3.5 Key Takeaways, Knowledge Check and Key Terms
Key Takeaways
In this chapter, we learned that:
- Emotions serve several important intrapersonal, interpersonal, social and cultural functions.
- Emotions include several components: physiological arousal, our interpretation of a situation, and how we communicate emotions to the people around us.
- Affective events theory (AET) helps us to understand how emotions can help us to understand behaviour at work. Many jobs involve emotional labour and a mismatch between how we feel and the emotions that employees are expected to show can produce a stressful state of cognitive dissonance.
- Emotional intelligence involves a set of interrelated skills that can help us have awareness of and manage the emotions of ourselves and our relationships.
- Using self-regulation techniques and engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviours can help us to deal effectively with negative emotions.
Knowledge Check
Review your understanding of this chapter’s key concepts by taking the interactive quiz below.
Key Terms
Key terms from this chapter include:
- Intrapersonal functions of emotions
- Interpersonal functions of emotions
- Social and cultural functions of emotions
- Cultural display rules
- Social referencing
- Basic emotions
- Secondary emotions
- Cognitive appraisal
- Cannon-Bard theory
- James-Lange theory
- Two-factor theory of emotion
- Misattribution of arousal
- Excitation transfer
- Facial feedback hypothesis
- Affective events theory
- Emotional labour
- Surface acting
- Deep acting
- Genuine acting
- Cognitive dissonance
- Emotional intelligence
- Self-awareness
- Self-management
- Social awareness
- Relationship management
- Empathy
- Optimism
- Self-efficacy
- Hardiness
Intrapersonal functions of emotion, which refer to the role that emotions play within each of us individually. See 3.1 Functions of Emotions
Interpersonal functions of emotion refers to the role emotions play between individuals within a group. See 3.1 Functions of Emotions
Social and cultural functions of emotion refers to the role that emotions play in the maintenance of social order within a society. See 3.1 Functions of Emotions
Cultural display rules are rules that are learned early in life that specify the management and modification of our emotional expressions according to social circumstances. See 3.1 Functions of Emotions
Social referencing is the process whereby infants seek out information from others to clarify a situation and then use that information to act. Facial expressions of emotion are important regulators of social interaction. See 3.1 Functions of Emotions
Basic emotions are rapid information-processing systems that help us act with minimal thinking. See 3.1 Functions of Emotions
Secondary emotions are those that have a major cognitive component. They are determined by both their level of arousal, ranging from mild to intense, and their valence, ranging from pleasant to unpleasant. See 3.2 The Experience of Emotion
The cognitive interpretations that accompany emotions— known as cognitive appraisal — allow us to experience a much larger and more complex set of secondary emotions. See 3.2 The Experience of Emotion
According to the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, the experience of an emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal. Thus, according to this model of emotion, as we become aware of danger, our heart rate also increases. See 3.2 The Experience of Emotion
According to the James-Lange theory of emotion, our experience of an emotion is the result of the arousal that we experience. This approach proposes that the arousal and the emotion are not independent, but rather that the emotion depends on the arousal. The fear does not occur along with the racing heart but occurs because of the racing heart. See 3.2 The Experience of Emotion
The two-factor theory of emotion asserts that the experience of emotion is determined by the intensity of the arousal we are experiencing but that the cognitive appraisal of the situation determines what the emotion will be. Because both arousal and appraisal are necessary, we can say that emotions have two factors, both an arousal factor and a cognitive factor. See 3.2 The Experience of Emotion
The tendency for people to incorrectly label the source of the arousal that they are experiencing is known as the misattribution of arousal. See 3.2 The Experience of Emotion
The principle of excitation transfer refers to the phenomenon that occurs when people who are already experiencing arousal from one event tend to also experience unrelated emotions more strongly. See 3.2 The Experience of Emotion
The facial feedback hypothesis proposes that the movement of our facial muscles can trigger corresponding emotions. See 3.2 The Experience of Emotion
This connection between emotions, attitudes, and behaviours at work may be explained using a theory named Affective Events Theory (AET). The theory argues that specific events on the job cause different kinds of people to feel different emotions. These emotions, in turn, inspire actions that can benefit or impede others at work. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Emotional labor refers to the regulation of feelings and expressions for organizational purposes. There are three major levels of emotional labor: surface acting, deep acting, and genuine acting. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Surface acting requires an individual to exhibit physical signs, such as smiling, that reflect emotions customers want to experience. A children’s hairdresser cutting the hair of a crying toddler may smile and act sympathetic without actually feeling so. In this case, the person is engaged in surface acting. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Deep acting takes surface acting one step further. This time, instead of faking an emotion that a customer may want to see, an employee will actively try to experience the emotion they are displaying. This genuine attempt at empathy helps align the emotions one is experiencing with the emotions one is displaying. The children’s hairdresser may empathize with the toddler by imagining how stressful it must be for one so little to be constrained in a chair and be in an unfamiliar environment, and the hairdresser may genuinely begin to feel sad for the child. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Genuine acting occurs when individuals are asked to display emotions that are aligned with their own. If a job requires genuine acting, less emotional labor is required because the actions are consistent with true feelings. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Cognitive dissonance is a term that refers to a mismatch among emotions, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour, for example, believing that you should always be polite to a customer regardless of personal feelings, yet having just been rude to one. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Emotional intelligence looks at how people can understand each other more completely by developing an increased awareness of their own and others’ emotions. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Self-awareness exists when you are able to accurately perceive, evaluate, and display appropriate emotions. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Self-management exists when you are able to direct your emotions in a positive way when needed. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Social awareness exists when you are able to understand how others feel. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Relationship management exists when you are able to help others manage their own emotions and truly establish supportive relationships with others. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Empathy is the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes, whether that individual has achieved a major triumph or fallen short of personal goals. See 3.3 Emotions at Work
Optimism is defined as a general tendency to expect positive outcomes; studies suggest that optimists are happier and have less stress . See 3.4 How to Feel Better: Coping With Negative Emotions
Self-efficacy is the the belief in our ability to carry out actions that produce desired outcomes. People with high self-efficacy respond to environmental and other threats in an active, constructive way—by getting information, talking to friends, and attempting to face and reduce the difficulties they are experiencing. See 3.4 How to Feel Better: Coping With Negative Emotions
Hardiness is the tendency to be less affected by life’s stressors and it can be characterized as an individual-difference measure that has a relationship to both optimism and self-efficacy. Hardy individuals are those who are more positive overall about potentially stressful life events, who take more direct action to understand the causes of negative events, and who attempt to learn from them what may be of value for the future. Hardy individuals use effective coping strategies, and they take better care of themselves. See 3.4 How to Feel Better: Coping With Negative Emotions
