Chapter 1. The Physiology of Emotions

Short Description

The clip begins at a soccer game with parents describing some of the physical sensations that accompany their emotions.

Long Description

The clip begins at a soccer game with parents describing some of the physical sensations that accompany their emotions. We then switch to a psychologist who discusses some of the earlier work on emotions that focuses on their relationship to the autonomic nervous system. He mentions that attempts to differentiate among different emotions using measures of autonomic arousal (such as heart rate, sweating, etc.) were only partly successful. More recent research into emotion has focused on its relationship to the central nervous system, more specifically on which parts of the brain are involved in specific emotional experiences. Another researcher goes on to explain that our left hemisphere is more related to positive emotions, while the right hemisphere is more related to negative emotions. He describes a phenomenon in which individuals who have had a stroke in their left hemisphere have a tendency to be more "cynical and sullen" in their demeanor, whereas individuals who have had a right hemisphere stroke tend to express more of a "What, me worry?" attitude.

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