Deck 5: Bodily Changes and Emotion

Question 1

Based on comparison of the autonomic nervous systems of different species, Steven Porges (1995, 1998) has made a case for three stages in the evolution of the autonomic nervous system. A first stage produced the _________ which is present in _________.

A) sympathetic nervous system; mammals only.
B) dorsal vagal complex; all species.
C) ventral vagal complex; mammals only.
D) parasympathetic nervous system; all species.

Answer 1

dorsal vagal complex; all species.

Question 2

Restorative processes are driven by the _______________ branch of the autonomic nervous system and include __________________.

A) sympathetic; the directing of inner resources to digestion.
B) parasympathetic; the directing of inner resources to digestion.
C) sympathetic; increases in blood pressure.
D) parasympathetic; increases in blood pressure.

Answer 2

parasympathetic; the directing of inner resources to digestion.

Question 3

Results from studies employing Levenson and colleagues's directed facial action task reveal:

A) Large increases in heart rate occur for fear and anger but not for sadness.
B) Sweat activity is greater fear and anger than for disgust and sadness.
C) Finger temperature was greater for anger than fear.
D) Emotion-specific autonomic patterns seem to be different between cultures and when comparing elderly participants' responses to those of middle-aged adults.

Answer 3

Finger temperature was greater for anger than fear.

Question 4

Which of the following is a method that psychologists use to measure the activity of the autonomic nervous system?

A) To capture activation in the vagus nerve, the relationship between respiration and heart-rate cycles is assessed.
B) The galvanic skin response is used to estimate the rate of digestion.
C) Vasoconstriction in the arteries and veins is estimated based on an individual's sleep-wake cycle.
D) The ratio between face and finger temperature is used as an estimate of overall well-being of one's autonomic nervous system.

Question 5

Based on comparison of the autonomic nervous systems of different species, Steven Porges (1995, 1998) has made a case for three stages in the evolution of the autonomic nervous system. According to Porges, the last portion to evolve was the _____________ and it is this system that allows the actions necessary for _____________.

A) dorsal vagal complex; negative emotions
B) ventral vagal complex; negative emotions
C) dorsal vagal complex; positive emotions
D) ventral vagal complex; positive emotions

Question 6

Damasio (1994) proposed the somatic marker hypothesis, a thesis that is supported by which of the following reported findings related to patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex?
a. These patients show extremely pronounced responses to emotional stimuli.
b. These patients are emotionally volatile but their judgment is unaffected.
c. These patients possess an emotional deficit such that they are relatively unresponsive to emotional stimuli.
d. These patients are likely to make risky choices during the Iowa Gambling Task and show a heightened sympathetic system response when making such risky choices.

Question 7

Paula Niedenthal (2007) offered an important line of theorizing on what is called embodiment and conducted studies in which participants were asked to match words (e.g., vomit, sun, fight) with emotion categories (e.g., "disgust" "anger" "joy"). Categorizing words related to joy led to activation of the ________ muscle(s):

A) zygomaticus
B) orbicularis
C) levator
D) both a & b

Question 8

Mark Leary and colleagues (1992) carefully analyzed situations that produce the blush. They discerned specific elicitors of the blush and proposed a specific cause:

A) overexcitement.
B) social attention.
C) positive self-focused attention.
D) negative self-focused attention.

Question 9

Levenson and colleagues employed a directed facial action task to study how autonomic activity corresponds with various facial expressions. Their results challenged:

A) William James's autonomic specificity thesis.
B) Cannon's critique of autonomic specificity.
C) Schachter and Singer's two-factor theory.
D) Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis.

Question 10

Paula Niedenthal (2007) offered an important line of theorizing on what is called embodiment and conducted studies in which participants were asked to match words (e.g., vomit, sun, fight) with emotion categories (e.g., "disgust" "anger" "joy"). Categorizing words related to anger led to activation of the ________ muscle(s):

A) corrugator
B) levator
C) orbicularis
D) zygomaticus

Question 11

Giacomo Rizzolatti and colleagues (1996) reported that mirror neurons located in the ____________ of monkeys' brains fire when _______________.
a. pre-motor cortex; an intended action by another monkey was observed or the same action was carried out by the monkey itself.
b. insula; an intended action by another monkey was observed or the same action was carried out by the monkey itself.
c. pre-motor cortex; they saw another monkey's facial expression of disgust and when they themselves experienced disgust.
d. insula; they saw another monkey's facial expression of disgust and when they themselves experienced disgust.

Question 12

Kok and Fredrickson (2010) assessed people's vagal tone at the beginning and end of a nine-week study, and in between these two assessments they had participants report on their daily experience of positive emotions and the strength of their social connections. The key finding from this study was that:

A) People with elevated vagal tone at the beginning of the study show greater increases over time in social connectedness and positive emotion.
B) Increases in social connections over the nine weeks led to rises in vagal tone at the end of the study.
C) Increases in positive emotion over the nine weeks led to rises in vagal tone at the end of the study.
D) All of the above.

Question 13

Evidence that supports William James's claim regarding autonomic specificity and emotion includes all but which one of the following?

A) There are over a dozen distinct autonomic pathways that activate different regions of the body.
B) The same pattern of physiological arousal is present organisms that are encountering a threat and those receiving a reward.
C) There are many different ways that components of the autonomic nervous system might combine to produce different responses.
D) All of the above serve as evidence for James' autonomic specificity thesis.

Question 14

The sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system:

A) increases heart rate and cardiac output.
B) is involved in emotional responses that involve goosebumps.
C) reduces the activity of natural killer cells, which are involved in immune responses.
D) all of the above.

Question 15

One branch of the neuroendocrine system particularly relevant to emotion is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, whose activation results in the release of the stress-related hormone ________ into the bloodstream.
a. cortisol
b. vasopressin
c. cytokinin
d. ABTH

Question 16

Cannon criticized James's autonomic specificity on the following grounds:

A) Physiological states are more vivid than emotional experiences; therefore the autonomic thesis overestimates the intensity of emotions.
B) Emotional and non-emotional states are marked by distinctly different physiological patterns; therefore the autonomic thesis fails to explain transitions between neutral and emotional moods.
C) Autonomic responses are too slow to account for the rapidity with which we experience emotion or move from one emotion to another.
D) People are very sensitive to changes within their bodies which leads them to misconstrue bodily for genuine emotional experiences.

Question 17

The two factors in Schachter and Singer's (1962) two-factor theory are:

A) nature and nurture
B) arousal and construal
C) instinct and acquired drive
D) emotion and action