Invitation to Psychology

ChapTER 13 Emotion, Stress, and Health 455

explain their own and other people’s behavior (see

Chapter 10) (Moors et al., 2013; Fairholme et al.,

2009; Lindquist & Barrett, 2008). Human beings,

after all, are the only species that can say, “The

more I thought about it, the madder I got.” In fact,

we often do think ourselves into an emotional state,

and sometimes we can think ourselves out of it.

The importance of appraisals in emotion

explains why two people can have different emo­

tional reactions to the same situation. Imagine that

you get an A on your psychology midterm; how will

you feel? Or perhaps you get a D on that midterm;

how will you feel then? Most people assume that

success brings happiness and failure brings unhap­

piness, but the emotions you feel will depend more

on how you explain your grade than on what you

actually get. Do you attribute your grade to your

own efforts (or lack of them) or to the teacher, fate,

or luck? In a series of experiments, students who

believed they did well because of their own efforts

tended to feel proud, competent, and satisfied.

Those who believed they did well because of a lucky

fluke tended to feel gratitude, surprise, or guilt (“I

don’t deserve this”). Those who believed their fail­

ures were their own fault tended to feel  regretful,

guilty, or resigned. And those who  blamed others

tended to feel angry (Weiner, 1986).

Emotion and the Mind LO 13.6

Two friends of ours returned from a mountain­
climbing trip to Nepal. One said, “I was ecstatic!
The crystal­clear skies, the millions of stars, the
friendly people, the majestic mountains, the har­
mony of the universe!” The other said, “I was mis­
erable! The bedbugs and fleas, the lack of toilets,
the yak­butter tea, the awful food, the unforgiving
mountains!” Same trip, two different emotional
reactions to it. Why?
In the first century a.d., the Stoic philoso­
phers suggested an answer: People do not become
angry or sad or ecstatic because of actual events,
but because of their explanations of those events.
Modern psychologists have verified the Stoics’
ideas experimentally. Many years ago, Stanley
Schachter and Jerome Singer (1962) argued that
the experience of emotion depends not only on
physiological arousal but also on how you interpret
and explain that arousal. Your body may be churn­
ing away in high gear, but unless you can explain
and label those changes, you will not feel a true
emotion. This idea spurred other investigators to
study how emotions are created and influenced
by appraisals: beliefs, perceptions of the situation,
expectations, and judgments that people draw on to

appraisals The beliefs,

perceptions, expecta-

tions, and judgments that

people draw on to explain

their own and other peo-

ple’s behavior, and that

influence which emotion

a person will feel in a

given circumstance.

Recite & Review

Recite: A little surge of hormonal energy should help you say aloud what you can about the evolu-

tionary functions of emotion, facial feedback, mirror neurons, mood contagion, brain areas involved

in emotion, the role of epinephrine and norepinephrine in emotion, and the polygraph and other

methods of “lie detection.”

Review: Next, read this section once more.

Now take this Quick Quiz:

1. Three-year-old Olivia sees her dad dressed as a gorilla and runs away in fear. What brain
   structure is probably involved in her emotional reaction?


2. Ana Maria is watching an old Laurel and Hardy film, which makes her chuckle and want to see
   more funny movies. Which side of her prefrontal cortex is likely to be most active?


3. Ana Maria is in a surly, grumpy mood but her friends make her come with them to a hilarious
   Laurel and Hardy film. She can’t help laughing, and soon she finds that her grumpy mood is
   gone. What physiological mechanisms might be the reason?


4. Casey is watching Horrible Hatchet Homicides in the Haunted House. What cells in his brain
   are making him wince when the hero is being attacked?


5. Casey is watching Horrible Hatchet Homicides in the Haunted House II. What hormones are
   causing his heart to pound and his palms to sweat when the murderer is stalking an unsus-
   pecting victim?
   Answers:

Study and Review at MyPsychLab

• facial feedback: smiling and laughing communicate to her brain that she is happy. Mood conta3. the left2. the amygdala1.

epinephrine and norepinephrine5. mirror neurons4. gion from her friends’ happy moods might also be at work.