Ch 10: Emotions and thinking
Affect as information means...
emotions provide a signal that influences our judgements -- e.g., people say they are more satisfied with life on sunny days. (related to heuristic thinking and affect infusion model)
Name the 5 components of the Big 5 Model of Personality
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
Internalizing vs externalizing behaviors
internalizing: depressed mood and anxiety
externalizing: hostility and/or disruptive behavior (e.g, conduct disorder, ADHD)
Generalized anxiety disorder
At least six months of disabling and persistent anxiety or worry.
"within-subjects, wait-list control with repeated measures design" (Chapin et al.)
commonly used in small pilot studies; participants were their own control (5 week wait period), and outcomes were assessed by the individual's change on pain & anger from pre-treatment to post-treatment.
Explain "system 1" and "system 2" processing
System 1: automatic, involves the modes of organization
System 2: informational, enables mental models of events, their possible causes, and their implications for future action.
What are the components of the Big 5 most associated with successful life trajectories?
high openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness and low neuroticism.
High agreeableness and conscientiousness has been described as associated with stability.
Allostatic load
"wear and tear" on physiological systems due to chronic stress; can result in over OR under-activation of HPA axis (which modulates stress response)
What does rumination mean?
Brooding on symptoms of distress in a repetitive manner rather than in a problem-solving way. Predictive of depression.
The 'commitment problem'
We must put aside self-interested courses of action in the service of our long-term commitment to one another, and we must reliably identify who is committed to us.
What does it mean to say emotions are heuristics?
Emotions are guesses that often work better than chance; shortcuts to making judgments or taking action.
How do negative life events change personality?
dependent life events (influenced by the individual) predict decrease in C and A, and both independent and dependent predicted an increase in neuroticism.
What is the hostile attribution bias?
Some children become more likely to interpret neutral incidents as intentionally hostile, which predicts aggressive behavior.
Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in US
46.4%
What does the 'Broaden and Build' theory refer to?
Positive emotions broaden individuals’ momentary thought-action repertoires, priming them to pursue a wider range of thoughts and actions (e.g explore, savour)
Negative emotions narrow individuals’ momentary thought-action repertoires by calling forth specific action tendencies (e.g attack, flee)
What is the Ultimatum Game?
Proposer offers to share a sum of money in a certain proportion. Responder decides to accept or reject the offer. When proposers offer to share the money equally, is seen as fair and is accepted. When shares of money are offered unfairly, responders reject them even though they would otherwise make no money. (Example of emotional reasoning: perceived unfairness => disgust => anger)
Proximal vs. distal factors
Distal = further from individual (e.g., neighborhood, school, govt institutions)
What is the p-factor?
An overarching factor that leads to vulnerability in many aspects of psychopathology. Suggested that emotion dysregulation and negative affectivity are at the root of this factor.
What are polygenic effects?
Influences of multiple groups of genes on emotional disorders. Most, if not all, mental disorders are influenced by multiple genes.
What are some social functions and behaviors associated with embarrassment?
- Social functions: Moral commitment, concern over performance and institutions; Provokes forgiveness and reconciliation
- Behaviors: Head tilt, smile, touching face
What is the affect infusion model?
Emotions or extended moods infuse into a cognitive task to influence judgment, particularly if the task is complex. Negative emotions => pay more attention to the problem and draw less biased conclusions; Positive emotions => more biased (website works well => trust security more)
What is the Strange Situation Test? What are the 4 main attachment styles described in Ch. 11?
A mother, infant and stranger are in a strange room. The mother leaves the room, and later returns. In this situation, 2 year olds respond to the mother's absence with the stranger present in Secure, Avoidant (low emotion), Resistant/Ambivalent/Anxious (high negative emotion), and Disorganized (fearful/conflicted) styles.
What is parent-management training?
Parents are taught to use more effective parenting practices aimed at consistently identifying, ignoring and/or punishing problem behaviors and reinforcing prosocial behaviors.
What is the kindling hypothesis?
A mechanism by which people become progressively more vulnerable to depression. Emotional patterns become established as mental habits, so that depression is made more likely by less severe events. Is likely that a single episode of depression has the strongest influence on this process.
Give a short summary of Chapin et al.'s study on chronic pain
-12 individuals completed compassion-based meditation course after 5-week wait period
- time spent meditating no correlation with anger/chronic pain
- self-report reduced anger, increased pain acceptance, reduced pain severity
- Reductions in anger corroborated by SOs