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Mood vs. Moment: Why That Joke Hit Harder Today · Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom

0:13
So before we go on, I kind of wanted to kind of, uh,
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take a minute and show us kind of where we're at and
0:20
where we've been and where, where we're going. Okay,
0:24
so on the last time we met The topic
0:29
we really focused on was if we're using this tree
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metaphor, we were talking kind of about the
0:37
branches and the leaves. Branches and
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the leaves being the major part of the tree that
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is influenced by especially weather, sun,
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temperature variations, all of those kind of at things
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within the immediate environment. Okay.
0:59
And as we mentioned, emotions, uh, we're defining kind
1:03
of as those physiological responses, uh,
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that are pretty universal.
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But the complicated aspect is when feelings—
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when we start to have feelings and interpretations of those emotions,
1:20
those can be heavily influenced by our past experience.
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Our, um, our culture, as we
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will get into much deeper next week.
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Uh, and where we're headed today is going down the tree.
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We're gonna look at kind of the trunk and where,
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where our tree starts to branch off into
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the world of emotions, uh,
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and feelings. Okay. And we're
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gonna start with talking though, before we get to those,
1:56
talking about the overall health of our tree, which is
2:00
the discussion of affect. And so
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let's, let's go ahead and get into
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that. So I'm gonna fast forward
2:12
to where we're at.
2:19
Rewind where we're at
2:24
to this, this slide. I think this is the one
2:27
we left off on. Okay, so again,
2:31
what I would encourage you to do is have
2:35
this experience as we're moving along in the lecture.
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And take a look at how you interpret
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the different scenarios and the questions that I asked.
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You don't have to put them in the chat or speak up, but I'd encourage
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you to write them down. But if you would like to say something,
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please do. It's always nice to hear everyone's
3:00
thoughts and/or read them at least. Okay.
3:04
So when we get into this, most of us experience
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what we describe as being in a good mood
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or a bad mood. Okay, you might wake up
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feeling cheerful, relaxed, or optimistic, for example.
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Or perhaps you wake up feeling irritable,
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discouraged, or tense. You may not
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even know exactly why. This is one distinction
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between mood and emotions.
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Emotions are often associated with a particular
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particularly meaningful event.
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Although remember, events can be something that
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are remembered, and they not—
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they may not be happening here, here in the now.
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So for example, if you're a parent, you may get
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emotional thinking about the birth of your child, or,
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or their birthday, or or, or the like.
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Okay. So when we look
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at this,
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so when we look at mood a little bit closer,
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or this notion of mood,
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we can, we've often done this in this class.
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And when we went through the sensations and
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perceptions section and we talked about priming,
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I want you to think of these kind of scenarios again.
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So imagine the alarm fails to go off, you wake up
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late, you spill the coffee on your clothes,
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traffic is unusually heavy, and when you finally arrive to
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school or work, someone makes a harmless joke.
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Under ordinary circumstances, I think
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many of us might laugh at this. But today,
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however, it feels irritating.
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Okay. And the question is why?
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Let's say the joke itself may not explain the intensity of
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your response. Your existing mood may have influenced
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how you interpreted the interaction. And this illustrates
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the important relationship. Our emotional experiences
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influence our moods, and our moods can influence
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subsequent emotional responses.
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All right. So as the definition in here,
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um, uh, looks,
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moods are a more sustained emotional state that can
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color many situations. And the triggers
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can be very unclear. We may not know why
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we're in a quote unquote bad mood, or a
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good mood. When we talk about affect, this is a broader
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term for emotional experiences.
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This can include emotions and moods.
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And so, and so in
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a clinical description, if we were to give it that way, affect often
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refers to Uh, visible emotional expressions
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such as a tone of your voice or your facial expressions.
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Okay, it's kind of the signal of your combination
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of your mood and emotional states.
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So in a broader psychological discussion, once again, affect refers
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to emotional experience, including— but it's the combination
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of emotions and moods. Okay,
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and the point— the story that was just
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tried to be illustrated in the idea that
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if you have a really bad morning, your mood is already set,
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so your experience from there on will trigger
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an emotional response that is congruent with
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that mood state, and that's your affect.
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Okay, um,
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and affect is that kind of expression of
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our emotional state. A person may describe feeling sad while
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showing relatively little visible emotional expressions of
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it. Okay, this does not necessarily mean that a person
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is not experiencing sadness. But their
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affect may not be showing it.
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Um,
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in one later in the course, we talked about affective disorders.
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We will look at how different cultures, for example,
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have encouraged this notion that if you
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have depression, you shouldn't show it to the
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room. Um, and so a
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lot of people suffering from many mood disorders,
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their affect may seem okay while
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their internal world is in turmoil. Okay.
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And this is, um, that an internal experience
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and observable expressions are related, but they are not identical.
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We should also be cautious about assuming that a person's facial
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expression tells us exactly what they are feeling.
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Uh, culture, norms, social situations,
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individual differences, and deliberate emotional regulation can
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influence expression. Okay, I, I actually,
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over this last week or so, have had this occur in
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my home where I was in a certain mood But
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my affect was very different. And so it created a
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lot of miscommunication between
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me and my spouse.
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And, and this is where, again, these cultural
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norms, social situations, and individual differences really
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come into play. And it is important to kind of catch
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ourselves when we are interpreting someone else's
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emotional states based upon their affect.
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Okay, so the question I
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would ask all of you is, have you ever been in a bad
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mood and later realized that something relatively minor
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bothered you much more than it would?
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And I want you to think about that for just a second and kind
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of get an, an experience like that in your mind.
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And then the next thing that I would ask
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after you have kind of an example in your mind is what might
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happen if it was mistakenly assumed that the other
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person's behavior was totally entirely responsible
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for our own reaction.
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And this is— and in this,
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uh, I'd encourage you to recognizing that
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our internal states influence our social interpretation.
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Okay. And because of that, this raises a
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larger question. Where do these emotional patterns come
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from? Why do people differ what they find threatening,
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comfort— comforting, exciting, and frustrating?
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And this brings us to seeing
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at what shapes our emotional
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experience. Okay, so when, when psychologists examine
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emotional experiences, we rarely find that a
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single factor explains everything.
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Instead, we consider multiple interactions.
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Uh, and so today in, in this next part,
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we're going to talk about, uh, the 3 broad
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categories that really influence our
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emotional experience and our
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interpretation of others.
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And this is our biology, our learning and
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history, and the current context.
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And it's all of those integrated into— integrates
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into our experience of how we interpret
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others and how we currently experience our own biological—
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our own experiences. Okay,
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so let's begin with our biology, uh,
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because our nervous system, uh, plays an important
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role in our emotional response because it is wired
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to respond to environmental threats,
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but also, uh, wired to— for environmental,
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uh, seeking out Our basic
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drives and our basic needs. Okay.
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So, our brain network,
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though, involves the attention,
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memory, reward, and bodily regulation that
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contributes to how we respond to an event.
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And we can begin at the very smallest scale with
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our genetic differences and biological development. Can also
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influence emotional tendencies. Okay.
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However, biology does not determine every emotional
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response. 2 individuals may have different biological
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sensitivities, but their experience in
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their environment also matter quite
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a bit. Okay. And we can
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look at the biology, our genetics and our nervous system, and we can look
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at a, a, a responsiveness
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to our environment that is called our temperament.
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Okay, our temperament is when
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we react very quickly and
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emotionally to our environment, or if
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we are kind of that calm-to-warm-up
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type that we might not
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emotionally respond very quickly,
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or we might need more information before
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we decide how we feel about something. Our temperament
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is mostly biological.
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It's mostly genetic. It's one of the few,
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few personality variables that
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we have found to have a very strong biological quotient,
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meaning how much of it is due to inheritability.
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Okay, so if we use the term, for example,
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hot-tempered versus cool-tempered at
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2 extremes, and we're all somewhere probably
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in between there, but if we take
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2 hot-tempered people That doesn't
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necessarily mean that they will respond
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like a hothead, as you would example, or very angrily or
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very excited, because our learning and
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history also plays a role into
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that temperamental reaction.
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Okay, so our emotional response— responses
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also develop through experience. Consider a child who
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grows up in an environment where making mistakes is followed by harsh criticism.
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Over time, that child may learn to associate
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mistakes with embarrassment, fear, or rejection.
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Now imagine another child who makes mistakes and they
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are treated as opportunities for learning.
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That child may develop a response,
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uh, to making mistakes. Both have
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encountered similar events, but their histories may influence
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meanings they are assigning to those events.
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All right, and going back to the temperament example,
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Okay, where biology is playing
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a larger role,
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how our parents respond to our temperament,
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how, um, peers and
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others in our life respond to our temperament
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will give us a different interpretation of
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our emotional experience. So for example,
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someone who has a hot temper may
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find themselves in constant conflict, that their
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escalation and emotion— they respond to their environment and
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their environment escalates that emotion.
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And so they can get in a very conflictive
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situation. All right,
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versus some, uh, another child who has also
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a hot temperament, but they have very patient parents
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or caregivers, uh, or peers
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and friends who, when that child reacts
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to their temperament emotionally,
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they're given the space to experience what
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they need to experience and it doesn't end up in that heated
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conflict. As a child grows and develops,
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then they learn that when they have a temperamental
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flare, they just need to sit back and make
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sure that they respond to the room more,
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not based on that initial, I need
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to react, okay? So this
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is something to— that is important when
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we say, well, you know, both my parents have really
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hot tempers, but I don't. Okay.
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It may be that you've learned through history
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and your experiences that having
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that quick reactivity that you saw in mom and dad Wasn't
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a good way for you to navigate your world. So you've learned
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what's called that top-down processing
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where we, we choose to take charge of
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our physiological responses.
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All right.
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And I think even more importantly, especially in
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the context of this class, is that our
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culture and collective experiences also play an
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important role in our emotional
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experiences. Okay? So our families and communities teach us
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how emotions should be expressed. Some environments
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encourage open emotional expression.
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Others invite— others emphasize emotional restraint.
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Some cultural contexts place particularly important
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in maintaining things like harmony and relationships,
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while others encourage direct expression of
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individual preferences. We, however,
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we should avoid assuming that every member of a
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cultural group follows that same emotional pattern because
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their immediate environment and their current context also
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is plays a role in our
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individual emotional expression. Okay,
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collective histories can also influence our circumstances
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in which emotional learning takes place. Historical experiences,
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community resources, social expectations, and patterns
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of opportunity may shape the environment that people encounter.
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Okay, so when we look though at
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our current environment, uh,
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we must consider the immediacy, okay, or the
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what they— we call the situation or the context.
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And this is, for example, think about a difference differently you might
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respond to criticism depending on who
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was there.
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Thank you, Sanika. I think we will finish up here in just a minute
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because I know that there's some— might be some more storm
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issues. And, and so we'll— I'll— I'm gonna
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wrap up this section and we'll finish up on Tuesday.
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So I'll just get through this part because I know there's storms brewing
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in our areas. So, current environment,
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um, and what I encourage you to consider is that close
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friends offer constructive criticism. You may interpret
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their comments as helpful. However,
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if, let's say, a stranger delivers that similar criticism
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in a hostile tone, you may interpret the experience
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as threatening or disrespectful. All right,
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and this is, uh, later in the
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course when we get to more topics such as prejudice
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and discrimination, this is where
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I want us to make sure that we understand
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that prejudice and discrimination are not always
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just a conscious choice that I don't
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like someone because they're different than
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I am. And it
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is a driving system between
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our emotional experiences and
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our, uh, immediate situational
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environment. Okay, and So
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we'll, we'll talk a little bit later in the course about
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things like implicit biases towards
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others. And those implicit biases
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run on, run with the emotional system,
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not necessarily our conscious system.
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Okay. So Keeping
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context is really important when we look at that. Uh,
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and I like this, this saying that words may overlap,
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but the relationship, setting, and interpretation
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matters. We can hear the same message,
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um, but, uh, interpret it
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totally different based on the situation
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and the people that are there delivering
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the information.