PSYCHOLOGY & NEUROSCIENCE OF POSITIVE EMOTION PSYC*S3662. phone: Summer Session II (July 8 Aug 14)

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1 PSYCHOLOGY & NEUROSCIENCE OF POSITIVE EMOTION PSYC*S3662 Instructor: Bruce Doré Columbia University office: 324A Schermerhorn Department of Psychology phone: Summer Session II (July 8 Aug 14) office hours: by appointment Tues & Thurs 9am-12pm bpd2108@columbia.edu 405 Schermerhorn Hall Course Description How do our brains create experiences of pleasure, happiness, and well-being? For most of the past century, the scientific study of emotion has neglected to ask this question, focusing instead on negative states like fear, anxiety, and depression. In recent decades, new research has emerged to address this gap in knowledge. One field, positive psychology, uses the methods of scientific psychology to study the causes and functions of positive emotional experiences, and probe the effects of the experiences on behavior. Another rapidly growing field -- social, cognitive, & affective neuroscience -- applies the lens of science at a more biological level, revealing the basic physiological and brain processes underlying reward and emotion, and showing how these component processes interact to create complex positive experiences like altruism, aesthetics, and romantic love. Related research considers how basic positive emotion processes can contribute to long-term well-being, on the one hand, or psychopathology, on the other. This course is designed to explore and critically evaluate key theories and research findings in this emerging psychology and neuroscience of positive emotion. Prerequisites Science of Psychology (1001) or Mind, Brain, & Behavior (1010), or equivalent intro psych course; a class in statistics or research methods is recommended. Students with no psychology coursework but a background in biology or neuroscience may be considered but will need instructor permission. Course Objectives After completing this course you will be able to: 1. Locate, interpret, and critically evaluate primary research papers on the psychology and neuroscience of positive emotion 2. Effectively communicate the guiding questions and methodological details of these papers 3. Apply what you learn from these papers to develop strategies for self-improvement 4. Design, fine-tune, and write up a clear proposal for your own novel scientific study Course Requirements: Class Attendance and Participation The course will meet twice weekly for three hours. The first two class sessions will provide a foundation in the psychology and neuroscience of positive emotion, encouraging you to question your own and other classical definitions of emotion and happiness, and consider the costs and benefits of different methodological approaches to understanding these topics. These initial classes will consist of an introductory lecture led by the instructor followed by group discussions. During each of the following weeks, we will discuss the topics listed for the class period. For each class, you will be expected to read the assigned articles and come to class prepared to discuss the readings. Inadequate preparation and/or unexcused absences will cause you to lose participation points. You will be evaluated on the quality of your contributions.

2 Courseworks Response Posts You will come to each class prepared to discuss your thoughts on the material, having written an online response post for the class on the Courseworks discussion board. This post should be at least 400 words in length and include a comment on one or more of the required readings. The comment could be a criticism, a discussion of the strength of evidence, or other creative commentary on the material as long as it is rooted in the readings and based on evidence and logic. The posts should also include at least one proposed topic for class discussion. Posts will be graded out of 3 points. Effective comments (both online and in-class) could involve: An attempt to synthesize the readings with previous topics or readings A step-by-step deconstruction of the experimental design of a particular study A substantive critique of a study, with clear explanation or suggestions for improvement A transcendence of the "I feel" response -- opinions are backed up with reference to course material An attempt to build on the discussion and analysis of previous comments A unique but relevant personal perspective or connection to everyday experience Self-Improvement Project In an effort to extend the class topics to our real-world experiences, every member of the class will undertake a semester-long project designed to apply psychological science to enhance their personal emotional or social well-being. Starting in week one, you will select a scientificallysupported technique (e.g., mindfulness) and measurement procedure (e.g., experiencesampling) to use in your daily life, and discuss the psychology behind these choices with the class. In making these selections you will be encouraged to take advantage of modern measurement and analysis tools available online (e.g., liwc.net, trackyourhappiness.org, wolframalpha.com/facebook/), and techniques or activities that draw on local resources (e.g, institutions in New York that offer volunteer, meditation, art appreciation, or other opportunities). For this project you will give short informal reports on your project at the beginning of certain class meetings, complete periodic group surveys, and prepare an informal 5-10 minute presentation of the data you collected for the final class session. The idea behind the project is that experiencing these activities and measurements first-hand will help us build a more complete understanding of the course material and generate some interesting things to talk about. Leading Discussion You will be responsible for leading the class discussion for at least one class meeting. For that class, you will give a Powerpoint summary of the articles assigned and will guide class discussion of the articles and broader topic. One week before this class, you and I will meet to discuss what themes you re planning on highlighting and what questions you re going to use to stimulate thought (both on the Courseworks discussion board and during class). One purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to become the class expert for a particular topic. In order to effectively lead a discussion, you should be able to identify important questions about this topic, synthesize the themes of the assigned papers, and have some ideas about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the experimental articles. Research Proposal: Powerpoint Presentation & Final Paper The major project in this class will entail developing an idea and design for an original research study that integrates at least two topics discussed in the seminar. In the seventh class session, you will complete a 10 minute Powerpoint presentation outlining your idea for a research

3 proposal and soliciting feedback from classmates. After receiving this feedback you will continue to develop your research idea, finally writing it up into an 8 page research paper (not including references or appendices) due at the beginning of the final class meeting. GRADING 20% - Class participation 25% - Online response posts 10% - Self-improvement project 20% - Leading discussion 25% - Research Proposal (5% oral presentation; 20% final paper) Class Policies Attendance & Participation Attendance and participation is the foundation of a seminar class: missing class in a seminar is like missing the exam in a lecture class. Similarly, failing to complete the readings will make it difficult to contribute meaningfully to the class, and will seriously impact your participation grade. Excused absences and make-up assignments (e.g., for leading a discussion or presenting your research proposal) will only be granted if the instructor is contacted well in advance and/or proper documentation a note from your doctor or advising dean is given. Assignment Submission All assignments must be completed and turned in on time. Response posts that are submitted late will be penalized 1 point (33%). Late papers will be penalized 10% per day. In the case of medical or family emergency, students must contact me as soon as possible for an extension to be considered. Technology Use Neither cellular nor landline telephone use is permitted in class. Laptops are okay, but please respect your classmates and instructor by refraining from unrelated activities (e.g., , Facebook) that detract from everyone s ability to participate in the class. Academic Integrity "The intellectual venture in which we are all engaged requires of faculty and students alike the highest level of personal and academic integrity. As members of an academic community, each one of us bears the responsibility to participate in scholarly discourse and research in a manner characterized by intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity.... In practical terms, this means that, as students, you must be responsible for the full citations of others ideas in all of your research papers and projects; you must be scrupulously honest when taking your examinations; you must always submit your own work and not that of another student, scholar, or internet agent. "From the Faculty Statement on Academic Integrity: Cheating on assignments or exams and plagiarism are very serious violations within the academic community. Students are expected to do their own work on all tests and assignments for this class. You are expected to always act in accordance with the Columbia honor code. Any student found cheating or plagiarizing in this class will be reported to the university for academic discipline. If you have questions about academic integrity at Columbia, please refer to the following link:

4 Calendar Discussion Topics Required Readings & Assignments Week 1: Introduction to the Study of Positive Emotion 1 Defining Emotion what is an emotion? what is happiness? 2 Studying Positive Emotion what methods can be used to study emotion and happiness? 3 Behavior/Expression how do positive emotions impact our behvior? 4 Psychophysiology what is the physiological basis of positive emotion? article 1: Gross (2010) article 2: Buss (2000) Character Strengths/Weaknesses questionnaire article 1: Killingsworth & Gilbert (2010) article 2: Winecoff et al., (2011) article 3: Mauss & Robinson (2009) Week 2: Expression & Physiology article 1: Shiota et al. (2003) article 2: Tracy & Matsuomoto (2008) article 3: Aviezer et al. (2012) article 1: Kok & Fredrickson (2010) article 2: Fredrickson(2005) or Levenson (2003) ASSIGNMENT: discuss Research Proposal ideas Week 3: Neuroscience of Positive Emotion Core Systems 5 Reward Processing & Affect what brain systems compute reward and generate affect? 6 Emotion Regulation what brain systems allow us to control our emotions? article 1: Plassman et al. (2008) article 2: Berridge & Robinson (2003) article 3: Kringelbach & Berridge (2010) article 1: Casey et al. (2011) article 2: Samson & Gross (2010) article 3: Doré & Ochsner (in press) Week 4: Neuroscience of Positive Emotion Complex Phenomena 7 Research Proposals ASSIGNMENT: present Research Proposal 8 Altruism, Aesthetics & Love how do core systems interact to create these experiences? 9 Bipolar Disorder & Depression what brain systems are affected? 10 Addiction & Daily Temptation what brain systems are implicated? 11 Happiness & Neuroplasticity how can we increase our own happiness? 12 Course Wrap-up & Discussion how have we changed in the past six weeks? article 1: Zaki & Mitchell (2011) article 2: Kirk, Harvey, & Montague (2011) article 3: Eisenberger et al. (2011) Week 5: Dysfunctions of Positive Emotion article 1: Anticevic et al. (2013) article 2: Heller et al. (2009) article 3: Gruber (2011) article 1: Robinson & Berridge (2008) article 2: Wagner et al. (2012) article 3: Lopez et al. (2014) Week 6: Cultivating Positive Emotion in Daily Life article 1: Davidson et al. (2003) article 2: Chavez & Heatherton (2014) article 3: Nelson et al. (2013) ASSIGNMENT: hand in Research Proposal paper ASSIGNMENT: present Self-Improvement project

5 Course Readings (those in italics are supplemental) Class 1: Defining Emotion 1 Gross, J. J. (2010). The future s so bright, I gotta wear shades. Emotion Review, 2(3), Buss, D.M. (2000). The evolution of happiness. American Psychologist, 55(1), Character Strengths & Weaknesses questionnaire (~3 pages) Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 6(3-4), Ochsner & Kosslyn Organizing Scientific Thinking using QuALMRI Framework Class 2: Studying Positive Emotion 1 Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006), Winecoff, A., LaBar, K. S., Madden, D. J., Cabeza, R., & Huettel, S. A. (2011). Cognitive and neural contributors to emotion regulation in aging. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 6(2), Mauss, I. B., & Robinson, M. D. (2009). Measures of emotion: A review. Cognition and emotion, 23(2), Gable, S. L., & Haidt, J. (2005). What (and why) is positive psychology?. Review of general psychology, 9(2), 103. Class 3: Behavior/Expression 1 Shiota, M. N., Campos, B., & Keltner, D. (2003). The faces of positive emotion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1000(1), Tracy, J. L., & Matsumoto, D. (2008). The spontaneous expression of pride and shame: Evidence for biologically innate nonverbal displays. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(33), Aviezer, H., Trope, Y., & Todorov, A. (2012). Body cues, not facial expressions, discriminate between intense positive and negative emotions. Science, 338(6111), Gilbert, D., & Abdullah, J. (2004). Holidaytaking and the sense of well-being. Annals of Tourism Research, 31(1), Class 4: Psychophysiology 1 Kok, B. E., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2010). Upward spirals of the heart: Autonomic flexibility, as indexed by vagal tone, reciprocally and prospectively predicts positive emotions and social connectedness. Biological psychology, 85(3), Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American psychologist, 56(3), Levenson, R. W. (2003). Blood, sweat, and fears. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1000(1), James, W. (1884). WHAT IS AN EMOTION?. Mind, (34), Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychological review, 69(5), 379. Class 5: Reward Processing & Affect 1 Plassmann, H., O'Doherty, J., Shiv, B., & Rangel, A. (2008). Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(3), Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (2003). Parsing reward. Trends in neurosciences, 26(9), Kringelbach, M. L., & Berridge, K. C. (2010). The neuroscience of happiness and pleasure. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 77(2), Knutson, B., Adams, C. M., Fong, G. W., & Hommer, D. (2001). Anticipation of increasing monetary reward selectively recruits nucleus accumbens. Journal of Neuroscience, 21(16), Bartal, I. B. A., Decety, J., & Mason, P. (2011). Empathy and pro-social behavior in rats. Science, 334(6061),

6 Class 6: Emotion Regulation 1 Casey, B. J., Somerville, L. H., Gotlib, I. H., Ayduk, O., Franklin, N. T., Askren, M. K.,... & Shoda, Y. (2011). Behavioral and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(36), Samson, A. C., & Gross, J. J. (2012). Humour as emotion regulation: The differential consequences of negative versus positive humour. Cognition & Emotion, 26(2), Doré B.P., & Ochsner, K.N (in press). Emotion regulation. APA Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology. Ochsner, K. N., Silvers, J. A., & Buhle, J. T. (2012). Functional imaging studies of emotion regulation: a synthetic review and evolving model of the cognitive control of emotion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), E1-E24. Class 7: Research Proposals no readings for this class Class 8: Aesthetics, Altruism & Romantic Love 1 Zaki, J., & Mitchell, J. (2011). Equitable decision making is associated with neural markers of subjective value. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(49), Kirk, U., Harvey, A., & Montague, P. R. (2011). Domain expertise insulates against judgment bias by monetary favors through a modulation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(25), Eisenberger, N. I., Master, S. L., Inagaki, T. K., Taylor, S. E., Shirinyan, D., Lieberman, M. D., & Naliboff, B. D. (2011). Attachment figures activate a safety signal-related neural region and reduce pain experience. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(28), Acevedo, B. P., Aron, A., Fisher, H. E., & Brown, L. L. (2012). Neural correlates of long-term intense romantic love. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 7(2), Class 9: Bipolar Disorder & Depression 1 Heller, A. S., Johnstone, T., Shackman, A. J., Light, S. N., Peterson, M. J., Kolden, G. G.,... & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Reduced capacity to sustain positive emotion in major depression reflects diminished maintenance of fronto-striatal brain activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(52), Gruber, J. (2011). Can feeling too good be bad? Positive emotion persistence (PEP) in bipolar disorder. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(4), Anticevic, A., Brumbaugh, M. S., Winkler, A. M., Lombardo, L. E., Barrett, J., Corlett, P. R.,... & Glahn, D. C. (2012). Global prefrontal and fronto-amygdala dysconnectivity in bipolar I disorder with psychosis history. Biological Psychiatry. Class 10: Addiction & Daily Temptation 1 Robinson, T. E., & Berridge, K. C. (2008). The incentive sensitization theory of addiction: some current issues. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1507), Wagner, D. D., Boswell, R. G., Kelley, W. M., & Heatherton, T. F. (2012). Inducing negative affect increases the reward value of appetizing foods in dieters. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 24(7), Lopez, R.B., Hofmann, W., Wagner, D.D., Kelley, W.M., Heatherton, T.F. (in press). Neural predictors o f giving in to temptation in daily life. Psychological Science. Kober, H., Mende-Siedlecki, P., Kross, E. F., Weber, J., Mischel, W., Hart, C. L., & Ochsner, K. N. (2010). Prefrontal striatal pathway underlies cognitive regulation of craving. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(33),

7 Class 11: Happiness & Well-being 1 Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F.,... & Sheridan, J. F. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic medicine, 65(4), Chavez, R.S. & Heatherton, T.F. (2014). Multi-modal frontostriatal connectivity underlies individual differences in self-esteem. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 3 Nelson, S. K., Kurtz, J. L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2013). What psychological science knows about achieving happiness. In S. J. Lynn, W. O Donohue, & S. Lilienfeld (Eds.), Better, stronger, wiser: Psychological science and well-being. New York: Sage. Gruber, J., Mauss, I. B., & Tamir, M. (2011). A dark side of happiness? How, when, and why happiness is not always good. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(3), Class 12: Course Wrap-up no readings for this class