AP® Psychology review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/psych/units/4/4-7)
Unit 4 · Topic 4.7
4.7 Emotion
Emotion is a mix of body arousal, expressive behavior and conscious experience. Early theories argued about the order: does the body react first, do body and feeling happen at the same time, or do you need a cognitive label? You'll also study facial feedback, how positive emotions broaden thinking, which emotions may be universal, and how culture sets rules for showing feelings.
Key terms
- physiological arousal
- cognitive label (appraisal)
- facial-feedback hypothesis
- broaden-and-build theory
- universal emotions
- display rules
What an emotion is
An emotion, also called affect, is a complex response that involves physiological arousal (a racing heart, sweaty palms), expressive behavior (a smile or frown) and conscious experience (what you think and feel). Emotions are different from reasoning or knowledge, and they're influenced by both what's happening inside you and what's happening around you.
Three ideas about the order of events
Early 20th-century theories asked how the body's reaction and the feeling of emotion relate. The exam asks you to apply the ideas, not to name the theories, so focus on the sequence each one proposes. The names in parentheses are the ones you'll see in textbooks.
| Idea | Sequence | Example: a dog growls at you |
|---|---|---|
| Body first (James-Lange) | Stimulus, then body arousal, then you feel the emotion by noticing the arousal | Your heart pounds and you jump back, and noticing that makes you feel afraid |
| At the same time (Cannon-Bard) | Stimulus triggers body arousal and the feeling of emotion simultaneously and independently | Your heart pounds at the same moment you feel afraid |
| Arousal plus a label (two-factor, Schachter-Singer) | Stimulus causes general arousal; you then need a cognitive label to know which emotion you're feeling | Your heart pounds, you notice the growling dog and conclude 'I'm afraid' |
Facial feedback and broaden-and-build
The facial-feedback hypothesis proposes that your facial expressions can influence what you feel: smiling might make you feel a bit happier, and frowning a bit sadder. This supports the 'body first' idea, since a physical change comes before the feeling. Research on this is mixed. Some studies, including a well-known one where people held a pen in their teeth to force a smile, found small effects, but a large multi-lab attempt to repeat that pen study did not find the effect. Treat facial feedback as possible but modest.
Barbara Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory proposes that positive emotions like joy and interest broaden your awareness and encourage new thoughts and actions, such as exploring, playing and connecting with others. Over time, this builds lasting resources like skills and friendships. Negative emotions like fear tend to narrow attention and action toward a specific threat, which is useful in danger but limits flexible thinking.
Culture and emotional expression
Researchers such as Paul Ekman studied whether some emotions are expressed the same way everywhere. Six often proposed as universal are anger, disgust, sadness, happiness, surprise and fear, and people across many cultures recognize these facial expressions at above-chance rates. Other research finds recognition is better within your own culture, so the evidence for universality is mixed.
Display rules are cultural norms about when, where and how strongly emotions should be shown. Elicitors, the situations that trigger emotions, also differ by culture: what's embarrassing in one place may be ordinary in another. Display rules can vary within a culture too, by gender, age or social class. For example, some cultures discourage boys and men from crying in public, and many cultures expect more emotional restraint in formal settings or from people in authority.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Matching a scenario to the order of emotion
Jalen drinks three energy drinks and feels his heart racing. Moments later, a classmate bumps him, and he feels angry, more angry than usual. Which idea about emotion best explains his reaction, and why?
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Identify the arousal: the energy drinks caused general physical arousal that had no emotional label yet.
- Step 2: Identify the label: when the classmate bumped him, Jalen interpreted his arousal in light of the situation and labeled it as anger.
- Step 3: This matches the idea that emotion needs both physical arousal and a cognitive label (the two-factor idea). The extra, unexplained arousal made his anger stronger.
- Step 4: It doesn't fit the 'at the same time' idea, because the arousal came first and wasn't caused by the bump.
Answer: The arousal-plus-label (two-factor) idea: unrelated arousal from the energy drinks was labeled as anger once a fitting situation appeared, intensifying the emotion.
- Example 2
The trap: universal emotions versus display rules
At a funeral, a person from one culture cries openly, while a person from another culture keeps a calm face in public but cries later at home. A student says this proves sadness isn't a universal emotion. Respond to the claim.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Separate experience from expression. Both people may feel sadness; the question is how and where they show it.
- Step 2: Cultural norms about when and how to show emotion are display rules. The second person is following a rule that limits public expression.
- Step 3: Universality research is about whether basic emotions and their facial expressions are shared and recognized across cultures, not whether everyone shows them in the same settings.
- Step 4: So the difference is better explained by display rules, and it doesn't disprove that sadness is a universal emotion.
Answer: The claim is not supported. The difference reflects cultural display rules about expressing sadness in public, not a difference in whether sadness itself is experienced.
Common mistakes
- Memorizing theory names instead of sequences. The exam excludes the names, so know which idea says body first, which says simultaneous and which needs a cognitive label.
- Saying the facial-feedback hypothesis is proven. Results are mixed, and a major replication of a classic study didn't find the effect.
- Treating display rules as differences in what people feel. Display rules govern how emotions are shown, not whether they're experienced.
- Reversing broaden-and-build. Positive emotions broaden thinking; negative emotions narrow it.
On the exam
- Scenario questions usually describe the order of arousal and feeling. Trace the timeline and match it to the right idea.
- If asked about culture and emotion, name display rules or elicitors and give a specific example of how expression differs.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 4.7 Emotion. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Participants receive an injection that speeds up their heart rate but are not told about its effects. Those who then wait with a cheerful person report feeling happy, while those who wait with an irritated person report feeling annoyed. These results best support the view that
People from a remote community with little exposure to outside media correctly match photos of facial expressions to stories about happiness, fear and disgust. However, members of the community rarely show disappointment openly in front of elders. Which pair of concepts best explains these two observations?
A researcher randomly assigns participants to hold a pencil in their teeth (which forces a smile-like expression) or between their lips (which prevents smiling) while rating how funny cartoons are. Which hypothesis is the researcher testing?
A hiker sees a snake on the trail. She later says, "My heart started pounding and my legs began shaking, and when I noticed that, I realized I was terrified." Her description best fits the view that
0 of 4 answered