Lightly covered terrain What is emotion Widel y disputed so we need to simply choose a position emotion is a complex of beliefs arousal and valence of affect Features of emotion Emotions are typically conscious ID: 534693
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Slide1
Media and emotion
Lightly covered terrainSlide2
What is emotion?
Widel
y disputed, so we need to simply choose a position
emotion
is a complex of beliefs, arousal and valence of
affectSlide3
Features of emotion
Emotions are typically conscious
phenomena
They typically involve
pervasive
bodily
manifestations
They vary
in intensity
, type and range of intentional objects, valence
They
can undermine rationality
They contribute
to defining
our ends and priorities
;
They have a central place in moral education and the moral life.
WikipediaSlide4
You don’t always have control over your emotions
Emotions drive action
Emotions organize cognitive and behavioral processes
MotivationalSlide5
What
determines
which emotion we are feeling?
Miron
: The dedicated neural pathway that is being stimulated.
Different pathways are excited depending upon the
emotion.
However:
I
n
some cases the paths are
quite similar and therefore
the individual must identify the emotion based on an evaluation
of the cause and situation
(
anger v. fear)Slide6
The experience of emotion
Psychophysiological
effects are often “autonomic” in that they do not require thinking
May
override more logical, evaluative brain functions when the emotional intensity is high
Feelings are learned along with situations, people, etc.
Similar people or situations may bring about the same feelings and the same feelings may bring about memories of the situations or people they were encoded withSlide7
Physical responses to emotion
The body frequently responds to
Shame
by warmth in the upper chest and face,
Fear
by a heightened heartbeat, increased "flinch" response, and increased muscle tension. The sensations connected with
anger
are nearly indistinguishable from fear.
Happiness
is often felt as an expansive or swelling feeling in the chest and the sensation of lightness or boyancy, as if standing underwater.
Sadness
by a feeling of tightness in the throat and eyes, and relaxation in the arms and legs.
Desire
can be accompanied by a dry throat and heavy breathing.Slide8
Innate emotions
Basic emotions are
hard-wired into our brains
.
“Fight
or flight”
reactions
Fear
Anger
“Lizard brain” emotionsSlide9Slide10Slide11
Evidence for the innateness of
(some) emotions
Similar forms demonstrated among species;
Similar form from childhood to adulthood; expressed before learning can take place;
Similar across cultures;
Similar in blind and sighted people.
http://emotion.bme.duke.edu/Emotion/EmoRes/Psych/CogExp/Behav.htmlSlide12Slide13Slide14Slide15Slide16
Social emotions
Emotions that allow you to interact with others effectively and to maintain social bonds
Love
Friendship
Empathy
Learned early through the positive relationships between mom and food, etc.
Located in old mammalian brainSlide17
Relations to others
Much of emotion is based on our relationships with others
Interactions with others
Observation of others
Thoughts about others
A range of relations between audience members and media personas has been proposed, with varying emotional implicationsSlide18
Major emotions
Sadness/sorrow
Sources:
Loss of significant other/love/affiliation
Empathy for those in pain/poor circumstanceSlide19
Anger
Frustration
Control by outside forceSlide20
Fear
Threat
Darkness, snakes and spiders
Socially-learned fearsSlide21
Robert Plutchik’s model of primary and derived emtionsSlide22
Why haven’t emotions been replaced with higher order thinking?
Miron
:
Survival value maintained anger, sorrow, love, fear, etc. until the development of civilization. There are still advantages for several of the emotions in that they provide coherence of thought, feeling and action in regards to general situations—anger for frustration, love for sexuality and nurturance, fear for self-preservation in the face of a threat.Slide23
What are emotions for?
Emotions are essential to decision-making
Emotions can still be helpful in driving behavior effectively and efficientlySlide24
Influence of culture
Culture provides a wide range of objects and rewards that can tie emotion to behaviors, beliefs, experiences, etc.
Cultures differ in their evaluation of varied beliefs and behaviors, and individual emotions are influenced by those differencesSlide25
Emotion and entertainment
Entertainment usually is tied to being ‘moved’ by a media experience
Arousal
Though it is clear that entertainment and emotion are closely
tied, the nature of the relationship is not well understoodSlide26
Why are we drawn to emotional content?
Miron
:
Arousal (a
component
of emotions)
is inherently pleasurable
The main driving force for human action is to seek pleasure and avoid
pain
Arousal stimulates the release of dopamine, a sort of natural
‘
drug’ within the brainSlide27
Why are we drawn to emotional content?
Emotions
are encoded along with cognitions, perceptions, behaviors and outcomes. When
we encounter similar cognitions, etc., the linked emotions are
called
up—especially
when a lack of some important condition is identified (food, warmth, sex)Slide28
Why are we drawn to emotional content?
Zillmann
: We enjoy watching the good guys rewarded and the bad guys punished. The enjoyment is enhanced by the wrong thing happening prior to an appropriate conclusionSlide29
Physical elements that affect arousal
Movement/camer
a movement
Volume/speed of sound
Cut speed
Camera angle/distanceSlide30
Content elements that affect emotion
Threats
Spiders
Snakes
Spoiled food
Music
Major/minor
Learned associations
Characters
Identification/liking
Emotion presentation
Plot
Justice
Objects of emotional attachment
Flags, Statue of LibertySlide31
Explaining the effects of imagination
Philosophers forward two basic accounts to explain the effects that the imagination has upon us.
Simulation theory
employs a computer analogy, saying that imagining something involves one having one's usual emotional response to situations and people, only the emotions are running
off-line
.
Our emotions are aroused, but we do not feel a need to take actionSlide32
This could explain why we enjoy watching things on the screen that we would hate seeing in real life.
Horror shows
Tear jerkers
Simulation theorists say that when we experience an emotion off-line that would be distressing in real life, we may actually enjoy having that emotion in the safety of the off-line situation.Slide33
Problems
Why would experiencing distressing emotions offline end up being pleasurable?
They do not provide a convincing explanation
[Can we draw upon some of the cognitive work, sociobiology for this?]
What does it mean for emotions to be running “off-line?”Slide34
Thought theory
An alternative account of our emotional response to imagined scenarios has been dubbed the
thought theory
. This view says that we can have emotional responses to mere thoughts.
Anger can be brought about by hearing of an injusticeSlide35
Thus, our emotions are brought about by the thoughts that occur to us as we are watching a film. When we see the dastardly villain tying the innocent heroine to the tracks, we are both concerned and outraged by the very thought that he is acting in this way and that she is therefore in danger.
We are aware that we are witnessing merely fictional situations, so there is no temptation to take physical action.
As a result, there is no need, says the thought theorist, for the complexities of simulation theory in order to explain why we are moved by the movies.Slide36
But . . .
Why should a mere thought draw an emotional response from us?
We are quite capable of being aware of horrific things happening to people yet be unmoved by that knowledge.
Since we can't have full-fledged beliefs about the fictional characters in films, the thought theory needs to explain why we are so moved by their fates.Slide37
Emotional engagement
“Philosophic discussion of viewer involvement with films starts out with a puzzle that has been raised about many art forms: Why should we care what happens to fictional characters? After all, since they are fictional, their fates shouldn't matter to us in the way that the fates of real people do. But, of course, we do get involved in the destinies of these imaginary being. The question is why.”
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySlide38
Emotional engagement
“One answer, common in the film theory tradition, is that the reason that we care about what happens to some fictional characters is because we
identify
with them. Although or, perhaps, because these characters are highly idealized — they are more beautiful, brave, resourceful, etc. than any actual human being could be — viewers identify with them, thereby also taking themselves to be correlates of these ideal beings. But once we see the characters as versions of ourselves, their fates matter to us, for we see ourselves as wrapped up in their stories.”
Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy Slide39
However:
We exhibit a wide variety of attitudes toward the fictional characters we see projected on the screen.
We have emotional reactions to characters with whom we did not identify. Slide40
“The general outline of the answer philosophers of film have provided to the question of our emotional involvement with films is that we care about what happens in films because films get us to imagine things taking place, things that we do care about. Because how we imagine things working out does affect our emotions, fiction films have an emotional impact upon us.”
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySlide41
Media influences over emotion
Sound/music
Major/minor key
Melody/dissonance
Volume
Dynamics
Speed
Timbre
Sharpness
Orchestration/richnessSlide42
Music and emotion
Leonard Bernstein borrowed from Chomsky’s ideas and applied them to music, claiming that there is an
innate code
buried in the musical structure which we are biologically endowed to understand.
He tried to show how the
underlying strings
, the basic meanings behind music, are transformed by composers into the
surface structure
of a composition. Slide43
Bernstein thought that the main difference between language and music is that music amplifies the emotions more effectively, thereby making it more universal. Slide44
Expression rules research
Many have assumed that the greatest part of the emotional power of music comes in the variations of tempo, dynamics, and articulation. Several researchers have also assumed that these variations conform to structural principles and have attempted to demonstrate these expression rules. Slide45
Paul Hindemith wrote that tempi that match the heart rate at rest (roughly 60-70 beats per minute) suggest a state of repose. Tempi that exceed this heart rate create a feeling of excitation. He wrote that mood shifts in music are faster and more contrasting than they are in real life. Slide46
Happy and sad classical music
Children and adults were asked to rate classical music that was manipulated in tempo and minor v. major key as sad or happySlide47Slide48
Video influences over emotion
Pacing
Camerawork
Movement
Distance
Focus
ColorSlide49
Babies one year old react to emotions on TV
Experiment with toys and televised examples of positive and negative emotions being demonstrated in facial expressions
1-year olds react to negative but not positive expressions
No difference for 10-month olds