Emotion

General Psych 1 Module 38

May 5, 2005Class #28

Detecting Emotion Earlier, we discussed lie detection and the use of

the polygraph Are there other ways of detecting emotions?

Facial Expressions These are considered to be universal in nature

by most psychologists Culture

But there are several other differences that arise when comparing cultures

Genetic Influences Evidence supports this

Facial Expressions Ekman and O’Sullivan (1991)

When most people are shown videotapes and asked to judge who is lying, they do little better than chance

College students, psychiatrists, court judges, police officers, and federal polygraphers were all right around 50%

U.S. secret Service agents did a little better (64%)

How good are you at detecting a lie? Liars often give themselves away by

facial expressions or changes in vocal pitch

But most people do no better than 50/50 at lie detecting, that is, they are right only about half the time Studies have show that even moms

aren’t better than the general population

These individuals detect lies accurately…

Etcoff, Ekman, Frank, Magee & Torreano (1992) These researchers found an exception to

that 50/50 rule: They are aphasics, people who, because

of stroke or other forms of brain damage, have been robbed of their ability to understand language

Etcoff, Ekman, Frank, Magee & Torreano (1992)

The team showed videotapes of 10 women telling the truth and lying to 10 aphasics, 10 people with other types of brain damage, 10 healthy subjects picked randomly, and 48 M.I.T students

The aphasics had suffered damage to language centers on the left side of their brains

Ten others had damage done to the right side of their brains but no loss in ability to understand or speak

A little deception was employed…

The ten women were nurses working at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston… Before viewing the tapes, the experimenters

motivated the smiling nurses by telling them that their success in convincing an interviewer that they were in a pleasant mood would be related to their success in their nursing careers

Their supervisors would be watching and judging them on their ability to appear calm and serene

Procedure Half of the women on the videotapes spoke of

feeling happy and relaxed as they watched pleasant nature scenes, which were not visible to the subjects watching their faces

The other half of the women also spoke of feeling happy and relaxed as they watched gruesome medical scenes showing amputations and burn victims, which were again not visible to the subjects watching them

So, half were telling the truth and the other half were lying

Results Non-aphasics did no better than flipping a

coin in detecting the lies; they made wrong calls about half the time

Aphasics were right 60 percent of the time when they relied on both facial and verbal cues

Their scores jumped to 73 percent when they judged facial expressions alone

Can you tell if someone is giving you a “false smile”?

Ekman and Friesen (1982) Participants were not successful in

uncovering differences between felt and false smiles

Paul Ekman From the findings of several studies, this

researcher has proposed that there are two reasons why most people are such poor judges of lying Few people obtain corrective feedback

about the accuracy of their judgments about who is lying and who is truthful

People rely too much on what people say and ignore the discrepancies between the expressive behaviors and what is said

But with practice…

Ekman, O’Sullivan, and Frank (1999) This follow-up study found higher success rates But the individuals in the next two groups really

belong to a special population whose jobs depend on this…

CIA agents spotted liars 73% of the time Street-smart interrogators spotted liars 67%

of the time

Additionally, clinical psychologists involved in lying research spotted liars 68% of the time

The effects of facial expressions…

Strack, Martin & Stepper (1988) These researchers gave the following

instructions to individuals in two separate groups…

Group 1: Gently hold a pen between your teeth,

making sure it doesn’t touch your lips Group 2:

Now grip the end of the pen firmly with your lips, making sure it doesn’t dip downward

Strack, Martin & Stepper (1988)

Students read cartoons while holding the pen with either their teeth or their lips Compared to control participants who held

the pen in their hands, those who held the pen in their teeth rated cartoons as funnier

Those who held the pen in their lips rated the cartoons as less funny

Why do you think they got these results?

Culture

Do's & Taboos of Gestures Personal Space

Latin Americans & Middle Easterners stand very close

Americans stand about 30 inches apart, while Asians stand farther apart

Eye Contact Americans make a lot of eye contact Japanese and Koreans avert their eyes, because it

is seen as intimidating

EXPRESSING EMOTION

Gestures are a "sign language" Meaning depends on the:

Context Person doing the gesture Culture

Other ways of expressing emotion which are culturally based…

Shaking Hands Americans prefer solid grip Japanese prefer bowing or a gentle

grip Touching

Americans & Asians don't like it Latin Americans & Middle Easterners

do

Evidence for genetic influences

Behavior genetic studies indicate a heritable component to emotions and moods expressed by related individuals

Children born deaf, blind, and brain damaged are unable to learn emotional responses from their social world Nevertheless, they show many normal

emotional reactions like smiling, laughter, anger, and surprise

Internet communication…

Many people misinterpret email messages… Sarcasm is often missed “Just kidding” intent can be taken for its

literal meaning So be careful

Experiencing Fear Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre Tragedy (Dec.

30, 1903) Chicago's most deadly fire occurred less

than a month after the opening of the new, supposedly fireproof Iroquois Theater

It was standing room only for a holiday matinee of the popular musical "Mr. Blue Beard, Jr."

Of the 1,900 people in the audience, mostly women and children, over 500 perished

Most weren’t killed by the smoke…

People were either trampled or smothered by the frenzied rush to get out

People above the fire jumped The first to jump died as they hit the hard pavement Later jumpers landed on the bodies and survived The same scenario happened as patrons jumped

from the balcony to the main floor of the theater All injuries occurred within 15 minutes of the start of

the fire, which was put out by the fire department within half an hour

Bottom line: Panic caused the majority of this tragedy

Learning Fear Classical conditioning

Involuntary process through which feelings become associated with new objects or events

Instrumental learning The process through which people learn new

voluntary responses by being rewarded or punished

The process through which people learn by watching others get rewarded or punished (vicarious reinforcement or punishment)

Happiness

Social psychologists often refer to happiness as “subjective well-being” (SWB)

A definition of subjective well-being…

Subjective well-being can be simply defined as the individual’s current evaluation of his or her happiness or sense of satisfaction with their life

Such an evaluation is often expressed in affective terms

When asked about subjective well-being, participants will often say, “I feel good”

Some odd things about subjective well-being

Increase in income does not lead to increase in subjective well being Most people define themselves as being happy or not

happy, regardless of their material wealth Most people assume that the external

circumstances of others are powerful determinants of subjective well being, in spite of the fact that such circumstances would have little effect on their own SWB Extremely minor incidents, influence estimates of SWB

Happiness…

Makes the world seem safer Makes decisions easier Changes with time Causes us to help others more

See next slide

Feel-good, do-good phenomenon

Salovey (1990) When we feel happy we are more willing to

help others… Finding money, succeeding on a

challenging task, recalling a happy event made people more likely to give money, pick up someone's dropped papers, volunteer time, and so forth

We’re richer but… Since 1957, we have more than doubled

our annual salary (and this takes into consideration inflation)

We also have: A doubled divorce rate Tripled teen suicide Much higher crime rates Much higher percentage of people suffering

from depression

Adaptation-Level Phenomenon

This is our tendency to judge various stimuli relative to those we have previously experienced

Whatever it is that's going on in our life, we immediately adapt to it and then that becomes neutral

So if you get a big promotion and raise, you'll think that's wonderful -- for probably a few weeks, and then it becomes neutral... and eventually not enough What once gave pleasure such as a raise in salary,

loses its effect

Campbell (1975) He felt there was no such thing as an

emotional utopia… Well, maybe for awhile but the adaptation

principle prevents this from being long-term

For example: million-dollar lottery winners return to their earlier level of happiness

Relative Deprivation Principle

Perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself to… You thought you were doing pretty good

with you B+ average here at Three Rivers until your brother called from Harvard and happened to mention to your parents he has straight A’s this semester

Who is happier…Silver medallists or bronze medallists?

Our feelings are influenced strongly be how we appraise our situations

Medvec, Madey, & Gilovich (1995) These researchers analyzed films from 1992

Olympics, and found that athletes who won Bronze medals were happier than those who won Silver medals

Why?

Predictors of Happiness

See page 499 Table 38.1 for several of these

Is happiness a disorder?

Bentall (1992) This researcher maintains that happiness

is so unusual that it should properly be considered pathological

He adduces evidence that the state of happiness is grounded in irrational thinking, is caused by disturbances of the central nervous system, and can be induced by epileptic fits

Bentall (1992) Researcher says it meets all

reasonable criteria for a psychiatric disorder… Statistically abnormal Reflects abnormal functioning Associated with a lack of contact

with reality

Aaron T. Beck’s Cognitive Distortion Model of Depression (1967)

Beck theorized: That depressed individuals have distorted

negative thoughts about themselves and the present situation they are in

That depressed individuals have negative thoughts about their future

Other researchers disagree…

Alloy and Abramson (1988) Suggest that depressives are more accurate in their

assessments of the facts concerning their lives than are non-depressives, who tend to have an optimistic bias

Non-depressed individuals may overestimate the amount of control they have in situations

There is much evidence that increased attention to yourself, in contrast to increased attention to the people, objects, and events around you, is generally associated with more signs of depressed feeling

Non-depressed people paint too rosy a picture of real-life?

Weinstein(1989) Seems to suggest that we fool ourselves

into being happy

Martin Seligman’s “Positive Psychology”

Seligman feels that the field of Psychology has for the most part become a science and practice of healing

It concentrates on repairing damage within a disease model of human functioning

Its been that way since Freud He feels that this almost exclusive attention to pathology neglects

the flourishing individual and thriving community As the 1998 President of the American Psychological

Association, at 159,000 members the largest organization of scientists in the world, Seligman proposed changing the focus of the science and the profession from repairing the worst things in life to understanding and building the qualities that make life worth living

Seligman (1998) He calls this new orientation “Positive

Psychology”… At the subjective level, the field is about positive

experience: well being, optimism, etc. At the individual level it is about the character

strengths—Love, vocation, courage, aesthetic sensibility, leadership, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future-mindedness, and genius

At the community level it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, parenting, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic

Seligman (1998)

We’ll have to wait and see if psychology moves in this direction…