RAKSHAYA V
SYNAPSE
EMOTION
EMOTION THEORIES
EMOTION TYPES
CHARACTERISTICS OF HEALTHY EMOTION
WHEN DO WE BECOME EMOTIONAL?
EMOTIONAL BALANCE – IMPORTANCE
THERAPEUTIC ASSISSTANCE
EMOTION
Emotions are neuro-physiological changes linked with thinking, feeling, behavior with respect to pleasure or displeasure of an individual. It is also said as biological state, conscious mental reactions, dimensions of one’s feeling, affect or current mood of an individual. Emotions are accompanied by physical reactions to an object or situation or people or to any environmental stimuli. Sometimes it may be due to internal state of a person also.
According to CROW AND CROW (1973), emotion is defined as “an effective experience that accompanies generalized inner adjustment and mental and psychological stirred-up states in the individual, and that shows itself in his overt behavior”.
According to WOODWORTH (1945), “Emotion is a ‘moved’ or ‘stirred-up’ state of an organism. It is a stirred-up state of feeling that is the way it appears to the individual himself. It is a disturbed muscular and glandular activity- that is the way it appears to an external observer.
THEORIES OF EMOTIONS
1. Common sense view
According to this theory emotion is a sequential process which is sensed first by perceiving an emotion producing situation, then individuals become aware and feel emotions. Finally emotional reactions are initiated.
2. James-Lange Theory
This theory was proposed by William James (psychologist) and Carl Lange (physiologist) in mid 1880s. According to this theory, emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events. Shortly this theory says emotions to be a physiological response to the external stimuli, this physiological arousal is names as the emotional experience. James assumed visceral organs and glands as the venue of emotional disturbance while Lange considered vaso-motor mechanisms as significant.
According to this theory, receptors get activated to the emotion provoking stimuli and an afferent nerve impulse is generated which is conveyed to the cerebral cortex through afferent fibers. This produces perceptual experience of the situation and efferent impulse is generated which is conveyed to the visceral organs and the vaso-motor organs (muscles and glands) resulting in activation of these organs causing emotional behavior. Again afferent impulse about activation of responding organ is conveyed to the cerebral cortex and thus, the individual has the experience of the relevant emotion that correspond to the emotional behavior. Hence, this theory assumes that the conscious experience of emotion is preceded by emotional behavior.
3. Cannon- Bard Theory
This theory was proposed by Walter and B. Cannon in 1927. According to this theory, the thalamus plays central role in emotion. Emotional stimuli are received by the receptors and sensory impulses are conveyed to the centre (spinal cord and brain). Before the impulses get to the upper levels of brain, it must pass through thalamus. Cannon holds that thalamus sends impulses simultaneously to the cerebral cortex (upper level of brain) and to the other parts of the body. Hence, experience of emotion is resultant of simultaneous arousal of the cortex and sympathetic nervous system. Thus, the experience of emotion and accompanying bodily changes occur at the same time in which thalamus plays a very important role by relaying the impulses received from receptors to the cerebral cortex and impulses coming from cerebral cortex to the organs of response (viscera and muscles).
Follow-up investigations have made it clear that the hypothalamus rather than thalamus is the important centre for integrating to and fro the emotional experiences. Hypothalamus is a group of nerve centres situated beneath the thalamus. This subtle part has been found to elicit fear or anger in many animals. Neurologists have also observed the significance of this part in reference to emotion. On having established its prominence, hypothalamus is assumed as the seat of emotion by the followers of Canon and Bard.
4. Modal model of emotion
This theory was proposed by Gross in 1998. It consists of 4 steps in in emotional response generation:
Situation: The sequence begins with a situation (real or imagined) that is emotionally relevant.
Attention: Attention given to or focused on the emotional experience.
Appraisal: The term here refers to the evaluation and interpretation of the emotional stimuli.
Response: An emotional response is generated, giving rise to loosely coordinated changes in experiential, behavioral, and physiological response systems.
According to this theory, a psychologically relevant (external or internal) situation attracts our attention and gives rise to a process of situation appraisal. This theory says that emotion is temporal, appraisal based process that involves loosely coordinated changes across experiential, behavioral, and physiological response systems. It offers a framework that facilitates an examination of emotion as a repeated sequence of different stages.
5. Inactivity theory
It is based on the concept of evolutionary pressure where creatures that were inactive at night were less likely to die from the predation of injury in the dark, thus creating an evolutionary and reproductive benefit to be inactive at night.
TYPES OF EMOTIONS
University of California, Berkeley distinguished 27 emotions based on the academic study in which participants are self-reported. The number of emotions varies accordingly. However similar emotions are clubbed into an umbrella term & commonly distinguished into 8 types by ROBERT PLUTCHIK’S THEORY. They are:
Trust, Fear, Surprise, Anger, Anticipation, Sadness, Joy and Disgust.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HEALTHY EMOTIONS
this is one amazing article
Very informative!
The focus on the actual meaning of emotion gives the reader some insight on how and when to use the word in their vocabulary. including the various effects of emotions, especially negative emotions on the mental well-being of an individual and how to tackle them would be of great help. Overall, it is beautifully written.
Keep up the good work!
😉 Thank you !
Wow, this piece of information is very informative as well as very well written. Couldn’t have asked for more!
Thank you.
😉 Hope you like it
Nice one
The balance of our emotions is very important to lead a peaceful life. Otherwise it will have an impact on our thinking process, attention etc.,
Well written.
This a great topic to elaborate on , Rakshaya!
The theories give a scientific confirmation of presence of emotions.
However, you could have used bullet points and shorter paragraphs with appropriate transitions to make the article readable . You could have also mentioned ways to deal with emotions besides therapy .
Overall, a good article. i am sure with practice, you will write well!
All the best for future!
A good article. Well researched. I only feel that its little bit of more technical can be more involving. Keep writing.
Well written…you could Have had a better layout though…
The theories are explained in detail. You have researched your topics very well. There are zero grammatical errors and sentence formation is perfect. My only suggestion would be that you should have elaborated a little on how to manage emotions of extreme level. That could have been a little helpful.
Good job! Loved it!
Really enjoyed reading this article. You have very gracefully summed up the theories of emotions which we generally study in less detail in undergrad and focussed on different view points regarding gthe interaction of physio and psychological mechanisms of emotions. I like how you have also included acute index at the start informing the topics that will be covered in the article! good job :))
This was an informative article however when I looked at the title it said ‘Managing Emotions’ but its content was related to emotions but not on managing it. So add pointers on how you can manage emotions as well. ❤️
Written well… it was more about emotions than managing emotions so, you could have added some tips to handle emotions… overall a nice article