Deck 2: Positive Emotions

Question 1

Describe the five most common appraisal dimensions. How are appraisal dimensions related to positive emotions? Support your statement with relevant examples.

Answer 1

$\bullet$ Is the event relevant to my goals or concerns? Is the event consistent or inconsistent with my goals or concerns? How certain am I? Is the event caused by myself, someone else or something else? Can I cope with or control the event?
$\bullet$ Positive emotions occur when events are appraised as relevant and consistent with goals.
$\bullet$ The other appraisal dimensions can further refine positive feelings into more specific emotional experiences
$\bullet$ Appraisals are not just about objective circumstances; they are interpretations that depend on the idiosyncratic goals, skills and knowledge of the individual making the appraisal.
$\bullet$ For example, pride involves a sense of personal control and responsibility, whereas awe is associated with a diminished sense of self and external causes (Shiota, Keltner, & Mossman, 2007). Each emotion has a recipe with a unique blend of different appraisals as ingredients.

Question 2

What does the term 'emotional expression' imply and why are these expressions important? How do people typically express emotions? Support your statement with relevant examples.

Answer 2

$\bullet$ The term 'expression' implies that they reveal something about internal states.
$\bullet$ In this way, expressions help communicate those states to other people.
$\bullet$ Emotions can be expressed in vocalizations (sounds) by varying pitch and tone-even without speech, such as with sighs, giggles and grunts (Juslin & Laukka, 2003; Sauter, Eisner, Ekman, & Scott, 2010). Gestures and changes in posture can also signal emotions (Tracy & Robins, 2004), yet most research has focused on the face.
$\bullet$ For example, typical expressions of anger involve contracting the brow, and tightening muscles around the eyes and mouth.

Question 3

What is the 'duration neglect' phenomenon? What results did Redelmeier and Kahneman (1996) find in their study of remembered pain of colonoscopy procedures?

Answer 3

$\bullet$ Remembering self pays little attention to time.
$\bullet$ When remembering experiences, moments are not created equally. Our memories depend particularly on the peak intensity and on how episodes ended.
$\bullet$ An hour after the procedure, patients rated the 'total amount of pain experienced'. Objectively, patients who experienced longer procedures experienced more pain, because it lasted longer (see Figure 2.3). However, the study found that actual time was unrelated to patients' ratings of 'total pain'. Total pain ratings depended more on how the procedures ended (high or low pain) and how bad the very worst (peak) moment was.
$\bullet$ A follow-up study asked doctors to try making some colonoscopies last longer-creating objectively more pain-by keeping the camera relatively still in the rectum, and thus creating a mild ending to the procedure. Compared to participants who had regular, shorter and objectively less painful procedures, the experimental group with mild endings reported substantially less pain.

Question 4

Through many repetitions, ______ tracks the ebb and flow of experience in people's daily lives.

A) the flow state method
B) the experience sampling method
C) the repetition method
D) the correlational method

Question 5

What do positive emotions promote?

A) Exploration, creativity and sociability
B) Healthy functioning
C) Fewer negative emotions
D) Mental health problems
E) Both exploration, creativity and sociability and healthy functioning
F) Both fewer negative emotions and mental health problems
G) None of these

Question 6

People are more sensitive to signs of threat because ______.

A) threats produce long-lasting emotional states
B) threats quickly grab our attention
C) threats are processed at an unconscious level
D) threats are more easily remembered