Discussion Questions 2

Jankowiak & Fisher (1992) - 

It was hypothesized (by others) that romantic love did not develop in certain cultures around the world because of their lack of industrialization. Similarly, could other emotions have developed in these cultures that did not develop in industrialized cultures and how could we discover those?

Ekman & Friesen (1971) - 

Ekman and Friesen have shown that emotion recognition in photographs is consistent across cultures. The emotions they explored were pretty basic ones though. How would you develop an experimental design to test for more complex emotions (such as romantic love that was explored by Jankowiak and Fisher primarily through anthropological and folklore studies)?

Elfenbein & Ambady (2002) -

Eflenbein and Ambady's studies seem to suggest that culture does have an impact on how well groups of people are able to discern emotion. Do these findings invalidate evolutionary or cognitive theories of emotion?

Assignment 2

1. What does it mean to take a cultural approach to observing and understanding emotion?

Taking a cultural approach to understanding and observing emotion means classifying emotion as a social construct. Moreover, since there are many different cultures in the world, each one could potentially develop emotions differently depending on their inherent cultural differences. 

2. What cultural variations (if any) in emotion exist?

From the readings, it seems that there is not very much variation in understanding of emotion across cultures. Many emotions that were believed to be the result of specific cultural activity (such as romantic love being developed as a result of industrialization in Europe) have actually been found to develop in many other cultures that did not follow these same activities.  Some variation has been discovered in how emotions are expressed in different cultures. However, it is not clear whether these variations were due to faulty experimental design or true cultural differences.

3. Think about last weeks readings.

a) Please highlight differences and similarities between the evolutionary, cognitive, and cultural approaches.

The evolutionary and cognitive approaches to emotion imply that all cultures would have the same emotions and the same understanding of these emotions. Although it has been shown that most cultures exhibit the same emotions and an understanding of them, there is a little variation which might implicate that how a culture develops actually impacts how that culture understands emotion. 

b) What do all of these approaches stand on the following questions:

1. What is an emotion?

                Evolutionary - A set of physiological responses aimed at preserving the longevity of the species

                Cognitive - The biochemical interactions that are associated with specific events

                Cultural - The typical and accepted (by society) bodily reactions to certain situations

2. What are the origins of an emotion?

                Evolutionary - Selective pressures that thin out responses that do not lead to survival

                Cognitive - Brain associations of situations with the  biochemical profile that those situations create

                Cultural - Society

3. Are emotions universal?

                Evolutionary/Cognitive - Yes

                Cultural - not necessarily, but research has shown that it is "mostly universal"

4. What are the functions of emotion?

                Evolutionary - Preservation of future generations

                Cognitive - Preservation of self (physically)

                Cultural - Preservation of self in context of a society (how others view you)

Anxiety

Today I looked at some possible alternative options to graduate school. I actually found a wonderful job in the city that I wanted to be in. This made me really anxious for some reason. I knew I had lots of plans and possibilities for the future, but I was anxious for all of those plans to just happen. I felt pretty uneasy because I was not sure what my future holds for me.

It was rather unpleasant, but not very intense. Just a little thing that put me in not the optimal mood for a few hours. About a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10

I guess I would be the cause of this emotion.

Panic

The other night I was driving home from my girlfriends house. It was around 10:30 pm, so not too late but definitely dark outside. My thoughts were elsewhere as there were few drivers on the road to take account of. Suddenly out of the corner of my vision I saw some quick movement. I turned my head to see somebody running on their lawn full speed towards the street, and my car. I slammed on the breaks. I seemed to be reacting without any emotion at first. Only after a few milliseconds did fear begin to creep through my body. I was worried something was on the street that I had run over. As I passed the person and his house, I noticed a group of people on the lawn sitting, drinking and laughing. I figured it was just some prank by some drunk kids. As my fear began to subside, a tinge of anger swept over me. I was pretty exhausted that day so neither emotion lasted that long.

The experience was unpleasant. I was really worried. I hate uncertain situations when I am driving.

The emotion was extremely acute (both the fear and the anger) but both lasted for a short duration. The interesting part was the delayed fear reaction. It could be that I was experiencing fear but not aware of it. Or perhaps it wasn't that frightening of a moment. But it certainly was not the same as my previous fear experience that I blogged about. Fascinating.

The person who pulled the prank was the cause of the emotion. Still on the lookout for that ever elusive "spontaneous" emotion.

Fury

So this year labor day was rather laborious. I had a serious discussion with someone in my family. However, they did not communicate very well with me. This person is known for their bad communication skills, but today I could not stand it. Their rudeness, and general disrespect brought me to such a state of anger that I began to tremble. I could feel myself losing control of my thoughts as the emotion began to run rampant through me. I tried to stay civil, but I think it just came out as lots of sarcasm (which is probably for the best since the conversation was not going anywhere from the start).

This was MEGA unpleasant. On a scale of 1 to water-boarding, it was like a 13. Really glad it happened at the end of my 3 day weekend so it did not destroy the entirety of it.

This was anger and frustration at its maximum. I would say it was of intensity nuclear for only a short time but resulting ultimately in a rather hot-headed mood for several hours.

Yes there was a cause, goodness only knows if my body could ever muster up such powerful stirrings of my mental capacities by itself.

Discussion Questions

James
How could our organs respond to the environment without our main cognitive processes? What would be the implications of this?

Lazarus
According to Lazarus, what would be the significance of spontaneous emotions, emotions that do not seem to be influenced by the environment?

Oatley
Does the type of fictional literature impact the change in understanding of self and others? What about the complexity?

Assignment 1

Assignment:

1. Darwin, James, and Lazarus all have interesting views on emotion. What are the perspectives of each author?

Darwin's view on emotion focused on the  phylogenetic origin of emotion. His main questions were whether emotions had some sort of evolutionary origin, or whether they were an innovation reserved for higher species. James and Lazarus however focused on the physiological aspects of emotion and how emotions are connected to bodily responses. 

2. Please tell me how their views are similar and different. 

James proposed a view of emotions that goes against common intuition. His idea was that instead of emotions being the causes of physiological responses, the bodily actions that occur during an event are what lead to emotion. James' view on emotions smudged the connection of cognition and emotion. Lazarus also believed that emotions and physiology are tightly interconnected, but he believed that cognition was also tightly associated with emotions. His main idea is that emotions arise from cognitive processes (sometimes unconscious). Lazarus' theory on emotion leads to a better association of emotions with evolution as we understand it (compared to James' theory). 

3. Do you agree with one of the authors in particular? Why or why not?

I would say I agree with Lazarus, as the theory purported by James seems to lack experimental evidence and also goes against my intuition. Lazarus' theory makes the most sense to me because I believe that the brain is the ultimate receiver of all incoming environmental stimuli. Therefore it makes sense to me that only the brain through cognitive processes could determine the situation one is in and react accordingly. 

4. Think about the Communicative Theory explained in Oatley (2009). How can you apply this theory in your life now or in the future?

I thought it was very interesting how Oatley described communicative theory almost as a way that you can train yourself to better communicate with others. By applying some of the techniques Oatley described in the research such as emotion diaries and reading more fictional literature, I could increase my understanding of myself and others. This would help me be better at communication. 

 

5. Remember those questions I asked? Briefly revisit them now (see below). I'd like to know if the readings influenced your initial responses. How? Why?

 

What is emotion? How do we express them?

Lazarus has introduced me to viewing emotions as the results of cognitive processes. His theory seems to best support the real world situations that I have observed.

Where do our emotions come from?

Again, through Lazarus and a bit of Oatley's communicative theory, I believe that emotions stem primarily from our thought processes but are also heavily influenced by our environment.

The rest is about the same.