Motivation, Emotion & Stress

This is Unit Nine of Psychology, Part Two: emotion, and stress. There are four theories of emotion in this part, and they disagree about something specific — the order. Does the body react first and the feeling follow? Do they happen at once? Does the body react and then a thought supply the label? Or does the interpretation come first and produce everything else? That is a testable disagreement, and there is a procedure here that tests it — running one episode through all four and finding where their predictions come apart. Then stress, and the central idea is that stress is not a property of events. It is an appraisal — the same event can be a challenge to one person and a threat to another, and the difference is a judgment about resources rather than about the event. Which leads to the practical part. Coping strategies are not better or worse in general — they are matched to whether the stressor is controllable. Getting that match wrong is what makes effort useless. By the end you will be able to do five things. One: state the four theories and where they diverge. Two: say what display rules are and what survives across cultures. Three: say what makes an event a stressor. Four: name the three stages and what the axis releases. Five: match a coping strategy to controllability.

Five entries. One definition naming three components — and then four theories arguing about which component comes first. The disagreement looks academic and it is not, because the four make different predictions about the same episode.

The definition.

Psych 1021 Emotion

A subjective state involving physiological arousal, expressive behavior, and conscious experience. Three components — and the theories differ over their order.

The first theory.

Psych 1023 The James-Lange Theory

Physiological arousal occurs first, and the emotion is the perception of that arousal. Which reverses the intuitive account — you do not tremble because you are afraid, you are afraid because you tremble.

The second.

Psych 1024 The Cannon-Bard Theory

Arousal and the conscious experience occur simultaneously and independently. Neither one causes the other, which is a direct rejection of the first theory.

The third.

Psych 1026 The Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

Emotion requires physiological arousal plus a cognitive label drawn from context. The arousal says something is happening and the context decides what it was — which explains why the same state gets read differently in different rooms.

And the fourth.

Psych 1027 The Lazarus Appraisal Theory

A cognitive appraisal of the situation precedes and determines the emotional response. Thought first, and everything else follows from it.

One procedure, and it is what turns four positions into a question with an answer. One emotional episode, run through all four accounts, with attention on the places where they predict different things.

Watch four theories get compared.

Psych 1029 Comparing Theories of Emotion

Running one episode through each account and identifying where their predictions diverge. Which is the only way theories that all fit the ordinary case can be told apart.

Four entries on the outside of emotion. Some expressions are recognised across widely separated cultures. What varies is when and how they may be shown — and the last entry complicates the whole topic by pointing out that the body's arousal pattern is similar across several different emotions.

What is universal.

Psych 1031 Basic Emotions

A set of emotions whose facial expressions are recognised across widely separated cultures. Recognition is the finding — not that they are felt identically.

What is learned.

Psych 1033 Display Rules

Culturally learned norms governing when and how emotions may be expressed. The expression is shared and the permission to use it is not.

A hypothesis.

Psych 1035 The Facial Feedback Hypothesis

That facial expression can influence the emotional experience it accompanies. Which would make the arrow run both ways rather than only outward.

And a complication.

Psych 1037 The Autonomic Signature of Emotion

Emotional arousal is produced largely by the sympathetic division, and its physiological pattern is similar across several emotions. Which is exactly the problem the two-factor theory was built to solve.

Four entries, and the definition does something worth noticing. Stress is not defined as a kind of event — it is defined as a process of appraisal. The event is a separate term, and whether it produces stress depends on a judgment.

The process.

Psych 1039 Stress

The process by which a person appraises and responds to events they judge to exceed their resources. Judge is the operative word — the same event does not produce the same stress in two people.

The trigger.

Psych 1041 Stressor

Any event or condition that produces the stress response. A separate term from the process, so that the two do not get confused.

Two readings.

Psych 1043 Eustress and Distress

Eustress is stress appraised as challenging and manageable; distress is stress appraised as threatening and beyond one's resources. Same machinery, two appraisals.

Two questions.

Psych 1045 Primary and Secondary Appraisal

Primary appraisal judges whether an event is threatening; secondary appraisal judges whether one's resources are sufficient. Two separate judgments, and distress is a particular combination of their answers.

Three entries on the physiology. Three stages of response when stress continues, the hormonal axis producing them, and then one measurable consequence — which is what makes prolonged stress a health matter rather than only an experience.

Three stages.

Psych 1047 The General Adaptation Syndrome

Alarm, resistance, and exhaustion — three stages of response to prolonged stress. The third stage is what happens when the second cannot be sustained.

The axis.

Psych 1049 The HPA Axis and Cortisol

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis releases cortisol during stress, mobilising energy and suppressing non-urgent functions. Suppressing is the part that matters over time — the non-urgent functions include some important ones.

One consequence.

Psych 1051 Stress and Immune Function

Prolonged stress is associated with suppressed immune function and slower wound healing. A measurable physical consequence of a psychological process.

Two entries. A behavioral pattern named decades ago and still cited, and a syndrome that arises specifically from chronic workplace stress — defined by three components rather than by simple tiredness.

The pattern.

Psych 1053 Type A and Type B Patterns

The Type A pattern describes competitiveness, urgency and hostility; Type B describes a more relaxed style. A description of behavior rather than of a personality type in the Unit Ten sense.

The syndrome.

Psych 1055 Job Burnout

A syndrome of exhaustion, cynicism and a reduced sense of accomplishment, arising from chronic workplace stress. Three components — and the second and third are what separate it from being tired.

Four entries, and the first two are the pair with practical use. Neither strategy is better. Which one is right depends on whether the stressor can be changed — and the last entry describes what happens when someone learns that nothing they do works.

The first strategy.

Psych 1057 Problem-Focused Coping

Addressing the stressor itself by acting to change or remove it. Correct when the stressor is controllable, and wasted effort when it is not.

The second.

Psych 1058 Emotion-Focused Coping

Managing the emotional response rather than the stressor. Correct when the stressor cannot be changed — which makes it a strategy rather than an avoidance.

The resource.

Psych 1060 Social Support

The perceived and actual assistance available from one's relationships during stress. Perceived is listed first, and it does work of its own.

And the failure.

Psych 1062 Learned Helplessness

A reduction in attempts to escape or improve a situation after repeated experience of uncontrollable outcomes. What was learned is accurate about the past and gets applied to situations where it is not.

Three entries pointing the other way. A field studying what makes things go well rather than what makes them go wrong — and two findings from it, one discouraging and one useful.

The field.

Psych 1064 Positive Psychology

The study of the conditions and processes contributing to flourishing rather than to dysfunction. A change of subject rather than a change of method.

The discouraging finding.

Psych 1066 Hedonic Adaptation

The tendency to return toward a baseline level of wellbeing after major positive or negative life changes. It applies in both directions, which is the part worth holding onto.

And the useful one.

Psych 1068 Flow

A state of absorbed engagement occurring when a task's challenge closely matches a person's skill. Which makes it something arrangeable — adjust the challenge, or the skill, and the state becomes available.

Two entries closing the unit. A procedure that turns the coping material into an actual plan — every stressor listed, judged for controllability, matched to a strategy, with a support resource named for each. Then the capstone.

Watch a plan get built.

Psych 1070 Building a Coping Plan

Listing each stressor, judging its controllability, matching a coping strategy to that judgment, and naming the support resource for each. The judgment step is what makes the rest correct rather than arbitrary.

The capstone. One week, traced.

Psych 1072 A Week of Exam Stress, Traced

Following a stress episode from stressor through appraisal, hormonal response, sleep, memory and coping, and identifying where intervention would have mattered most. Four units, on one week.

Five things you can now do, and Unit Nine is complete. You can state the four theories of emotion and where they diverge — arousal first, arousal and feeling together, arousal plus a label from context, or appraisal determining everything. You can say what display rules are and what survives across cultures: the expressions are recognised widely, and the norms for when they may be shown are learned locally. You can say what makes an event a stressor — not the event, but an appraisal that it exceeds one's resources, in two judgments rather than one. You can name the three stages of the general adaptation syndrome and say that the hormonal axis mobilises energy while suppressing non-urgent functions. And you can match a coping strategy to controllability — acting on the stressor when it can be changed, managing the response when it cannot.