Psychology of Emotions

Gülşah Durna, Ph.D.

What terms do you use to express different emotions?
Is this an emotion?

Embarrassment ..
Optimism ..
Disgust ..
Neuroticism
..
Sadness
..
Depression
...
Hunger
..
Anger
Extraversion ..
Joy ..
Fear ..
Emotions are different from the following constructs

• Drives (e.g., hunger, thirst)

• Moods (e.g., cranky)
• Affective Disorders (e.g., depression)
• Attitudes (“I hate Starbucks/ I hate people who commit violence”)
• Personality Traits (e.g., Extraversion)
 Émotion
Emovere
Movere émouvoir (French; a
(Latin; move, Emotion
(Latin) (French; excite) physical
out)
disturbance)

“tutku” (passion), “haz” (pleasure), “sezgi” (sentiment) (Dixon, 2012, s.340), “arzu” (desire), “duyum” (sense),
“duygulanım” (affect) (Frevert, 2014, s.52) ya da “ruh kazaları” (accidents of the soul), “ahlaki hisler” (moral
sentiments)

The word "emotion" has only been used in psychology since the 19th century and has been the subject of
systematic questioning.
1. a (strong) feeling of any kind

2. the moving or upsetting of the mind or feelings

CURRENT TURKISH DICTIONARY (TDK)

1. Duyularla algılama; his, ihtisas

2. Belirli nesne, olay veya bireylerin insanın iç dünyasında uyandırdığı izlenim
3. Nesneleri veya olayları ahlaki ve estetik yönden değerlendirme yeteneği
4. Kendine özgü bir ruhsal hareket ve hareketlilik
 How is an emotion defined?
• Plutchik (1980) “
A complex sequence of reactions to a stimulus. This sequence includes cognitive evaluation, subjective changes,
autonomic and neural arousal, impulses to action and behavior designed to have an effect upon the stimulus
that initiated the complex sequence. Exposed to a particular class of stimulus, the individual makes a cognitive
appraisal and forms a perception of the nature of the stimulus. This perception may provoke a subjective feeling
that predisposes and prepares the individual for a particular type of behavioural response.”

• Keltner and Gross (1999)

“Episodic, relatively short-term, biologically-based patterns of perception, experience, physiology, action, and
communication that occur in response to specific physical and social challenges and opportunities”
An emotion is comprised of four components: behaviors (“action” and “communication”), subjective feelings
(“experience”), thoughts (“perception”), and physiology (“physiology”).

• American Psychological Association (APA);

• ”a complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioral, and physiological elements, by which an
individual attempts to deal with a personally significant matter or event. The specific quality of the emotion
(e.g., fear, shame) is determined by the specific significance of the event.”
 1. Cognition
2. Feeling/subjective changes
3. Physiological changes
4. Behavior
Common view that
emotion has four e.g. Let's assume that we have good news.
components: 1.
2.
3.
4.
Emotion (duygu)
Mood (duygudurum)
Feeling
Mood: emotional state, usually of low intensity (e.g., a cheerful mood, an irritable mood).
• Moods differ from emotions in lacking an object; for example, the emotion of anger can be aroused by
an insult, but an angry mood may arise when one does not know what one is angry about or what elicited
the anger.
• Disturbances in mood are characteristic of mood disorders. Moods differ from emotions because they
lack stimuli and have no clear starting point. For example, insults can trigger the emotion of anger while
an angry mood may arise without apparent cause.

Feeling: arise from an emotional experience.

• A feeling is the result of an emotion and may be influenced by memories, beliefs and other factors.
Feelings are subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensations, thoughts, or images evoking
them.
• They are inevitably evaluated as pleasant or unpleasant, but they can have more specific intrapsychic
qualities, so that, for example, the affective tone of fear is experienced as different from that of anger.
• “I’m afraid something will go wrong”
• Emotions = whole system, Subjective feelings = inner experience of that system.
Affect: any experience of feeling or emotion, ranging from suffering to elation, from the simplest to the most
complex sensations of feeling, and from the most normal to the most pathological emotional reactions.
Emotion
 • Affect: Mark the general positive/negative
tone of that moment (e.g., positive –
negative).
Think of an event from
• Mood: Write the overall state that lasted
the last 24 hours
most of the day (e.g., “calm,” “tense”).
(e.g., arguing with a
friend, preparing for an • Emotion: Identify the specific emotion
exam). triggered by the event (e.g., “anger,” “joy”).
• Feeling: Describe the subjective experience
of that emotion (e.g., “I felt tight in my
chest,” “My heart was racing, I panicked”).
Theories of Emotion
Charles Darwin: The Evolutionary Approach

• In 1872, Charles Darwin, the central figure in modern

biology, published the most important book on
emotions yet written—The Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).
• Earlier, in The Origin of Species (1859), he had
described how all living things have evolved to be
adapted to their environments.
• Darwin began writing notes on his observations of
emotions in 1838. At that time, the accepted theory
was that God had given humans special facial muscles
that allowed them to express uniquely human
sentiments.
• Darwin asked two broad questions that still guide
emotion researchers.
• How are emotions expressed in humans
and other animals?
• Where do our emotions come from?
Darwin’s Taxonomy of Emotions Expression Motor
Apparatus
Emotion

Blushing + Blood vessels = Shame, modesty

Body contact + Somatic muscles = Affection
Clenching fists + Somatic muscles = Anger
Crying + Tear ducts = Sadness
Frowning + Facial muscles = Anger, frustration
Laughing + Breathing apparat.= Pleasure
Perspiration + Sweat glands = Pain
Hair on end + Dermal apparatus = Fear, anger
Screaming + Vocal apparatus = Pain
Shrugging + Somatic muscles = Resignation
Sneering + Facial muscles = Contempt
Trembling + Somatic muscles = Fear, anxiety
• He proposed that emotional expressions derive largely from habits that in our evolutionary or individual past
had once been useful.
• So, emotional expressions are based on reflex-like mechanisms, and some of them occur whether they are
useful or not.
• They can be triggered involuntarily in circumstances analogous to those that had triggered the original habits.
• …tears, hair standing on end in fear and anger to no apparent purpose, and so on…
• Darwin traced other expressions to infancy: crying, he argued, is the vestige of screaming in infancy, though in
adulthood it is partly inhibited.
• Our emotions link us to our past: to the past of our species and to our own
infancy.
• He helped provide descriptions of facial expressions, and he argued for the
universality of such expressions.

“The movements of expression in the face and body, whatever their origin might
have been, are in themselves of much importance for our welfare. They serve as
the first means of communication between the mother and her infant; she smiles
approval, and thus encourages her child on the right path, or frowns disapproval.
We readily perceive sympathy in others by their expression. . . . The movements of
expression give vividness and energy to our spoken words.”
You see a bear while walking in the forest...
In What Order Do These Things Occur?

See a Bear

Fear Run
[Link]
• James (1884) and Lange (1885)
proposed similar theories on the
James-Lange Theory
function of an emotion.
• Eventually, their ideas were
combined into one overarching
theory called “James-Lange Theory.”

• The foundation of James-Lange

theory is evolutionary theory.
• Influenced by Darwin, both James
and Lange assumed that emotions
were developed to solve adaptive
problems and thus, emotions
function to increase the survival of
our genes..
• ..bodily changes follow directly the
perception of the exciting fact . . . and
feeling of the same changes as they
occur, is the emotion (1980)
Emotions are labels we give to the way the body (both physiologically and
behaviorally) reacts to certain situations. For example, you notice yourself
sweating and running away, and eventually you consciously think, “I’m
sweating and running away, so my emotion must be fear.”
Each emotion is specified by a unique physiology.
- What about seeing a bear but not running??
- What about heart rate acceleration when seeing the person he is in love
with and seeing the car about to hit him.
Cannon-Bard Theory

• The autonomous responses that accompany specific emotions lack

specificity (e.g., both anger and fear come with increased heart
rates).
• Artificial induction of physical arousal (e.g., by injection of adrenalin)
does not produce real emotions.
• Disconnection of peripheral organs from the central nervous system
(disrupting feedback) does not eliminate emotions.

It proposes that the physiological arousal and experience of

emotion occur simultaneously and so they are seen as
independent.
Cannon-Bard Theory

Physiological Arousal
(Increased heart rate, dry
mouth, trembling etc.)
Stimulus
(e.g.) Seeing a
bear

Emotional response (Fear)

Schachter and Singer's (1962) Two-Factor Theory of
Emotion

• Physiological arousal determines

the strength of the emotion, while
cognitive appraisal identifies the
emotion label.
• So, in this theory, the “two-factor”
represents physiological change
and cognitive appraisal change.
Schachter and Singer's (1962)
Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
X The cognitive component does not precede arousal and therefore cannot determine which
stimuli elicit arousal (and hence an emotion) and which do not. In other words, the theory fails to
address the elicitation problem
TheoriesofEmotion
Summary
• Each of these theories agree that an eliciting event activates changes
in some or all of the emotion components.

• James-Lange Theory, derived from evolutionary theory, is the foundation for

the modern perspective Basic Emotion Theory.
Cognitive appraisal occurs quickly through unconscious processes in the brain.

• Schachter-Singer provided the foundation for the modern Cognitive

Appraisal Theory.
Four Modern Perspectives
on Emotion

1. Basic Emotion
[Link] Constructivist
[Link] Appraisal
[Link] Dimensional Approach
 1. Basic Emotion Theory: A Categorical Approach

• A categorical approach means that the goal is to identify separate groups or categories of emotions.
• For example, basic theorists view fear, anger, and disgust as three separate discrete emotions. Rage,
annoyance, and anger would be feelings that could be categorized within the discrete emotion anger.
• Humans and animals experience discrete categories of each emotion because each emotion is an
adaptation that developed to solve an adaptive problem.
• For instance, the discrete emotion of fear developed as a mechanism to avoid danger and
enhance the survival of our genes.

• According to basic emotion theories, each discrete emotion solves a unique adaptive problem.
 1. Basic Emotion Theory: A Categorical Approach

Paul Ekman was one of the first psychologists to apply Darwinian theory to human emotion.
According to Ekman and Cordaro (2011), two criteria must be met for a construct to be considered a basic
emotion:
1)The construct must have evolved in our past to solve an adaptive problem. Because people of all
cultures would have experienced the same adaptive problems, emotions should be universal.
Universal means that for a specific emotion, the four emotion components must change in the
same way across all cultures
2)The emotions are discrete and categorical. Because each emotion developed to solve a unique
adaptive problem, each discrete emotion should be comprised of unique changes in the four
components. For instance, the component changes for fear (e.g., screaming, running away) should
be different from the component changes for anger (e.g., insulting someone, attacking,
approaching).
Paul Ekman;

• Identified six basic emotions that could be interpreted

through facial expressions.
They included happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust.
 Ekman’s
Basic
Emotions
 Sticking the tongue out as if the person is getting something out of their mouth; raising the
upper lip, but it is relaxed and not tense, which can display gums and teeth depending on the
shape of the mouth; wrinkling of the nose and raising of the nostrils.

Very wide open eyes, horizontally stretched lips, a frown (lower lip pushed up slightly and lip corners pulled slightly down),
and raised, drawn together eyebrows. the inner corners of the eyebrows drawn up and together in the center of
the forehead, raised cheeks, and tears.

Glaring eyes, lowered brows,

and narrowed, tightened lips.
Ekman suggested nine characteristics:

• Distinct universal signals:

“There is robust, consistent evidence of a distinctive, universal facial
expression for anger, fear, enjoyment, sadness, and disgust. This
evidence is based not just on high agreement across literate and
preliterate cultures in the labelling of what these expressions signal,
but also from studies of the actual expression of emotion, both
deliberate and spontaneous, and the association of expressions with
social interactive contexts.” (Ekman, 1992: 175–176).
• Distinctive physiology:
autonomic nervous system activity for anger, fear, disgust, sadness
• Presence in other primates
• Coherence among emotional response
• Quick onset
• Brief duration
• Automatic appraisal
• Distinctive universals in antecedent events.
 Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory of
Emotions

• In 1872, Darwin published The expression of the emotions in man and

animals.
• Darwin (1872) was the first person to discuss how emotions might be
evolutionary adaptations.
• Darwin believed animals, including humans, engaged in controlled,
voluntary movements because the movements helped them to solve a
problem. Using disgust, this voluntary movement may be spitting out
food or sticking one’s tongue out after tasting rotten food. At this point,
Darwin emphasized the behavior changes were voluntary and thus not
yet automatic and not yet considered an adaptation. He said all people
who passed down their genes would experience these same behavior
changes in the same situation – the situation of eating rotten food.
Over a long period of time, Darwin explained, as people continue to
exhibit the voluntary behaviors to rotten food, the behavior changes
become an automatic habit. Darwin’s term habit is the same thing as an
evolutionary adaptation. These habits or adaptations are genetically
passed on to our offspring. Now, today, when we experience the
emotion disgust we are motivated to automatically behave according to
this learned habit.
• Today, basic emotion theory accepts evolutionary theory as the cause for
emotions.
• In the past, the adaptive problem (eating rotten food) designed the emotion
construct (disgust).
• Today, the adaptive problem (eating rotten food) elicits the emotion disgust.
• Basic emotion theory suggests that the adaptive emotion increased our gene
survival by dealing with threats to reproduction (e.g., disgust helps us to avoid
death) or by enhancing reproductive opportunities (e.g., joy encourages
people to explore and meet new potential mates).
 1. All people and animals experience the same universal, discrete basic
emotions.
2. The emotion must lead to the same universal component changes in
all people and animals. When experiencing an emotion, all humans
and animals must show the same changes in behaviors and

Four Criteria physiology. Further, all humans must report the same cognitive
appraisals and subjective feelings. Further, the same eliciting event
should cause the same emotion for all humans and animals.

for a Basic 3. Humans and animals should express the emotion early (??) in life
because the emotion is inherited.

Emotion 4. Each emotion should cause a unique pattern of component changes

in the emotion components because each emotion was designed to
solve a unique adaptive problem. Further, if two separate emotions
show the same change in component, then this would suggest those
two separate emotions are actually the same basic emotion.
v E.g. Shame and guilt show the same changes in cognitive
appraisals and physiology – which would suggest that shame and
[Link] guilt might represent the same basic emotion!
v Fear à escaping from the danger
[Link] v Anger à removing obstacles
2. Social Constructivist (Sosyal İnşacılık)

• The social constructivist perspective views emotions as learned constructs.

• Broadly, this view believes emotions are caused by the culture in which we are
raised.
• More specifically, environmental causes of emotions could be our parents’
rearing strategies, relationship experiences, gender roles, and even the media.
• Languages include a varying number of emotion words. For instance, the English
language contains about 500 to 2,000 emotions words, whereas the Ifaluk
(Western Pacific) language contains only 50 emotions words. Further, languages
include different words to describe emotional experiences that are not
translatable to other languages.
• Türkiye?
Summary

• Basic emotions researchers believe emotions solved adaptive problems, and thus the changes in
the emotion components should be universally expressed. Conversely, social constructivists
believe emotions are construed by the situation – by culture, by context, and even by gender!

• In general, basic emotions theorists agree that five emotions are basic: joy, sadness, anger,
disgust, and fear. Ekman (Ekman & Cordaro, 2011) adds two more to this list – surprise and
contempt. But others believe more than seven exist and label emotions such as awe, love, and
pride as basic.
3. Cognitive Appraisal Theory

• A cognitive appraisal is our interpretation of the eliciting event and of our bodily reactions to the
eliciting event. Remember, cognitive appraisal could occur unconsciously, as James-Lange
suggested, or consciously, as Schachter-Singer discussed.
• Two views:
1. Cognitive appraisals cause the emotion.
e.g. an eliciting event à interpreting as unexpected à experiencing fear
an eliciting event à someone is blocking out goal à experiencing anger
2. Emotions cause appraisal.
e.g. Hearing a gunshot à experiencing fear à cognitive appraisals of unexpectedness and ability to
cope.
Our friend gossiped about us à Feeling angry à cognitive appraisal of external causation and
goal obstruction.
Basic emotions researchers vs Social constructivist theorists
 Lazarus
• Emotion was considered to arise from how individuals
construed or appraised their ongoing transactions with
the world.
• Cognitive appraisal was considered to occur in two
stages:
• Primary appraisal refers to an initial evaluation of
whether an encounter is irrelevant, benign, positive or
stressful; thus, the conclusion that an encounter is
stressful occurs in situations in which there is an
appraisal of threat, challenge, harm or loss.
• Secondary appraisal refers to the individual’s subsequent
evaluation of coping resources and options that may be
available.
• Primary appraisal and secondary appraisal processes
work in conjunction with each other.
- However, its weakness lies in the fact that the theory
focuses on stress in general and is not a theory of emotion
per se; the early theory therefore requires modification for
it to become a theory in which specific emotions are linked
to specific appraisals.
4. Dimensional models

• Understanding and measuring conscious, subjective feelings is important.

• They identify three problems with basic emotion theory:

1. The four components do not clearly combine into separate emotion categories.
2. Facial expressions are not accurate measures of emotional experiences.
3. The number of basic emotions differs across theories.
4. Dimensional models

• Valence (değerlik) is a dimension that measures the extent to which an emotion is

pleasant or unpleasant.

• Activation measures the extent to which an emotion arousing (uyarma) and

intense or calm and low in intensity.

• Dimensions may be bipolar or unipolar.