College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education 2015/2016 – 2016/2017

PSYC 222

Motivation and Emotions

Session 11 –You and Your Emotions

Lecturer: Dr. Annabella Osei-Tutu, Psychology Department Contact Information: aopare-henaku@ug.edu.gh

Session Overview

How well do you know yourself as an emotional being? Knowing our emotional world as individuals is good for our general well being. In this session, we will discuss the importance of emotion to you and your interpersonal relationships, focus on how to manage your emotions, and explore links between emotion and well-being.

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Session Outline

The key topics to be covered in the session are:

• Topic One : Social Importance of Emotions

• Topic Two : Managing Emotions

• Topic Three: Emotions and Well-being

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SOCIAL IMPORTANCE OF EMOTION Topic One

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Social Importance of Emotion

• Emotions are not just private or personal physiological states, they are also social phenomenon.

• Emotions are important for engaging and connecting with others.

• Emotions are critical in the construction and the maintenance of the culturally authorized view of the self and linked to general good feelings or subjective well-being (Kitayama, Markus, Kurokawa, 2000).

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Social Importance of Emotion

• Positive emotions motivate us to take advantage of environmental opportunities and to recognize when it has succeeded in doing so.

• Negative emotions motivate us to avoid disaster by escaping, attacking, or preventing harm or by repairing damage when it has already occurred (Nesse & Ellsworth, 2009).

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Social Importance of Emotion

EMOTION FUNCTION

Fear Motivates escape from danger

Anger Moves you to attack

Joy Encourages you to continue on the present course or, if the object has been attained, ceasing to strive for it

Disgust Motivates avoidance, vomiting

Interest Encourages exploration

Lust Motivates seduction and sexual intercourse

Sorrow Moves you to call for help or give up on fruitless endeavors

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Social Importance of Emotion

• Emotional expressions are crucial across the lifespan;

• Facial expressions are important in the formation of attachment and maintaining relationships both in childhood, and during courtship (Ekman, 1992)

Social Importance of Emotion

• Emotions are important to social survival. The emotions we experience and express help us to:

(1) form and maintain social relationships;

(2) establish or maintain a social position relative to others.

• Expressing certain emotions such as empathy can bring us closer to others;

• whereas expressing emotions such as anger or contempt can create distances between ourselves and others

(Fischer & Manstead, 2008)

Social Importance of Emotion

• Izard and others (2001) argue that the ability to detect and label emotion cues facilitates positive social interactions and that a deficit in this ability contributes to behavioral and learning problems.

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MANAGING YOUR EMOTION Topic Two

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Managing Emotions

• Moderate levels of emotional arousal are useful. However, too low or too high a level is disruptive.

• Individuals differ in the amount of stimulation they need or want. Most people seek a moderate level of arousal by controlling the amount of external stimulation (Zuckerman, 2000).

Managing Emotions

• Emotion management means learning to approach social situations in a rational way and also learning socially acceptable ways to express emotions.

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Managing Emotions

• We use a variety of strategies to influence which emotions we have and when we have them.

• One means of managing our emotions in through Emotion Regulation

Managing Emotions

• Emotion regulation includes all the conscious and nonconscious strategies we use to increase, maintain, or decrease one or more of the components (feelings, behaviors, and physiological responses) that make up an emotion (Gross, 1998)

Managing Emotions

• According to Gross, emotion regulation occurs along the timeline of the unfolding emotional response.

• Emotion regulation begins with an evaluation of emotion cues. When attended to and evaluated, emotion cues trigger a coordinated set of response tendencies that involve experiential, behavioral, and physiological systems.

Managing Emotions

• Two regulatory circuits can be used:

1. Antecedent-focused emotion regulation strategies refer to things we do before the emotion response tendencies have become fully activated and have changed our behavior and physiological response;

2. Response-focused emotion regulations strategies refer to things we do once an emotion is already underway, after the response tendencies have already been generated.

(Gross, 2008)

Managing Emotions

• Gross identify 5 strategies for regulating our emotions:

1. Situation selection

2. Situation modification

3. Attentional deployment

4. Cognitive change

5. Response modulation

Managing Emotions

1. Situation selection: – We may choose to have dinner with a friend the night

before an important exam rather than attend a last-minute study session with other anxious students

An Akan Proverb says:

If you know you are vulnerable, you avoid those who may hurt you

(Appiah, Appiah & Agyeman-Duah, 2007)

Managing Emotions

2. Situation modification:

– after the situation is selected, we may modify its emotional impact.

When our friend asks whether we are prepared for the exam, we may make it clear that we would rather talk about

something else

An Akan Proverb says:

if you work well, you are not afraid of criticism (Appiah, Appiah & Agyeman-Duah, 2007)

Managing Emotions

3. Attentional deployment:

– we may select which aspect of the situation we focus on.

We may distract ourselves from a conversation that has taken an upsetting turn by counting ceiling tiles

Managing Emotions

4. Cognitive change

– once we have focused on some specific aspect of the situation, we may select which of many possible meanings it has for us.

– If the test is mentioned during the dinner conversation, we may remind ourselves that it is “only a test” rather than a measure of our value as a human being

An Akan Proverb says:

Stealing is shameful but not poverty (Appiah, Appiah & Agyeman-Duah, 2007)

Managing Emotions

5. Response modulation:

– we may attempt to influence our own responses once they have been elicited. In the testing example, we may hide our embarrassment after bombing the exam

Because of shame Father Spider wears an antelope skin hat to beg for help in weeding his farm

An Akan Proverb says:

(Appiah, Appiah & Agyeman-Duah, 2007)

EMOTIONS AND WELL-BEING Topic Three

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Emotion and Well-being

• Emotions are linked to general good feelings or subjective well-being.

• Emotions give a subjective feeling to virtually all of our waking moments (Lucas & Diener, 2008)

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Emotion and Well-being

• Emotions such as joy, sadness, anger, and fear influence thought, decision making, and actions;

• Certain emotions are linked with the cessation of unhealthy behaviours – E.g., Disgust may influence dietary choices; Experiences of guilt serve a

key function in moving an individual toward positive reparation and change (Consedine, 2008)

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Emotion and Well-being

• Research shows connections between smiling and stress reduction.

• Kraft and Pressman (2012) found that people who engaged in genuine smile fared better in stress recovery than those who did not display genuine smile.

• Izard and others (2001) argue that the ability to detect and label emotion cues facilitates positive social interactions and that a deficit in this ability contributes to behavioral and learning problems.

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Reading List

• Gross, J. J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion

regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression,

and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

74, 224–237.

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References

• Consedine, N. S. (2008). Health-promoting and health-damaging effects of emotions: The view from

developmental functionalism. In, Lewis, M., & Harviland-Jones, J. M., & Barrett, L. F. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of emotions (3rd Ed). New York: The Guilford Press. • Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 6, 169–200. • Fischer, A. & Manstead, A. S. R. (2008). Social functions of emotion. In, Lewis, M., & Harviland-Jones, J. M., & Barrett, L. F. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of emotions (3rd Ed). New York: The Guilford Press. • Gross, J. J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 224–237. • Gross, J. J. (2008). Emotion regulation. In, Lewis, M., & Harviland-Jones, J. M., & Barrett, L. F. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of emotions (3rd Ed). New York: The Guilford Press. • Izard, C.E., Fine, S.E., Schultz, D., Mostow, A.J., Ackerman, B.P., & Youngstrom, E.A. (2001). Emotion

knowledge as a predictor of social behavior and academic competence in children at risk. Psychological Science, 12, 18–23.

• Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., & Kurokawa, M (2000). Culture, emotion, and well-being: Good feelings in

Japan and the United States. Cognition and Emotion, 14 (1), 93-124. • Kraft, T. L., & Pressman, S. D. (2012). Grin and Bear It: The influence of manipulated facial expression on the stress response. Psychological Science, 23(11) 1372–1378. • Lucas & Diener, E. (2008). Subjective well-being. In, Lewis, M., & Harviland-Jones, J. M., & Barrett, L. F. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of emotions (3rd Ed). New York: The Guilford Press. • Nesse R. M. & Ellsworth, P. (2009). Evolution, emotions, and emotional disorders. American Psychologist, 64, 2, 129–139. • Zuckerman, M., & Kuhlman, D. M. (2000). Personality and risk-taking: Common biosocial factors.

Journal of Personality, 68(6), 999-1029.

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