CHAPTER 7 Characterizing Emotion Differentiating Emotions from Other Feelings The Components of Emotion Universality and Cultural Specificity of Emotion Darwin and Emotional Emotion Expression The Universality of Facial Expression Cultural Specificity of Emotion Emotions and Social Relationships Emotions in Friendship and Intimate Relationships EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE WAS BORN in England in 1830 and at the age of 22 Emotions within and between Groups emigrated to San Francisco, California, where he ran a bookshop with his brother. Emotions and Social On July 2, 1860, Muybridge boarded a stagecoach bound for St. Louis, Missouri, Cognition where he was to catch a train and then make his way to Europe in search of rare Emotions Provide Information books. In northeastern Texas, the driver of the stagecoach lost control of the horses, for Judgments Emotions Influence Reasoning and the coach careened down a mountainside and crashed. Muybridge was thrown Emotions and Moral Judgment violently headfirst into a tree, probably damaging his orbitofrontal cortex, a part of Emotion in the Mind the brain often harmed during head trauma. The orbitofrontal cortex is connected and Body William James and Emotion- to brain regions involved in emotion, including the amygdala (see Chapter 9), and it Specific Physiology helps us rely on our emotions to make decisions and act appropriately in different Schachter and Singer’s Two- Factor Theory of Emotion social situations (Rolls, 2000). Emotion in the Body: Evidence Miraculously, Muybridge survived his accident and made the trip to England, for ANS Specificity in Emotion where he spent six years recuperating and becoming a photographer. He returned Happiness to California in 1866, but he was not the same man. He expressed little interest in The Determinants of Pleasure friends or in socializing, showed no concern over his dress or hygiene, and expressed Knowing What Makes Us little love for his new son. Muybridge’s emotional problems were most evident Happy The Happy Life when he became convinced that his wife had had an affair while he was away on Cultivating Happiness assignment, taking photos of Yosemite. Agitated and suspicious, Muybridge took a train to Calistoga in Napa Valley, California, where his wife’s suspected paramour, Harry Larkyns, was working on a ranch. Finding Larkyns with a group of friends, Muybridge coolly greeted Larkyns and without a trace of emotion killed him with a bullet to the chest. At his ensuing trial, the jury acquitted Muybridge on the grounds of “justifiable homicide.” The case of Eadweard Muybridge raises a fascinating question: What would our lives be like if we couldn’t be guided by our emotions? Many writers in the traditions of Western thought would say that life would be more balanced and reasonable 235 (A) (B) Eadweard Muybridge (A) After suffering an accident that may have injured his orbito- frontal cortex, Eadweard Muybridge was prone to emotional outbursts and inappropriate behavior. (B) Muybridge (also known as Helios) was an innovative photographer who took a series of photographs of Yosemite, including this photo of himself perched on a thin rock ledge 2,000 feet above the river below. (Oatley, 2004). The emotions have long been viewed as disruptive of harmonious social bonds, and many important thinkers have portrayed the emotions as enemies of reason and sound moral judgment. Social psychology has arrived at a different conclusion, maintaining that emotions are vital to our ability to get along with others, as revealed in Muybridge’s emotional deficits and social difficulties. In this chapter, we will seek answers to five enduring questions about emotions: To what extent are emotions universal, and to what extent do they vary across cultures? What is the role of emotions in our social relationships? How do emotions influence our reasoning? To what extent are emotions shaped by our bodily responses? And finally, What is happiness? Before we tackle these questions, let’s first define emotion, which is no simple task. CHARACTERIZING EMOTION Light is something everyone knows when they see it, but it is exceptionally hard to define. The same is true of the emotions. When you experience cold feet before making a speech, what is that experience like? What happens when a stranger’s anonymous kindness moves you to tears? To begin our study of the emotions, we must first consider two questions: How do emotions, such as anger, guilt, or grati- tude, differ from other feeling states, such as moods or general feelings of well-being or despair? And what are the components of emotions that differentiate them from one another? 236 Chapter 7 Emotion Differentiating Emotions from Other Feelings People’s waking lives are filled with different feelings: moods (“I just feel invincible today”); deep, enduring states that clinicians classify as emotional disorders (“I’ve been depressed for two months and feel no joy”); and emotions, the focus of this chapter. How do emotions differ from moods and emotional disorders? First, emotions are brief; they last for seconds or minutes, not hours or days as moods and disorders do. Facial expressions of emotion typically last between 1 and 5 seconds (Ekman, 1992). Many of the physiological responses that accompany emo- tion—sweaty palms, the blush, and goosebumps, for example—last dozens of seconds or minutes. In contrast, the moods that we experience—for example, when we feel irritable or blue—last for hours and even days. Emotional disorders, such as depres- sion, last for weeks or months. Emotions are also specific. We feel emotions about specific people and events. Phi- losophers call the focus of an emotional experience its “intentional object,” and here again there is a difference between emotions and moods and disorders. When you’re angry, you have a very clear sense of what you’re angry about (for example, the embar- rassing story your dad has told about your first date). In contrast, when you’re in an irritable mood, it is not so obvious why you feel the way you do, and the intentional object may not be clear (although it might be all too clear to other people!). Finally, emotions typically help individuals with their social goals. Unlike general mood states and disorders, emotions motivate people to act in specific ways that pro- mote important relationships (DeSteno & Salovey, 1996; Frijda & Mesquita, 1994; Keltner & Haidt, 1999; McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001; Oatley & Jenkins, 1992; Parrott, 2001; Salovey & Rodin, 1989; Salovey & Rothman, 1991; Tiedens & Leach, 2004). Anger motivates people to redress injustice. Gratitude rewards others for their cooperative actions. Guilt motivates us to make amends when we have harmed other people. Not every episode of emotion, we hasten to note, is beneficial. Some of our anger, for example, may produce maladaptive outcomes (for example, making sarcastic comments to a traffic cop). But in general, emotions moti- vate goal-directed behavior that typically helps us navigate our social environment. Having defined emotions as brief, specific, socially oriented states, let’s now consider emotions Brief, specific psychological in greater depth the different components of emotion. and physiological responses that help humans meet social goals. The Components of Emotion One of the complexities in the study of emotion is that emotions involve many compo- nents. These include ancient physiological responses shared by all mammals (indeed, that are shared with reptiles; the part of the brain that is the primary seat of the rage and fight-or-flight responses is known as the reptilian brain). At the other end of the complexity continuum, emotions also include more cognitive factors rooted in lan- guage (Lang, Greenwald, Bradley, & Hamm, 1993; Levenson, 1999). Emotions arise as a result of appraisal processes, which refer to how we evaluate events and objects appraisal processes The ways we in our environment according to their relation to our current goals (Lazarus, 1991; evaluate events and objects in our en- Smith & Ellsworth, 1985). The appraisals that trigger different emotions, known vironment according to their relation as core-relational themes, are fairly similar across cultures (Lazarus, 1991; Mauro, to our current goals. Sato, & Tucker, 1992; Mesquita, 2003; Mesquita & Ellsworth, 2001; Mesquita & core-relational themes Distinct Frijda, 1992; Scherer, 1997). For example, appraisals of loss trigger sadness in dif- themes, such as danger or offense ferent parts of the world; violations of rights trigger anger; expressions of affection or fairness, that define the essential trigger love; and undeserved suffering triggers compassion (Boucher & Brandt, 1981; meaning for each emotion. Rozin et al., 1997). Characterizing Emotion 237 primary appraisal stage An In the primary appraisal stage, unconscious, fast, and automatic appraisals of initial, automatic positive or negative whether the even is consistent or inconsistent with the person’s goals give rise to gen- evaluation of ongoing events based eral pleasant or unpleasant feelings (Lazarus, 1991; LeDoux, 1993; Mischel & Shoda, on whether they are congruent or 1995; Zajonc, 1980). These more automatic appraisals involve the amygdala and are incongruent with our goals. triggered by stimuli like smiling and angry faces, snakes, pleasant and unpleasant sounds, odors, the relative lightness and darkness of an object, as well as whether its edges are curved or sharp and angular (Dimberg & Öhman, 1996; Murphy & Zajonc, secondary appraisal stage A sub- 1993). In the secondary appraisal stage, more specific appraisals—for example, sequent evaluation in which we deter- regarding who is responsible for the event, whether or not it is consistent with social mine why we feel the way we do about norms, and how fair it is—transform initial pleasant or unpleasant feelngs into more an event, possible ways of responding specific emotions, such as fear, anger, pride, gratitude, or sympathy (Barrett, 2006; to the event, and future consequences Lazarus, 1991; Roseman, 1991; Russell, 2003; Smith & Ellsworth, 1985). of different courses of action.