Emotions
Summary of Module 31
Functions of emotions : * Preparing us for action. Emotions act as a link between events in our environment and our responses. * Shaping our future behavior. Emotions promote learning that will help us make appropriate responses in the future. * Helping us interact more efficiently with others. We ooften communicate the emotion we experience through our verbal and nonverbal behaviors, making our emotions obvious to observers.
Determining the Range of Emotions: Labeling Our Feelings
The basic hierarchy of Emotions: 1. Positive (Love & Joy) 2. Negative (Anger, Sadness & Fear)
One difficulty of defining the basic set of emotions is culture related. Below are some examples:
Germans:
Schadenfreude, a feeling of pleasure over another person’s difficulties.
Japanese:
Hagaii, a mood of vulnerable heartache colored by frustration.
In Tahiti: Musu, a feeling of reluctance to yield to unreasonable demands made by one’s parents.
Finding these emotions doesn’t mean that people of other cultures do not experience them.
The Roots of Emotions If we look closely at our language, we will find that emotions are described using physical symptoms like: “I’m so angry, my fists are trembling and my heart’s pounding.” “Kinikilig ka no? Namumula na ung mukha mo eh.” “My friend is sad today, it’s like her heart was broken into a million pieces.”
The James-Lange Theory: Do Gut Reactions Equal Emotions? (William James and Carl Lange) are among the first researchers to explore the nature of emotions.
Their theory of emotion states,
“The belief that the emotional experience is a reaction to bodily events occuring as a result of an external situation(“I feel sad because I am crying, angry because I strike, afraid because I tremble”).”
They suggested that for every major emotion there is an accompanying physiological or ‘‘gut’’ reaction of internal organs called a visceral experience. But there
Functions of emotions : * Preparing us for action. Emotions act as a link between events in our environment and our responses. * Shaping our future behavior. Emotions promote learning that will help us make appropriate responses in the future. * Helping us interact more efficiently with others. We ooften communicate the emotion we experience through our verbal and nonverbal behaviors, making our emotions obvious to observers.
Determining the Range of Emotions: Labeling Our Feelings
The basic hierarchy of Emotions: 1. Positive (Love & Joy) 2. Negative (Anger, Sadness & Fear)
One difficulty of defining the basic set of emotions is culture related. Below are some examples:
Germans:
Schadenfreude, a feeling of pleasure over another person’s difficulties.
Japanese:
Hagaii, a mood of vulnerable heartache colored by frustration.
In Tahiti: Musu, a feeling of reluctance to yield to unreasonable demands made by one’s parents.
Finding these emotions doesn’t mean that people of other cultures do not experience them.
The Roots of Emotions If we look closely at our language, we will find that emotions are described using physical symptoms like: “I’m so angry, my fists are trembling and my heart’s pounding.” “Kinikilig ka no? Namumula na ung mukha mo eh.” “My friend is sad today, it’s like her heart was broken into a million pieces.”
The James-Lange Theory: Do Gut Reactions Equal Emotions? (William James and Carl Lange) are among the first researchers to explore the nature of emotions.
Their theory of emotion states,
“The belief that the emotional experience is a reaction to bodily events occuring as a result of an external situation(“I feel sad because I am crying, angry because I strike, afraid because I tremble”).”
They suggested that for every major emotion there is an accompanying physiological or ‘‘gut’’ reaction of internal organs called a visceral experience. But there