PSYA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Little Albert Experiment, Phineas Gage, Fluoxetine
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Emotion
The Relevance of Emotion
● Emotion influence us in powerful force → Dr. Joordens believe it is often
underrepresented in textbooks
● can think as an “opposite to rational thought”
● it is an honest expression how we feel and our body feels
● Motivation → What moves us?
○ there is an association between motivation and emotion
○ three aspects of emotion:
■ behaviour
● facial muscles, how we act
■ autonomic
● sympathetic vs. parasympathetic
● how our emotions shape
■ hormonal
● stress hormones, etc
○ way of measuring emotionality
● neurotransmitters of the body
● rationality plays on keeping the path in line, while emotion is our willingness to
do it
Conditioned Emotional Response
● Little Albert experiment
○ conducted by John Watson
○ trained the kid to be scared of little animals by emitting a loud metallic
sound everytime he sees a furry animal
● emotions can be learned!
● The system → Amygdala
○ our “spider sense”
○ sensing the fear → but don’t know why
● Hippocampus
○ codes memory
○ it stores the information once you face danger, so next time you know
how to overcome it or avoid it
Responding
● Serotonin neurotransmitter
○ chemical when there is abundance in our brain we feel good
○ depression → low levels of serotonin
○ behaviour affects serotonin just like serotonin affects behaviour
● serotonin can moderate aggression, and emotional control in general
○ Prozac → powerful drug to deal with depression and to avoid suicidal
thoughts
■ ecstasy too
○ these drugs blocks the reuptake of serotonin in the brain → thus
leading to a high level of serotonin in the brain
● Phineas Gage study case!
○ got a metal stick up to his prefrontal cortex
○ suffered emotional disabilities
■ became aggressive, temperamental,
■ suffered personality change
Emotional Reactions and Moral Judgement
● case → train is running and you have the ability to flip the switch to save 5
people and kill 1 person or do nothing and watch 5 people die
○ What if you had the ability to flip a very big person in front of the train?
■ most of the people would choose to flip the switch instead of
placing a big person in front of the train because the second
option involves physical touch → you are physically touching the
person you are going to sacrifice
○ people are most likely to suffer emotional stress if they have more
contact with a person
Expressions of Emotion
Document Summary
Emotion influence us in powerful force dr. joordens believe it is often underrepresented in textbooks. Can think as an opposite to rational thought . Motivation what moves us? it is an honest expression how we feel and our body feels there is an association between motivation and emotion three aspects of emotion: Rationality plays on keeping the path in line, while emotion is our willingness to do it. Conducted by john watson trained the kid to be scared of little animals by emitting a loud metallic sound everytime he sees a furry animal. Sensing the fear but don"t know why. Codes memory it stores the information once you face danger, so next time you know how to overcome it or avoid it. Chemical when there is abundance in our brain we feel good. Behaviour affects serotonin just like serotonin affects behaviour. Serotonin can moderate aggression, and emotional control in general.
