Is the perception that we are relatively worse off than those we compare ourselves with?

Vocabulary-

Emotion: a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience

James-Lange Theory: the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

Cannon-Band Theory: the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion

Two-Factor Theory: the Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal

Feel-Good, Do- Good Phenomenon: people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

Relative Deprivation: the perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves

Polygraph: a machine, commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion

Facial Feedback: the effect of facial expressions on experienced emotions, as when a facial expression intensifies feelings of anger or happiness

Subjective Well-Being: self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life

Nucleus Accumbens: operation is based chiefly on two essential neurotransmitters: dopamine, which promotes desire, and serotonin, whose effects include satiety and inhibition

Sympathetic Nervous System: activates the fight or flight response

Parasympathetic Nervous System: sometimes called the rest and digest system; conserves energy as it slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in the gastrointestinal tract

Spillover Effect: the tendency of one person's emotion to affect how other people around them feel

Evolutionary Perspective: different emotions evolved at different times-primal emotions, such as fear, are associated with ancient parts of the brain and presumably evolved among our premammal ancestors, filial emotions, such as a human mother's love for her offspring, seem to have evolved among early mammals, and social emotions, such as guilt and pride, evolved among social primates

Catharsis: emotional release; hypothesis maintains that “releasing” aggressive energy releases aggressive urges

Adaptation-Level Phenomenon: our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience

Behavioral Medicine: an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease

Health Psychology: a subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine

Stress: the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we have appraise as threatening or challenging

Hans Selye: created the stress model "General Adaptation Syndrome", which thoroughly explains the stress response and how aging and disease are caused by chronic exposure to stress

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases-alarm, resistance, exhaustion

Coronary Heart Disease: the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle

Type A: Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people

Type B: Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people

Psychophysiological Illness: literally, “mind-body” illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI): the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and returning health

Lymphocytes: the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system

Aerobic Exercise: any exercise or workout that are performed at moderate levels of intensity for long periods of time and require lots of oxygen for your muscles

Biofeedback: a mind-body technique that helps teach patients how to influence their autonomic nervous systems - the part of the body that controls involuntary physical functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and brainwave frequency

Complementary Medicine: healing practices and products that work in conjunction with traditional medicine

Alternative Medicine: any practice that is put forward as having the healing effects of medicine, but is not founded on evidence gathered using the scientific method

Epinephrine: more commonly known as adrenaline, is a hormone secreted by the medulla of the adrenal glands

Norepinephrine: a neurotransmitter that is secreted in response to stress

Wheel of Emotions

Questions-

1. Identify the 3 components of emotions, and contrast the James-Lange Theory, Cannon-Bard, and two-factor theories of emotion.

- The three components of emotion are (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience. William James and Carl Lange proposed that we feel emotion after we notice our physiological responses. Walter Cannon and Philip Bard believed that we feel emotion at the same time that our bodies respond. Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer’s two-factor theory of emotion focused on the interplay of thinking and feeling, not on the timing of feelings. They proposed that emotions have two components, physical arousal and a cognitive label.

2. Describe the role of the autonomic nervous system during emotional arousal.

- The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls arousal. Its sympathetic division mobilizes us for action by directing adrenals to release stress hormones, which in turn increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels, and by triggering other defensive physical reactions. The parasympathetic division calms us after a crisis has passed, though arousal diminishes gradually.

3. Describe some physiological and brain pattern indicators of specific emotions.

- Using sophisticated equipment, researchers have found linkages between some emotions and minute movements of muscles in the brow (during fear) and cheeks (during joy) and under the eyes (during joy). Brain scans also show increased activity in the amygdala during fear. Differences also appear in the brain’s cortical areas. Negative emotions (disgust, for example) trigger more activity in the right prefrontal cortex, whereas positive moods (enthusiasm, for example) register in the left frontal lobe, which has a rich supply of dopamine receptors.

4. Explain how the spillover effect influences out experience of emotions.

- The spillover effect occurs when our arousal from one event influences our response to other events. Although not completely undifferentiated, emotional arousal is sometimes general enough to require us to define the emotion we are experiencing. Arousal fuels emotion; cognition channels it.

5. Describe some of the factors that affect our ability to decipher nonverbal cues.

- All of us communicate nonverbally as well as verbally. For example, a firm handshake immediately conveys an outgoing, expressive personality. With a gaze, an averted glance, or a stare, we can communicate intimacy, submission, or dominance. Most people can detect nonverbal cues, and we are especially sensitive to nonverbal threats. Research indicates that we read fear and anger mostly from the eyes, happiness from the mouth. Introverts are better emotion-detectors than extraverts, although extraverts are easier to read. Experience also contributes to our sensitivity to cues as studies of abused children demonstrate.

6. Discuss the culture specific and culturally universal aspects of emotional expression.

- The meaning of gestures varies with culture, but many facial expressions, such as those of happiness and fear, are found all over the world (and among children blind from birth), indicating that these expressions are culturally universal aspects of emotion. Cultures differ, however, in the amount of emotional expression they consider acceptable. In prelinguistic, prehistoric times, emotional expressions could have enhanced survival by enabling communication of threats, greetings, and submission. Some emotional expressions help us to take in more sensory information or to avoid taking in toxic substances.

7. Discuss the facial feedback and behavior feedback phenomena, and give an example of each.

- The facial feedback hypothesis proposes that expressions amplify our emotions by activating muscles associated with specific states, and the muscles signal the body to respond as though we were experiencing those states. Thus, when we simulate the facial expressions normally associated with happiness, we may feel happier. Similarly, the behavior feedback hypothesis assumes that if we move our body as we would when experiencing some emotion (shuffling along with downcast eyes, as when sad), we are likely to feel that emotion to some degree.

8. Name the basic emotions and describe two dimensions psychologists use to differentiate emotions.

-Carroll Izard’s research found the 10 basic emotions of joy, interest-excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, and guilt. Some psychologists believe that pride and love may also be basic emotions. Emotions can be placed along two basic dimensions: arousal (high versus low) and valence (pleasant, or positive, versus unpleasant, or negative).

9. State the two ways we learn our fears.

- What we learn through experience best explains the variety of human fears. We learn specific fears through conditioning (associating emotions with specific situations) and through observational learning (watching others display fear in response to certain events or surroundings).

10. Identify some common triggers and consequences of anger, and assess the catharsis hypothesis.

- Frustrating or insulting actions we interpret as willful, unjustified, and avoidable may evoke anger. Research does not support the catharsis hypothesis—the idea that releasing negative energy will calm aggressive tendencies. Venting rage may calm us temporarily, but in the long run it does not reduce anger and may actually amplify it. Anger is better handled by waiting until the level of physical arousal diminishes, calming oneself, and expressing grievances in ways that promote reconciliation rather than retaliation. When reconciliation fails, forgiveness can reduce one’s anger and its physical symptoms.

11. Describe how the feel-good, do-good phenomenon works.

- The feel-good, do-good phenomenon refers to people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood. Mood-boosting experiences make us more likely to give money, pick up someone’s dropped papers, volunteer time, and do other good deeds. After decades of focusing on negative emotions, psychologists are now actively exploring the causes and consequences of subjective well-being (self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life). Scientific research helps us sort through the many contradictory maxims we have inherited regarding the predictors of happiness.

12. Summarize the findings on the relationship between affluence and happiness.

- At a basic level, money helps us avoid pain by enabling better nutrition, health care, education, and science, and these in turn increase happiness. Increases in wealth can also increase happiness in the short term. But in the longer term, research does not show an increase in happiness accompanying affluence at either the individual or national level.

13. Describe how adaptation and relative deprivation affect our appraisals of our achievement.

- The adaptation-level phenomenon is our tendency to assess stimuli (including material possessions) by contrasting them with a neutral level that changes with our experience. The relative-deprivation principle is our perception that we are less well off than others with whom we compare ourselves. Thus, happiness is relative to both our past experience and our comparisons with others.

14. Describe the dual track system by which our body responds to stress, and identify the three phases of the general adaptation syndrome.

- Our response to stress is a prime example of mind-body interaction. The first (and faster) track of the stress-response system is the fight-or-flight response, identified by Walter Cannon, in which the sympathetic nervous system responds to a stressor on several fronts: The inner parts of the adrenal glands pour out epinephrine and norepinephrine, heart and respiration rates increase, blood flows away from digestive organs and toward skeletal muscles, sensations of pain diminish, and the body releases stored sugar and fat. On the slower track of the system, the cerebral cortex, perceiving a stressor, stimulates the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland to trigger the release of glucocorticoid stress hormones, such as cortisol, from the outer part of the adrenals. The three stages of the general adaptation syndrome, Hans Selye’s concept of the body’s response to stress, are alarm (temporary shock state in which the body mobilizes resources), resistance (period of coping with the stressor), and exhaustion (depletion of reserves following prolonged stress).

15. Discuss the role of stress in causing coronary heart disease, and contrast Type A and Type B personalities.

- Stress can increase the risk of coronary heart disease. The vital link in this stress-disease path is negative emotions—depression, pessimism, but especially anger. The Friedman-Rosenman study, the first to show the anger–heart-disease link, contrasted Type A personalities (competitive, hard-driving, impatient, and anger-prone) with Type B personalities (easygoing and relaxed).Under stress, Type A people are physiologically more reactive, with an outpouring of hormones that accelerate the buildup of plaque on artery walls, leading to high blood pressure and increased risk of strokes and heart attacks.

16. Distinguish between a psycho-physiological illness and hypochondriasis.

- Psychologists use the term psychophysiological illness to describe stress-related physical illnesses, such as hypertension (high blood pressure) and some headaches. These real illnesses differ from hypochondriasis, or misinterpreting normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease.

17. Describe the effect of stress on immune system functioning.

- The immune system’s B lymphocytes (formed in bone marrow) release antibodies that fight bacterial infections. The T lymphocytes (formed in the thymus and lymphatic tissue) fight cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances. Other immune-system agents, the macrophages, ingest harmful invaders, worn-out cells, and other internal debris. Stress does not directly cause disease, but when energy is diverted away from immune system activities and redirected toward the stress-response system, we become more vulnerable to infections and disease.

18. Contrast problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping.

- When we use problem-focused coping, we attempt to reduce stress directly by changing the events that trigger stress reactions or by changing the way we react to those events. We tend to use emotion-focused coping (putting distance between ourselves and a stressor, or attending to our own emotional needs) when we believe—rightly or wrongly—that we cannot change a stressful situation.

19. Discuss the links among explanatory style, stress, and health.

- Compared with people with a pessimistic explanatory style, optimists tend to feel they have more control over stressors, cope better with stressful events, enjoy better moods, have stronger immune systems, and live longer than pessimists. Laughter (but not sarcasm) may reduce stress and strengthen the immune system.

20. Compare the benefits of biofeedback and relaxation training as stress-management techniques.

- Biofeedback techniques have helped people control tension headaches, but simple relaxation exercises have been equally effective in combating hypertension, anxiety, and insomnia, and in lowering rates of recurring heart attacks. Some have searched for relief from stress and illnesses in complementary and alternative medicine. Studies of people while meditating have shown increased left frontal lobe activity and improved immune functioning, compared with their counterparts in control groups.

21. Discuss the correlation between religiosity and longevity.

- Regular religious attendance has been a reliable predictor of a longer life span. Researchers trying to determine the cause-effect relationship have isolated three intervening variables: (1) Religiously active people have healthy lifestyles (smoking and drinking less, for example). (2) Faith communities often function as social support networks and often encourage marriage (which, when happy, is associated with better health and longer life span). (3) Religious attendance—with its accompanying coherent worldview, sense of hope for the future, feelings of acceptance, and relaxed meditative state—may enhance feelings of positive emotions (such as hope and optimism) and decrease feelings of stress and anxiety.

22. Discuss some research findings on the role of heredity and environment overall health.

- Studies of twins and adopted children indicate that being overweight is at least in part an inherited trait. But genes influence body weight—they don’t determine it. For example, some people are genetically predisposed to have more fat cells and larger fat cells than others, but in an obese person, the original fat cells double or triple in size and then divide(or trigger nearby immature fat cells to divide), which is an irreversible environmental effect. Individuals also differ in their resting metabolic rates, but once someone gains weight in the form of fat tissue, less energy is needed to maintain that tissue than is needed to maintain muscle tissue. Environmental factors, such as frequently eating high-calorie foods and living a sedentary life, also matter, as comparisons of similar people from different generations or different locations indicate. Genes mostly determine why one man is heavier than another, but environment mostly determines why the same man is heavier than his grandfather was at the same age.

What is relative Deprivation AP Psychology?

Is defined as the process by which we perceive and respond?