Basic Info
What is the most difficult emotion? Why?
Have an insightful answer and you win 100 points!
**What does the Amygdala do in regards to emotions? **
Emotional threat detector
**Chronic Stress is neurotoxic, or toxic to the brain. What impact does chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels have on the brain?**
Hippocampus shrinks & emotions become overwhelming.
What is emotional awareness?
Emotional intelligence is understanding what emotion you are experiencing and why you are experiencing it.
What are 3 ways to help neurogenesis (brain growth)?
-Exercise
-Intermittent fasting
-Curcumin (a spice)
-Omega-3 fatty acids
-Diets high in flavonoids (fruits & veggies)
-Psychotherapy
-Learning new skills
**What happens to the Amygdala with trauma?**
It becomes overactive & oversensitive
After the prefrontal cortex analyzes emotion, what does it do?
It sends the information back to amygdala to regulate the intensity of your emotional responses.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to perceive, evaluate, and control your response to emotions.
Name 3 purposes emotions serve?
1. Emotions motivate us to act
2. Emotions help us communicate with each other through things like body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice
3. Emotions give us information about our environment
**What does the Hippocampus do?**
Stores memories & links emotions to contextual information
**How does the prefrontal cortex aid emotions? **
It helps us evaluate & respond appropriately.
**What is the difference between emotional awareness and emotional intelligence?**
Emotional awareness: understanding what emotion you are experiencing and why
Emotional Intelligence: understanding how to evaluate and control those emotions
What are the four steps in processing emotions?
1.Stimulus (event that triggers the emotions)
2.Subjective Feeling (Anger, Happiness, Sadness, etc.)
3.Physical Response (change in heart rate, muscle tension, etc.)
4.Behavioral Response
The Amygdala is a subcortical structure. What does that mean?
It acts on instinct, not reasoning
What happens to the brain with PTSD?
-This makes it difficult to think through situations
-Amygdala is overactive and the hippocampus is underactive
-This leads to intrusive memories and flashbacks
**List the four areas of emotional intelligence.**
Self-awareness, self-management, empathy, putting it all together
**Apply the four steps of processing emotions to your emotion of choice? Use a real example from experience or a made up example. Be appropriate. **
1.Stimulus (event that triggers the emotions)
2.Subjective Feeling (Anger, Happiness, Sadness, etc.)
3.Physical Response (change in heart rate, muscle tension, etc.)
4.Behavioral Response
In addition to detect threats, what else does the Amygdala do?
Associate emotions with memories, interpret facial expressions
Explain how the Amygdala, Hippocampus, and Prefrontal Cortex all work together to process alarming emotions.
The Amygdala detects emotional threats and sends the information to the hippocampus which provides us with contextual information about previous events that also triggered the alarming emotions. Then the prefrontal cortex helps us evaluate that information and figure out how to respond.
**Describe the first three domains of emotional intelligence.**
-Self-awareness: knowing what we are feeling and why we are feeling it
-Self-management: handling your distressing emotions in effective ways, so they don’t cripple you and keep you from going where you’re going while also tuning into them and learning what you need to from them. Every emotion has a function.
-Empathy: knowing what someone else is feeling