Demaree et al (2005)

Demaree, H.A., Everhart, D.E., Youngstrom,E.A., and Harrison, D.W. (2005)

Brain lateralisation of emotional processing: historical roots and a future incorporating 'dominance'.

Behav Cogn Neurosci Rev, 4, 3, 3-20

Quite a lot of information included from a psychiatric perspective, mostly ignored in this summary.

Historically 4 sequential theories, hemisphere specialisation, valence, approach/avoidance and dominance.  Ideas of emotional dominance should be explored further. Valence ideas mostly subsumed, by these authors at least, into an approach/avoidance model.

Hemisphere specialisation (and then) the Valence model

Right hemisphere specialisation for the perception of emotional expressions. Work based mainly on the study of emotions with negative valence eg sadness. (some more recent reports suggest that the left hemisphere is specialised for positive emotions and the right for negative emotions ie the valence theory. Furthermore a variant of this hypothesis contends that differential specialisation exists for the expression and the experience of emotion as a function of valence. Anterior regions of each hemisphere being specialised for the expression and experience of emotion (- or +) depending on valence whilst the posterior regions are specialised for perception of emotion

Most of the evidence  refers to either emotional facial expression or affective prosody.

Evidence from patients with right hemisphere lesions ( Adolphs, Damasio, Tranel &Damasio, 1996) eg aprosodia ( both sensory and motor) typically observed following right hemisphere lesions

Experimental evidence from participants who do not have hemisphere damage ie left visual field superiority for discriminating emotional faces

'consistent findings have been documented among patients undergoing intracarotid sodium Amytal procedures ...... Affective faces rated as less emotionally intense (compared to a base line) when shown to the anaesthetised right hemisphere, but not when shown to the anaesthetised left hemisphere

Electro physiological

'fMRI studies have found evidence of the specialisation of right hemisphere structures for the perception of emotion'

Left half of the face is more active than the right during emotional expression . The lower proportion of the face is predominately innervated by the contra lateral hemisphere...... suggesting right hemisphere control of facial expression (49 studies).

See bottom left paragraph of page 5 for the debate about the spontaneous versus posed neural pathways.

Experience of emotion (mood and affect)

Sodium Amytal, right carotid, indifferent, left carotid, catastrophic.

Patients with right hemisphere lesions tend to lack prosody

Experimental studies combined with electrophysiological monitoring

The approach- avoidance model

Overlap with the valence model is extensive ie most negative emotions leads to avoidance.  Therefore left for approach and right for avoidance

Lots of EEG evidence, (asymmetry between left and right) collected using all kinds of experimental paradigms.

Compared baseline frontal EEG activity to show that ' affective style (social initiation, positive affect versus isolated, onlooking behaviour) is correlated with the expected frontal asymmetry based on the location of approach/avoidance hemisphere specialisation

Anger studies - interesting because although a negative emotion it leads to approach type behaviours. Frontal asymmetries (left greater than right) recorded in children with impulsive disorders and also experimentally induced anger in adults)

Ideas about dominance

p12 ' the current authors believe that the approach-withdrawal model is compelling not only for its excellent fit to the available data but also it's theoretical importance (ie  to  species survival and procreation  ). At the same time, however, we believe that the designation of discrete emotions as 'approach' or 'withdrawal' is somewhat cumbersome. and the strengths of the motivational impulse can be quite difficult to quantify. In this last section, we make an argument for using 'dominance' as an important state construct underlying frontal asymmetry.

Circumflex model is relevant ' at least two dimensions are required to describe affective experience. Valence ( + or -  ) and arousal (low, high) most emotions can be distinguished from each other using this model. Many emotion researchers use the valence model to characterise emotional experience. (affective state). Authors, and others, argue for a third dimension, dominance, 'feeling of control and influence over everyday day situations. It would differentiate between fear and anger ( both high arousal with negative valence) but each with a distinct neural pathway.  This idea would fit with approach (emotional dominance) and avoid ( low emotional dominance - aka submission)

transistions and emotional labour

Christie, H., Tett, L., Cree, V.E., Hounsell, J., and McCune, V. (2007)

‘ A real rollercoaster of confidence and emotions’: lear ning to be a university student,

Online Paper Series: GEO-033

online papers archived by the Institute of Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:45HYVX2FvTUJ:www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/1891/1/hchristie002.pdf+Community+of+Practice+and+emotion&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi0Y0plmFCc7_w7Ne2IwEW53NaLUvauuzXGc0J60-SR9aaiLhZnU9R7HgcOwwbBGU1IIK0m69EkPjTyBlETEv1ei3-4YSgsvv2axlfaNq6KYXjdz-KpFRXeyJRAZevcqNE89gX2&sig=AHIEtbQ8NX5aJ5GiMr8ZDQQ1sp4L-1oe4A

http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/1891/1/hchristie002.pdf.

Longditudinal study of students moving from FE to an elite university.

P5 Despite (Gibbs 1992, Kolb 1984, Rogers 1975) ‘the literature has remarkably little to say about the emotional dimensions of learning ( Brown 2000, Boler 1999). There is little investigation of the emotional impulse to learning – of the difference that confidence, motivation, perseverance and creativity make to the individual’s wider disposition to learning, or the potential changes in learning identities.’

P6 Moving beyond theories that focus on individual cognitive abilities and processes

Lave and Wenger (1991) –‘theory of situated learning’ - ‘seeks to explain changes in learning practices when individuals become exposed to new influences and new situations’ learning as participation in social practice. ‘From this perspective significant learning is what changes our ability to engage in practice and to understand why we do it. Such learning has to do with the development of our practices and our ability to negotiate meaning’

P8

The paper considers ‘ the ways in which emotional processes underpin and become entangled with the social process of learning’ emotional labour involved in belonging to a project group.

The Study

Longitudinal over 3-4 years. Students entering an elite University from FE college. Interviews 2 in the first year.

‘Although not questioned directly about the emotional aspects of their learning experience, this emerged as an important theme in their interview data’

Ist interview at the beginning of the semester p9 ‘strong sense of exhilaration and excitement’ (Christie et al, 2006) few reported the same in the second round of interviews ‘p10 ‘ some students found the changes horrendous and stressful others thought ‘it was a rollercoaster of confidence and emotions’ and many described themselves at best ‘coping’ due to ‘learning shock’ p11 during the first semester ‘ differences had to be identified and the respondents learn how to be university students’ the loss of the familiar ‘ the effort students put in to learning to find their way about the campus and the potentially disclocating effects of this, should not be under-estimated’ p12 ‘ unfamiliarity with protocol and procedure, and the emotional insecurity it engendered, was a recurrent feature of the students’ account of transition’

Comment on findings

P14 ‘Accounts which privilege the rational dimensions of learning stress that expertise and learning competence are located in the individual and are independent of context’ “relying on a rational approach to learning misses the existence of ‘embedded’ or ‘tacit’ knowledge which resides in systemic routines and formal procedures’ “ Following Lave and Wenger (1991) our analysis suggests that to undertake ‘significant learning’ the students had to change their ability to participate in the social practices of learning.’

P16 ‘Our evidence suggests two ways in which the emotional processes of learning were entangled in the creation of new communities of practice. First, students developed new ways of learning: and secondly, these changes in practices and the identity work they undertook helped them to develop a sense of belonging to and membership of the wider learning community’

“Only be recognizing difference could they begin to engage with the new learning environment and begin to make it familiar, understandable and usable’

p20 ‘Membership generally was perceived as involving two aspects: first, participating in the social practices to do with learning: and secondly, participating in the social practices to do with student life’ p21 ‘emotional commitment to studying was a central factor in motivating and enabling them to create new ways of participating in a community of practice and in the process transform understanding of the community itself’

p24 ‘ We have shown that engagement with learning is a subjective experience bound up with other life events and experiences ‘

p26 ‘moving to a different learning environment brings new sets of risks and uncertainties because the students must negotiate the meaning and significance of the everyday practices embodied in the new learning setting. Being and becoming a successful learner is as much about the social and emotional, as well as the cognitive dimensions of learning.’ “Whilst it is important for universities to be concerned with the quality of their teaching programmes, the interactive, social and collaborative aspects of students’ learning experiences, captured in the accounts of the social situatedness of learning, are also important determinants of graduate outcomes’

Important references

Griffiths, S., Winstanley, D. and Gabriel, Y. (2005) Laerning shock: the trauma of return to formal learning Management Learning 36(3): 275-297.

Christie, H. , Munro, M., and Wager, F. (2005) /Day students’ in higher education: widening access students and successful transitions to university life.

International Studeis in Sociology of Education 15(1): 3-29.