The idea that there is no way of knowing for certain that one’s experiences of a particular emotion is the same as other peoples experience of that emotion, is something I have considered many times previously. It may be that what I perceive as anger or happiness, for example, may be experienced differently by another person, making it difficult to create objective measures of one’s emotions.
Although I think physiological reactions are good objective measures of emotions, these measures can only be first associated with emotion by self report methods of emotion or by inducing emotions which again is limited by the subjective nature of emotional experiences.
It was interesting to think about the adaptive purpose of emotions and the idea that emotions cannot be bad due to their adaptive value of helping indicate to us if a behaviour is adaptive and rewarding, inducing positive emotions, or if a behaviour is maladaptive and thus induces negative emotions as a punishment so that this behaviour is less likely to be performed again. It was also interesting that highly adaptive emotions are more easily triggered suggestive of the genetic component of emotional sensitivity in some individuals.
What causes emotions? The adaptive value of emotions is clear and thus it would make sense that emotions are caused by physiological responses to events in sub-cortical areas, that we then process and label as specific emotions in the cerebral cortex. This idea is supported in that infants and even animals experience emotions when they do not have developed cognitive skills to be making complex appraisals of situations and events that might cause emotion. However, as one develops and more complex cognitive appraisals are possible it may be that our experience of emotions becomes more complex. In support of the cognitive appraisal theories the same physiological experience can be attributed to different emotions by different people and the same event can cause different emotions from different people. Most research suggests then that it is an interaction of cognitive appraisals and biological mechanisms which cause emotion. I found Buck’s two system theory particularly appealing. It suggests that an innate and involuntary system activates the limbic system response to some emotional stimuli producing more innate emotions such as fear and aggression, while other times more complex emotions such as gratitude or hope stem from a more cognitive, social and experienced based system in the cortex.
How many emotions are there? Reeve (2009) suggest that there may be an infinite number of emotions but that there are some which are core or fundamental. Researchers disagree about the specific number of core emotions but Reeve suggest most are similar to these 6 which are Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Joy and Interest. I found it really interesting that in all the models discussed, more negative emotions than positive emotions were considered core. This may relate to the adaptive value of emotions with it being more important to stop harmful behaviours from causing injury or even death, relying on negative emotions, than to appreciate adaptive behaviours, relying on positive emotion.
What good are emotions? I found it really interesting to consider the idea that emotions may be a consequence of adaption passed down for their adaptive value for our ancestors but may now be redundant or even maladaptive in today’s society. For example the flight or fight response to threat which may have helped our ancestors from the threat of attack be predators may cause us to be unnecessarily aggressive in situations that do not require such an intense emotional response.
The social function of emotions becomes very obvious when you consider interactions with friends most often involve expressing your emotional reactions to events and these expressions make one feel closer or more intimately involved with others. Personally the relationships I have that do not involve sharing of emotional experiences are the ones I see as more superficial and less intimate relationships.
Finally this week we discussed the difference between emotions and mood. Reeve (2009) suggest that moods differ from emotions in their antecedent, action specificity and time course. Thus moods are usually not caused by a specific event like an emotion generally is, do not direct behaviour in a specific manner and last for a longer period time than emotions do.
Reeve, J. (2009). Understanding motivation and emotion (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
No comments:
Post a Comment