Table of Contents
Emotion has no definite meaning. It can be defined as a natural, intuitive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood or relationships with others. It can as well be described as a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, feeling, or relationships with others. Due to the influence of science, the meaning of the word is quite numerous. Therefore there is no standard definition.
Emotion is often entwined with disposition, mood, motivation, temperament, and personality. In some theories, cognition is an integral part of emotion. People acting primarily on the emotions they are feeling may appear as if they are not thinking, however, mental processes are still necessary, especially in the interpretation of events. For example, the realization of our believing that we are in a dangerous situation and the subsequent arousal of our body’s nervous system (rapid heartbeat and breathing, sweating, muscle tension) is inherent to the experience of our feeling afraid. Some other theories claim that emotion is not connected to and can forego cognition. Consciously experiencing an emotion is showing a mental representation of that emotion from a possible or previous experience, which is linked back to a content state of pleasure or displeasure. The content states are determined by verbal explanations of experiences, portraying an internal state.
Emotions are intricate. According to certain theories, they are states of feeling that give rise to psychological and physical changes that affect our behaviour. The physiology of emotion is closely linked to the stimulation of the nervous system with several states and levels of stimulation relating, visibly, to certain emotions. Emotion is also connected to the human behavioural tendency. Extroverted people are more likely to be social and express their feelings, while introverted people are more likely to be socially withdrawn and hide their emotions. Emotion is often the driving force behind motivation, be it positive or negative. According to other theories, emotions are not causal forces but syndromes of components, which may include motivation, feeling, behaviour, and physiological changes, but none of these components is the emotion itself. Nor is the emotion the entity that triggers these components.
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All living beings possess emotions, be it man or beast. During the late 19th century, Charles Darwin wrote the book titled, “The expression of the emotions in man and animals.” Charles further argued that emotions served a purpose in communication and aiding survival. Prior to that, there were several widely accepted views as regards to emotions, in ancient Greece, Hippocrates postulated the four humours theory. Avicenna, a Persian polymath during the Islamic golden age suggested the management of emotions by relating it’s influence on health and behaviours. Western philosophy had varying views on emotion. Some theories viewed emotion as a hindrance to virtue due to its impact on reason. Others saw it as an essential part of virtue. The views on emotion are too numerous to be mentioned in their entirety. One major part of emotion universally agreed on are the different types of emotion.
For ease of analysis, six primary emotions were identified. These six emotions are called the basic emotions. In the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman conducted an experiment using pictures each depicting the face of a person displaying multiple expressions. He showed people these pictures and asked for the emotions said expressions displayed. Therein, he derived his thesis on the basic emotions, listing them as: Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Anger and Disgust. There are dozens of more emotions, but Eckman described these six as the universal emotions, experienced by all people regardless of culture. There are many other theories and ongoing research to continue exploring the many different types and categories of emotions.
Some theorists do not agree on the classification of basic emotions. This constant dispute is quite common throughout the course of psychology. Eckman’s theory is as yet one of the best known, but there are many theories on how emotions make up the core of the human experience.
For example, some theorists have suggested that there are only two or three basic emotions. Others have suggested that emotions exist in somewhat of a hierarchy. Primary emotions like sadness, surprise, love, joy, and anger can still be further broken down into secondary emotions. Love, for example, still consists of secondary emotions such as affection and longing.
These secondary emotions can be further broken down into what are known as tertiary emotions. The secondary emotion of affection still includes tertiary emotions like as tenderness, caring, compassion, and liking.
In recent years, study suggests that there are no less than 27 distinct emotions, all of which are intricately interconnected. After analysing the answers of roughly a thousand men to more than 2,000 video clips, researchers created an interactive platform to demonstrate the relationships between these emotions.
“We found that 27 distinct dimensions, not six, were necessary to account for the way hundreds of people reliably reported feeling in response to each video,” explained the senior researcher Dacher Keltner, faculty director of the Greater Good Science Centre.
In other words, emotions are not states that occur in isolation. Preferably, the study suggests that there are gradients of emotion and that these different feelings are deeply inter-related.
Emotions and the Mundane Life
Emotions play an important role in our thought process and behaviours. The emotions we feel each day can influence the decisions we make and the actions we take about our lives, however large or small. There are three critical components of every emotion that we experience.
Our emotions are composed of a subjective component, a physiological component and an expressive component. That is, how we experience the emotion, how our bodies react to the emotion and how we behave in response to the emotion. These three elements each play a role in the function and purpose of our emotional responses.
Our emotions can be fleeting, such as a flash of annoyance at a neighbour, or persistent, such as enduring sadness over the death of a relative. But why exactly do we experience emotions? What role do they serve?
Emotions Allow Us to Understand Others
In much the same way that our own emotions provide valuable information to others, the emotional expressions of the people around us provide us a multitude of social information. Social communication is a vital part of our daily lives and relationships. Being able to interpret, comprehend and react to the emotions of others is very important. It allows us to appropriately respond and build more profound, more meaningful relationships with our friends, relatives, and other people around us. It also allows us to communicate effectively in a variety of social situations, from dealing with a demanding client to managing a hot-tempered child.
Emotions Allow other people to Understand us
When we interact with other people, it is essential to give hints to help them understand what and how we are feeling. These signs can involve emotional expressions, for example, body language, like many facial expressions connected with the particular emotions we are feeling.Or we could directly state how we feel. When we tell friends or relatives that we are feeling happy, sad, disgust, or scared, we are providing them relevant information that they can then use to take appropriate actions.
Emotions Help Us Survive, Thrive, and Avoid Danger
Naturalist, Charles Darwin believed that emotions are adaptations that allow both humans and animals to survive and reproduce. When we are angry, we are likely to confront the source of our irritation. When we experience fear, we are more likely to flee the source of the threat. When we feel love, we might seek out a matepartner and reproduce.
Emotions serve an adaptive role in our lives by motivating us to act instinctively and take actions that will maximize our chances of survival and success.
Emotions Can Motivate Us to Take Action
Our emotions greatly influence the decisions we make, from subtle things like what you decide to have for lunch to which candidates we opt to vote for in political elections.
Researchers have also found that people suffering from certain types of brain damage that affects the ability to experience emotions also have a decreased ability to make proper decisions.
Even in situations where we believe our decisions are guided undoubtedly by logic and rationality, emotions play a significant role. Emotional intelligence, or our ability to comprehend and manage emotions, has been shown to play an essential role in decision-making.
Emotional Health
There is a direct link between the body’s mental and physical states. Emotional stress can easily be manifested by physical means. Poor emotional health can weaken your body’s immune system making it more susceptible to illness.
This makes you more likely to catch colds and a variety of other infections during emotionally trying times. Also, when you are feeling stressed, anxious, or distressed, you may not take care of your health as well as you typically should. You may not enjoy exercising, eat nutritious foods, or take the medicine that is prescribed by one’s doctor. You may begin to abuse alcohol, tobacco, and a host of other drugs. Emotional health can be improved in a number of ways:
Taking proper care of one’s self; To maintain the best emotional health, it is essential to take care of your body by having a regular schedule for eating balanced meals do not skip meals, getting enough quality sleep, and exercising to relieve pent-up stress. Avoid overeating and do not abuse drugs nor should you overindulge in alcohol. Drugs and alcohol almost always lead to other issues, sometimes far worse like health and family problems
Calming one’s mind and body; Methods of relaxation, such as meditation, listening to certain genres of music, Tai Chi and yoga are beneficial ways to balance one’s emotional state. Tutorial videos can easily be found on YouTube. You can as well contact appropriate personnel about effective relaxation methods.
Developing mental resilience; resilient people are better able to deal with stress in far healthier ways. Resilience can be learned and strengthened with the aid of different techniques. These include having support from friends and family, maintaining a favourable view of one’s self, accepting change since realistically no situation can last forever, and keeping things in perspective. A therapist or counsellor can help you achieve this aim with cognitive behavioural therapy shortened as (CBT). Consult your doctor first.
Appropriate ways to express emotions; certain emotions, like stress, sadness, or anxiety can manifest physical problems, bottling up these feelings inside can only make you feel much worse. It is okay to tell someone, close friends and family always notice if you are in distress, let them know what is bothering you.
Conclusion
All in all, emotions are an integral part of human life. Be it negative or positive emotion, we as humans experience it nonetheless. We have to take great care in not letting our emotions dictate our choices and actions whilst still giving said emotions free rein. The fundamental approach here is to find balance and maintain it. Imagine a world without emotions, wherein babies didn’t smile, faces were blank, how dreadful would that be? All the emotions we experience are natural; they complete us. There is no right or wrong emotion, and we feel them all because each is necessary for its own was.
We can go through a multitude of emotions in a single day, sometimes unable to distinguish one from the other. But these emotions serve their purpose undeterred, save a few physical limitations. Since the human psyche is under constant evolution, it wouldn’t be too much of a shock if more emotions get discovered along the course of the development and advancement of psychology. In this our universe riddled with endless possibilities. The more we feel, the more there is to be felt.
References
- en.wikipedia.org
- https://www.verywellmind.com
- https://familydoctor.org
