Motivation and Emotion Research Paper

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The two topics that comprise this research-paper have long histories in psychology. One way to assess interest in these topics is to look at the place they have held and currently hold in the undergraduate psychology curriculum. On one hand, course offerings on motivation seem to be declining; teachers and researchers have incorporated some topics subsumed under the word motivation within the increasing number of courses in behavioral neuroscience. On the other hand, there appears to be growing interest in the topic of emotion, with courses on the topic being offered as well as a number of special topics-related courses such as the psychology of fear. Certainly, the relatively new (historically speaking) “positive psychology” movement has focused more attention on some of the topics that would be listed as the province of emotion.

Motivation

One common definition of motivation is the “physiological and psychological factors that account for the arousal (energizing), direction, and persistence of behavior” (Davis & Palladino, 2007, p. 231). The word motivation is derived from the Latin word meaning “to move.” In essence, motivation addresses the causes of behaviors; the key questions focus on what “moves” organisms to act in the ways that they do. Most attempts to explain differences in level of motivation fall into a few general theoretical perspectives.

Theoretical Perspectives on Motivation

One of the oldest perspectives, drive theory, proposes the existence of internal motivational states called drives that result from some physiological need. Consequently, drive theory is most relevant to the biologically related motives such as hunger and thirst. Drive-reduction theory proposes that drives direct our behavior to reduce an existing state of physiological imbalance (which results from a state of deprivation) and return us to a more balanced state of homeostasis. From a behavioral standpoint, behaviors that lead to drive reduction are therefore reinforced and are more likely to occur again.

Optimum-level theories feature an opposite approach and propose that organisms are motivated not by drive reduction but by a desire to maintain some optimum level of arousal. This optimum level of arousal varies from individual to individual, thus accounting for the variability we see in human and animal behavior. One classic example of this approach is seen in research on sensation seeking, which is used to account for a wide range of behaviors: food preferences, gambling, drug and alcohol use, sexual behavior, occupations, and interests in sky diving and race car driving (Flory, Lynam, Milich, Leukefeld, & Clayton, 2004; McDaniel & Zuckerman, 2003; Zuckerman, 1994).

Perspectives on motivation also include cognitive consistency theories, which propose that we are motivated by a desire to maintain a state in which our thoughts and actions are consistent, a form of what might be termed psychological homeostasis. When thoughts and behaviors are inconsistent we experience cognitive dissonance, and we are motivated to reduce it by altering our thinking about the behaviors that are causing the cognitive dissonance. For example, a person who smokes may find this behavior incompatible with information on the dangers of smoking, thus creating cognitive dissonance. As a result, this smoker might focus on people who have smoked for long periods of time without ill effects in an effort to reduce the dissonance.

Another approach to motivation suggests that characteristics of the goals or incentives in our environment determine behavior. Thus, rather than being driven by internal forces (drive theory) we are pulled by external forces. Over many decades, a great deal of attention has focused on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which proposes the existence of the following hierarchy: basic physiological needs (e.g., for food, water, and sleep), safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. According to Maslow, we must first satisfy lower needs (especially basic physiological needs) and then strive to satisfy successively higher needs; consequently, his theory is sometimes described as a growth theory of motivation.

Hunger

Of all of the specific motives that we might discuss, hunger has received considerable attention in the academic and popular literature. In fact, in recent decades, we have seen growing concern over the accelerating rates of obesity with its concomitant negative effects on health and well-being.

One of the oldest theories of hunger focused on the role of the tiny hypothalamus in the brain, which was thought to contain a “start-eating” center along with a “stop-eating,” or satiety, center. Special receptors in the hypothalamus were thought to be sensitive to circulating levels of glucose in the blood. Surgical lesions of two separate parts of the hypothalamus tended to yield two different results: one lesion led to reduced food intake, a second lesion led to increased food intake. Another early view of the cause of hunger was that it was related to the amount of stored fat. When levels of fat were drawn down, signals would be sent to the brain to initiate eating in order to restore the fat that had been used. Subsequent research suggests that these approaches to understanding hunger are oversimplified. We now know that hunger has multiple biological determinants, including the hormone leptin as well as hormones in the small intestine that seem to serve as a stop-eating signal (Holtkamp et al., 2003; Nash, 2002).

Much of the current interest in hunger focuses on overeating (although anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are also of great concern), which is a much more serious worldwide problem in most developed countries than is starvation. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001), obesity is a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease, high cholesterol, stroke, hypertension (high blood pressure), osteoarthritis, sleep disorders (especially sleep apnea), and Type II diabetes. What’s more, obesity is associated with increased risk for the development of several types of cancer including colon, gallbladder, prostate, and kidney (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001; World Health Organization, 2005). The impact of obesity on health can be seen clearly in the observation that obesity is implicated in 4 of the top 10 causes of death in the United States (National Center for Health Statistics, 2004).

Obesity is a worldwide problem; the World Health Organization estimates the number of obese and overweight people in the world is more than one billion, with at least 300 million of these people considered to be obese. Worldwide there are an estimated 22 million children under age five who are overweight. Obesity rates vary quite a bit around the world. These rates tend to be quite low in China and Japan and quite high in urban Samoa (World Health Organization, 2005), which suggests that cultural and social factors are involved in what we weigh. For example, rates of obesity are higher among those in the lower socioeconomic classes than among those in the middle and upper socioeconomic classes (Bray, 2004).

Body Mass Index

But just how do we know if we are overweight or obese? The original method used to make such judgments involved use of tables of desirable weight (listed by height) published by major insurance companies. Unfortunately, these tables were based on the weights of people who could afford to buy the insurance policies, thus the sample was hardly representative of the entire population (most likely they were in better health than the general population). What’s more, as the population added pounds across the decades, additional weight was added to the tables of desirable weight, perhaps providing some small comfort as we added inches to our girth!

A major change in the way we assess our weight occurred in 1998 when the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) devised a new approach called body mass index (BMI). The BMI index is a single number (most people have a BMI in the 20 to 40 range) that represents your height and weight without reference to sex. You can determine your BMI by entering your height and your weight into one of many Web sites that are available to make such calculations. For example, see http://www .nhlbisupport.com/bmi.

But why would you want to know your BMI? Simply put, your BMI is a better indicator of health and disease risk than other weight-related measures. For example, an increase of just 1 in the BMI increases heart disease risk by 5 percent in men and 7 percent in women (Kenchaiah et al., 2002). Nevertheless, the BMI should not be used by everyone. For example, competitive athletes and body builders should not use the BMI because their high muscle mass will give a misleading picture of health-related risk. Why? Muscle tissue weighs more than fat; hence, the picture of health for a bodybuilder based on BMI can be misleading. The BMI should also not be used by pregnant women and those who are frail and sedentary. Although the exact points on the BMI scale that trigger recommendations to lose weight are still debated (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Sheman, 2000), the existing NHLBI guidelines are as follows:

Underweight: less than 18.5

Normal weight: 18.5-24.9

Overweight: 25-29.9

Obese: BMI of 30 or greater

The most recent surveys of the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the U.S. were completed in 2003-2004. The percentage of adults age 20 years and over who were overweight or obese (BMI of 25 or greater) was 66 percent. The percentage of adults who were obese (BMI over 30) was 32 percent (National Center for Health Statistics, 2007).

Causes of Obesity

Although the original focus on hunger was on the role of the hypothalamus in gauging glucose levels, it is possible that tumors in the hypothalamus and elsewhere in the endocrine and nervous systems might be responsible for cases of obesity. The evidence indicates, however, that only a small percentage of cases of obesity (about 5 percent) have various endocrine problems or damage to the hypothalamus (Bray, 2004). On the other hand, evidence for the role of genetic factors in weight and obesity is quite strong (Bulike, Sullivan, & Kendler, 2003, Schouseboe et al., 2004). For example, there is a high correlation between the weights of identical twins, even when they are separated at birth. Such findings point strongly to a genetic influence on what we weigh. But what exactly is it that we might inherit? One possibility is that genetic factors can influence what is termed the basal metabolic rate (BMR). Think of the BMR as the pilot light on a stove or a water heater—both devices will burn fuel for energy even when no hot water is being used or the stove is not turned on and in use. Likewise, throughout the day our body needs energy to keep us alive—heart rate, breathing, and so on. The rate at which we burn energy in the body to keep basic processes going is our BMR. Several factors influence our basal metabolic rate: Men have a higher rate of BMR than women, and the BMR drops with age. This latter finding explains why we tend to put on weight as we age, even if we maintain our same level of exercise (Goodenough, McGuire, & Wallace, 2005). As we age the body uses fewer calories to keep us going; any excess calories will have a tendency to go directly to our hips and abdomen!

One way to look at the problem of obesity is to view it as simply the consequence of taking in more calories than we burn. In general, it takes 3,500 calories to equal a pound of fat (Goodenough et al., 2005). Thus, if we consumed 10 more calories than we burn every day for a year we would add 10 pounds. Multiple this result by several years and it is easy to see how we can add a significant amount of weight over time as we age.

Dieting

Listen to television, read your e-mail, check your snail mail. The odds are you will come across information on a new weight-loss diet. According to “New Diet Winners” (2007), “Americans don’t give up easily. Those hoping to lose weight have put a whole new crop of diet books on the best-seller list” (p. 12). Despite the multiple determinants of obesity, the number one plan for losing weight is a diet of some kind (Kaplan, 2007). Consumer Reports recently published an analysis of a number of diet books, with mixed views on their effectiveness.

One problem with many diets over the years is they may be highly unrealistic as long-term solutions to obesity. They may work initially (often the result of calorie reduction); however, in the end they are likely to fail, especially if they require that you consume foods that are not very desirable. How long could anyone follow a hot dog diet (just hot dogs and condiments), a pumpkin and carrot diet, a mushroom diet, a milk-only diet, or an eggs and wine diet? The list of highly unusual diets goes on and grows longer every year, yet our insatiable desire to lose weight finds a ready audience. In fact, research on the effectiveness of dieting has yielded two general conclusions: (a) Diets work in the short term, and (b) Diets do not work in the long run (Mann et al., 2007). What’s more, “The more time that elapses between the end of a diet and the follow-up, the more weight is regained” (Mann et al., 2007, p. 211).

When we diet, we are engaged in a battle with the consequences of evolution. Over thousands of years, evolution has favored those who ate as many calories as possible to protect against the next unpredictable famine. Thus, they were in a better position to pass on their genes to the next generation. Evolution has led us to eat when food is available, and in many countries around the world food is very readily available. Consider the following: Between 1984 and 2000, our daily intake of calories increased by 500 per day. We tend to eat out more often, consuming more fat, less fiber, more cholesterol, and more calories than are found in homemade meals (Spake, 2002). What’s more, we live in an era of supersizing. In fact, just increasing the portion size will lead us to consume more food (Rolls, Roe, Kral, Meengs, & Wall, 2004).

But are there some general principles that can help us in the battle of the bulge? As “New Diet Winners” (2007) notes, “The basic formula for losing weight has not changed: Consume fewer calories than you burn—about 500 fewer every day, to lose about a pound a week” (p. 12).

Consider the following if you intend to look for ways to lose weight for the long haul:

Increase physical activity. A club membership at the local gym is not required, although the surge in memberships after New Year’s Day attests to their appeal at one time of the year. Consider the simplest exercise possible—walking. Buy a pedometer and set a goal (10,000 steps per day is a reasonable goal). Build physical exercise into your everyday routine, so you do not have to make a special trip to exercise. Use the stairs, not the elevator. Park some distance from your destination at work or the mall, thus forcing yourself to walk a few hundred extra steps each way. Across an entire year, a few hundred extra steps a day can add up to a weight loss of several pounds.
Eat slowly. (This does not mean chewing your food 27 times before you swallow!) The additional time may allow the body’s biological signals to indicate that you are really full. One added benefit of slowing down your eating is you might find out how the food actually tastes!
Identify cues that lead you to eat. Some of us eat when we are upset, or when we watch television. Be aware and make changes. Be careful to avoid the influence of cues. We are highly visual animals and readily respond to the sight of food (note how good everything looks when we are in a supermarket—even the frozen food that never measures up to the picture on the package).
Diets often remove the enjoyment from eating. Add some spice (literally) to what you eat in order to make any diet more effective in helping you lose weight.
Try to preload your stomach with bulky, low-calorie foods such as popcorn (no butter), carrots, or celery.
Do not go grocery shopping when you are hungry, otherwise you are likely to come home with a basketful of items that you do not need and should not eat.

Other Eating Disorders

Although a great deal of recent attention has focused on overeating and the health effects of obesity, there are other eating-related disorders that should be considered. Mark Chavez and Thomas Insel (2007) of the National Institute of Mental Health recently wrote, “Advancing the understanding and treatment of eating disorders is an issue of immense public health importance and is recognized as an area of high priority by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)” (p. 159). The primary eating-related problems beyond obesity are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and a category of eating disorder not otherwise specified (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

Anorexia nervosa literally means “nervous loss of appetite”; however, this literal meaning is misleading because victims of anorexia nervosa deny their hunger as result of an intense fear of becoming fat (Keel, 2005). Anorexia nervosa tends to occur in women, especially between the ages of 13 and 20 (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). It can be diagnosed when a person’s weight falls below 85 percent of a desirable weight, or has a BMI of less than 17.5 (Wilson, Grilo, & Vitousek, 2007). Most victims, however, tend to lose far more weight than these figures would suggest. In fact, it is not uncommon for victims to take on the appearance of a skeleton, wrapped in tissue-like skin with virtually every bone visible; the loss of weight is so severe that it may be difficult to discern the person’s sex when looking at the naked body. This “semi-starvation brings about profound and predictable changes in mood, behavior, and physiology. These include depression, social withdrawal, food preoccupation, altered hormone secretion, amenorrhea, and decreased metabolic rate” (Wilson, Grilo, & Vitousek, 2007, p. 199). There is a long list of associated medical problems, including anemia, low blood pressure, and stress fractures, that result when the calcium is extracted from bones (American Psychiatric Association, 2007). Moreover, changes in potassium and sodium levels in the body can lead to cardiac arrest or kidney failure. Thus, it is not surprising that the mortality rate from anorexia nervosa is approximately 5 percent per decade (Birmingham, Su, Hlynsky, Goldner, & Gao, 2005), which is the highest mortality rate of all mental disorders (Millar et al., 2005).

People suffering from bulimia nervosa (literally “continuous nervous hunger”) may consume a tremendous number of calories at one sitting and then vomit, take laxatives or diuretics, or engage in excessive exercise (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). These behaviors following an episode of binge eating are referred to as compensatory behaviors and are the mark of the purging component of bulimia nervosa. There are also bulimics who restrict their food intake and exercise for weight control. “Associated general psychopathology (e.g., depression and personality disorders) and psychosocial impairment are common” (Wilson et al., 2007, p. 203). The disorder tends to occur in young women. Despite a long list of medical complications that include irregular heartbeat and altered levels of potassium, sodium, and calcium, it is quite often a dentist who first notices the disorder. In contrast to persons with anorexia nervosa, most victims tend to maintain a body weight very close to their desirable weight; however, the stomach acid that accompanies frequent vomiting is likely to lead to an increased number of cavities.

Emotion

It was in 1884 that William James first posed the question, “What is an emotion?” and 125 years later psychologists and neuroscientists continue to seek an answer. In fact, more than 90 definitions of the term were offered during the 20th century (Plutchik, 2001). There is general agreement that the word emotion is derived from the Latin word meaning “to move” and from the prefix e, which means “away.” This derivation from the Latin word for “move” reveals why the topics of emotion and motivation have been linked historically in textbooks and in other writings.

The question of what is emotion, like emotion itself, is multifaceted, spawning centuries of research from multiple theoretical perspectives. These perspectives differ not only in school of thought but the aspect of emotion on which they focus. When we talk about our own emotions, we typically are really describing how we feel. (Note that the term mood is often used when the feelings associated with emotions last for an extended period of time.) Indeed, the subjective internal experience is an important aspect of emotion, but it is not the only facet that interests researchers. Bodily changes, cognitions, and the way we communicate via emotional expression are all important areas of inquiry in the study of emotion. Whatever emotion is, it is an integral part of our lives. Oatley and Duncan (1994) asked participants to keep a log of their emotional experiences. Participants reported having at least one emotional experience per day that was strong enough to elicit a noticeable physical reaction. One third of the participants reported that this emotional experience lasted 30 minutes or more! No wonder emotion has garnered so much attention from novelists, poets, filmmakers, and psychologists.

Evolution and Emotion

The importance of emotion was not lost on Charles Darwin, who focused on the expressive aspects of emotion. He believed, not surprisingly, that emotion could only be understood as part of the evolutionary history and survival of a species. His focus was not, however, on the role of emotional expression in communication between members of a species. Instead, he believed that emotional expression served another purpose in survival. Darwin’s “principle of serviceable habits” stated that facial expressions had directly serviced the organism. He used the facial expression we associate with disgust as an example to make his point. Tonight, when you brush your teeth, take a look at the expression you make as you spit out your toothpaste. Darwin noted that it is the same face we make when the emotion of disgust is elicited. According to Darwin, this expression originally served the purpose of spitting out spoiled or poisonous foods and through habit came to be produced whenever a disgusting notion comes to mind. In other words, over time disgust probably came under some degree of voluntary control; consequently, the facial expression of disgust now occurs as a response to circumstances that have less to do with the taste of food and more to do with our reactions to moral offenses, foul languages, or poor hygiene (Rozin, Lowery, & Ebert, 1994). Both anger and fear work similarly in Darwin’s estimation. For instance, an angry cat arches its back to look larger, hisses to show its teeth, and lays its ears back to protect them from injury in a fight. These outward expressions of anger serve a real purpose, aside from their value in communication (Darwin, 1872/1965). Put another way, emotions can increase the chances of survival by providing us with a readiness for actions such as fighting predators that have helped people survive throughout our evolutionary history (Plutchik, 1993, 2001). Anger “intimidates, influences others to do something you wish them to do, energizes an individual for attack or defense and spaces the participants in a conflict” (Plutchik, 2001, p. 348).

Darwin (1872/1965) believed that the value of emotional expression was limited, however, to the “negative” emotions. Positive emotional expression such as smiling with joy served no purpose, in Darwin’s view. Instead, as posited in his “principle of antithesis,” positive emotional expression is a result of the absence of the negative emotion. When a cat is docile, its mouth is closed, its ears and tail are in an upward position, and the hair on its back is relaxed. Darwin saw this seemingly opposite bodily position as not being an expression of its own but instead simply the absence of the negative, survival-valuable behavior.

Darwin (1872/1965) saw these emotional expressions as a function of evolution and therefore as biological, not culturally learned. Using a survey he distributed to missionaries, he collected evidence that these expressions were the same across multiple cultures even where contact with the West was extremely limited. Contemporary researchers have done much to bolster Darwin’s claim. Ekman and Friesen (1971) investigated emotional expression in the preliterate Fore tribe in New Guinea. Using photographs, the highly isolated Fore tribe members were able to successfully select the appropriate facial expression to a story read to them by the researchers. These people could not have learned the meanings of facial expressions through the media, as they had no access to any media at all.

Using a version of the game “name that emotion,” Ekman (2003) found that people from Western and Eastern literate cultures, including Japan and the United States, associate similar emotions with certain facial expressions. Not surprisingly, a recent extension of this research with participants in the United States, India, and Japan found that people tend to recognize emotions more easily when they are viewing people from their own culture (Elfenbein, Mandal, Ambady, Harizuka, & Kumar, 2002), but even so, these findings support the notion that humans have innate, genetically wired templates for expressing different emotions. It makes sense that there should be similarities across cultures. Human beings belong to the same species: our brains, our bodies, our autonomic nervous systems, our hormones, and our sense organs are similarly constructed. Modern-day researchers seem to have arrived at the conclusion that six basic emotions are generally recognized across the world: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, with agreement highest for facial expressions of happiness. Researchers have even seen emotional expressions on the faces of infants born blind and deaf, which clearly suggests that there is a strong biological/evolutionary component to what we call emotion. As Darwin suggested, emotional expressions appear to be universal.

The Emotional Body

Whereas Darwin focused on emotional expression, William James was captivated by the physiological component of emotion. James (1884) believed that the body is central to the generation of emotion. James sought to argue against the prevailing view that the experience of emotion generated bodily changes. Indeed, he believed the opposite to be true, that the bodily change created the emotional experience.

The hypothesis here to be defended says…that the more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble, because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be. (p. 190)

While James was crafting his theory, Danish physiologist Carl Lange was independently developing a similar notion of his own, resulting in the theory coming to be known as James-Lange theory. Lange also believed that bodily changes were the cause of emotion, but he took his theory a step further. Lange sought to determine which bodily manifestations accompanied each emotion. The idea that each emotion has its own physiological signature has come to be known as autonomic specificity. The term refers to Lange’s focus on bodily changes controlled by the autonomic nervous system, such as blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate. Lange failed to provide compelling evidence to support this notion, but the idea has spawned countless investigations into the physiology of emotion. As physiological measurement has advanced, so has our understanding of the relation between bodily change and emotion. However, the James-Lange theory was not without its critics. One of the most vocal opponents of the theory was the physiologist Walter Cannon. Cannon argued that the type of body changes that James-Lange believed to be at the heart of emotion were nonspecific and too slow to be responsible for producing emotion. Cannon and Phillip Bard developed a competing theory that posited that the physiological change and the experience of emotion occurred simultaneously. Known as Cannon-Bard theory, it argued that physiological change did not precede emotion; instead, they emerged together to produce the experience we call emotion.

Thinking About Emotion

The cognitive aspects of emotion have been the focus of researchers as well. Cognitive theories of emotion have focused on the role of judgment and thought in the development of the emotional experience. Schacter and Singer (1962) proposed a theory that elaborated on William James’s notions that bodily change equaled emotion. Titled the “two-factor theory of emotion,” it didn’t deny the importance of bodily change in the formation of emotion. Indeed, autonomic arousal was the “first” of the two factors. The theory differed from James’s, however, in that it emphasized the importance of environmentally appropriate cognition as a key aspect of emotion. Once a bodily change is produced, the individual looks to evaluate the environment to explain the bodily state. That evaluation then results in the state being interpreted as a particular emotion. When a dog comes around the corner and surprises you as you walk down the street, the startle produces bodily change. Are you scared? Are you happy? The two-factor theory suggests that the answer depends on how you evaluate the dog. If you’ve had bad experiences in the past with dogs you may experience the bodily change as fear. A dog lover is more apt to experience the same physiological experience as happiness. Many modern theorists have also focused on the cognitive evaluation of stimuli as being vital in the experience of emotion. Lazarus (1991) proposed his cognitive-motivational-relational theory. The theory centers on the notion of appraisal of our environments. For Lazarus, appraisals focus on whether the environment has positive or negative personal implications. Further, the appraisals have two components, a primary and secondary appraisal. The primary appraisal determines whether an environmental stimulus has any personal relevance. Seeing a house cat walking down an alley is likely to be appraised as having little personal impact. Seeing a tiger, however, is likely to be appraised quite differently. Having appraised the tiger as quite relevant, the individual then begins the secondary appraisal process. The secondary appraisal focuses on how to maximize award or minimize harm in response to the environmental stimulus. In the case of the tiger, the individual’s secondary appraisal would focus on how to escape the large predator unharmed.

Anatomy of Emotion

Since James, Lange, and Cannon emphasized the importance of physiology in the process of emotion, much has been learned about the neuroanatomical systems involved in affective experience. The human nervous system has two main parts, the central nervous system (CNS) and the periperhal nervous system (PNS). Each of these branches of the nervous system has a vital role to play in emotion.

The PNS is defined as all nervous system structures outside of the brain and spinal cord. It consists of a system of axonal fibers that bring sensory stimuli to the CNS (sensory neurons) as well as a response to said stimuli from the CNS to the rest of the body (motor neurons).

Theories of how emotions are generated abound but one aspect of emotional experience is undeniable: It is a biological organism that experiences the emotion. As such, there can be little doubt that an understanding of the anatomical structures involved in emotion is key to understanding the emotional experience in its totality.

A great deal of the focus on the nervous system and emotion involves, not surprisingly, the limbic system, which includes the amygdala, hippocampus, and the hypothalamus. The amygdala is a small almond-shaped structure that seems to react instantly to sensory inputs and can trigger the fight-or-flight response while the cortex is still evaluating the inputs. In a series of interesting experiments, Joseph LeDoux (1996) found that there are two pathways information can take to the brain. One route involves the cortex and the other is subcortical. But why would there be two routes to follow? As failing to respond to danger is more costly than responding inappropriately to a benign stimulus. The subcortical route is simply faster. In a related vein, researchers have found that people with a damaged amygdala rated faces with negative expressions to be as trustworthy as faces with positive expressions. What’s more, brain scans reveal activation of the amygdala when people view facial expressions of fear and anger. The range of emotions for which the amygdala plays a role is expanding at a rapid rate; for example, research now indicates that the amygdala is activated while viewing pictures that portray sadness.

Emotion in Action

In more recent years, psychologists have developed the concept of emotional intelligence, which focuses on four qualities: (a) the ability to perceive emotions in others, (b) the ability to facilitate thought, (c) understanding emotions, (d) and managing emotions. The concept recognizes the fact that brainpower is not necessarily important for success and that the listed qualities have generally gone unrecognized. What’s more, there is little to no relation between emotional intelligence and intelligence as measured by standard tests of intelligence. Researchers have found that scores of measures of emotional intelligence correlate with happiness when both people in a couple had high scores; happiness was in the mid-range if one member of the couple had a high score and the other had a low score.

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