Psychology of Emotions

Psychology of Emotions

Why do we feel the way we feel? How do our thoughts and emotions affect our health? Are our bodies and minds distinct from each other or do they function together as parts of an interrelated system? “Human emotion is not just about sexual pleasures or fear of snakes. It is also about the horror of witnessing suffering and about the satisfaction of seeing justice served…” (Damasio, Antonio) Emotions are part of a management system to co-ordinate each individual's numerous plans and objectives under limited amounts of time and other resources. Emotions are also part of the biological answer to the problem of how to plan and to carry out action aimed at satisfying various goals in environments, which aren’t always predictable. “Can emotions exist and exert influence at the unconscious level?” Freud's view was that emotions could not be unconscious, that their experience is bound with the conscious experience, and that only predispositions towards certain emotions can exist in the unconscious (contempt, disgust, and shame); providing it’s own distinctive kind of encouraging information. Emotions are essentially composed of three components. These components are; the expressive component, the physiological component and the experiential component (Bukato & Daehler 1998).

Each one of these components plays a different and unique role in the composition of emotions. The expressive component deals with multiple forms of facial “_expression” where the title is obviously derived from, these expressions are Smiles, frowns, laughter and grimaces. The physiological component involves body changes such as sweating, increased heart rate and respiration. The interpretation and evaluation of ones emotional state of mind is labeled the experiential component. As for the development of emotions, the question to scientists is whether or not emotion and mood is formed through processes of the mind or biologically innate characteristics. (Pert, Candace)

Certain areas of the human brain have been searched in order to locate particular areas of emotional stimulation. The original idea that the hippocampus was in fact that area has been modified and scientists now believe it is partially the amygdale. When our senses recognize familiar stimuli, an impulse is sent to the amygdala which sends another impulse to our cortex. In reaction to these impulses we form a positive or negative response to what we hear, see, touch or taste.

On basic terms the mind tells the body how to react to a particular stimulus by processing it through the brain. We experience certain emotions from engaging in positive and negative actions throughout life so when stimulated again we know how to react. An early example would be from child birth. Directly after birth a child creates a bond between itself and its mother. The majority of an infants expressed emotion comes from crying. The infant learns to associate crying with comfort, which leads into the infant developing an emotional relationship between achieving what it desires by acting out physically. The child also shows signs of interaction and the craving for attention. The child is creating sort of a trust with the one who attends to it frequently. Without this special bond the baby may find difficulty in communicating with others as it grows older. (Greenspan, Stanley M.D.)

At 5- 7 months infants more or less develop a sense of fear or shyness of strangers. This sort of behavior results sometimes in the infant clinging to their parents and will not want to be touched by people they view as unfamiliar. From 4-8 months infants begin to express a wider array of emotions. Pleasure, happiness, fear, and frustration are shown through gurgles, coos, and babbling. Babies emotions can be observed through movements such as kicking, arm waving and smiling. (Greenspan, Stanley M.D.)

At 8-18 months babies develop a sense of self. They begin to recognize their image in a mirror and start to become more independent. Babies at this stage have a wide range of emotional states. One minute they could be happy and playing and the next minute they could be kicking and screaming. “Impact of Emotions on a child’s moral development begins early in an infant’s life. Moral development depends on the type of training and attention an infant