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Emotions Paper

Learning Team A: Emotions Paper Jenna Holt, Marissa Peck, Eric Henderson, Jarra Cobbs July 11, 2011 PSY/355 University of Phoenix

Emotions Paper A persons emotion plays a big role in his or her motivation, emotions play a part in a persons memory of situations, what he or she has learned, how a person pays attention, and his or her ability to reason. A persons emotion has a part in how his or her behavior is and how he or she reacts to his or her surroundings. Emotions also affect a persons events that going on internally what can determine a persons needs and goals. A person has many different emotions and positive emotions happen when a persons motives are satisfied and emotions can tell a person when he or she is getting closer to achieving his or her goals. While a person could have negative emotions when a situation is not going his or her way and these negative emotions can make a person try to change the situation to prevent failure of his or her goals that a person is trying to reach and to avoid a unpleasant situation. Throughout the history of psychology there have been several theories of emotion and arousal as related to motivation. Psychologists theorize on the origins and functions of human emotions and arousal, and seek to find how such factors influence motivation (Deckers, 2010). Early theories of emotion include the belief that emotion is biologically influenced. That is, emotions start as a physical response within the brain, which activate psychological responses. Theories of emotion include the James-Lange theory and the Cannon-Bard theory. The James-Lange theory of emotion is defined by Critchley, Wiens, Rotshtein, Ohman, and Dolan (2004) as, Perceived central representations of bodily responses to emotive stimuli with emotional feelings dependent on bodily responses that may be generated automatically by the autonomic nervous system (para. 1). That is, according to the theorists of the James-Lange theory, William James and Carl Lange, emotions occur as a result of a bodily response to an

event rather than the immediate perception of the event. For example, the perception of a stimulus creates changes within ones body. Emotions are the brains perception of such changes in behaviors, which translates to emotions (Critchley, Wiens, Rotshtein, Ohman, & Dolan, 2004). However, unlike the James-Lange theory of emotion, the Cannon-Bard theory suggests that emotions are the product of the bodys simultaneous reaction of both psychological and emotional responses to a given stimuli (Deckers, 2010). Anand (2006) explains that, The Cannon-Bard thalamic theory proposes that emotions result from concurrent brainstem and cortical events (para. 20). Therefore, the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion implies that the brain simultaneously notifies the cortex and the nervous system of a stimulus, which prompts both areas into action; the cortex translates the information into an appropriate emotional response to the situation, while the nervous system is activating an appropriate physical response into arousal, which motivates behavior (Deckers, 2010). Arousal is the activation of energy within an individual. Ones arousal levels influence emotions, behaviors, and motivation. According to Deckers (2010), As arousal increases, performance on a task increases and then decreases (p. 135). Theories on the inverted-U relationship include Yerkers-Dodson law. The Yerkers-Dodson law suggested that performance is influenced by arousal and was dependant on the complexity of the set task in motivating behaviors (Deckers, 2010). There are so many different research methods that attribute to the study of such emotions, behaviors, and feelings. One of these methods that include many different variables is the experimental method. A production by an experimenter is one particular variable that has many

different levels and values. For instance the experimenter could actually offer two or more various incentives like a paid vacation or cash in order to accomplish a specific task. Another variable that has many different levels but has not been developed by the experimenter is the link variable. This example can be seen when one person may have the will to receive a couple days of paid vacation, while others would not. The variable that is relevant to behavior that depends on the experimental variable is called the dependent variable. In experimental processes, there are distinct forces of reasons that produce diverse behaviors. For example at my job we have a monthly competition where whom ever has the most gifts cards sold will get a reward such as a 100 bonus in their pay check. So each person is motivated and has an objective made into a personal plan for each week within the month to work even harder. This is where the personal plans or feelings exceed the incentive because the personal plan will help to attain the incentive. In the environment of a research lab reasonable levels of emotions and the intensity of emotion can be assessed where extremely high and intense levels of emotion should be assessed and monitored in order to utilize different processes. In the research of emotion it is found that the more intense the level of emotion is the more there is a need to analyze in specific environments, rather than in a research lab in order to get more adequate measurements for the study. Another form of research in psychology that is a very simplistic technique utilized in order to find what human emotion depends on is naturalistic observation. Psychologists during research use this research method to analyze situations, environment, links in behavior and emotion, and rate of recurrence (Deckers, 2010). There are benefits and adverse circumstances to the utilization of this method. The benefit is when a subject is seen in its natural setting this gives reason that the subject will give the anticipation that a natural representation of what is being researched. Although the adverse circumstance is

that the subject is not seen in it natural setting giving a natural representation for what is being researched. One way to fix this sort of problem is to assemble desired conditions for the emotion and behavior that are of the highest importance to happen in the research (Thomas-Cottingham, 2004, p. 18). For example, in the case a researcher wanted to examine and determine any changes in emotion and behavior for those individuals in a club drinking such as any evidence of aggression and anger, facial expressions, or if they are unhappy or pleased, the researcher would have a need to go to clubs and bars and take a detailed notice and account of such individuals while being cautious and discreet in that observation. This reason for being cautious and discreet by the researcher is to gain information through natural environment and getting a natural representation without anything being altered by the fact of those individuals being researched knows that they are being observed. If those individuals know that they are being observed they can alter the researched because they know and will act and behave differently and not their natural selves because of it. Another task would also have to be accomplished by the researcher. More than just one bar or club would have to be visited in order to get a wide collection of data from the subjects of choice. Afterwards the researcher would then record the data and compile a report that discusses the results and conclusion made of how motivations and emotions changed and were affected after a few drinks by their many different subjects that were observed. Such information given by the example through the method of research can bring about an intense amount of information about individual emotion and facial expression which can be shown in a hypothesis called facial feedback.

The facial feedback hypothesis is a study first brought about by Charles Darwin. Fellow psychology theorist William James also agreed with Darwin. The facial feedback hypothesis is the thought that facial expressions will in fact dictate and influence the emotional state of a person. For example; if one were to force themselves to frown, they would in fact start to feel sad and upset. Just as if one were to force themselves to smile they will start to be happier in the situation they are in. James believed that without facial movement there was no emotion. James believed that the only reason we have internal emotion is because of the stimuli causing our facial movements. Since then, many theorists have taken this idea and come up with further theories, including the event-appraisal-emotion sequence. The event-appraisal-emotion sequence is a branch from the facial feedback hypothesis. This theory starts with forced emotion. For example; if someone is forcing themselves to be happy. From this point the stimuli will then become emotionally happy due to the facial movements of being happy. There was a study to show that if a person is smiling at a stimulus they will become happier with the stimulus. This was proven when people were told to watch a comedian do his routine while holding a pen in their mouth. Obviously the pen made the comedian viewers unable to smile. When these people were forced not to smile, even when watching a comedian, they were not as happy as when they were able to smile. Therefore, concluding that the facial movements do interact and can have a tremendous impact on ones emotional stand point at that time. There are many tests still going on about the use of botulinum toxin (botox) and facial expression. The humans motor and sensory stimuli cause facial expression. With the use of botox, the face is temporarily unable to react to any motor stimuli, meaning, there will be no way for someone who has just had a botox injection to smile. The premise for this study is to evaluate

how the person is feeling inside, and how their facial expression is on the outside. No studies have been conclusive at this point. In conclusion, people process emotion differently when he or she is doing different things from a persons daily activity to the way he or she interacts with different people. There are some emotions a person just has in different situation some natural, and some were taught. Either way everybody has some type of emotional response that help a person make decisions when it comes to his or her life whether it is goal-oriented toward his or her professional or personal life that gives everybody some type of motivation in his or her life.

References Anand, R. (Sept 30, 2006). Exploring emotion: an essay on the Neurology of Emotion and the Theory of Karma. The Internet Journal of Mental Critchley, H. D., Wiens, S., Rotshtein, P., Ohman, A., & Dolan, R. J. (Feb 2004). Neural systems supporting interceptive awareness. Nature Deckers, L. (2010). Motivation: Biological, psychological, and environmental (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon Health, p.NA. Retrieved July 07, 2011, from General One File via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS&userGroupName =uphoenix Izard, C. E. (1981). Differential emotions theory and the facial feedback. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40(2), 350-354. Doi: EBSCOHost Neuroscience, 7, 2. p.189 (7). Retrieved July 07, 2011, from Academic One File via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS&userGroupName =uphoenix Thomas-Cottingham, A. (2004). Psychology Made Simple. New York: Broadway Books.