●
What is emotion?
The difficulties of measuring
emotion.
●
How many emotions are
there?
Research into basic emotions.
●
Theories of emotion
Various perspectives on emotion.
●
Physiological systems in
emotion
Looking at the role of the brain.
●
Stress
The nature of stress.
●
Stress and illness
The negative effects of stress.
●
Coping with stress
Coping strategies.
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Definition of emotion
Response systems
Emotions vs. moods
What are emotions for?
Facial expression studies
Cross-cultural agreement
Self-report studies
Watson’s hierarchical model
Positive and negative affect
Cultural differences
The James–Lange three-stage theory
of physiological arousal
Schacter & Singer’s
arousal–interpretation theory
Cognitive theories
Lazarus’ cognitive appraisal theory
Parkinson’s four-factor theory
Power & Dalgleish—SPAARS
Autonomic and endocrine research
Panksepp’s seven brain-centred
emotions
Examining the brain: lesions,
imaging, drugs
The Papez–McLean limbic model
The importance of the amygdala
LeDoux’s fear and anxiety studies
Left vs. right brain
The role of neurotransmitters
Definitions and effects of stress
SAM and HPA systems
Selye’s general adaptation syndrome
Occupational stress—lack of control
Life events and illness
Social Readjustment Rating Scale
Individual differences in vulnerability
How stress causes illness
Gender differences
Endler & Parker’s Multidimensional
Coping Inventory
The social context
Social support
Intervention techniques: stress
inoculation training, biofeedback,
drugs
Emotion, stress, and
coping
5
Most (or even all!) of the really important events in our lives are associated with high
levels of emotion. When we pass major examinations we feel elated, when we embark on
a new relationship we feel excited, when we fail to achieve something we had set our
hearts on we feel depressed, and when someone close to us dies we experience overpowering grief. Thus, emotions play a central role in our lives. The first part of this chapter is
devoted to a consideration of emotion and the main theories in this area of psychology.
After that, the focus shifts to stress. Among the issues considered are an assessment of the
effects of stress on our physical health, and various ways of coping with stress.
WHAT IS EMOTION?
What is emotion? A representative definition was offered by Watson and Clark (1994, p. 89):
[Emotions] we can define as distinct, integrated psychophysiological response
systems … An emotion contains three differentiable response systems: (1) a prototypic form of expression (typically facial), (2) a pattern of consistent autonomic
changes, and (3) a distinct subjective feeling state.
We will consider Watson and Clark’s (1994) application of the above definition to
fear. When someone is fearful, they typically have a particular expression on their face:
The eyebrows are raised and close together, the eyes are opened wider than usual, the lips
are pulled back, and there is evidence of tension in the lower lip. So far as the second component of emotion is concerned, fear is associated with a substantial increase in autonomic nervous system activity (e.g., faster heart rate, sweating). Finally, fearful individuals
use adjectives such as “nervous”, “frightened”, and “scared to death” to describe their
subjective feeling state.
Response systems
Lang (1971, 1985) also proposed three response systems, which are similar (but not identical) to those of Watson and Clark (1994): (1) behavioural; (2) physiological; and (3) verbal
or cognitive (self-report).
Do these various response systems all respond similarly when an individual is in an
emotional situation? According to the notion of concordance, there should be agreement
or concordance among different emotional responses. Thus, for example, pianists performing in public who experience the highest levels of self-reported anxiety should have
the greatest level of autonomic activity and the poorest level of performance. In fact, the
concordance assumption doesn’t seem to apply to pianists. Craske and Craig (1984)
found that measures of anxiety belonging to different response systems generally failed to
correlate significantly with each other.
There are numerous cases of failures of concordance. For example, Beidel, Turner, and
Dancu (1985) considered anxious responses in participants with anxious and non-anxious
personalities placed in various situations (e.g., giving a talk). The two groups differed considerably in self-reported anxiety in stressful situations. However, the difference was much
smaller with respect to behavioural anxiety as assessed by judges.
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