Chapter 11
Emotion, Stress, and Coping
Zhang Zhiyong
Department of Psychology
Peking University
你在闹情绪吗？
 心境如何？
 你的情绪深而不露？还是溢于言表？
 你有什么烦恼或者高兴的事情？
 心情郁闷有什么不好的后果？
 如何保持良好的心情？
Definition
 Emotion,
or affect, is an evaluative
response (a positive or negative
feeling) that typically includes some
combination of physiological arousal,
subjective experience, and
behavioral or emotional expression.
Outlines
Emotion
 Stress
 Coping
 Some Concluding Thoughts

1 Emotion
 Physiological
Components
 Subjective Experience
 Emotional Expression
 A Taxonomy of Emotions
 Perspectives on Emotion
 A Different Perspective: Integrating the
Perspectives on Emotion
1.1 Physiological Components
 William
•
the peripheral theory
 Carl
•
James (1884)
Lange (1885)
James-Lange theory
 Cannon
•
Two criticisms to James-Lange theory
–
–
•
(1927) and Bard (1934)
Too slow
Not specific
Cannon-Bard theory
James-Lange Theory
害怕
Cannon-Bard Theory
害怕
The neuro-psychology of emotion



Emotion located in the heart,face or the peripheral nervous
system?
Distributed throughout the nervous system
Three areas of the brain of special importance:
Hypothalamus, Limbic system, cortex
• The Papez circuit: thalamus, hypothalamus, cortex, limbic system,
• Amygdala, the brain emotional computer


Two circuits of the emotional reaction
The role of the cortex with respect to emotion
1.2 Subjective Experience
 happy,
angry, sad, and Elated
 Individual difference in the intensity of
emotional states
• Personality disorders/Psychological disorder
 Acknowledging
and examining one’s
feelings can have a positive impact on
health. (Berry & Pennebaker,1993;
Pennebaker et al,1990)
1.3 Emotional Expression
 The overt behavioral signs of emotion
 Various ways: facial expressions, posture,
gestures, and tone of voice.
 Creating fear in the face
1.3.1 Facial Expression and Emotion
Tomkins(1962): the face is the primary center of
emotion
 The relationship between emotion and facial muscle
movements is uniform enough across individuals and
cultures.(Ekman, 1971)
 Facial expressions not only indicate a person emotional
state, but they also influence its physiological and
subjective components.(Ekman, 1992)

1.3.2 Culture and Emotional Display Rules

Some facial expressions are universally recognized
(Ekman,1971;Ekman & Oster,1979)
• Ekman & Oster(1979): surprise, fear, anger, disgust,
happiness, and sadness.
• Izard(1977): shame and interest.

Display rules: express in an appropriate way within their
culture or subculture.
• Stephan et al(1996): Costa Rica & US on PE, NE expressing
• Ekman(1977): Japanese & North Americans, aware or
unaware of being observed.
• Cool
1.3.3 Gender and Emotional Expression
Woman probably experience emotion more
intensely, are better able to read emotions from
other people faces and nonverbal cues, and
express emotion more intensely and openly than
men.
 Children as young as 3 yrs old recognize that
females are more likely to express fear, sadness,
and happiness, and males, anger.
 The possible reason: gender roles

1.4 A Taxonomy of Emotions
 Basic Emotions
 Positive affect / Negative affect
Basic Emotions
 Criterion:
•
(Izard & Buechler, 1980)
An emotion is basic if it has characteristic
physiological, subjective, and expressive
components.
 Anger,
fear, happiness, sadness, and disgust
 Surprise, contempt, interest, shame, guilt,
joy, trust, and anticipation.
Positive affect / Negative affect
 Two
factors underlie people self-reported
emotions.(Watson & Clark,1992; Watson &
Tellegen, 1985)
 Approach-oriented/Avoidance-oriented
system driven by positive/negative affect
 The tendency appears to some degree
heritable(N/P, 0.40/0.55)
 One final solution(Fischer et al., 1990)
An emotion hierarchy
Emotion
Negative
Positive
Love
Joy
Fondness
Bliss
Infatuation
Anger
Pride
Sadness
Jealousy Annoyance
Fear
The Emotion Wheel
(Plutchik,1984)
爱
乐观
期待
进取
喜
悦
恐惧
愤怒
鄙视
谦恭
接
受
惊奇
敬畏
忧伤
厌恶
失望
怜悯
1.5 Perspectives on Emotion
 Psychodynamic
Perspectives on Emotion
 Cognitive Perspectives on Emotion
 The Evolutionary Perspective
 Behaviorist Perspective
Psychodynamic Perspectives on Emotion

Being unconscious of one own emotional experience
Moray(1969)
• Neutral words-->conditioned fear-inducing words
• Words in Unattended channel

Unconscious emotional processes can influence thought,
behavior, and even health
• People regularly delude themselves about their own
abilities and personality attributes as a way of
avoiding unpleasant emotion.
• Shedler et al(1993): such defensive self-deception
about emotions takes its toll physiologically.
Cognitive Perspectives on Emotion
 Interpretation and Emotion
Schachter-Singer theory (1962): not simply the
subjective awareness of arousal
Criticism
•
•
Emotion-inducing
stimulus
Physiological
arousal
Cognitive
interpretation
of arousal
Emotion
Cognitive Perspectives on Emotion
 Cognition
•
•
and Appraisal
People emotions reflect their judgments and
appraisals of the situations or stimuli (Lazarus)
Finding a doctor negligent or incompetent
 Zajonc(1980):
 The
mere exposure effect
Influence of Emotion and Mood on
Cognition
Cognitive Perspectives on Emotion
 The
Influence of Emotion and Mood on
Cognition
•
•
Mood: relatively extended emotional states that
typically do not shift attention
Affects on memory, thinking(judgments,
inferences, or predictions)
–
–
Mood and autobiographical memory(72Vs52%)
Depressed person
The Evolutionary Perspective
 Emotion
serve an adaptive purpose
 Communicative function
 A powerful source of motivation (movere)
 Why people become jealous in intimate?
•
•
•
Female: emotional commitment
Male: sexual access
Buss et al(1992): study 1,2,3
The Behaviorist Perspective
 Conditioned
emotion
 Reinforced emotional behavior
2 Stress
 A challenge
to a person’s capacity to adapt
to inner and outer demands, which may be
physiologically arousing and emotionally
taxing and call for cognitive or behavioral
responses.
2 Stress
 Stress
as a Psychobiological Process
 Stress as a Transactional Process
 Sources of Stress
 Stress and Health
2.1 Stress as a Psychobiological Process
Hans Selye (1936, 1976)
 General adaptation syndrome

• Three stages:
–
–
–
alarm
resistance
exhaustion
2.2 Stress as a Transactional Process



Richard Lazarus (1981, 1991, 1993)
The extent of stress depends on the person’s appraisal
of both the situation and his ability to cope with it.
Lazarus’s two stages in the process of stress and coping
•
•

Lazarus’s three types of stress:
•
•
•

primary appraisal: what’s it?
Secondary appraisal: What should I do?
harm/loss
threat
challenge
Social and economic forces
2.3 Sources of Stress
 Stressor
 Life Events
 Catastrophes
 Daily Hassles
Holmes-Rahe Life Events Rating Scale(1967)
Death of spouse 100
 Divorce
73
 Marital separation 65
 Jail term
63
 Death of family_m 63
 Personal inju/ill
53
 Marriage
50
 Fired at work
47

Retirement
 Pregnancy
 Business readjust
 Begin or end sch.
 Trouble with boss
 Change in reside
 Vocation
 Christmas

45
40
39
26
23
20
13
12
Life events and its meaning for individuals
 Perceived
stress----The different meanings
of various events for different individuals.
 Longer-lasting effects
•
•
Parkes & Brown(1972): 45 yrs. People who
widowed an average of 14 months
Increased illness, appetite disturbance,
depression,sleep disturbances fatigue,
loneliness, and higher mortality rate.
 Acculturative
stress
2.3 Sources of Stress
 Stressor
 Life Events
 Catastrophes
•
•
Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD
Survivors’ guilt
 Daily Hassles
常见的日常烦恼










担心体重
家人的健康
生活必须品的涨价
家务
要做的事情太多
东西找不着或丢失
收拾院落或室外
财产、投资或交税
犯罪
体型相貌
2.4 Stress and Health
 Stress People
• 酗酒、吸烟、睡眠不足、运动少
 Stress and the Immune System
 Stress, Health, and Personality
•
Type A behavior pattern (Friedman &
Rosenman, 1959)
Impatient, hard-driving, ambitious, competitive, and
hostile.
• Power Motivation, Hardiness
3 Coping
 Coping Mechanisms
 Defense Mechanisms
 The impact of Culture on Coping Styles
 Social Support
 Commentary
3.1 Coping Mechanisms
 Change
the situation
• Problem solving
 Alter
one’s cognition
 Alter unpleasant emotional
consequences of stress
3.2 Defense Mechanisms
 Repression
 Denial
 Projection
 Reaction formation
 Sublimation
 Rationalization
 Passive aggression
3.3 The impact of Culture on Coping Styles
 U.S.
Children are more likely to
attempt to master stressful
situations actively
 Mexican children are socialized to
modify themselves rather than
confronting obstacles in the
environment.
 Low effort syndrome
3.4 Social Support
 有可信任的人，可以指望获得帮助和关
心。
 机制
• 缓冲假设
• 积极支持力
3.5 Commentary: A Caveat
 The use of questionnaires
Two implicit assumptions
• Everyone experiences the same events to the
same stressful degree
• People know what is stressful to them and can
report the mechanisms they use to cope with
them
 Artifacts of correlating variables that are
not independent of each other
4 Some Concluding Thoughts
 情绪是一种评价
 情绪有基本的类型模式
 情绪与无意识、生理、认知、适应性
 应激源、应激模型
 应付与自我防御机制