Nature of Emotions

Meaning

            The word Emotion is derived from French word émouvoir, which means "to stir up". Emotions are frequently interchangeably used with mood and feelings.

Mood – Affective state of long duration lesser intense than emotions.

Feelings – Pleasure and pain dimension of emotions with physical changes. In fact emotions contain both these phenomena.

Definition

            “The complex pattern of changes in response to situation perceived as personally significant, including physiological arousal, feelings, thoughts and behaviours” (NCERT, 2013).  “The reactions consisting of subjective  cognitive states, physiological reactions, and expressive behaviours” (Baron, 1993).

 “The ‘feeling’ aspect of consciousness, characterized by a certain physical arousal, a certain behaviour that reveals the emotion to the outside world, and an inner awareness of feelings” (Ciccarelli and Meyer, 2016).

Introduction

            The emotions are the ‘cognitive ornaments’ of human behaviour. Emotions give appropriate meaning to behaviour which is manifested through physical actions. The original role of emotions was to motivate adaptive behaviors that in the past would have contributed to the passing on of genes through survival, reproduction, and kin selection (Wikipedia). Emotions also do have close relationship with experience, a subjective conscious state of being. The direction of experience whether positive or negative is defined by none other than emotions. In essence “Emotions are specific subjective responses to external or internal stimuli in context of psycho-socio-biological environment”.

Nature

             Emotions are multimodal states that results from the joint and simultaneous actions of various psycho-bio-social components. Emotions are explained by various psychologists and neurologists from different perspectives but have three things in common in their explanation i.e.

(i)        physiology of emotions (internal bodily changes)

(ii)       expression of emotions (external bodily changes)

(iii)     experience of emotions (cognitive changes) Emotions are dynamic phenomenon that are manifested with different intensities.

The individual and situational factors influences the expression of emotions.

Individual Factors – Gender, Personality type, Psychopathology, social role etc.

Situational Factors – Presence of others, social situations, cultural gathering etc.

            At least six basic emotions are experienced and recognised across the globe i.e. Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness and Surprise.

Research indicates that women experience all the emotions except anger more intensely than men. Men experience anger with higher intensity and frequency. The gender difference in expression and experience of emotions is due to differential social roles (Competitiveness v/s Affiliation & Caring).

Physiological Bases of Emotions 

            When we experience emotions, a stream of physiological changes such as increased heart rate, breathing rate, perspiration, trembling of limbs etc. takes place inside

our body. Emotional experience is a result of various neurophysiological activations in which thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system and cerebral cortex are involved (NCERT, 2013).

(i)        Thalamus – Relay center of sensory nerves. Stimulation of it produces fear and anxiety.

(ii)       Hypothalamus – Primary center for regulation of emotions.

(iii)     Limbic System – In association with thalamus and hypothalamus it plays important role in regulation of emotions.

(iv)      Amygdala – It is responsible for emotional control and formation of emotional memories.

(v)       Cerebral Cortex – The left frontal cortex is associated with positive emotions while right frontal cortex is associated with negative emotions.

The physiological changes are accelerated by ‘Sympathetic Nervous System’ and brought back to normalcy by ‘Parasympathetic Nervous System’. After experiencing emotions labelling  occurs. Labelling means giving a name to a particular facial expression in context of culture. This is known as cognitive aspect of the emotions because it involves recalling from memory, and matching with similar previous

experience.

References:

1.         NCERT,  (2013). XI Psychology Text book.

2.         Ciccarelli, S. K. & Meyer, G. E. (2016). Psychology. Noida: Pearson India.

3.         Baron, R. (1993). Psychology.

4.         Schacter, D.L., Gilbert, D.T., Wegner, D.M., & Hood, B.M. (2011). Psychology (European ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

5.         Pinker, Steven (1997), How the Mind Works, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, p. 342.

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