Emotional Expression

Emotional Expression Emotional expression is most commonly known by the attitudes people have and the facial expressions they carry in certain situations. You can easily tell if someone is mad, upset, happy, or uncomfortable in a given situation. Whether most people realize it or not, their faces can be read like a book. Most of the time, you can look at someone and see their opinion on an issue without having to actually ask them what they think or how they feel. This is very helpful in most situations, but sometimes it would be better not to know what people think or how they feel so it doesn’t influence your opinion on the issue. Many philosophers have investigated and studied facial expressions and the behaviors that are associated with these expressions. “William James, a Harvard professor in the late 19th century, is a well known proponent of the view that perceiving the bodily changes during emotion constitutes the emotional experience, and without this perception, emotion would be pale and colorless. James argued strongly that there is nothing in the mind called emotion that precipitates bodily activity, rather the reverse is true” (Theories of emotion). William James and Karl Lange created the James-Lange theory. This theory suggests that emotions follow behavioral responses to events. This means that how you feel about the event will come after your reaction, whether you ran away, stayed still, climbed a tree, etc. Behavioral actions always come before emotions come into place. Another well known philosopher of behavior is Charles Darwin. “Darwin’s work emphasized the biological utility of emotional expression. Thus, it contributed to the development of an evolutionary-expressive approach to emotion, which suggests that emotion exists because it contributes to survival (Oatley, 1992)” (Emotional Processing). Darwin suggests that survival depends on emotional responses. This means that people must feel and relate to an issue in order to