Module 8 Emotions

Mask emotions

Mask emotions: Selecting a different emotion to display than the one that you are actually experiencing.

Masking

Masking Selecting a different emotion to display than the one that you are actually experiencing. You are experiencing a severe anxiety attack but you manage to display anger.

Suppression

Restricting the outward expression of an emotion

Mind Reading

Without them saying so, you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, you are able to divine how people are feeling toward you.

Being Right

You are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to great lengths to demonstrate your rightness.

Fallacy of Fairness

You feel resentful because you think you know what's fair but other people won't agree with you.

Magnifying the Negative

You magnify negative details while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. You probably think you're being realistic and that others are unrealistic in their positive thinking.

Emotional Contagion

ability to pass emotions from one person to another or also known as "catching" someone else's emotions (Hatfield et al, 1994). Perhaps you are around someone who is beaming because they have just become a mother or father. You leave their hospital room with a sense of new-found joy. In addition to nonverbal emotional contagion, exposure to others' written emotions can also be catching (Ferrara & Yang, 2015) . When people post depressing statuses and updates on social media, we are also more likely to report feelings of sadness even when in excellent spirits before the exposure (Coviello et al., 2014). Additionally, Coviello found that positive posts had an even stronger impact on readers' emotions. Every positive post had a ripple effect in that, followers posted 1.75 positive posts after seeing the initial positive post.

Emotional intelligence

is defined as the ability to monitor your own feelings and emotions and to use this information to guide your thinking and actions (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Remember that it is more emotionally intelligent to filter what you express on online platforms because of its permanence and impact on others.

Mind Reading

Mind ReadingWithout them saying so, you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, you are able to divine how people are feeling toward you.

De-intensification

Minimizing the intensity of the emotion that we feel in order to better match social or role expectations.

Mixed emotions

Mixed emotions are opposite valences (one is positive, like joy, and one is negative like sadness) that are experienced simultaneously (Trampe et al., 2015). For example, we may experience sadness but also joy when we reach a milestone like graduating from high school. We typically experience blends of emotions

perfectionism

("I have to make sure that every bit of my grass is even in my front yard"), Your attempts are perfect or a failure. Things are wonderful or awful. There is no middle ground.

shoulds

("I should have said that I wouldn't babysit this dog") You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and others should act. You get angry when people break the rules and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.

catastrophic thinking

("If I don't watch my family sleep through the night, I am afraid that they will die and I will be alone"), You expect disaster and imagine extreme negative scenarios. You are rendered unable to act because of what might happen.

overgeneralization

(Everytime that my friend talks to me he avoids eye contact with me"), If something bad happens once you expect it to happen over & over again. If you fail once, you expect to fail again. You may generalize inadequacy in one situation to your self-concept, e.g. "I made a mistake = I'm a total failure."

taking responsibility for others,

(I wish that my uncle wouldn't say such mean things online about other people") You see yourself as responsible for the pain & happiness of everyone around you & feel guilty if they're not satisfied. You take the blame for the way others feel. You think it's your fault

helplessness

(It doesn't really matter what I choose to do because I don't have any control over my fate anyway.") You are resigned to your emotions and believe there is nothing you can do to change how you feel. You might even blame others for your emotions, e.g. "You made me feel this way."

e

Emotional Regulation: The process of monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions for what is socially acceptable

Secondary emotion

A blend of two or more primary emotions.

Inhibition

Attempting to display neutrality or indifference when actually experiencing an emotion.

being Right

Being RightYou are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to great lengths to demonstrate your rightness.

Catastrophic

Catastrophic ThinkingYou expect disaster and imagine extreme negative scenarios. You are rendered unable to act because of what might happen.

Intensity/arousal level

Characterizes whether an emotion is high (e.g., anger) or low (e.g., calmness).

Emotional fallacies

Cognitive exaggerations that often increase the intensity of emotional experiences. Some of these fallacies include perfectionism, catastrophic thinking, shoulds, overgeneralization, taking responsibility for others, and helplessness.

De-intensification

De-intensification Minimizing the intensity of the emotion that we feel in order to better match social or role expectations.You are so angry you cannot concentrate at work, you attempt to decrease how angry you feel because other people are not showing their anger.

Display Rules

Ekman (1969) found that there are five display rules which govern our use of emotional expression. He made the argument that we follow these sociological rules in order to preserve social expectations in our interactions. The five display rules are: intensification, de-intensification, simulation, inhibition, and masking. We describe each in Table 3 below. Intensification Increasing the intensity of the emotion that we feel in order to better match social or role expectations A friend says they just bought a new car and you are impressed. You decide to act even more impressed than you actually feel De-intensification Minimizing the intensity of the emotion that we feel in order to better match social or role expectations. You are so angry you cannot concentrate at work, you attempt to decrease how angry you feel because other people are not showing their anger. Simulation Pretending that you feel a certain emotion that you don't feel. You pretend to feel sad when at a graduation. Inhibition Attempting to display neutrality or indifference when actually experiencing an emotion. You try to keep your emotions from showing on your face when someone says something hurtful. Masking Selecting a different emotion to display than the one that you are actually experiencing. You are experiencing a severe anxiety attack but you manage to display anger.

Emotion work

Emotion work: Changing the emotion that one is feeling to be more in line with the feeling rules for the situation.

emotion work

Emotion work: Changing the emotion that one is feeling to be more in line with the feeling rules for the situation. emotional labor (Tracy, 2005). Emotion work is defined as the work required to generate feelings that are "appropriate" for a situation. In this case, the emotion work necessary to follow the feeling rules would have been to mask or conceal one emotion by portraying another emotion.

Emotion

Emotion: A physiological response and cognitive interpretation of internal or external triggers.

Emotional Contagion

Emotional Contagion is the ability to pass emotions from one person to another or also known as "catching" someone else's emotions (Hatfield et al, 1994). Perhaps you are around someone who is beaming because they have just become a mother or father. You leave their hospital room with a sense of new-found joy. In addition to nonverbal emotional contagion, exposure to others' written emotions can also be catching (Ferrara & Yang, 2015) . When people post depressing statuses and updates on social media, we are also more likely to report feelings of sadness even when in excellent spirits before the exposure (Coviello et al., 2014). Additionally, Coviello found that positive posts had an even stronger impact on readers' emotions. Every positive post had a ripple effect in that, followers posted 1.75 positive posts after seeing the initial positive post.

emotional intelligence (EQ)

Emotional intelligence: The ability to accurately identify, analyze, and effectively communicate an emotional experience. to describe the ability of identifying, managing and discussing emotions. Let's take each part of that definition and pull it apart to see how emotional intelligence is demonstrated. Let's say you are driving your child to school and they will not stop loudly singing off-key. You sense that you are growing irritated and your thoughts are getting interrupted. In this case, you have identified the emotion and the trigger of that emotion. You are getting a headache from the noise coming from the back seat. If you are able to demonstrate emotional intelligence in this situation you would say something like, "Mommy is getting a headache because it is too loud. I am trying to keep from getting a headache so let's just talk with our indoor voices right now." When you think of someone who shouts, "We're all going to die!" while experiencing a bumpy ride on an airplane, we might say that they have a low emotional intelligence because they have blurted out what they were thinking instead of thinking about what they are going to say and considering the impact of their words on others.. The part of emotional intelligence that allows us to identify that we are feeling fearful and then manage this emotion is often what might be missing in this situation. People are able to demonstrate different amounts of emotional intelligence depending on the context. For example, if someone is extremely frightened of snakes, and they walk into a room with a snake on the floor, they might jump up on a chair, run away, or try to flee the room. Seeing the snake is such a strong trigger, it would be difficult to demonstrate emotional intelligence. When we say that someone has high EQ, they are able to discuss emotions effectively with others (Butler & Modaff, 2012). In the snake situation, the person would be able to tell their friends that they are afraid of snakes and that they feel very uncomfortable. In a different situation, like the one on the plane, they may not have as much problem filtering what they are feeling for the benefit of others. They might see that there is a small child two seats down who is looking worried by the bumpy flight, and think, I don't want to upset any of the other passengers.

Primary emotion:

Emotions that are combined or blended to become a secondary emotion.

Mixed emotion

Experiencing two different and opposite emotions at the same time (e.g., joy and sadness).

Expression

Expression: Conveying one's emotion through both verbal and nonverbal communication.

Fallacy of Fairness

Fallacy of FairnessYou feel resentful because you think you know what's fair but other people won't agree with you.

Framing rules

Framing rules: Unwritten rules that determine how we define an event. When we do decide to express our emotions we should be aware of social expectations that rule how we express emotions. Framing rules are those rules that determine how we define an event in terms of its emotional tone. Often they are ambiguous and subjective, since they are unwritten and often not discussed before events . If you've ever been to a funeral of an elderly person, you might have experienced the framing rule that defines a funeral as a chance to gather and celebrate a long life - and is therefore, a happy occasion.

Mood

General disposition or state of feeling of a person.

Accepting Responsibility for Emotions

Have you ever said to someone, "You're making me angry!" and they replied "No I'm not!"? No matter how much it might seem like it, other people do not cause your emotions and to think so would allow us to have no control over our emotions. In order to take responsibility for your emotions, try to consciously communicate using I-statements. You can say something like, "When you say that you don't want to help with the dishes, I feel myself becoming angry." Avoid saying, "You are making me so angry right now!" We learned that humans also have a tendency to blame others when things go wrong. It can be a challenge to accept that our emotions are caused and regulated by ourselves. Especially when we feel intense and unpleasant emotions.

Age

Have you ever tried to talk to someone who is uncomfortable talking about emotions to talk about them? The process of aging also plays a role in how much we express our emotions. The generation who was alive during the 1930's Great Depression is greatly impacted by the scarcity of food and, people of this generation were expected to not ask others for help even if they needed it. During the recession of 2008 in the United States, you might have been similarly impacted by your expectations of financial scarcity. While you are reading this think back to how you have communicated with close others about your financial concerns. Did you avoid these conversations? Research that investigates the emotional experiences of people between their seventies and nineties, consistently find that there is a positivity effect- the tendency to recall more positive events/effects than negative; this effect often increases with age (Reed, Chan, & Michaels, 2014). People in their later years use different emotion regulation strategies than younger people. Younger people may use cognitive re-appraisal - reinterpreting situations to modulate emotional responses (Goss, 1999). They also tend to use rumination for regulating their emotions (Goss, 1999) . Elderly people are more likely to report that they use suppression - restricting the outward expression of an emotion (Nolen-Hoeksema & Aldao, 2011; Goss 1999) and avoid situations that are emotional in order to decrease the need for using emotional regulation - the process of monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions for what is socially acceptable (Lawton, Kleban, Rajagopal, & Dean, 1992).

HelplessnessYou

HelplessnessYou are resigned to your emotions and believe there is nothing you can do to change how you feel. You might even blame others for your emotions, e.g. "You made me feel this way."

Cultural Expectations

If a culture is individualistic or collectivistic will impact how emotions are felt and displayed. In Western cultures people try to influence others, so high arousal emotions are utilized. Emotions such as excitement or enthusiasm are preferred states of emotion in Americans (Lim, 2016). However, in Eastern cultures where interdependence is promoted between individuals, emotions such as sympathy are encouraged (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Additionally, Kacen and Lee (2002) found that Caucasian individualistic persons reported to feel high arousal emotional states (stimulated, excited, frenzied, and aroused) compared to Asian collectivistic individuals who reported low arousal emotional states (relaxed, calm, sluggish, and unaroused) in impulse buying. Collectivistic cultures may suppress the urge to engage in impulse buying, since it is related to "highly individualistic, emotionally charged behavior" (Kacen & Lee, 2002, p. 173). See Table 2 below for distinctions. How a culture views happiness can shed light on how low arousal and high arousal emotions are experienced and expressed. In the Chinese culture happiness focusses on being solemn and reserved, being harmonious within oneself. Conversely, American individuals describe happiness with upbeat and described happiness in absolute terms: "Happiness is life!" (Lu & Golmour, 2004). Although emotions are felt across all people, your experiences are dependent on your culture, how you experience stimuli, and how you label that stimuli within that certain culture. Are you excited or enthusiastic or are you relaxed and calm? Do you emphasize individualism or look to those around you to promote harmony?

Managing Emotions

In this section, we introduce the idea of emotional work. When you think of a surgeon in the operating room, what is the worst emotion that they could express? The most effective? Most jobs and social roles demand that we suppress our emotions. For example, a firefighter would not be effective if they ran away from burning buildings with people left inside. Even though the firefighter might momentarily want to get to safety, their role as a firefighter demands that they calmly and methodically go into buildings in order to save others. Have you ever known someone who blurts out everything that they are thinking? Goleman (2002) coined the term emotional intelligence (EQ)

Intensification

Increasing the intensity of the emotion that we feel in order to better match social or role expectations.

Valence

Indicating whether an emotional experience or emotion is perceived as negative or positive.

Inhibition

Inhibition Attempting to display neutrality or indifference when actually experiencing an emotion. You try to keep your emotions from showing on your face when someone says something hurtful. Masking Selecting a different emotion to display than the one that you are actually experiencing. You are experiencing a severe anxiety attack but you manage to display anger.

Intensification

Intensification Increasing the intensity of the emotion that we feel in order to better match social or role expectationsA friend says they just bought a new car and you are impressed. You decide to act even more impressed than you actually feel

Separating Emotions from Actions

It can often be difficult to separate our emotions from our actions. Just because we feel anger doesn't mean we have to smash things or yell at others. We can choose to funnel our anger into something else. When we are extremely angry, it helps to take a step back and examine why we are upset. We can accept responsibility for our emotions and be less likely to act on these emotions. For example, we may feel like backing over our enemy's bicycle with a car, but we need to keep in mind that we don't need to act on this impulse. By recognizing that we are experiencing the impulse to act, we can label this thought as only an "impulse" and can usually refrain from acting on these impulses.

Social

One reason that you may experience intense emotion when someone else doesn't is that our perception of a trigger matters when we experience emotion. Indeed, it is difficult to discuss cognitive perspectives of emotions without mentioning the social environment. Verbal and nonverbal symbols communicate emotion. Averill (1980) argued that emotions are socially constructed and we give verbal and nonverbal cues as to what emotions we are experiencing and what emotions are appropriate for others to experience. Averill's argument constitutes the social approach to emotions. When faced with an emotional situation, we look to those in our environment for visual cues. For example, have you ever seen a little kid running and they fall and look around to see how people are reacting to them falling? They are using the expression of others to help determine whether they should produce tears or not. Their thoughts might go something like this: If it is a big deal, my parents will come running over and look concerned (visual cues) and therefore that episode of falling should hurt more. However, when a parent says something like, "nice save!", or pretends that the child has just successfully slid into a base in baseball, "you're safe!" then the child sees that his or her parents are okay with them falling, they will be more likely to not label the experience (falling) as negative. They may be less likely to produce some tears for their parents. Ultimately, they will be less likely to experience any pain from the fall. It is in this way that the child's emotional experience is socially constructed and communicated through interaction with others. Later, we will see that our thoughts play a large role in forming emotions.

Physiological

Our emotions are affected by how our bodies react to the release of hormones and how those hormones are processed by neurotransmitters. Our genetic code determines how we react to positive feedback (Forbes et al., 2009). When we are rewarded we feel good. A chemical called dopamine is released in the neural circuitry in our bodies. People vary in their processing and their reaction to the release of dopamine during a reward situation (Nikolova et al., 2016). There are genetic differences in how our bodies experience threat and negative emotion (Haviland-Jones et al., 2016) but since there is not a single hormone that controls fear and negative emotion like in the case of dopamine for reward processing, researchers have focused on how we might vary in the functioning of the brain in the amygdala. It is this variability in how our amygdala functions, that influences our experience of emotionality (Haviland-Jones et al., 2016). In fact, genetic variations in how well we are able to absorb the transmitter of serotonin a hormone impacts our experience of anxiety and depression (Karg, et al., 2011). People who have less reuptake ability of the neurotransmitter pathway of serotonin are more vulnerable to major depressive disorders especially in reaction to major life stresses (Caspi et al., 2003). People who have higher levels of the hormone testosterone are more reactive toward angry and fearful faces (Manuck et al., 2010). Taken together, the differences in ability of our bodies to absorb and transmit hormones, and genetic differences in how reactive our amygdala is, impacts how we experience stress, anxiety, emotional experiences, anger, and fear. Recently, researchers have also explored how our sense of taste and smell is strongly tied to our emotional experiences. Remember the aromas that wafted out of the kitchen of your childhood home? Was there homemade bread? Or perhaps spaghetti sauces simmering on the stove? Our sense of smell causes emotions. Your sense of taste can also bring back memories and cause emotions. If you have ever smelled a familiar cologne or perfume you might remember emotions that you used to experience when a close other wore that scent. Advertisers use this strong tie between emotional experiences and sense of taste or smell to encourage us to buy their products (Haviland-Jones et al., 2016). When you tour a home that you are looking to buy don't be surprised if you encounter the aroma of recently baked bread or cookies. Researchers have also explored the positive impact of seeing flowers has on emotional experience. Just being around flowers increases positive mood, but it can even increase the positive perception that we have toward someone! Smelling flowers has been shown to make us more likely to accept a date (Guéguen, 2011). How could this be? Natural odors from plants can affect our emotional experiences and motivation (Haviland-Jones, et al., 2016). When substituted for anti-depressants, the smell of flowers (i.e., floral odors) decreased depressive symptoms (Komori, et al., 1995). If both the sense of smell and taste cause trigger emotions then it is reasonable to think that individuals who have dulled sense of taste or smell will be less likely to experience a trigger from their sense of smell or taste.

Relational Culture

Our interpersonal relationships are characterized by some of the most intense emotions that we experience. For example, have you ever experienced puppy love or a new love? Did it feel exhilarating to anticipate seeing them? The end of relationships can bring a variety of intense emotions. Guilt for having done something to end the relationship, anxiety for starting a new relationship, anger at the partner, or sadness for missing being with them. The emotions that we experience can vary in intensity along the spectrum gradients from sadness to despair or mild amusement to joy. How we talk about emotions with relational partners also influences our experience of those emotions. This is particularly evident in our emotional experiences surrounding imagined infidelity in romantic partners (Harris, 2000). When we have a supportive and non-judgmental conversational partner, we will usually be more likely to express our emotions. This makes sense because it is easy to discuss our emotions with someone who is genuinely interested and not going to criticize us. If we are around an encouraging partner, we will start to be more emotionally expressive as well. Another factor in how we express our emotions in our close relationships is emotional co-regulation which occurs between partners, and results in the tendency to react similarly to your partner in a close relationship (Butler & Randall, 2013). Butler and Randall (2013) have found evidence that interpersonal partners impact each other's experience of emotions.

Technology and Social Media

Our use of social media may also impact our emotional expression. Look at the women in this picture. How likely is it that they will share emotions with each other when they are busy looking at their phones? While these friends might not express themselves with each other in this picture, they are quite likely to use emotional expression online. The act of being on social media can also impact the likelihood of emotional expression on that particular platform. On Twitter, we often see that people's emotional intensity in their comments and posts is high. They may use exclamation points and all caps or emojis in order to express this intensity. Although even without this nonverbal communication, readers are still impacted by others posts (Kramer, Guillory, & Hancock, 2014). Researchers found that abuse of technology in the form of bullying and antisocial behavior was related to low emotional intelligence (Nasaescu et. al., 2018).

Overgeneralization

OvergeneralizationIf something bad happens once you expect it to happen over & over again. If you fail once, you expect to fail again. You may generalize inadequacy in one situation to your self-concept, e.g. "I made a mistake = I'm a total failure."

Perfectionism

PerfectionismYour attempts are perfect or a failure. Things are wonderful or awful. There is no middle ground. Catastrophic ThinkingYou expect disaster and imagine extreme negative scenarios. You are rendered unable to act because of what might happen. ShouldsYou have a list of ironclad rules about how you and others should act. You get angry when people break the rules and you feel guilty if you violate the rules. OvergeneralizationIf something bad happens once you expect it to happen over & over again. If you fail once, you expect to fail again. You may generalize inadequacy in one situation to your self-concept, e.g. "I made a mistake = I'm a total failure." Taking responsibility for others' emotionsYou see yourself as responsible for the pain & happiness of everyone around you & feel guilty if they're not satisfied. You take the blame for the way others feel. You think it's your fault HelplessnessYou are resigned to your emotions and believe there is nothing you can do to change how you feel. You might even blame others for your emotions, e.g. "You made me feel this way."

Personalizing

PersonalizingThinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. You also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who's smarter, better looking.

Positivity effect

Positivity effect: The tendency to recall more positive events/effects than negative; this effect often increases with age

p

Positivity effect: The tendency to recall more positive events/effects than negative; this effect often increases with age

Simulation

Pretending that you feel a certain emotion that you don't feel.

Rational-Emotive Approach

Rational-Emotive Approach. In this approach, first we must be aware of the emotions that we are experiencing. Sometimes it helps to take time to reflect on what we are experiencing by keeping a journal. Next, we reach back into our memory attempt to connect what this trigger has in common with triggers in the past. "I've experienced a racing heart once before when I ran too fast and again when I got scared at the Halloween House of Horrors." Once the trigger is spotted, we identify any negative self-talk and refute any emotional fallacies. "I am just jogging" "My heart is not going to explode (catastrophic thinking) because it didn't explode the last time I felt like this while I jogged (disputing irrational thoughts) ." Once we have disputed the irrational thought, we can begin to use our self-talk in order to deal with our emotions.

Rational-Emotive Approach

Rational-Emotive Approach: The process of identifying exaggerations in one's thoughts, and refuting each of the exaggerated thoughts in order to decrease emotional intensity to external and internal emotional triggers. Now that we see that emotional fallacies can often exaggerate our emotional experiences, let's focus on how we can counter emotional fallacies. You can fight these fallacies by using what Cognitive Behavioral Therapists (CBT) call the first we must be aware of the emotions that we are experiencing. Sometimes it helps to take time to reflect on what we are experiencing by keeping a journal. Next, we reach back into our memory attempt to connect what this trigger has in common with triggers in the past. "I've experienced a racing heart once before when I ran too fast and again when I got scared at the Halloween House of Horrors." Once the trigger is spotted, we identify any negative self-talk and refute any emotional fallacies. "I am just jogging" "My heart is not going to explode (catastrophic thinking) because it didn't explode the last time I felt like this while I jogged (disputing irrational thoughts)." Once we have disputed the irrational thought, we can begin to use our self-talk in order to deal with our emotions.

Secondary emotions

Secondary emotions are made up of several primary emotions. An example would be when someone experiences jealousy in a romantic relationship. Jealousy is often a mixture of anger, fear of losing that person, and sadness or anxiety over the anticipation of that loss. If we make a mistake during a job interview we may feel angry but also embarrassed because other people saw our mistake. Imagine that you earn an A on a chemistry exam, you may feel proud of a job well done, and also relieved that your studying paid off as well as happy that you can relax over the weekend instead of studying. Dr. Paul Ekman, one of the world's leading experts on emotion, showed the strongest evidence to date of the seven universal facial expressions of emotion. His studies explored people's accuracy after viewing photographs of facial expressions (Ekman, et al., 1969). Facial expressions of disgust, for example, are easily and accurately recognized across cultures when identifying emotional expressions. Ekman's research strongly suggests that there are certain emotions that are universal. Researchers have also conceptualized emotions as varying along two axes (Russell & Barrett, 1999). This two-dimensional conceptualization of emotions is displayed in Figure 1 below. Any emotional experience was a certain combination of points or coordinates that varied along an X (valence) and Y (arousal) axis. Valence is whether something is positive (pleasant) or negative (unpleasant). Arousal refers to the level of intensity or activation in the body when we experience an emotion. In Figure 1, you can see that the emotion, surprise has the highest level of activation out of all of the emotions, while sadness has the lowest level of activation and is in the quadrant with other experiences that involve deactivation (e.g. depressed, lethargic, fatigued). So, for example anger would be considered a negative, unpleasant (valence) and higher (intensity/arousal level) activation level than sadness.. The inner circle represents the core affect or mood while the outer circle shows the typical emotion that is felt. The two dimensions are useful in order to further identify emotions from each other. For example, disgust, anger and fear are all unpleasant and mid to high range on the body's activation. Similarly, happiness and surprise are separated by the level of activation and how pleasant the experience of the emotion is.

Masking

Selecting a different emotion to display than the one that you are actually experiencing.

Shoulds

ShouldsYou have a list of ironclad rules about how you and others should act. You get angry when people break the rules and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.

Simulation

Simulation Pretending that you feel a certain emotion that you don't feel. You pretend to feel sad when at a graduation. Inhibition Attempting to display neutrality or indifference when actually experiencing an emotion. You try to keep your emotions from showing on your face when someone says something hurtful. Masking Selecting a different emotion to display than the one that you are actually experiencing. You are experiencing a severe anxiety attack but you manage to display anger.

Structure of Emotions

Since emotions are subjective (Barrett et al., 2007), researchers rely on participants' report of what emotions they are experiencing from certain triggers. Researchers have explored the structure of emotions and emotions are said to have "fuzzy boundaries" in that it is difficult to tell where one emotion starts and the other one ends (Fehr & Russell, 1984). It makes sense that there are fuzzy boundaries or gradients that slide into each emotion. People have a difficult time accurately identifying their own emotions, there are blends of emotions, and emotions with differing intensities. And according to that two-dimensional model of emotions in Figure 1, we see that what separates one emotion from another is the level of activation or deactivation and whether the experience is pleasant or more unpleasant. For example, if you see a small child being bullied outside of a department store and you are deciding how to intervene, is it anger, fear, or dread that you feel? Level of activation can help us understand when you might be more likely to feel fear versus anger. You might label it anger if you experience the enough activation from the trigger (seeing the child being bullied) to result in a fight or flight response. The fight response would mean that you would probably approach the bully and intervene. If you experience an even higher level of activation, you might be actually experiencing fear. You might be more likely to flee or decide not to approach the bully. The valence or degree to which we see the experience as pleasant or unpleasant can also shed some light on whether we are experiencing one emotion versus another. For example, think about the difference between when you experience sadness or experience fatigue. Feeling sad is more unpleasant than just feeling fatigue. Another difference between sad and fatigue is that when you experience fatigue you are even more deactivated than when you feel sad. Depressed is more unpleasant than fatigued and has a slightly higher level of activation than lethargic. Now that we see how it is useful to examine the structure of emotions in order to tell one emotional experience from another, we will look at a study that aimed to further our understanding of every day emotional experiences. Researchers have recently categorized emotions into 27 emotions that are all interconnected (Cowen & Keltner, 2017) almost shaped like the outside points of a spider web

emotional fallacies

Sometimes when we experience an unpleasant emotion, it is useful to try to reappraise negative emotions and dispute any irrational thinking also known as Seven emotional fallacies were discussed by Adler (1978). Even though we are the best judge of what emotions we are experiencing, sometimes we quickly assign a negative meaning to our emotions even though they may not be quite that negative. For example, "I am panicking and my heart feels like it will explode!" versus "my heart rate is increasing because I am anxious right now" In other words, we might overreact and use our self-talk to become more anxious.

Taking responsibility for others'

Taking responsibility for others' emotionsYou see yourself as responsible for the pain & happiness of everyone around you & feel guilty if they're not satisfied. You take the blame for the way others feel. You think it's your fault

Sex and Gender

The idea that men and women differ greatly in how often they express emotions is mostly exaggerated and often there are more differences among women and among men than between women and men. In a study of imagined emotional experiences surrounding infidelity in romantic partners women did not have stronger reactions compared to men when it came to emotional infidelity. "Moreover, women with committed sexual relationship experience showed reactivity patterns similar to those of men" (Harris, 2000, p. 1082). In the correct context, like while watching a favorite sports team, there is absolutely very little gender difference in emotional expression. However, there can be a significant gender difference in decoding ability of emotional expression of others. Women tend to be more accurate at decoding emotions than men

Choosing the Best Time and Place to Express Emotions

The next time you identify that you are experiencing intense emotions, here are some suggestions for how to determine whether you will communicate your emotional experiences with others. Below there are six questions you can ask yourself when debating whether to show your actual emotions. Most of these questions address the social expectations for emotional expression: Bystanders: Who is around--who will see? Privacy: Do I have enough privacy in order to feel comfortable enough to allow myself to express my emotions? Will expressing this emotion negatively impact me? Is it worth the risk? Can someone use this emotional display against me? Is it expected that I display emotion in this situation? How much time do I have in order to express this emotion? What happens after this? Do I have to go directly to work after this? Sometimes, it may seem like there is no good time or place to express emotions. However, since you can choose when and how you express emotions, you can set aside time specifically for dealing with emotions so that you don't feel as if they are piling up and weighing you down. This is particularly true of emotions like grief. Grief is caused by a trigger of loss. Grief can cause both mental and physical pain and needs to be worked through. Allowing ourselves the time to examine and understand our grief can be exhausting, but can speed our healing from the loss.

Basic emotions

The physiological response and cognitive interpretation of internal or external triggers that result in seven universal facial expressions including joy/happiness; sadness; anger; disgust; contempt; surprise; and fear.

Emotional Regulation

The process of monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions for what is socially acceptable

The experience of feeling nostalgic

These emotions all vary in the amounts of 14 affects that participants said they experienced. These affect categories were Approach; arousal; attention; certainty; commitment; control; dominance; effort; fairness; identity; obstruction; safety; upswing; and valence. In figure 2 the experience of feeling nostalgic involves varying levels in the 14 affect categories. The yellow area shows the degree to which people experience each of the 14 affect categories when feeling nostalgic. All this adds up to what can be described as one big spider web of possible emotions that we experience. Cowen & Keltner (2017) sought to gather data on individuals' emotional experiences by combing the internet for more than 2120 videos clips averaging in five seconds in length that would all be likely to arouse emotion in viewers.

Personalizing

Thinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. You also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who's smarter, better looking.

feeling rules

are socially shared norms that influence how people want to try to feel emotions in given social relations." They help us to know what emotions are socially acceptable in a certain situation (Hochschild, 1979). In the funeral example, the feeling rules were that people were to feel joyful. If someone caused a spectacle with loud, wailing crying, they would be ignoring the feeling rules. Anytime our actual emotional experience doesn't match the feelings rules,

7 basic emotions

basic emotions: joy/happiness; sadness; anger; disgust; contempt; surprise; and fear.

emotional fallacies

emotional fallacies. Seven emotional fallacies were discussed by Adler (1978). Even though we are the best judge of what emotions we are experiencing, sometimes we quickly assign a negative meaning to our emotions even though they may not be quite that negative. For example, "I am panicking and my heart feels like it will explode!" versus "my heart rate is increasing because I am anxious right now" In other words, we might overreact and use our self-talk to become more anxious. These emotional fallacies are listed in Table 4. They include perfectionism ("I have to make sure that every bit of my grass is even in my front yard"), catastrophic thinking ("If I don't watch my family sleep through the night, I am afraid that they will die and I will be alone"), shoulds, ("I should have said that I wouldn't babysit this dog") overgeneralization (Everytime that my friend talks to me he avoids eye contact with me"), taking responsibility for others, (I wish that my uncle wouldn't say such mean things online about other people") and helplessness (It doesn't really matter what I choose to do because I don't have any control over my fate anyway.")

emotional intelligence

motional intelligence (EQ) to describe the ability of identifying, managing and discussing emotions. Let's take each part of that definition and pull it apart to see how emotional intelligence is demonstrated. Let's say you are driving your child to school and they will not stop loudly singing off-key. You sense that you are growing irritated and your thoughts are getting interrupted. In this case, you have identified the emotion and the trigger of that emotion. You are getting a headache from the noise coming from the back seat. If you are able to demonstrate emotional intelligence in this situation you would say something like, "Mommy is getting a headache because it is too loud. I am trying to keep from getting a headache so let's just talk with our indoor voices right now." When you think of someone who shouts, "We're all going to die!" while experiencing a bumpy ride on an airplane, we might say that they have a low emotional intelligence because they have blurted out what they were thinking instead of thinking about what they are going to say and considering the impact of their words on others.. The part of emotional intelligence that allows us to identify that we are feeling fearful and then manage this emotion is often what might be missing in this situation. People are able to demonstrate different amounts of emotional intelligence depending on the context. For example, if someone is extremely frightened of snakes, and they walk into a room with a snake on the floor, they might jump up on a chair, run away, or try to flee the room. Seeing the snake is such a strong trigger, it would be difficult to demonstrate emotional intelligence. When we say that someone has high EQ, they are able to discuss emotions effectively with others (Butler & Modaff, 2012). In the snake situation, the person would be able to tell their friends that they are afraid of snakes and that they feel very uncomfortable. In a different situation, like the one on the plane, they may not have as much problem filtering what they are feeling for the benefit of others. They might see that there is a small child two seats down who is looking worried by the bumpy flight, and think, I don't want to upset any of the other passengers.

Moods

our general disposition or state of feeling. Moods can last for days. They have no specific cause or trigger. For example, we have little problem identifying what specifically triggered our disgust. Perhaps it was the smelly diaper in the living room. But we might not be able to tell why we started out the day with such a poor outlook. We are almost certain that anything that we touch will not work. Sure enough, you burn the toast, put the car into the wrong gear, slip on the sidewalk and almost fall on your way to class, then spill your coffee on your papers you have to hand in, and then, when you finally get home from classes, you realize you locked yourself out of your apartment. We might just wake up one morning and feel like nothing will go right that day. Moods are not usually intense enough to cause the physiological changes that emotions often do. When we experience emotions, they are intense and thankfully short-lived. For example, that feeling of anxiety that you felt before giving a speech probably dissipated after the speech was over, or if you found out that the speech was no longer required to be given. You would not keep that intensity of emotion for very long—experiencing intense emotion stresses the body and can be emotionally exhausting (Gaines, 1983). Table 1 below summarizes some key differentiating features between emotions and moods. Emotions Specific trigger Quick HIGH INTENSITY Accompanied by sudden physiological changes MOODS Slower to change or dissipate Lower Intensity than emotions Little to no changes; changes might be more gradual

primary emotions

primary emotions (Ekman & Friesen, 1986). Yet, only looking at these basic emotions is really oversimplifying what we humans actually experience. In other words, they are discrete and only made up of one emotion.

Cognitive

theorists believe that what we label an emotion depends on whether we assign a label of positive or negative to the trigger. So, two people could have the same trigger, let's say they both sleep through the alarm going off in the morning in order to get to work. However, person A doesn't worry or experience as much anxiety over this event as person B. Person A tends to assign a more neutral or even positive meaning to sleeping through the alarm because they get to have twenty more minutes of sleep. The person might look at the situation and think, "That was so worth it!" They might continue to reason that, "I'm just going to have to explain what happened and work another 30 minutes to make up for it. I'm in control of this situation." Person B wakes up with a start, you are confused. What did you forget? The alarm! Now you are going to be late, you think. Your pulse quickens, a sheen of sweat gathers at your neck. You are panicking. Therefore, even though the two people have the same trigger, the emotion experienced and the body's reaction to the experience can be quite different. Why is this? A look at the social view of emotions may offer some answers.

Physiological

views of emotions see the body's reaction to stimuli as the emotion. 'A biological view of emotions believes certain neurotransmitters create different emotions. In other words, when a neuron crosses a synapse, this transmission makes up what we experience as an emotion. Different neurotransmitters create different emotional states. Critics of this approach argue that to only examine the neuron transmission is to miss the very human experience that are emotions. Most argue that emotions are not simply one component and that emotions involve the other components (i.e. chemical reactions, behaviors, processes, appraisals of events, and thoughts). However, each of the views presents their way of explaining emotions as the most accurate. What most modern emotion researchers can agree on is that emotions are multidimensional, influenced by our environment, involve physiological processes, and also that emotions depend on our perceptions and interpretations. While we might use our verbal and nonverbal behaviors in order to express emotion, emotions are not simply behaviors. Anger is not simply pounding your steering wheel when you get cut off in traffic. Researchers who agree with this physiological perspective often argue that it is difficult to separate the reaction of the body to a stimulus from the experience of the emotion. For example, is any anger that we experience simply a state of the nervous system? Physiological views of emotions claim that when we experience the emotional trigger (seeing a grizzly bear charge toward us) we experience the emotion either simultaneously to the trigger or because of the trigger. In the physiological view, as we see the bear, we experience fear and that fear is the body's reaction (increased heart rate, dilated pupils and adrenalin). Other researchers in this view argue that the emotional response is a two-step process. First, we see the bear. Then the body responds to the trigger by communicating with the brain to release chemicals. The release of the chemicals causes the emotion. We know that our emotions are more than just neurological processes, (Barrett et al., 2007). Let's look at an example that illustrates the physiological view. A day-time talk show invited guests who were extremely afraid of clowns. Any type of clowns caused one guest to lock up with fear. What would be the most effective way to decrease the guest's fear around clowns (trigger)? Instead of gradually exposing the guest to pictures of clowns, then movies about circuses, then trying on clown makeup, then finally interacting with a live clown, the talk show staff stranded the guest at a horror house of evil-looking clowns. Rather than ridding the guest of intense fear of clowns the event most likely increased the fear and caused even more trauma. Instead of focusing on the cause-effect relationship other researchers focus their exploration on what people say their emotional experiences are like. These researchers believe people's reports of what they experience offer the best source of information. We feel something when we experience emotion and that feeling makes up a part of the structure of emotions. What do you think that talk show guest recalls of the experience in the horror house filled with people dressed as clowns? We know that intense emotions cause changes in our bodies. For example, if someone accidentally hits their thumb with a hammer, they will probably yell out in pain and perhaps swear out loud. Their eyes might start watering, their pulse might increase and they might start to sweat. Are these physiological outcomes the same as the emotion? Some emotion theorists would explain the physiological outcomes occur because of the emotional experience. they are occurring because of the emotional experience of what we would characterize as the reaction to pain. Anger is not the only emotion that can cause physiological outcomes. We can make ourselves sick with worry. Students who experience intense anxiety before public speaking, can feel weak, sweaty, faint, develop stomach issues, and have a racing pulse (Bodie, 2010). Grief is another intense emotion that causes changes in our bodies. Perhaps you receive some bad news, you may experience tunnel vision, lack of awareness of your surroundings, pressure in the chest, shortness of breath. When one is able to identify what changes in their body they are experiencing, it can help him/her to know how to deal with those emotions. We also know that physiological changes can cause emotion. Increase in hormones such as oxytocin after having a baby results in an intense experience of love and warmth toward the infant (Scatliffe, 2019). When we lack a certain amount of hormone stored in the body, such as the necessary buildup of serotonin, we can experience depression.