Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 748 – 752

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

1877-0428 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology.doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.348

ScienceDirect

PSIWORLD 2013

Theoretical approaches regarding the psychophysiology of emotions, facial expressions and emotional regulation

Mihai Valentin Ciolacu*

University of Bucharest

Abstract

This paper presents the main theories and studies that addressed psycho physiological parameters, facial expressions and emotional adjustment process of the human operator. This article is a synthesis of the theoretical basis of my PhD thesis "Psychophysiology of emotions and facial expressions in emotional regulation analysis of the human operator." In this paper the feelings of employees forced to work under pressure or in situations when the stakes are high are presented and explained.With the help of emotional self-regulation process the human operator can overcome critical situations with energy and without unnecessary tension.

© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of PSI WORLD 2013 and their Guest Editors: Dr Mihaela Chraif, Dr Cristian Vasile and Dr Mihai Anitei

Keywords: emotional regulation, psychophysiological parameters, emotions, facial expressions, the human operator

1. The emotions and their cerebral circuits

It is known that certain emotional response reactions are well inserted in our nervous system because for a long and significant period in the history of our evolution as a species they were all that ensured our survival (Goleman, 2001). Because our evolution we have come to hold very precise and stable neurological mechanisms responsible

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: ciolacu.mihai88@yahoo.com

© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology.

749 Mihai Valentin Ciolacu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 748 – 752

for producing and managing emotional reactions (Tucker et. al., 2000). In the evolution of the human species the emotional brain was the first to develop as it ensures the basic components of adaptation and survival.

The emotional brain was responsible for the emergence and the development of the components of the rational mind (Striedter, 2005). We can expect that some reactions or landmarks related to the emotional brain not to be adequate for the life circumstances of today. Nowadays challenges and menace have a completely different nature. We can expect the emotional mind to have a greater influence on the rational mind for it is more primitive in nature and primary from the evolutionary perspective. For the specialist that assists persons experiencing maladaptive emotions it is necessary to understand the neurological basis of emotions and psychophysiology. In the architecture of the brain the amygdala acts as an emotional guardian. Damasio (2005) argues that amygdala activation is responsible for all those situations where emotional reactions overwhelm. When there is a possible threat in the environment the mechanism by which the amygdala acts is a hormonal one. Le Doux (1996) found a relatively small group of neurons that connects the thalamus directly to the amygdala. In this way it forms a short circuit that allows the amygdala to react to sensory signals before they can be fully recorded at a neocortical level. This short circuit can explain situations where emotions seem to have control over reason. Dolcos (2004) argues that every time we have a strong emotion, the amygdala is so strongly activated that these emotions will be stored in our emotional memory. As emotion is stronger and the amygdala activation more intense the memory will be more powerful and therefore more difficult to erase. Although the context is changing the amygdala will use what has worked before in a different context but with some similarities. This is why some feelings and behaviors seem inadequate. Amygdala is formed since birth and develops quickly in the infant’s brain. Le Doux (1995) argue that the amygdala plays an important role in the construction of the sets of basic emotional patterns. These emotional patterns are formed in childhood and will be used later by the adult.

Goleman (2006) proposes a path of emergencie that goes from the analyzer to the thalamus and from here to the amygdala. This route allows instant reaction which may be vital in situations where the organism or loved ones are in danger. In contrast, the neuronal path from the analyzers to the thalamus and from there to the neocortex is two times slower. Even if it is slower than the route analyzer, thalamus and amygdala it is responsible for identifying and interpreting adequately the sensory input. Besides the emergency pathway responsible for impulsive emotional reactions there is a byway that serves as a cushion to impulsive reactions.

This pathway goes from the amygdala to the prefrontal lobes of the neocortex. This neocortical area is characterized by a reaction that has better response and more suitable to the context. This neocortical area is more analytical. Ridderinkhof et. al (2004 ) argue that in the emotional self-regulation process the prefrontal lobes are real top managers.

Prefrontal lobes are responsible for slowing impulses generated in the amygdala and the analysis of reactions and their adequacy to reality. It seems that the role of the right and left prefrontal lobes is quite different. Right prefrontal lobe appears to be the one who feeds the negative emotions (fear , anger ) and impulses. Left prefrontal lobe seems to have the role of an emotional switch as it is able to master emotions and to inhibit the emotions from the right lobe.

2. Emotional self-regulation and workplace performance

Opinions on what determines success have all changed over time. John Kao says that now it's all about brain chemistry and those whose neurons activate faster and more efficient in changing conditions. The hypothalamus is located under the basal ganglia and it is the dominant force for maintaining their own status quo. Any change or modification in our small habits, attitudes or our own routines will trigger the alarm system of the hypothalamus. Therefore, it is essential to relate appropriately to pressure situations because the hypothalamus is programmed to emit chemical signals from the brain to the blood stream instantly influencing our feelings and behavior (Gross, 2002). When we face a new and important situation the pressure level to which we are exposed increases abruptly as adrenal glands pump stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.

Robert Cooper argues that we tend to accumulate and retain many habits and emotional feelings. When we face a situation with high stakes we tend to keep everything as it was. In fact, we don’t like changes though we all say that we want them. Our brain is very similar to that of our ancestors thousands of years ago even if in the meantime there have been many changes and survival is not our main concern anymore. Most employees end up inevitable in

750 Mihai Valentin Ciolacu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 748 – 752

certain situations where they have to work under pressure. To excel in their work in that high pressure situation telling their selves to keep calm it is not enough. To be able to work under pressure is required to condition/ learn the brain and nervous system to be calm and therefore keep you calm. (Pfeffer & Sutton 1999) and (Cialdini, 2009).

To excel in the emotional self regulation (Libby et. al., 2005) argue that an increased awareness of their inner feelings is needed. It is very important to form the habit of observing ourselves in that exact moment in which the intensity of our inner feelings starts to grow. Without this awareness of our own feelings we could not relate differently and in an appropriate manner to the entire context. Hardy and Parfitt, 1999, show that from that moment when we become nervous and to feel the increased pressure of the situation we become blind to solutions and available resources. Most times the solutions are right under our eyes but we do not see when we allow the amygdala and hypothalamus to intervene. Paradoxically, the more important the situation is, the higher the stakes are, the more we will sabotage ourselves.

Instead if we can form our habit to relax in those situations where everyone else lose their composure, to keep our minds open, we will help the hippocampus to shape up in real time favorable reactions so we could pass more easily through times of pressure. We are more likely to excel even in times of pressure when we manage to detach of the old routines, rituals and habits (Tice & Bratslavsky 2000).

Loehr (1997) argues that when a person becomes more aware of the presence and evolution of its inner feelings and is able to give itself relaxing moments when everyone else gives in to pressure it can seek new challenges. Exposure to situations with higher stakes is a good exercise to strengthen the brain and body resistance pathways. By seeking new challenges an individual will become increasingly skillful in coping with pressure in a proper manner and to recover more quickly. For an individual to succeed to excelling in its work in high stake and increased pressure situations it is necessary to keep their energy levels up but without losing temper (Cooper, 2005). Paradoxically, one may be active but can keep muscular tension at a low level. Only 5 of the 684 muscles of the body are necessary to keep us upright. All the other ones should be on vacation most of the time, however most people form the skill to keep in a state of tension tens and even hundreds of other muscles all day. Besides the fact that this situation is wasting energy it also produces a stimulation of the nervous system so it is constantly prepared for emergencies. There are two systems that are essential to have the all the strength and energy we need without being tense. These two systems start from the hypothalamus. In one system the hypothalamus reacts to stress emitting signals to the adrenal glands to secrete adrenaline. In the other system the hypothalamus signals the adrenal glands to produce cortisol. These stress hormones are found in much smaller amounts in people who obtained skills to remain calm and work under pressure. For these people the level of activity in the two systems is low (Buchanan, 2001). Keeping calm and appropriate reactions prevent depletion of brain neurotransmitters, called the catecholamines. Catecholamines affect mood and motivation.

Those who manage to mentally reduce the stake of the situation and to keep relaxed / unstressed will recover more easily after stressful and demanding situations. At the opposite pole are the unproductive reactions that tend to be more intense and last longer even under the ordinary conditions of daily problems.

The amygdala and reticular activation system (SAR) emit strong warnings that increase even more the stress levels. Catecholamines can reach a state of exhaustion that installs a feeling of depression and helplessness. After each challenge those who have not formed habits to handle the pressure and the high stake of the situation will overreact and neuro physiological shocks will be felt in all systems: mentally, physically and emotionally. They will show a low efficiency and will have even less confidence in their ability to cope with future pressures Cooper (2006). Disruptive factors include competitive thinking because competition inhibits learning and creativity. Those who work in conditions of competition focuses solely on immediate goal. By focusing on the other competitors, comparing with them constantly and always trying to gain appreciation of those judging the competition they merely limit (Pfeffer, 2009). Even the competitive thoughts can interfere with our optimal evolution, sustaining negative stress hormone secretion (French, 1984). For example it was experimentally proved on athletes that using words that describe the competition as "harder", "better", "faster" and "victory" lead to a double secretion of stress hormones. Researchers have recommended the athletes to abandon competitive thinking during training because performance is superior when nothing is pressuring you. Superior performance appears to require the absence of competitiveness.

751 Mihai Valentin Ciolacu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 748 – 752

3. Facial expressions and their role

Most studies on nonverbal behavior were conducted addressing facial expressions, creating the primary emotion theory (Ekman, 1992; Izard, 1992). The pioneer in the study of nonverbal behavior is Darwin, who said that there are universal expressions. These allegations were later challenged by Landis (1924) and Klineberg (1938), which contradicted Darwin's theory, believing that emotional facial expressions are influenced only by culture. The universality position issued by Darwin is revived in the 1960s by some theories (Tomkins, 1962, 1963) and cross-cultural empirical evidence (Ekman & Friesen, 1971). The researches conducted in 1970-80 brought evidence that the body movement indicates the amount (eg intensity, the total movement) of emotions, not their quality (eg differentiation between multiple emotions ex. Ekman and Friesen, 1974). Facial micro expression can be described as an involuntary model of a movement (facial or physical) which is expressive enough to be noticed, but it doesn’t last long enough to express an emotion (Ekman, Rolls et al., 1992). They are very subtle and easily missed: usually a facial micro expression takes between 1/25 and 1/5 seconds (Porter & ten Brinke, 2008), while a normal expression takes several seconds. Facial micro expressions are muscle movements which have a very low duration of occurrence, exposure and disappearance (Haggard and Isaacs, 1966). When a man is deliberately trying to hide it’s emotions (or unconsciously represses it), these involuntary facial expressions may appear. Micro expressions are a clear indicator of the fact that an emotion is hidden but they do not show the reason or method of the censorship. They may be the result of deliberate choice in which that person knows how it feels , but does not want to show it , or they may occur as a result of repression, the person does not know what he feels, and the censorship is unconscious (Ekman, 2003). Like any emotional facial expressions, micro expressions are involuntary, unconscious, at least at the time that it occurs- only facial expression is involuntary, but censoring it can be conscious (Ekman, 1997). These movements are rare: not all people can show them. The speed with which an emotion occurs and is shown affects the perception of that expression. Although the micro expression detection technology is not yet sufficiently implemented an utility for it has been found in other areas. Researchers are working on ways to identify physical pain in patients using micro expressions (Littlewort et al., 2009) and to measure the degree of injury to the nerves in the facial region.

The research of the social signals processing has been evolving by using micro expressions to detect boredom (Schuller et al., 2009). Also, researchers have begun to use the automatic detection of micro expressions in psychological counseling like marriage problems (Godavarthy, 2010). In 1965 Paul Ekman has conducted a series of cross-cultural research that demonstrated the expression of emotions universality thesis. He begins his study on the hypothesis that facial expressions are scheduled as part of the natural emotions. So, in the concept of Ekman, each emotional expression has two facial expressions: an expression which is hereditary scheduled (which is common to all cultures) and one that culturally varies. The research had a sample formed of adult of diverse cultural backgrounds who had to identify the emotions presented in 14 pictures. The results indicated high scores, which means that cultural differences had no significant influence on the answers. At this point appeared the idea that the media may influence the respondents elections by patterns transmitted. Therefore, a new experiment was performed in which 89 untrained people were selected from Borneo Island, Malay Archipelago and other similar areas. In this case we selected three photographs of facial expressions of basic emotions for adults and two for children. Results showed surprisingly high agreement with the answers to those in industrialized countries, with a high opening to the mass media. This result indicates the universality of facial expressions.

References

Buchanan, T. W., & Lovallo, W. R. (2001). Enhanced memory for emotional material following stress-level cortisol treatment in humans. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 26(3), 307-317.

Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence. HarperCollins. Cooper, R. K., & Sawaf, A. (1998). Executive EQ: Emotional intelligence in leadership and organizations. Penguin. com. Cooper, R. K. (2005). The other 90%. Recorded Books. Cooper, R. K. (2006). Get Out of Your Own Way: The 5 Keys to Surpassing Everyone's Expectations. Advanced Excelence Systems LLC Damasio, A. (2005). Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. Penguin. com.

752 Mihai Valentin Ciolacu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 748 – 752

Dolcos, F., LaBar, K. S., & Cabeza, R. (2004). Interaction between the amygdala and the medial temporal lobe memory system predicts better memory for emotional events. Neuron, 42(5), 855-863.

Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1977). Facial action coding system. Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 6(3-4), 169-200. Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (2003). Unmasking the face: A guide to recognizing emotions from facial clues. Ishk. Ekman, P. (Ed.). (2006). Darwin and facial expression: A century of research in review. http://www. ishkbooks. com/mal. Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V. (1974). Detecting Deception from the Body or Face. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 288-298. Ekman, P., Rolls, E. T., Perrett, D. I., & Ellis, H. D. (1992). Facial expressions of emotion: An old controversy and new findings [and

discussion]. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 335(1273), 63-69. French, K. R., & McCormick, R. E. (1984). Sealed bids, sunk costs, and the process of competition. Journal of Business, 417-441. Godavarthy, S. (2010). Microexpression spotting in video using optical strain (Doctoral dissertation, University of South Florida). Goleman, D. (2001). An EI-based theory of performance. The emotionally intelligent workplace: How to select for, measure, and improve

emotional intelligence in individuals, groups, and organizations, 27-44. Goleman, D. (2006). Emotional intelligence: ; Why it can matter more than IQ. Random House Digital, Inc.. Haggard, E. A., & Isaacs, K. S. (1966). Micromomentary facial expressions as indicators of ego mechanisms in psychotherapy. In Methods of

research in psychotherapy (pp. 154-165). Springer US. Hardy, L., & Parfitt, G. (1991). A catastrophe model of anxiety and performance. British Journal of Psychology, 82(2), 163-178. Izard, C. E. (1992). Basic emotions, relations among emotions, and emotion-cognition relations. Klineberg, O. (1938). Emotional expression in Chinese literature. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 33(4), 517. Landis, C. (1924). Studies of Emotional Reactions. II. General Behavior and Facial Expression. Journal of Comparative Psychology.Kao, J. (2009). Jamming: Art and Discipline of Business Creativit. HarperCollins.LeDoux, J. E. (1995). Emotion: Clues from the brain. Annual review of psychology, 46(1), 209-235 LeDoux, J. (1996). Emotional networks and motor control: a fearful view. Progress in brain research, 107, 437-446. Libby, L. K., Eibach, R. P., & Gilovich, T. (2005). Here's looking at me: the effect of memory perspective on assessments of personal change.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(1), 50. Littlewort, G. C., Bartlett, M. S., & Lee, K. (2009). Automatic coding of facial expressions displayed during posed and genuine pain. Image and

Vision Computing, 27(12), 1797-1803. Loehr, J. E. (1997). Stress for success: The proven program for transforming stress into positive energy at work. Times Business. Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. (1999). The knowing-doing gap: How smart companies turn knowledge into action. Harvard Business Press. Pfeffer, J. (2009). in organizations. Power and Interdependence in Organizations, 17. Porter, S., & ten Brinke, L. (2008). Reading between the lies identifying concealed and falsified emotions in universal facial expressions.

Psychological Science, 19(5), 508-514. Ridderinkhof, K. R., van den Wildenberg, W. P., Segalowitz, S. J., & Carter, C. S. (2004). Neurocognitive mechanisms of cognitive control: the

role of prefrontal cortex in action selection, response inhibition, performance monitoring, and reward-based learning. Brain and cognition,56(2), 129-140.

Schuller, B., Müller, R., Eyben, F., Gast, J., Hörnler, B., Wöllmer, M. & Konosu, H. (2009). Being bored? Recognising natural interest by extensive audiovisual integration for real-life application. Image and Vision Computing, 27(12), 1760-1774.

Striedter, G. F. (2005). Principles of brain evolution. Sinauer Associates. Tice, D. M., & Bratslavsky, E. (2000). Giving in to feel good: The place of emotion regulation in the context of general self-control.

Psychological Inquiry, 11(3), 149-159. Tomkins, S. S. (1962). Affect, imagery, consciousness: Vol. I. The positive affects. Tomkins, S.S: (1963). Affect/imagery/consciousness. Vol. 2: The negative affects. Tucker, D. M., Derryberry, D., Luu, P., & Phan, K. L. (2000). Anatomy and physiology of human emotion: Vertical integration of brainstem,

limbic, and cortical systems. The neuropsychology of emotion, 56-79. Zull, J. E. (2002). The art of changing the brain: Enriching teaching by exploring the biology of learning. Stylus Publishing, LLC.