Emotion Notes

Here are my notes on this topic:

1. Current emotions

Category of stimuli
- quick & automatic
- high arousal (strong feeling)
- highly significant to you
- subjective
Sympathetic nervous system
Parasympathetic nervous system
Sympathetic nervous system
- Prepares for brief-vigorous action
Parasympathetic
- alters activities to save energy and prepare for long-term
But not easy to identify emotion
In ourselves
In others
- facial expressions
10,000 expressions
40 muscles
Across species
Micro expressions
- less than a second
- BBC: The human face
Gestures
Emblems
Not quite words
Display rules
- Animals
- make loud sounds
- try to look larger
- bare teeth
- stare
Humans
- display as social manipulation
- cultural rules
  - similarities
  - differences

Fear
Anger
- eyebrows together
- eyes glare
- narrow lips
- increase in skin temp
- blood flow to arms
- less objective observations
- less self-monitoring
Disgust
- revulsion
- withdrawal
- contamination
- stick out
- triggered if people look ill?
- cultural differences about what is disgusting
- gender differences: women more than men
- especially sexual disgust
- thinking about dentists
- predictor of divorce
Sad
- emotional pain
- take Tylenol
Surprise
- shortest expression
- raised eyebrows
- cu rved and high
  - most important cue
- see whites of eyes
- dropped jaw
- intensity: how much drops
- can’t be induced
- hard to fake
Happiness
- Martin Selligman’s PERMA
  - pleasure
  - engagement
  - relationships
  - meaning
  - accomplishments
Damage to brain reduces happiness
- Huntington’s
- Parkinson’s
- MS, epilepsy & stroke