The predictions of what emotions people think they will feel after making some decision. This affects the decision people make.

Expected emotions

Emotional response to the task at hand. This is usually in response to needs being met or ignored while interacting with the task. Responses to varying levels of emotional engagement can be:
- Happiness
- Anxiety
- Boredom

Emotional Engagement

“the outward expression of emotion, affect, and feeling by individuals and among individuals in a Community of Inquiry, as they relate to and interact with the learning technology, course content, learners, and the instructor”

Emotional Presence 

Emotions not caused by a decision. They are often associated with a person's predisposition, the setting of an environment or something that happened earlier in the day.

Incidental emotions

Focuses on the role of emotion in motivation, judgement, behavior, and health across the life span and across cultures. While predominantly studied in social psychology, related studies incorporate concepts and methods from other fields such as cognitive psychology and biology.

Studies on Emotion

Emotions are episodic and short term patterns of perceptions, communication, and action; these are responses (which are tied to biological and physiological aspects) that occur to perceived social and physical stressors.

What is an Emotion? ( deeper explanation)

Stress and anger negatively impact health, leading to higher risk of chronic diseases.

Emotion | Effect on Health

Functions of emotion for our survival pertain to: 
- Support adaptive action
- Regulate our pursuit of goals
- Promote selective responses
- Function of Facial Expressions

Functions of Emotions

- Basic Emotions
- Self-Conscious Emotions

Types of Emotions

Basic Emotions are innate bodily and neural states that are elicited by signal stimuli. Basic emotions come from a range of stimuli and are often associated with specific adaptive functions. 
There are 6 basic emotions: 
- Anger 
- Disgust
- Fear
- Sadness
- Joy
- Surprise 

Basic Emotions

Stages of emotion processing can occur in different orders and various steps can occur simultaneously. The stages of emotion processing include:
-  Appraisal: when a stimulus is deemed emotion-inflicting
-  Physical Response: changes in pulse, blood pressure, etc.
-  Facial expressions & nonverbal behavior: smiling, jumping, etc.
-  Motives: desire to spread one's emotion to others. 

Stages of Emotion Processing

Sources of emotions include:
-  Immediate Stimuli (someone does something that causes an emotional reaction)
-  Classically Conditioned (place or event is associated with a given emotion)
-  Memories/thoughts (emotions return when thinking about a particular event)

Sources of Emotions

Rather than focusing on the first emotion elicited by a message, the emotional flow hypothesis stresses the importance of the progression through multiple emotional states that a person experiences while interacting with a message.

Emotional Flow Hypothesis

The body maps show regions whose activation increased (warm colors) or decreased (cool colors) when the subject was feeling the indicated emotion.

Bodily Maps of Emotions

The feeling of psychological strain and uneasiness produced by situations of danger, threat, and loss of personal security or by internal conflicts, frustrations, loss of self-esteem, and grief. Also called emotional tension.

Emotional Stress

Emotion regulation is the process by which individuals manage their emotional responses to various situations and experiences. This involves altering their emotional experiences and how they are expressed.

Emotional Regulation

Ware, D. C. (2020, June 18). Natural treatments for emotional distress: Don't let your mood negatively impact health. Healing Blends Global. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://healingblendsglobal.com/blogs/lifestyle/natural-treatments-for-emotional-distress-don-t-let-your-mood-negatively-impact-health#:~:text=Relax%20Regularly,care%20of%20your%20physical%20body 

Natural treatments for emotional distress: Don't let your mood negatively impact health

When we do not understand our emotions but have an overwhelming feeling of emotion, emotional distress can be debilitating to our executive functioning and happiness. 

Emotional Distress or Dissonance

Emotions impact our: work, relationships, mind, body, environment, and finances.

Emotions and Quality of Life

References for Emotion

The collection of conscious or unconscious influences that an individual exerts on the generation, timing, experience, or expression of his/her emotion(s). 

Emotion Regulation

Emotional granularity refers to the interoceptive resolution in perceiving internal emotional states and the capacity to transcribe them into descriptive and specified language.

Emotional Granularity / Emotion Differentiation

- Psychosomatic Medicine
- Psychoneuroimmunology
- The Immune System
- Psychological Stress and Immunity

Emotions and the Immune System

- Theories of emotion
- Evolutionary viewpoint of emotions
- How many emotions are there
- Brain circuits for different emotions
- Neural circuitry of violence and aggression
- Stress and body responses
- Emotions and the immune system

Subjects in emotions, aggression and stress in the brain

Emotion complexity represents a burgeoning sub-field within the study of emotion. It diverges from traditional views that categorize emotions discretely, instead emphasizing the intricate and multifaceted nature of emotional experiences.

Emotion Complexity

Meta-emotion lacks a unified definition, though it is commonly understood as one's feelings about experiencing specific emotions. However, broadly speaking, it encompasses an individual's awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and control regarding emotions.

Meta-Emotion / Metaemotion

Theories of emotions attempt to explain the origin and functions of affective states.
- Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory
- Evolutionary Theories
- Appraisal Theories
  * Cognitive-mediational theory
- Psychological Constructionism 
- Physiological Theories
  * James-Lange theory
  * Cannon-Bard theory

Theories of Emotion

Emotional states are complex experiences that result from the combination of several key elements: physiological arousal, psychological appraisal, and subjective feelings. These elements, along with outward emotional expression, are collectively known as the components of emotion.

Components of Emotion

Which of the following best describes the concept of emotion?

Which of the following components are involved in the experience of emotion?

How does the specific stimulus experienced by an individual influence their emotion?

Which of the following statements accurately reflects the role of cognitive processes in emotion?

This area of study explores the physiological and neurological foundations of emotional experiences, examining the biological mechanisms that give rise to and regulate emotions.

Biological Underpinnings of Emotion

A mood is a prolonged, less intense affective state that, unlike an emotion, typically does not arise in response to a specific experience and lacks intentionality. In psychological research, a mood is considered an intangible variable or abstract construct; while it cannot be directly observed, researchers can measure it to evaluate its relationship with other phenomena, such as behavioral intentions.

Mood

Emotions and moods are distinct affective states that differ in several key aspects. Emotions are typically intense, brief, and are a direct response to a specific event or experience; they are also generally conscious and intentional. In contrast, moods are less intense, more prolonged states that are not linked to a specific trigger, may exist without conscious awareness, and lack intentionality.

Comparison of Emotion and Mood

The methodology for measuring emotions is a subject of debate within psychology. While researchers like Mauss have identified potential problems with how emotions are typically measured, they also contend that many of the commonly used measurements are still valuable and useful for understanding emotional processes.

Challenges in Measuring Emotion

Despite cultural display rules that dictate how emotions should be expressed, the fundamental ability to produce and recognize facial expressions of emotion is considered universal across all human cultures. This concept is supported by evidence from cross-cultural research, such as studies with isolated, preliterate societies, and the observation that congenitally blind individuals produce the same facial expressions as sighted people, suggesting these expressions are innate.

Universality of Emotional Expression

An emotion is a subjective state of being, often described as a feeling. It is typically an intense, affective state that occurs consciously and intentionally in response to a specific experience. Emotions arise from the interplay of four key components: a subjective experience, an outward expression, a cognitive appraisal of the situation, and physiological responses.

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- Self-categorization theory
- Social Motives
- Social Identity Theory
- Honneth's theory of social recognition
- Social proof 
- Autism as "mind-blindness"
- Social presence theory 
- Terror management theory
- Rule of 150
- Attribution theory
- Emotion
- Social Influence
- Situationism
- Social roles and Social Role Theory
- Social norms
- Prejudice and Discrimination
- Attitudes and Persuasion
- Aggression
- Prosocial behavior

Theories and Focuses of Social psychology

Several areas of psychology incorporate interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary, or cross-disciplinary approaches. For example:
- Consciousness
- Motivation
- Emotion

Cross-Disciplinary Research Topics in Psychology

Wikipedia

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://dictionary.apa.org/ 

APA Dictionary of Psychology

It is an ordinary and normal experience to reduce experience from "I" and "me" to "us" and "we". The self then becomes defined in terms of other persons, instead of a singular, experiencing self. Sometimes the self identifies almost (if not) entirely with a class against another and is subjectively experienced through a social collective.

Self-categorization theory (Turner, Hoggs, Oakes, Reicher, and Wetherell 1987)

- 1) Love: recognition through relationships of strong emotional attachment from a small number of people (lovers, family, friends)

- 2) Rights: recognition from the respect that political, social and civil rights (abilities) provide through their enabling of an individual

- 3) Solidarity: recognition from the social defined worth of an individuals characteristics 

Axel Honneth's Theory of Recognition (a threefold conceptualization of intersubjective recognition)

- “the ability of learners to project their personal characteristics into the community of inquiry, thereby presenting themselves as ‘real people’” (Garrison, Cleveland-Innes, & Vaughan, 2001). 
Social Presence is evident through three indicators: affect, open communication and group cohesion. 
- "the degree of salience of the other person in the interaction and the consequent salience of the interpersonal relationships.” (Williams, Short, Christie, 1976)
- “the degree to which a person is perceived as a ‘real person’ in
mediated communication" (Gunawardena, 1995)
- "definitions of social presence tend to lie on a continuum where a focus on interpersonal emotional connection between communicators is on one end and a focus on if someone is perceived as being ‘present’, ‘there’ or ‘real’ at the other end" (Lowenthal, 2011)

Social Presence 

To cope with the awareness of mortality that continually exists in human cognition, and more so when threatened, one sustains faith in worldviews and self-esteem to manage the fear and anxiety. Humans' fundamental systems are designed for survival with a flight or fight arousal activation and cognitive awareness that potential danger is omnipresent, unpredictable, and unescapable.  Terror management theory (TMT) posits that ancient civilizations gravitated toward symbolism and meaning, order, documentation, and cultural growth to manage this constant terror. Early in childhood, one is taught the specific social behaviors that illicit good feelings and security, and other unwanted behaviors make the world seem scary and uncertain. Psychological security becomes based on the immortality of familial, cultural, and religious groups. Moreover, the fear of mortality drives in-group/out-group biases and self-serving behavior.

Terror Management Theory

Humans have evolved to have up to 150 stable, meaningful relationships at a time (the growth of the neocortex is likely responsible). 150 is also the approximately optimal size for a human community. Humans can remember important information of up to 150 group members (such as which are likely cheaters and which are most likely to return a favor). Early tribes often splintered into different sects shortly after suprassing 150 members.

Rule of 150

It describes how our most important associations with religious, political, national, and occupational groups provide us with a sense of belonging, worth and shapes our thinking of people in/outside of these groups. Developed by Henri Tajfel, a polish jew who ended up in a Nazi prisoner of war camp during WWII. 

Social Identity Theory

In addition to physical needs for survival, humans also have social motives that shape our thinking, relationships, and emotions. When our motives are fulfilled we will tend to feel good, and when they are not, we will tend to feel stressed or unhappy. Some major social motives are:
- belonging
- predicting others' behavior accurately
- control
- self-enhancement (a need to matter)
- trust

Social motives

Emotion

People have two emotional systems: 
- Disposition system : governs excitement and enthusiasm
- Surveillance system : governs anxiety, stress and fear

Affective Intelligence Theory

standing by previous conclusions even if new evidence shows we should not

Belief Perseverance 

Attribution is the process of inferring the causes of events or behaviors. In social psychology, this often involves determining whether a behavior is due to internal factors, such as personality and character (a dispositional attribution), or external factors, such as the environment and social context (a situational attribution).

Attribution

Refer to shared socially determined consensual expectation regarding appropriate and acceptable behavior in a given context. Social norms carry an evaluative quality, leading to negative judgment for those who violate them without a valid explanation.

Social Norms

In social psychology, prejudice refers to the attitudes and feelings held toward an individual based solely on their membership in a particular social group. While these attitudes are often negative and problematic, they can also be positive, such as having favorable feelings for people who belong to a group one identifies with.

Prejudice in Social Psychology

An attitude is a person's evaluation of an object, an idea, or another person. These evaluations can be either positive or negative (favorable or unfavorable) and are comprised of affective, behavioral, and cognitive components.

Attitude

Situationism is the perspective, commonly held by social psychologists, that an individual's behavior is dictated by their immediate environment and surrounding circumstances. This view emphasizes external, situational factors over internal traits.

Situationism

Which theory in social psychology explains how individuals categorize themselves and others into groups, influencing their behavior and attitudes?

Which theory in social psychology focuses on the idea that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-concept and social identity?

Which theory in social psychology suggests that people conform to the behavior of others in order to be accepted or liked by them?

Which theory in social psychology explains how individuals' behaviors are influenced by their roles within a group or society?

The presence of other people, whether real or perceived, significantly impacts an individual's actions, thoughts, and feelings. A core principle in social psychology is that individuals often adapt their behavior to conform to the social situation they are in. This adjustment is particularly evident when a person is in a new or uncertain environment, where they look to others for cues on how to act.

Influence of Social Presence on Behavior

A primary driver of human behavior is the motivation to feel good about oneself and maintain a positive self-esteem. People generally view themselves as good and above average on desirable traits. When behavior, attitudes, or beliefs threaten this positive self-image, it can trigger psychological processes aimed at protecting self-esteem.

Motivation to Maintain Positive Self-Esteem

Persuasion and social influence constitute a major subfield within social psychology. Persuasion, in particular, is one of the most heavily researched topics in the discipline, providing a wealth of information on how individuals can be influenced by others.

Persuasion and Social Influence as a Field of Study

Aggression is defined as any behavior intended to cause harm or pain to another person. It is a core topic in social psychology, encompassing a range of actions with different underlying motivations.

Aggression

Has many different interpretations (no universal meaning). 

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