PSY 345 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Social Comparison Theory, Self-Harm, Cognitive Model
Thursday, September 14, 2017
The Self and Personality
Exam #1 is the first half of class on September 28th
- Social Psychology of Emotion
o Body language plays a huge role in emotion
o How do we humans express emotion?
▪ The face is the primary means by which a person’s emotional state (social
cognition) is communicated to others around them (social interaction),
although we have discussed how emotions are expressed through
language, and nonverbal body posture as well…
▪ Expressing emotions in the face is one of the first forms of mutual
engagement that infants learn from their caregiver and subsequent
research has demonstrated the importance of facial expressions in social
interaction even after a child acquires language
o Research on the relationship between emotional states and facial features trace
back to the Charles Darwin (1872), famous for developing the theory of
evolution…
o He brings up vital questions about facial movements and the emotions that seem
to come with certain expressions:
▪ Why do the corners of the mouth turn upward when we smile?
▪ Why do the eyes of a person appear differently when they authentically vs.
a “fake” smile?
▪ Why do the eyes widen when we feel afraid?
o His theory argues that over millions of years, species adapted to different
environments to survive are highly related to emotion expression in faces
o Ex: the feeling of “disgust” is usually accompanied by a “wrinkly of the nose”
which is similar to most organisms when they are about to throw up
▪ This partial facial movement usually occurs when encountering something
that is “unhealthy” such as spoiled food, waste, or something displeasing
to the senses – these things would need to be expelled
o Susskind, Lee, Cusi, Feiman, Grabski, and Anderson (2008) provided more
modern research on the association between facial movements and sensory
experience by showing that certain movements are more likely to occur with
certain emotional states – to either enhance or diminish experience senses
▪ Enhance sensory acquisition (larger eyes to see better, quicker
movements of eyes, wider nostrils for taking in oxygen) → fear
▪ Diminish sensory acquisition (more narrow nostrils to block offensive
odors, tightly closed mouth to not allow foul items to be allowed in
mouth) → disgust
o Fridlund (1994) takes the generalize approach that we have discussed a few times
– that expressing emotion in the face are attempts at communicating the social
motives of a person
▪ Angry face = aggressive intentions
▪ Angry face/hostile face = stay away from me
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▪ The way in which a person’s facial features help others interpret their
emotions varies by culture, species, gender, etc.
o This means that being able to read emotional states in a variety of different
organism (whether they belong to your gender, ethnicity, species, etc.) helps you
understand these organisms are going to act…
o But why have emotions at all? What is the benefit?
▪ More than a few theorists argue that emotions are “functional” and that
these internal cognitive “states” we call “feelings” benefit humans
• They increase the probability of the individual’s survival and/or
reproductive success
• From an evolutionary standpoint, emotions function as anatomical
modifiers in our minds and bodies – ones that motivate us to
address or overcome problems
o One of the “primary” or “universal” emotions identified by Ekman, fear is an
important emotions for keeping away from predators or enemies
▪ More helpful to an organisms’ survival in that individuals who are capable
of experiencing fear are proactive about avoiding predators or enemies –
being afraid might influence these individuals to never encounter these
enemies in the first place
▪ Roy Baumeister argues that other clear cut examples of emotions that help
us to survive are not easy to find
o Other feelings we have adapted to help us survive…
▪ “Disgust” when smell someone’s body odor or smell spoiled food
▪ “Happiness” is a way to share with those around you that you are available
to form relationships or to work with
o Keltner and Haidt (1999) created the idea that emotions serve primarily for social
functions. The more emotions a person can use, the more adaptable they are in
social systems
o Sorce, Emde, Campos, and Klinert (1985) found that adults were able to
communicate to infants using nonverbal emotional communication to show them
whether or not it was safe to do certain actions (social referencing – how we use
others to form appraisals of situations and attach emotions to these
surrounding events)
o Use other people to interpret our surroundings
o Fischer and Manstead (2008) define 2 key social functions that are aided by
emotions…
▪ Experiencing and showing emotions help form or maintain our
relationships with others (getting along)
▪ Experiencing and showing emotions help form or maintain position
relative to others (getting ahead)
o While some emotions may be seen as diminishing social function, a social group
as a whole must reject or challenge emotions in areas where they do not help
society
o Anger, while classified sometimes as an emotion that can weaken social
relationships, can serve as a warning of danger, enabling people involved to
address the source of the anger (work together before violence results from issues)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
