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Biological and Evolutionary Basis of Happiness

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Biological and Evolutionary Basis of Happiness

Theories of Emotion
• Emotion is a complex, subjective experience that is accompanied by biological and behavioral changes.
• Charles Darwin proposed that emotional expressions are hard-wired and that emotions evolved because they had adaptive value.
• Current evolutionary theorists believe that emotions are innate.
• The James-Lange theory states that people experience emotion because they perceive their bodies’ physiological responses to external events.
• The Cannon-Bard theory states that the experience of emotion and the accompanying physiological arousal happen at the same time.
• Schachter and Singer’s two-factor theory states that people’s experience of emotion depends on physiological arousal and the cognitive interpretation of that arousal.
• People’s experience of emotion depends on how they evaluate their environment.
The Biological Bases of Emotion
• Emotion involves activation of the brain and the autonomic nervous system.
• Information about emotion-evoking events moves along two pathways in the brain.
• The pathway that goes to the amygdala allows people to respond rapidly to events.
• The pathway that goes to the cortex allows people to appraise events more slowly.
• Researchers use autonomic responses to measure emotion.
• The polygraph, or lie detector, is a device that detects changes in autonomic arousal. It is often inaccurate in determining whether or not a person is lying.
• Different emotions differ in pattern of brain activation, neurotransmitters released, and autonomic nervous system activity.
Expression of Emotion
• People worldwide can identify six primary emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust.
• The facial-feedback hypothesis states that the brain uses feedback from facial muscles to recognize emotions that are being experienced.
• The two

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