Deck 1: Theories of Emotion

Question 1

Dimensional accounts of emotion are opposed to discrete or basic emotion theories. The most commonly accepted dimensional view is that:

A)There are four dimensions that account for emotional experience and these are positivity, negativity, low power, and high power
B)Emotional experience can be described by a circumplex, but this model is not made up of dimensions
C)The dimensions that characterize emotional experience can be mathematically described in a multidimensional space with infinite dimensions
D)There are two dimensions that account for emotional experience and these are pleasantness-unpleasantness and activated-deactivated

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following adaptive problems is not paired with the correct emotion, according to Plutchik's theory of actions?

A)Threat: fear
B)Obstacle or goal thwarting: anger
C)Sudden novel object: sadness
D)All of the above are correctly paired

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following theories of emotion is best known for predicting patterns of autonomic arousal for each basic emotion?

A)Evolutionary theories
B)Componential appraisal theories
C)Psychological constructionism
D)All theories of emotion argue for specificity of autonomic arousal during emotion states

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which theorist is best known for the peripheralist notion that specific autonomic activity creates the feeling state for each emotion?

A)Charles Darwin
B)William James
C)Robert Plutchik
D)Phoebe Ellsworth

Question 5

Which of the following statements about appraisal theories is true?

A)They claim that emotions are determined by how an individual appraises his or her circumstances
B)The theories state that very few objects or events inevitably cause the same emotion in all people
C)The only commonly accepted appraisal dimensions are ""good"" and ""bad""
D)Both A and B
E)All of the above

Question 6

According to appraisal theories, what causes specific emotions, such as anger?

A)Having the cultural knowledge of the concept of anger and appraising the situation as fitting that concept
B)A distinct pattern of appraisals on dimensions like valence, control, and certainty
C)A signal stimulus triggers an innate appraisal of its biological significance
D)There are no specific emotions in appraisal theories, just core affect

Question 7

In appraisal theories, what terms describe appraisals that are quick, automatic, and probably shared with other species, and appraisals that rely on higher-order mental processes and are probably learned?

A)Primary and secondary appraisals
B)Biological and sociological appraisals
C)Essential and nonessential appraisals
D)Hot and cold appraisals

Question 8

Certain modern variations of appraisal theories discount the idea of all-or-none ""basic emotions,"" and instead use appraisal dimensions to predict specific affective behaviors like rejection, freezing, and approaching, and changes in other components of emotion. What is one name for these newer theories, such as that of Scherer?

A)Componential theories
B)Programmatic appraisal theories
C)Two-factor theories
D)Behavioral appraisal theories

Question 9

A researcher wants to test her hypothesis that newborns' facial expressions reflect only positive and negative affect, at different levels of arousal. She is most likely which type of theorist?

A)An appraisal theorist
B)An evolutionary theorist
C)A componential theorist
D)A psychological constructionist

Question 10

Why do some researchers call emotions a ""conceptual act""?

A)Because they believe that appraisals are conceptually tied to associated actions, but this does not necessarily reflect a causal sequence
B)They think emotion category knowledge plays an active role in constructing emotions from more primitive affective states
C)They think humans and our primate relatives have discrete emotion states because of our shared ability to conceptualize the actions of others
D)They think all human behavior is a sort of performance and emotions are just another ""acted out"" phenomenon

Question 11

Imagine a group of researchers conducted studies around the world and found strong evidence that all human cultures experience, express, and have a word for something akin to ""anger."" How might the psychological constructionism perspective account for this?

A)By pointing out that cross-cultural variations in how ""anger"" is conceptualized can explain differences in how those cultures experience and express emotion
B)By arguing that the emotion is not innate or biologically programmed, but occurs across cultures because the concept of ""anger"" is universally useful for people living in social groups
C)By suggesting that an innate pattern of aggressive behaviors, physiological activity, and expression occurs universally, but we cannot know what people are actually feeling
D)Both A and B

Question 12

An action tendency is:

A)A reflexive and unchanging behavior that will inevitably follow from an emotion state
B)A stimulus in the environment that is likely to cause a behavioral response in an organism
C)A general pattern of adaptive and flexible behaviors associated with a particular emotion
D)None of the above

Question 13

What is another term for biologically prepared stimuli, or things in the environment that are important enough for survival that organisms innately respond to them?

A)action tendencies
B)signal stimuli
C)core affects
D)biological givens

Question 14

Which of the following is a difference between a mood and an emotion?

A)A mood is a prolonged state, while an emotion is short-lived
B)An emotion is less intense than a mood
C)A mood is usually undifferentiated, while an emotion is more discrete in quality
D)Both A and C
E)All of the above

Question 15

Which of the following would present a problem for a basic, evolutionary theory view of emotion?

A)In cultures that do not have words for a particular emotion, people do not appear to experience that emotion
B)When participants in the laboratory are under threat of shock, they always have increased sweating and heart rate, open their eyes wide, and express the desire to escape
C)When people make the basic facial expressions, their physiological responses are differentiated and specific to the emotion being expressed on the face
D)People in Spain and Uganda show the same facial expression when they are presented with a rotten piece of meat

Question 16

According to psychological constructionist theories, emotions:

A)Are shaped by events that elicit a predetermined reaction that is universally experienced across cultures
B)Are cognitive appraisals that become disconnected from the feelings by culture
C)Are the product of learned concepts and social norms
D)Result as adaptations to social threats from our surroundings

Question 17

According to appraisal theories:

A)Emotions unfold in a hardwired way in response to certain objects or situations
B)Emotions are determined by how people perceive situations
C)There are five critical dimensions of appraisal
D)Emotions are a product of a given culture, and are constructed by that culture for that culture
E)Both A and B

Question 18

When we say emotions are ""functional,"" what do we mean?

A)If people pay attention to their emotions, they will always make the best decision
B)Emotions motivate us to respond to stimuli with biologically adaptive behavior
C)Scientists can identify the specific neural mechanisms involved in each basic emotion
D)Organisms must have high-functioning cognitive capacities to experience advanced mental states like emotions
E)All of the above

Question 19

Which of the following scenarios most directly supports Schachter and Singer's Two-Factor Theory of Emotion?

A)Right after you ride an exhilarating roller coaster, you let your friend borrow your phone and she instantly drops and breaks it. You think to yourself that you are very angry and yell at her, but in hindsight you realize it's because the roller coaster increased your arousal level.
B)You're walking down a dark alley at night when you see a man with a knife coming towards you. You run away screaming, with your heart racing and your eyes open wide. Feeling these physiological changes and the urge to run away creates the feeling of fear in your mind.
C)While studying abroad, you realize that the language you are learning does not have a word that means ""contempt."" You start to notice that, indeed, the people in this country do not seem to experience an emotion that English speakers would call contempt.
D)You notice that when you are feeling sad, you have a difficult time remembering happy things from your past. Similarly, when you are feeling happy, all of the memories you can recall seem more pleasant.

Question 20

What is an emotional antecedent?

A)A biological state seen in more primitive vertebrates that is the evolutionary precursor to human emotions
B)An emotion that causes a particular behavior
C)The cognitive processes that immediately precede amygdala activity
D)The stimulus that elicits an emotion

Question 21

Which of the following theories is not paired with a correct description of its presumed ""biological givens""?

A)Evolutionary theories: signal stimuli, discrete emotions, and affect programs
B)Appraisal theories: valence and novelty detection
C)Psychological constructionism: core affects of valence and arousal
D)All of the above are correctly paired

Question 22

Which of the following is an example of a serviceable habit, as described originally by Charles Darwin?

A)Animals learning and habituating to their species' emotion expressions through experience
B)Through evolution, a random and non-functional body gesture becomes a communicative signal for a species
C)Facial expressions of disgust are thought to originate from actions that expel toxic substances
D)Fearful animals often have wide eyes because it is recognized across species as a sign of fear

Question 23

Which of the following statements is accurate?

A)Darwin suggested that expressions originating as functional behaviors can become communication signals that remain adaptive even if the original function disappears
B)Darwin disagreed with contemporary theorists who thought emotion expressions were a good example of natural selection
C)Darwin thought that facial expressions originating as serviceable habits were entirely separate from facial expressions that have communicative functions
D)Darwin concluded that very little evolutionary continuity exists between facial expressions in humans and facial expressions in other animals

Question 24

Chapter 1 emphasized the key differences between emotion theories, but in reality researchers agree on many things. Evolutionary, appraisal, and psychological constructionist theorists would probably all agree about which of the following conclusions?

A)Emotions are functional and help us survive
B)All mammals experience the same set of emotions
C)Emotions require cognition
D)All of the above