Invitation to Psychology

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480 ChapTER 13 Emotion, Stress, and Health

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Emotion, Stress, and

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ealth

The Nature of Emotion

Emotion involves physiological changes in the face, brain, and autonomic nervous system; cognitive appraisals of events;

tendencies toward action; and subjective feelings, all influenced by cultural norms.

Emotion and the Body

Some facial expressions are recognized across cultures and

thus seem to reflect key emotions: anger, fear, sadness,

happiness, disgust, surprise, contempt, and possibly pride.

The functions of facial expressions include:

• identifying our own emotions through facial feedback.


• communicating emotion.


• allowing us to lie about our true feelings.

Brain areas associated with emotion:

• The amygdala evaluates incoming emotion, especially
  anger and fear.


• Regions of the left prefrontal cortex specialize in the
  impulse to approach (as in anger and happiness).


• Regions of the right prefrontal cortex specialize in the
  impulse to escape or withdraw (as in disgust and fear).


• Parts of the prefrontal cortex are also involved in
  emotion regulation.


• Mirror neurons are brain cells activated when an
  animal or person observes others doing a specific task;
  they appear to be involved in empathy, imitation,
  nonverbal rapport, and mood contagion.

During experience of an intense emotion, the hormones

epinephrine and norepinephrine produce arousal and

alertness.

Biology and Deception

• The polygraph machine is assumed to detect lies, but it is
  actually a measure of emotional arousal.


• Polygraphs sometimes identify liars and guilty people,
  but they have a high rate of falsely accusing innocent
  people of lying.


• No current technology exists that can directly and
  reliably determine whether someone is telling a
  falsehood.

Emotion and Culture

• Certain key emotions are found
  universally, but culture affects
  virtually every aspect of emotional
  experience—emotion blends and
  variations, emotional expression,
  and what people feel emotional
  about.


• Display rules regulate how and
  whether people show emotion.


• Body language communicates
  emotions nonverbally.


• Emotion work is the effort to
  display an emotion a person does
  not feel because it is socially
  appropriate or required.

Emotion and the Mind

• People’s appraisals and
  interpretations of events
  generate different emotions.


• Infants express some
  emotions, but as the cortex
  matures cognitions become
  more complex, permitting
  the emergence of
  self-conscious emotions
  such as shame and guilt.

Gender and Emotion

• North American women and men do not differ in how often they
  feel everyday emotions, though women tend to be more expressive
  than men.


• Men are more likely to express anger at strangers.


• Gender differences vary across cultures.

Situations can override gender rules:

• Both sexes are less expressive to a person of higher status.


• Both sexes do “emotion work” associated with their jobs.


• Some situations foster emotional expression in everybody.

2. The cerebral cortex generates
   a more complete picture; it
   can override signals sent by the
   amygdala (“It’s only Mike in
   a down coat”)


3. The amygdala scrutinizes
   information for its emotional importance
   (“It’s a bear! Be afraid! Run!”).