This document provides an overview and discussion of emotions and stress from a Psychology 101 course. It discusses various theories of emotion, including how emotions involve bodily arousal, behavior, and cognition. It examines the relationship between thoughts and emotions, and debates whether emotions or thoughts come first. The document also explores the communication and experience of different emotions like anger, guilt and happiness. Additionally, it covers topics like gender differences in emotional expression and detection, the link between facial expressions and felt emotions, and theories of stress and its relationship to health. Finally, the document looks more closely at specific emotions like anger and happiness, and examines factors that influence happiness such as wealth, adaptation, and social comparison.

1. PSY101
Week 6 Emotions & Stress
Dr. Russell Rodrigo

2. Discussion
Questions
1. Do emotions affect perception?
2. What are the effects of negative emotions?
3. Why negative emotions are stronger than
positive?
4. Is love an emotion or feeling?

3. Overview
§ How emotions are
related to cognition, and
yet sometimes seem to
bypass cognition
§ How emotions are
related to the body
§ Communicating
emotions: detecting,
verbal and nonverbal
expression, and the
influence of culture and
gender
§ Experiencing emotions
such as anger, guilt,
shame and happiness
Stress and
Health
§ Defining stress, and
how it works
§ How stress relates to
illness
§ How people can cope
with stress or reduce it
§ Promoting health
through pets,
alternative medicine,
and stress reduction
Emotions

4. Someone cuts you off on the road. You may feel the
emotion of anger. Emotions are a mix of:
Bodily arousal:
sweat, pounding heart
Emotion: Arousal, Behavior, and
Cognition
Expressive behavior:
yelling, accelerating
Conscious experience:
(thoughts, especially the
labeling of the emotion)
What a bad driver! I am angry,
even scared; better calm down.
How do these components
of emotion interact and
relate to each other?
§ Do our thoughts trigger
our emotions, or are
they a product of our
emotions?
§ How are the bodily
signs triggered?
§ How do we decide
which emotion we’re
feeling?
An emotion is a full
body/mind/behavior
response to a situation.

5. James-Lange Theory:
• body before thoughts
Cannon-Bard Theory:
• body with thoughts
Singer-Schachter/Two-
factor theory:
• body plus
thoughts/label
Zajonc, LeDoux, Lazarus:
• body/brain without
conscious thoughts
§ Which came first, the
chicken or the egg? Or
did they evolve
together?
§ Which happens first, the
body changes that go
with an emotion, or the
thoughts (conscious
awareness and labeling
of an emotion), or do
they happen together?
Theories of Emotion:
The Arousal and Cognition
“Chicken and Egg” Debates

6. § Our body arousal
happens first, and then
the cognitive
awareness and label for
the feeling: “I’m angry.”
§ According to this
theory, if something
makes us smile, we
may then feel happy.
James-Lange Theory:
Body Before Thoughts
William James (1842-1910): “We feel afraid because
we tremble, sorry because we cry.”
The James-Lange theory
states that emotion is our
conscious awareness of
our physiological
responses to stimuli.

7. § Human body responses run
parallel to the cognitive
responses rather than
causing them.
Cannon-Bard Theory: Simultaneous Body
Response and Cognitive Experience
The Cannon-Bard theory
asserts that we have a
conscious/cognitive
experience of an emotion at
the same time as our body is
responding, not afterward.
Adjusting the Cannon-Bard
Theory
§ Emotions are not just a
separate mental experience.
When our body responses are
blocked, emotions do not feel
as intense.
§ Our cognitions influence our
emotions in many ways,
including our interpretations of
stimuli: “Is that a threat? Then
I’m afraid.”

8. § I face a stranger, and
my heart is pounding. Is
it fear? Excitement?
Anger? Lust? Or did I
have too much
caffeine? The label
completes the emotion.
Schachter-Singer “Two-factor” Theory:
Emotion = Body Plus a Cognitive Label
The Schachter-Singer
“two-factor” theory
suggests that emotions
do not exist until we
add a label to whatever
body sensations we are
feeling.
In a study by Stanley
Schachter and Jerome
Singer in 1962, subjects
experienced a spillover
effect when arousal was
caused by injections of what
turned out to be adrenaline.
The subjects interpreted
their agitation to whatever
emotion the others in the
room appeared to be
feeling; the emotional label
“spilled over” from others.

9. Robert Zajonc, Joseph LeDoux,
and Richard Lazarus:
Emotions without Awareness/Cognition
Theory: some emotional reactions, especially fears,
likes, and dislikes, develop in a “low road” through the
brain, skipping conscious thought.
In one study, people
showed an amygdala
response to certain
images (above, left)
without being aware of
the image or their
reaction.

10. When Appraisal Affects Emotion
Stanley Schachter and Jerome
Singer highlighted the role of
appraisal in labeling consciously
experienced emotions: “this
agitation is fear.”
Richard Lazarus noted
that even in emotional
responses that operate
without conscious
thought, “top-down”
cognitive functions such
as appraisal of stimuli (is
that a threat or
something I would
enjoy?) can be involved .

11. Summary: Theories of Emotion

12. ß Emotion can include the
appraisal of the stimulus such
as, is it a threat or not?
Theories
of
Emotion
Avoiding the highway today
without identifying or
explaining any fear is an
example of the “low road”
of emotion.

14. Embodied Emotion:
The role of the autonomic nervous system
§ The physiological arousal felt during various emotions is orchestrated by the
sympathetic nervous system, which triggers activity and changes in various
organs.
§ Later, the parasympathetic division calms down the body.

15. Embodied Emotion:
How Do Emotions Differ in Body Signs?
§ It is difficult to see
differences in emotions
from tracking heart rate,
breathing, and
perspiration.
§ There is also a large
overlap in the patterns of
brain activity across
emotions.
§ There are some small
differences; for example,
fear triggers more
amygdala activity than
anger.
A general brain pattern:
hemispheric differences
Positive
“approach”
emotions (joy,
love, goal-
seeking)
correlate with
left frontal lobe
activity.
Negative
“withdrawal”
emotions
(disgust, fear,
anger,
depression)
correlate with
right hemisphere
activity.

16. Emotional
Expression
§ Are there universal forms of emotional expression seen
on human faces across all cultures?
§ Are there differences by individual, culture, or gender in
how emotions are expressed?
§ What is the relationship between emotional expression
and the inner experience of emotion?
§ What emotion do we see in these faces and body
positions?
§ If these emotions are hard to read, is it because it’s a
different culture from your own, or because it’s a
performance?

17. Detecting Emotion in Others
§ People read a great deal
of emotional content in
the eyes (“the window to
the soul”) and the faces.
§ Introverts are better at
detecting emotions;
extroverts have emotions
that are easier to read.
§ We are primed to quickly
detect negative
emotions, and even
negative emotion words.
§ Those who have been
abused are biased
toward seeing fearful
faces as angry, as in the
test below.
These faces morph from fear to anger.
Raise your hand when you first see anger under the red box.

18. Detecting Lies and Fakes
§ Polygraphs (detecting
physiological arousal) fail
sometimes at correctly
identifying when people are
lying.
§ Visible signs of lying: eye blinks
decrease, and other facial
movements change.
Brain signs of lying:
In which image is
Paul Ekman “lying”
with a fake smile?
à A real smile uses
involuntary muscles
around the eyes.

19. Gender and
Emotional Expression and Detection
§ Women seem to have
greater and more
complex emotional
expression.
§ Women are also more
skilled at detecting
emotions in others.
§ However, this is an
overgeneralization.
People tend to attribute
women’s emotionality to
their dispositions, and
attribute men’s emotions
to their circumstances.
We also see some emotions as being
more “male,” changing our perception of
a gender-neutral face based on the
emotion (below):
How about now?
Male or female?

20. Culture and Emotional Expression:
Are There Universally Recognized Emotions?
§ There seem to be some
universally understood
facial expressions.
§ People of various
cultures agree on the
emotional labels for the
expressions on the faces
on the right.
§ People in other studies
did have more accuracy
judging emotions from
their own culture.

21. An Evolutionary Theory of the Origins of
Emotional Facial Expressions
§ People blind from birth show the same facial
expressions as sighted people. This suggests
that the origin of facial expressions must be
largely genetic.
§ Why would we have facial expressions in our
genetic code? Could facial expressions
improve the survival of our ancestors?
§ Perhaps sneering at someone might be like a
wolf’s snarl, warning competitors to back off.
§ The “surprised” facial expression allows us to
take in information.
§ Shared smiles build protective social bonds,
which may explain why we smile more when
facing someone.

22. Emotion Detection and Context
Cues
§ What emotions do you see below?
How can you tell what emotions he is feeling?
§ Because the faces are exactly the same, our detection of
emotion must be based on context: the situation, gestures,
and the tears.

23. Linking Emotions and
Expressive Behaviors:
Facial Feedback
§ The facial feedback effect: facial position and
muscle changes can alter which emotion we
feel.
§ In one study, people whose faces were moved
into smiling or frowning positions experienced
a change in mood.
§ Fake a relaxed smile, and you might feel
better!
§ It’s not just about faces. In one experiment,
extending a 1) middle finger or 2) thumb while
reading led to seeing characters with 1)
hostility or 2) positive attitude.
The guy at the top, though forced into
a smiling position, ended up feeling
happier than the other guy.

24. Carroll Izzard
suggested that
there are ten basic
emotions: those
evident at birth
(seen here) plus
contempt, shame,
and guilt.
Is Experienced Emotion as
Universal as Expressed Emotion?

25. Two Dimensions of Emotion
James Russell sees our
emotional experience
in two dimensions:
1. from pleasant to
unpleasant
2. from low to high
arousal.
We experience this
image in dimensions
of up/down and
left/right.

26. § A flash of anger gives us energy and
initiative to fight or otherwise take action
when necessary.
§ Persistent anger can cause more harm
than whatever we’re angry about.
§ Some ways to keep anger from
persisting: distraction, constructive
action, problem-solving, exercise, verbal
expression, and allowing others to be
wrong.
§ The catharsis myth refers
to the idea that we can
reduce anger by
“releasing” it, and we do
this by acting aggressively
(yelling, punching a pillow).
§ In most cases, expressing
anger worsens it, and any
“release” reinforces the
aggression, making it a
conditioned habit.
§ Sometimes, releasing
anger causes harm, and
results in guilt.
§ Instead, try calming down
and moving on.
Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Anger

27. Guilt
VS Shame
• I’m sorry I made a mistake.
• I’m sorry I am mistake.
• Shame, blame, disrespect,
betrayal, and the withholding
of affection damage the roots
from which love grows. Love
can only survive these injuries
if they are acknowledged,
healed and rare.”
• Acknowledging injuries is
vulnerability.
Brene Brown

28. Vulnerability
• ”Uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure." It's
that unstable feeling we get when we step out of
our comfort zone or do something that forces us to
loosen control.
• “Vulnerability is about sharing our feelings and our
experiences with people who have earned the right
to hear them.” Being vulnerable takes courage.
But it's worth it. It's worth it to be ourselves, to
connect to others.
• “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having
the courage to show up and be seen when we have
no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not
weakness; it's our greatest measure of courage.”
• Vulnerability is to live a wholehearted life and
connect to others genuinely.
• What do we do with vulnerability?
Brene Brown

29. “Oversharing?
• Not vulnerability; I call it floodlighting. ... A lot
of times we share too much information as a
way to protect us from vulnerability, and here's
why.
• I'm scared to let you know that I just wrote this
article and I'm under total fire for it and people
are making fun of me and I'm feeling hurt --
the same thing that I told someone in an
intimate conversation. So what I do is I
floodlight you with it - I don't know you very
well or I'm in front of a big group, or it's a story
that I haven't processed enough to be sharing
with other people - and you immediately
respond "hands up; push me away" and I go,
"See? No one cares about me. No one gives a
s*** that I'm hurting. I knew it."
Brene Brown

30. Happiness is:
§ a mood.
§ an attitude.
§ a social phenomenon.
§ a cognitive filter.
§ a way to stay hopeful,
motivated, and connected to
others.
The feel-good, do-good
phenomenon: when in a good
mood, we do more for others.
The reverse is also true: doing
good feels good.
Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Happiness

31. Happiness
has its ups
and downs.
Levels of
happiness, as
well as other
emotions, can
vary over the
course of a
week (we like
the weekend),
and even over
the course of a
day (don’t stay
awake too long!).
Over the Course of a Week
Over the Course of a Day

32. Wealth and Well-Being:
A Change in Goals
§ In the late 1960s, students entering college had a primary goal of
developing a meaningful life philosophy.
§ Since 1977, being very well-off financially has become more of a
primary goal for first year students.

33. Can Money Buy
Happiness?

34. Can Money Buy Happiness?
Money seems to buy
happiness when it lifts
people out of extreme
poverty. Otherwise, money
doesn’t seem to help our
mood much.
1. The average level of
income (adjusted for
inflation) and purchasing
power has increased in
the United States.
2. The percentage of
people feeling very
happy, though, has not
followed the same trend
of improvement.

35. Adaptation-
Level
Phenomenon
§ When we step into the sunshine, it
seems very bright at first. Then our
senses adapt and we develop a “new
normal.” If a cloud covers the sun, it
may seem “dark” in comparison.
§ The “very bright” sensation is
temporary.
§ The adaptation-level phenomenon:
when our wealth or other life conditions
improve, we are happier compared to
our past condition.
§ However, then we adapt, form a “new
normal” level, and most people must
get another boost to feel the same
satisfaction.

36. Adapting Attitudes
Instead of Circumstances
§ Because of the adaptation-level phenomenon, our level of
contentment does not permanently stay higher when we
gain income and wealth; we keep adjusting our
expectations.
§ It is also true that misfortune, disability, and loss do not
result in a permanent decrease in happiness.
§ In both cases, humans tend to adapt.

37. Relative Deprivation
§ If the average income has risen by 10
percent in your area, it might be hard
to feel great about a 5 percent rise in
your income because of
§ People who were satisfied with their
own lives might become less
satisfied if other people get more
power, recognition, and income.
§ We can affect our happiness by
choosing the people to whom we
compare ourselves.
§ However, the tendency is to compare
ourselves to people who are more
successful.
relative
deprivation:
feeling worse
off by
comparing
yourself to
people who
are doing
better.

38. Correlates of Happiness
There also may be a genetic basis for a predisposition to happiness.
Whether because of genes, culture, or personal history, we each seem to
develop a mood “set point,” a level of happiness to which we keep
returning.
There are behaviors that seem to go with
happiness. Whether they are the cause or
the effect of happiness is not clear, but it
can’t hurt to try them.
Researchers have found that happy people
tend to:
However, happiness seems not much
related to other factors, such as:
§ Have high self-esteem (in individualistic
countries)
§ Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable
§ Have close friendships or a satisfying
marriage
§ Have work and leisure that engage their
skills
§ Have an active religious faith
§ Sleep well and exercise
§ Age (example: the woman at the
laptop in the picture)
§ Gender (women are more often
depressed, but also more often
joyful)
§ Parenthood (having children or
not)
§ Physical attractiveness

39. § Look beyond wealth for satisfaction.
§ Bring your habits in line with your goals; take control
of your time.
§ Smile and act happy.
§ Find work and leisure that engages your skills.
§ Exercise, or just move!
§ Focus on the needs and wishes of others.
§ Work, rest, …and SLEEP.
§ Notice what goes well, and express gratitude.
§ Nurture spirituality, meaning, and community.
§ Make your close relationships a priority.
Possible Ways to
Increase Your
Chances at Happiness

40. Health Psychology
§ Emotions, as well as
personality, attitudes,
behaviors, and responses
to stress, can have an
impact on our overall
health.
§ Health psychology
studies these impacts, as
part of the broader field of
behavioral medicine.
§ Topics of study in health
psychology include:
§ the phases of stress response
and adaptation
§ how stress and health are
affected by
• appraisal of stressors
• severity of stressors
• personality types
• perceived control
• emotion or problem focus
• optimism
• social support
• exercise
• relaxation
• religious faith and participation

41. Stress: A Focus of Health Psychology
§ Many people report being affected by “stress.”
§ Some terms psychologists use to talk about stress:
§ a stressor is an event or condition which
we view as threatening, challenging, or
overwhelming.
§ Examples include poverty, an
explosion, a psychology test, feeling
cold, being in a plane, and loud
noises.
§ appraisal refers to deciding whether to
view something as a stressor.
§ stress reaction refers to any emotional
and physical responses to the stressor
such as rapid heartbeat, elevated cortisol
levels, and crying.
Stress refers to the
process of appraising
and responding to
events which we
consider threatening
or challenging.

42. Clarifying the Components of Stress
§ Stress isn’t something
that happens to you; it’s
a process in which you
participate.
§ The process includes
the stressor (event or
condition), cognitive
appraisal, body
response, and coping
strategies.
§ The advantage of
breaking “stress” into
these components is
that we can see options
for altering each of
these different factors.
What could this
person do to
reduce his level
of suffering from
stress?

43. Appraisal:
Choosing How to View a Situation
Questions to ask yourself when facing a
possible stressor:
Is this a challenge, and will I tackle it?
Is it overwhelming, and will I give up?
There are few
conditions* that are
inherently and
universally stressful;
we can often
choose our
appraisal and our
responses.
*extreme, chronic
physical threats
or challenges
(such as noise or
starvation)

44. Beneficial and Harmful Stress Effects
A brief experience of stress can be beneficial:
§ improving immune system response
§ motivating action
§ focusing priorities
§ feeling engaged, energized, and satisfied
§ providing challenges that encourage growth, knowledge, and self-
esteem
Extreme or prolonged stress, causes problems:
§ mental and physical coping systems become overwhelmed and
defeated rather than strengthened
§ immune functioning and other health factors decline because of
damage
The key factor is whether there is a
chance for recovery and healing.

45. Stressors
There may be a spectrum of
levels of intensity and
persistence of stressors.
We can also see stressors as
falling into one of four*
categories:
§ catastrophes.
§ significant life changes.
§ chronic daily hassles.
§ low social status/power.
Stressors refer to the events
and conditions that trigger
our stress response, because
they are perceived/
appraised as overwhelmingly
challenging, threatening,
and/or harmful.
*the text focuses on the
first three.

46. Catastrophic Events/Conditions
§ Appraisal is not essential in a
catastrophic event. Most people
agree that the event is harmful and
overwhelming
§ Examples include earthquakes,
floods, hurricanes, war/combat,
and wildfires.
§ It can be one single event or
chronic harmful conditions.
§ Short-term effects include
increased heart attacks on
the day of the event
§ Long term effects include
depression, nightmares,
anxiety, and flashbacks.
§ Bonding: both the trauma and
the recovery are shared with
others.

47. § Even supposedly “happy” life changes, such as marriage, starting
college or a new job, or the birth or adoption of a child, can bring
increased challenge and stress.
§ Change is often challenging.
§ New roles, new priorities, and new tasks can put a strain on our coping
resources.
§ The challenge, and the negative impact on health, increases when:
§ the changes are painful, such as a death in family, loss of job, or
heart attack.
§ the changes are in a cluster, and there are too many at once.
Major Life Events/Changes

48. Chronic Daily Difficulties
Daily difficulties can be
caused by facing too many
tasks, too little time, and too
little control.
Daily difficulties can be caused
by the lack of social power and
freedom:
§ being bullied
§ living in poverty
§ living under oppressive
political conditions

49. When encountering a sudden trauma or other stressor, our body
acts to increase our resistance to threat and harm.
The Body’s Stress Response System
Phase 1: The “fight or flight”
sympathetic nervous system
responds, reducing pain and
increasing the heart rate.
The core of the adrenal glands
produces norepinephrine and
epinephrine (adrenaline).
This system, identified by Walter
Cannon (1871-1945), gives us
energy to act.
Phase 3: Exhaustion.
Phase 2: The brain sends signals to
the outer part of the adrenal glands
to produce cortisol and other stress
hormones. These focus us on
planning adaptive coping
strategies and resisting defeat by
the stressor.
Hans Selye (1907-1982) indentified
this extended “resistance” phase of
the stress response, followed by:

50. General Adaptation Syndrome [GAS]
(Identified by Hans Selye):
Our stress response system defends,
then fatigues.

51. Effects of Prolonged Stress
§ The General Adaptation Syndrome
[GAS] works well for single exposures
to stress.
§ Repeated and prolonged stress, with
too much Phase 3 time, leads to
various signs of physical deterioration
and premature aging:
§ the production of new
neuroeclines
§ neural circuits in the brain break
down
§ DNA telomeres (chromosome
tips) shorten, à cells lose ability
to divide, à cells die, à tissue
stops regenerating, à early aging
and death

52. Female and Male Stress Response
§ In response to a stressor
such as the death of a
loved one, women may
“tend and befriend”:
nurture themselves and
others, and bond together.
§ The bonding hormone
oxytocin may play a role in
this bonding.
§ Women show behavioral
and neurological signs of
becoming more
empathetic under stress.
§ Men under stress are
more likely to socially
withdraw and numb
themselves with alcohol.
§ Men are also more likely
to become aggressive
under stress.
§ In either case, men’s
behavior and brains show
LESS empathy and less
tuning in to others under
stress.

53. Stress Increases
The Risk of
Illness
Stressors
Appraisal
Thoughts
Feelings
Brain signals
Hormonal action
Immune
suppression
Risk of illness
Here we see psycho-
neuroimmunology in action:
§ psychological factors,
such as appraisal,
thoughts, and feelings.
§ neurological factors, such
as brain signals engaging
the stress response
system.
§ immunology, such as
stress hormone exposure
which suppresses the
immune system.

54. Psychoneuroimmunology Example:
The Impact of Stress on Catching a Cold
In a group
exposed to
germs, those
experiencing
stress were
more likely to
catch a cold.
This tradeoff between
stress response and
immune response may
help our bodies focus
energy on managing
stress.

55. Type A PersonalityàStressà
Heart Disease
§ Some personality traits tend
to cluster into personality
types.
§ People with a type A
personality are impatient,
verbally aggressive, and
always pushing themselves
and others to achieve.
§ People with a type B
personality are more
relaxed and go with the flow.
§ In one study, heart attacks
ONLY struck people with
Type A traits.
Accomplishing goals is healthy, but a compulsion to always be working,
with little time spent “smelling the flowers,” is not.

56. Pessimism and Heart Disease
It can be helpful
to realistically
anticipate
negative events
that may
happen, and to
plan how to
prevent or cope
with them.
Men who are generally
pessimistic are more
likely to develop heart
disease within ten years
than optimists.
Pessimism refers to the
assumption that negative
outcomes will happen,
and often facing them by
complaining and/or
giving up.

57. Depression and Heart Disease
§ Why does
depression appear so
often with heart
disease? Does one
cause the other?
§ One possible answer
is that the two
problems are both
caused by chronic
stress.
§ There may be an
intervening variable:
excessive
inflammation.

58. Health Consequences of Chronic
Stress: The Repeated Release of Stress
Hormones
§ The stress hormone cortisol
helps our bodies respond to
brief stress.
§ Chronically high cortisol levels
damage the body.

59. Promoting Health
Some ways to
reduce the health
effects of stress
include:
§ address the
stressors.
§ soothe
emotions.
§ increase one’s
sense of control
over stressors.
§ exchange
optimism for
pessimism.
§ get social
support.
Ways that help some people to
reduce levels of stress, and to
improve health:
§ aerobic exercise
§ relaxation and meditation
§ participation in communities of
faith
§ alternative medicine

60. How are you coping with
stress?

61. Coping with Stress
§ Risk: magnifying
emotional distress,
especially if trying to
change something that’s
difficult to change (e.g.
another person’s traits).
§ Risk: ignoring the
problem.
§ We might focus on this
style of coping when we
perceive the stressor as
something we cannot
change.
Problem-focused
coping means reducing
the stressors, such as by
working out a conflict, or
tackling a difficult project.
Emotion-focused coping
means reducing the
emotional impact of
stress by getting support,
comfort, and perspective
from others.

62. Stress factor: Perceived Level of
Control
§ Only the
middle,
subordinate
rat had
increased
ulcers.
§ It is not the
level of
shock, but
the level of
control over
the shock,
which
created
stress.
Experiment: the left and middle rats
below received shocks. The rat on the left
was able to turn off the shocks for both
rats. Which rat had the worst stress and
health problems?

63. Promoting Health: Social Support
§ Having close relationships is
associated with improved health,
immune functioning, and longevity.
§ Social support, including from pets,
provides a calming effect that
reduces blood pressure and stress
hormones.
§ Confiding in others helps manage
painful feelings.
§ Laughter helps too.
“Well, I think you’re wonderful.”

64. Aerobic Exercise and Health
§ Aerobic exercise triggers
certain genes to produce
proteins which guard against
more than 20 chronic diseases
and conditions.
§ Aerobic exercise reduces the
risk of heart disease, cognitive
decline and dementia, and
early death.
Aerobic exercise refers
to sustained activity that
raises heart rate and
oxygen consumption.
Ultimate (Frisbee): you must run
often to “get open” for a pass, then
run more to cover the other team
and block their passes.

65. Aerobic Exercise and Mental Health
§ Aerobic exercise reduces
depression and anxiety, and
improves management of stress.
How do we know?
§ Aerobic exercise is correlated with
high confidence, vitality, and
energy, and good mood.
§ Is there causation? Perhaps
depression simply reduces
exercise.
§ One study establishing causation:
mildly depressed young women
randomly assigned to an exercise
group showed reduced depression
caused by exercise alone.

66. Lifestyle Modification
§ In one study, a control group was given diet,
medication, and exercise advice.
§ An experimental group practiced lifestyle
modification, a plan to slow down the pace of one’s
life, accept imperfection, and renew faith.
Result:
modifying
lifestyle led to
reduced heart
attack rates.

67. Relaxation and Meditation
§ Use of relaxation techniques can
reduce headaches, high blood
pressure, anxiety, and insomnia, and
improve immune functioning.
§ People who meditate can learn to
create a relaxation response:
relaxed muscles, lower blood
pressure, and slowed heart rate and
breathing.
§ Meditation also increases brain
activity associated with positive
emotions.
§ Steps to get the relaxation response:
focus attention on breathing, a focus
word, and relaxing muscles from
toes upward.

68. Sources
• Myers, D., G. (2013). Psychology, 10th Edition. New
York: Worth Publishers.
• https://d3bxy9euw4e147.cloudfront.net/oscms-
prodcms/media/documents/Psychology2e-
WEB_0eRvAre.pdf