Emotion

“a complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioural, and physiological elements, by which an individual attempts to deal with a significant matter or event” - APA dictionary of psychology

• Experiential component • Behavioural component • Physiological component

what the mind has conscious access to. E.g. I feel sacred

What physical actions we perform with our body – the tendency the emotions produce

Prepares body for future actions

“A complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioural, and physiological elements, typically (but not exclusively) elicited ad a response to a personally significant matter or event”

A disposition to person emotionally in a practical way that may last for hours, days, or even weeks, perhaps at a low level without the person knowing what prompted that state

The subjective experience of an emotion or mood

Umbrella term that encompasses emotions, mood, and feelings

If you perceive an affect you recognise the potential signal for that affect

○ If you express an affect, you are creating a signal that could be perceived by someone else

If you ‘feel’ the affect you actually experience the affect

If something ‘induces’ an affect it means the stimulus causes the participant to feel the affects

Express emotion as points in continuous space This location is specified by a series of numbers, with one corresponding to each dimension

2 dimensions • Arousal - links to energy levels • Valence - positive valence responds to good and negative feelings - used to encourage the individual to take decisions that are good for the organism’s security

• Pleasure - like valence • Arousal - links to energy levels • Dominance - distinguishes further - e.g. Fear and anger produce same pint on the circumflex model but a re very different when considering dominance

He believes we should focus on core emotions • Distinctive universal signals – there function to communicate emotional state with conspecifics (should occur cross-culturally) • Distinctive physiological signature – e.g., heart rate • Have an automatic appraisal mechanism – emotion must be a spontaneous reaction to a situation • Must have universal antecedent events – same events should elicit same emotions cross culturally

Efficient summary of relationships between emotions The dimensions of the models can have underlying biological significance

Limited in expressivity – struggle to provide a complete account of human emotion

Capture subtle differences between emotions

By being able to create many categories you end up with a long list with no clear structure Are emotions continuous or categorical?

Broad set of terms as to what an emotion is Conducted through a series of self-reported questionnaires based on how people experience emotions in musical contexts Model is hierarchical Top level being sublimity, vitality, and unease – each level is thus broken into more specific terms There is a positivity bias in this model – as positive emotions were more widely reported

Perceptions of beauty in wider context?

• Aesthetic versions of ‘ordinary’ emotions 2. Appreciation of aesthetic virtues