From sadness to joy: What are emotions and why do we need them
We have already talked about how emotional intelligence is important. and why develop it. Now we have decided to figure out what scientists can say about emotions today, how to learn to distinguish one emotion from another, and whether it is necessary to restrain them.
What is emotion?
Over the past hundred and fifty years, scientists have tried in different ways to describe emotions and answer the question where they come from. Charles Darwin wrote a book about how emotions are a congenital way of adapting an organism to the environment, and both people and animals experience and express emotions. For example, fear and disgust are very useful emotions for survival: if the body knows how to be afraid, it is more likely to behave cautiously and not be eaten by someone more dexterous. The two main behavioral strategies of all living beings — fight or run — are the result of experiencing anger or fear, respectively. In his work "On the expression of emotions in humans and animals," Darwin relied on the work of the French neurologist Guillaume Duchesne, who analyzed the movement of facial muscles, attaching electrodes to a person's face. With the help of Duchenne's illustrations, Darwin argued that the universality of expressing emotions is the result of genetically programmed behavior. In disgust, a man wrinkles his nose, and in joy, raises the corners of his mouth.
Are there basic emotions?
One hundred years later, American psychologists Paul Ekman, Carroll Isard, and Sylvan Tomkins began to develop the idea of Darwin and Duchenne. They, like their predecessors, believed that emotions are innate mechanisms that arise under strictly defined conditions and are able to express themselves in their own way physiologically, expressively and behaviorally. Scientists could not agree on how many basic emotions there are: someone says that there are five of them, someone seven, and someone claims that all twelve. As for all states that are not included in the pantheon, they, according to the researchers, are the result of mixing some basic emotions with others, like colors in a palette.
Paul Ekman continued the work of Duchesne and Darwin, analyzing the expressions of human faces in different cultures. During his life, he created a base of 10 thousand facial expressions, acquired the nickname of "live lie detector" and proved that the most universal for different cultures are mimic expressions of six emotions: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness and interest. Ekman's concept was widely recognized in popular culture: in 2009, Fox Network released the TV series "Lie to Me" about a man who best knows how to identify emotions by facial expression, and in 2015, Pixar shot the cartoon "Puzzle" that each person’s head has five emotions that govern all of his actions.
But if pop culture has convinced you that the theory of basic emotions is the only correct and proven one, then it’s completely in vain. There are at least two more convincing concepts, and both of them cast doubt on the fact that emotions are an inherited biological mechanism. According to the first, emotions are always the result of the impact of a sociocultural context. According to the scientists who adhere to this theory, it is the generally accepted norms of behavior, social and personal values, and not evolution that determine the meaning of each emotion, its relevance in a given situation and decent ways of expression. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about universality, if wine is valued in one culture, and shame in another. The concept of psychologist Ruth Benedict, for example, says that European culture is a culture of guilt (a person has to answer all the time before someone: before God, the king or his people), and Japanese culture is a culture of shame (for a person the most important thing is reputation and impression that he makes on others).
Another theory says that emotion is not an innate mechanism and is not the result of sociocultural development (although body reaction and culture are important), but always the result of mental evaluation, unconscious and uncontrollable. For the first time this idea was formulated by the American psychologist Richard Lazarus. Using the metaphorical language of Pixar, we can say that, according to this theory, a person does not have five animated characters in his head, but a huge slot machine: there is a ball in it that should go into one of the endless holes - emotions. The ball is a reaction, and it starts, if an event occurs that matters, it is important for the organism. The significance of an event or thought can be analyzed, and as a result, the emotion that a person will experience can be predicted.
How are brains and emotions related?
If we put together everything that scientists have been able to prove about emotions, we can definitely be sure of a few facts. First, emotion is a physiological response. When a person experiences an emotion, certain parts of the brain are activated, the endocrine system produces certain hormones, pressure and heartbeat increase or decrease, muscles tighten, in general, the body experiences emotion at all possible levels. Secondly, an emotion is always an organism's reaction to some kind of external or internal event, a thought, an idea that matters. Emotion is an indicator of importance and significance: if you feel something, you need to figure out what meaning the event has for you. This is very important, because if you learn to understand what you are experiencing now (irritation, rage, or, for example, fear), you can figure out what exactly hurt the situation the most. And this, in turn, will allow the body to relax and stop wasting energy on experiencing emotions.
Emotion has a beginning and an end, this is a time-limited event - which is rather pleasant, because emotion requires a lot of energy from the body. The body's task is to make us stop experiencing emotion, and for this we must choose what to do next: to put it bluntly, to hide, run, or get involved in a fight.
How to distinguish one emotion from another?
Learning to understand one's own emotions is one of the most important skills of emotional intelligence, but it is rather difficult if it is not completely clear how to distinguish anger from irritation, and fear from anxiety. Since the end of the 1970s, the Swiss scientist Klaus Scherer has been developing a theory to distinguish one emotion from another. He, like Richard Lazarus, believes that emotions do not exist in the body on their own, but are the result of a consistent assessment of different information. In his opinion, the body takes an unconscious decision about what to experience - disgust, boredom or fear - after analyzing a huge amount of information about the event.
Each event, both external and internal, is assessed by the organism according to several parameters: significance in general, possible consequences and actions, as well as compliance with personal and cultural norms. To make it clearer what is meant, Scherer formulated questions for each parameter. The first of them: "How does this event relate to me at all? Does it directly affect me or my group?" Even before you begin to respond to an event, the body must decide whether to spend energy on it. In order to make such an important decision, the psyche unconsciously checks whether this event is new (if new, then you should definitely pay attention to it), pleasant and meets inner needs and goals.
The second question: "What are the results and consequences of this event and how do they affect my well-being, my current and long-term goals?" If at the previous stage the organism decided that the event is worth attention, then the most important thing becomes clear: who was to blame for the event (me, others or nature), what was the motive (everything happened by chance, intentionally or through negligence), what consequences can be meet my expectations and how much time I have for action.
At the third stage, the body asks the question: "How well can I cope or adapt to these consequences?" The task of the emotion is to mobilize the body and cope with the event: in this case, the emotion will disappear, and if the task is completed, the body can relax. At the same time, coping does not necessarily mean achieving the goal - perhaps abandoning its achievement will already be an acceptable result. At this stage, it is very important for the body to determine how much a person can control what happened, and if control is possible, what forces (money, knowledge, social connections, etc.) he has to cope with this event.
Finally, the last question: "What is the significance of this event in relation to my self-image of myself, to social norms and values?" At this stage, the body is trying to understand whether the event has prevented him from feeling like a good person and what others will say about him: friends, relatives or colleagues. For most emotions, this point is not very important, but in the case of guilt or pride, he decides everything.
Since all people are different and face special circumstances, each organism responds differently to these questions. But over the past thirty years, Scherer has been able to prove that emotions differ depending on the answers to these four basic questions.
So why do we feel anger, depression or pride?
There is no definite answer to the question of what kind of emotions there are at all. It was believed that there were as many emotions as there are words in a language describing different states. This idea seems logical until it comes to different languages: if in one language there is the notion of "admiration" and in the other not, does this mean that the speakers of the latter have never experienced this emotion?
Klaus Sherer believes that emotional states can be very much, depending on how the body responds to questions posed. As an example, he described sixteen emotions, claiming that a person will experience them if an event has a definite meaning for him. For example, joy arises if the event was not new and brought pleasure, happened on someone else's will, met expectations and did not require urgent action. In contrast, delight arises if the event was unexpected and completely unpredictable, but it satisfied a need very strongly and had good consequences.
Disgust, or displeasure, occurs when the event was unfamiliar and unpredictable, did not satisfy the need at all, would most likely have consequences and required rather urgent actions. Contempt, or neglect, as opposed to disgust, occurs when an event occurs due to the intentions of others; it is likely to have consequences, but urgent action is not required. At the same time, the situation can be controlled, but a person does not have enough power and strength for that. In addition, the event is completely inconsistent with the ideas of the ideal "I" and is unlikely to be positively appreciated by others.
The sadness, or despondency, a person experiences when the situation that occurred was unexpected and unfamiliar and occurred due to someone's fault or due to someone's negligence. It could satisfy a need, but it will definitely have unpleasant consequences. Sadness arises if a person cannot control the situation (for example, in the case of a fatal disease), has little strength and power, but he has the ability to adapt to circumstances.
Despair arises when the event was sudden, completely unfamiliar and unpredictable, became an obstacle to achieving goals and satisfying needs, occurred due to the fault of others or nature, and was absolutely accidental. It is beyond human control, and man has neither the strength nor the power to adapt to it. Anxiety, or anxiety, as opposed to despair, arises if events were expected, but even though a person has little strength, he can adapt to them.
Fear is born when an event was unexpected, completely unpredictable and unfamiliar, when it is evaluated as unpleasant and even painful. This event, which is caused by others, is rather likely to have unpleasant consequences over which a person has absolutely no power. Irritation, unlike fear, arises in relation to events that were expected and predictable, but occurred not because of someone else's particular fault, but because of negligence and negligence. At the same time, an event will have unpleasant consequences that (unlike, for example, fear) a person has the strength to cope with.
Rage - the result of an unexpected, unfamiliar and completely unpredictable event, the guilt of which others intentionally became. This event is likely to backfire and requires immediate action. But at the same time the situation can be controlled, and the person has power over it.
Shame, guilt and pride in some theories are called emotions of self-consciousness: they differ from other emotions in that they arise only when the cause of the event is a person’s deliberate desire. A person feels shame if an event occurred due to his own negligence and negligence and it does not at all correspond to his inner concept of the ideal self. Guilt arises if a person has done something intentionally and his actions do not correspond to the internal and external ideas about correct and good behavior. Pride arises when an event has occurred because of a person’s intentional desire and its consequences are likely to correspond to a person’s own ideals and cultural norms.
Why do we need emotions and is it worth holding them back?
The last hundred and fifty years, scientists in various ways prove and convince us that emotions are not only normal, but also very useful. First, they inform the consciousness that something important has happened and measures need to be taken. Secondly, emotions help the body to choose the most appropriate response to an event. In addition, emotions help us communicate: for example, thanks to them adults communicate information to children who do not yet know how to speak.
In 1985, American scientists conducted an experiment: they placed one-year-old children on a special surface in order to investigate their deep vision. The children were placed on the so-called visual breakage - a table about 120 centimeters high with a top of thick transparent glass divided into two parts: under the glass on one half of the table was a solid panel with a pattern, and on the other half the same panel with a pattern lay on the floor. It turned out that when fear, anxiety or anger were read on the faces of the mothers, the children refused to crawl to the “deep” part of the table, where the color panel lay on the floor, and vice versa, when the mothers depicted joy, pleasure and delight, the children agreed to crawl. This experiment proved that people use the emotions of others to navigate in what is happening and make more accurate and balanced decisions. Therefore, when someone says that emotions must be suppressed or restrained, he proposes to limit the ability to communicate and establish relationships with others.
It would be more correct to say that emotions need to be learned to express and regulate, because there are many ways to express what is happening inside. However, they are very dependent on culture: for example, some scientists believe that in Japan, people are more likely to experience and express shame, and in Western European countries - guilt. A special group of distinguished culture of honor, where a person's self-esteem is highly dependent on how he and his family look in the eyes of others.
What kind of emotions a person experiences more often depends not only on culture, but also on his temperament: it is believed that the tendency to more often experience "positive" or "negative" emotions is an innate trait. Despite this, during the life of a person learns different ways to respond to what is happening, first watching the parents, and then communicating with others.
The idea that emotions are uncontrollable states that need to be disposed of as soon as possible has long since become obsolete. Emotions - the most important indicator that what is happening is important and you need to deal with it. If this seems difficult to you, try to start by calling the emotions that you are experiencing now: this will allow you to bring them from the unconscious to the conscious and deal with what has hurt you the most.
Photo: Studio Ghibli, OLM, Inc., Pierrot, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, TV Asahi
