system

• What happens?

Cognitive Component of Emotions

• Anxiety: idea that something terrible may happen
• May lead someone to try to escape from that situation

Behavioral Component of Emotions

• Ancient Chinese believe there are four inborn emotions: happiness, anger, sorrow, and fear
• John Watson: fear, rage, and love
• Katherine Bridges: one basic emotion- general excitement
• This divides into other emotions as children develop
• (Other psychologists have debunked this- infants show many emotions)

Two of the Most Important Emotions

Happiness

Anger

Happy People

• Think world is a happier, safer place
• Make decisions more effortlessly
• Have greater satisfaction with life
• More likely to help others

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Anger

• Common response to an insult or attack
• Anger = “a short madness”
• Usually directed at someone else over some offense
• Controlled reactions are ALWAYS more effective than hostile outbursts or suppression of feelings

Facial Expressions

• We can see peoples’ emotions in their expressions
• Facial expressions are probably inborn
• Same around the world
• Communicate motivation

Theories of Emotion

• Opponent-Process Theory
• Richard Solomon
• Emotions come in pairs, with one being followed by its exact opposite i.e. extreme happiness followed by extreme sadness rather than a neutral feeling
• Maintain balance – opposite occurs to restore the balance

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Commonsense Approach

• When something happens to a person in a certain situation, the person quickly interprets the situation
• This signals body sensations which signal emotions
• The emotion then triggers a behavior

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Situation→ Interpretation→ Sensation→ Emotion→ Behavior

• Thoughts precede our feelings and behavior

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• Not all psychologists believe this!

James-Lange Theory

• People’s emotions FOLLOW their behavioral reactions
• Act first, react emotionally after
• Situations trigger reactions
• Reactions = instinctive bodily response patterns

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External stimulus→ Arousal and action→ Evaluation of arousal and action→ Experience of the emotion

• Physical threat triggers one of two patterns: fight or flight
• People who would meet the threat by fighting: Anger
• People who would flee: Fear
• Behavior first, followed by emotion that fits the behavior

• We can change our feelings by changing our behavior

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• Theory downplays role of cognition and personal values/choice

Cannon-Bard Theory

• Emotions accompany bodily responses
• Situation triggers external stimulus that is processed by brain
• Brain stimulates bodily changes and cognitive activity (emotions) at the SAME TIME

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External stimulus→ Mental processing→ Experience of emotion

Cognitive Appraisal

• All emotions have similar bodily response patterns
• Because our bodies react in similar ways for different emotions, we label emotions based on our cognitive appraisal of the situation
• Appraisal = analysis of situation & ways other people are reacting
• Compare reactions to those of others to get the right response

External stimulus and physiological arousal→ Interpretation of arousal according to situation→ Experience of the emotion

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No one theory applies to all people in all situations!

Personality Traits

• Trait: aspect of personality that is considered to be reasonably stable
• Shy = look anxious and try to escape social situations
• Traits are fixed and unchanging

Where do traits come from?

• Hippocrates- Greek physician
• Body contains fluids called humors
• Traits are result of different combinations of these fluids:

Yellow bile- choleric, quick-tempered

Blood- sanguine, warm and cheerful

Phlegm- phlegmatic, sluggish and cool

Black bile- melancholic, thoughtful

Diseases and disorders are an imbalance in the humors

Gordon Allport

• Catalogued 18,000 human traits- physical and behavioral
• Traits can be inherited
• They are fixed in our nervous system
• Traits are building blocks of personality– our behavior is a product of our combination of traits

Hans Eysenck

• Introversion-Extroversion
• Introverts- inward, imaginative
• Extroverts- outward, interaction with others
• Emotional stability-instability
• Stable- reliable, composed, rational
• Unstable- agitated, unpredictable

The Big 5

• Five basic traits:
• Extroversion
• Emotional stability
• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness
• Openness to experience

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• True across different cultures

Personality Tests

• Yay!