CHYS 3P12 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Stoicism, John Bowlby, Classical Conditioning
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
CHYS 3P12 WEEK 2
QUESTION: How far do you think we humans will be able to modify the emotions of hostility to
members of out-groups? You might start thinking about this from your knowledge of terrorism, of
wars of the 20th and 21th centuries, and of the civil rights movement.
• EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE
▪ bullying has an effect on the emotions
• We can work with younger generations about the subjects that are happening around the
world, compared to the older generation
• Children who are immigrating to Canada are forced to live in this world of judgement based on
where they come from
Evolution of emotions in childhood and youth "nature vs. Nurture"
• THE CYCLICAL NATURE OF THEORIES on emotion
Philosophical approaches:
There are 4 philosophers who studied emotions:
• Early Greek philosophers such a Aristotle viewed reason and emotion as master and slave
• ARISTOTLES THEORIE OF EMOTIONS FOCUSED ON ANGER AND FEAR – He was the first emotion
theorist person to recognize the cognitive component of anger
o ARISTOTLE RECOGNIZE:
▪ The reciprocal nature of cognition and emotion
▪ The importance of physiology and context, including poverty
▪ BALANCE – an important component of Aristotle's theory
The Roman Stoics
• VIEWED EMOTIONS AS FRUSTRATION AND MISERY
• Preached about the reason and the pointlessness of emotional involvement
o HE DIDN’T DELIEVE THAT EMOTIONS WAS VERY IMPORTANT DUE TO HOW
FRUSTRATING IT WAS
Descartes
• EMBRASED THE MIND AND BODY DUALISM PERSPECTIVE (mind as reasoning machine!)
o BELIEVE THAT THEY MET IN THE PEANEL GLAND
Emotions
• TYPE OF PASSION RELATED TO HIGHER THOUGHT PROCESS
• CAN INFORM ONESELF ABOUT THE FEELING OF THE INNER SELF IS FEELING
• CAN INFORM YOURSELF THAT YOU'RE FEELING A CERTAIN FEELING
• Reason was the key to regulating the emotions
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Emotions as important as cognitions (THE BRAIN)
• EDUCATION SHOULD BE NATURAL
o guided by emotions rather than logic
• Goodness of nature, innocence of childhood, the corrupting influence of society
o Period known as Romanticism
19th century founders
• MODERN IDEAS ABOUT EMOTIONS CAN BE THOUGHT OF AS DERIVING FROM THE IMPORTANT
FOUNDATIONS LAID BY:
• CHARLES DARWIN, WILLIAM JAMES AND SIGMUND FREUD
Darwin – the evolutionary approach
• The expressions of the emotions: man and animals (1872)
• 1st to appreciate the biological fact that natural selection lead to behavioral adaptation, and
physiological/morphological adaptation (e.g. Snarling, crying)
• WE ARE ABLE TO READ THE FACES AND EXPRESSIONS OF ANIMALS
▪ Have a sense of what's happening and what they're feeling
▪ Ex. Black dogs, people aren't able to read their faces because we cant see their
emotions
Emotions as fossils
• With evolutionary significance
• Link us to our past (to the past of our species to our own infancy)
• Useful in guiding our social interactions
• Universality of facial expressions
• Mapped out in greater detail the reciprocal nature of cognition and emotion (central and
autonomic nervous systems)
o Heartrate, blood flowing, hand sweating etc.
Do emotions originate in the mind or in the body (I.e., central nervous system, CNS or autonomic
nervous system, ANS)?
• GREEKS SAID THAT THE HEART WAS THE SET OF EMOTIONS
• William James – The physiological Approach
o Bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exciting fact... and feeling of the
same changes as they occur, is the emotions. James, 1890, p.449)
• William James and Carl Lange assigned a central role to the organs, muscles, and vascular
system, under control of the ANS
James-Langue Theory of Emotion
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
