Emotion

In plain words

1. Something matters1

   An emotion starts when you appraise an event as significant to you.

2. The body joins in1

   Heart, breath and muscles change; William James (1884) even argued the felt emotion is the perception of these changes.

3. An urge to act1

   Each emotion carries an action tendency, such as fleeing in fear, which once helped our ancestors survive and bond.

4. A feeling1

   The feeling is the private, subjective side of the emotion.

Examples

1. The bear1

   In Schachter's example the heart pounds first, then "the brain then quickly scans the area, to explain the pounding, and notices the bear."

2. James's reversal1

   William James wrote that "we feel sad because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble."

3. The snake1

   In the James–Lange account, a snake triggers a pattern of bodily response, which is then interpreted as fear.

4. Appraisal decides1

   For example, a creak at night brings fear while it is appraised as a possible intruder, and fades once it is recognised as the cat.

5. Action tendencies1

   A Buddhist analysis the article quotes: "a disposition to possess the object (greed), to destroy it (hatred), to flee from it (fear)."

6. Emotion, mood, disposition1

   A mood lasts longer and lacks a clear trigger; a disposition is a standing readiness, as when "an irritable person is generally disposed to feel irritation more easily or quickly than others do."

7. Regulating by avoiding1

   One regulation strategy is avoiding a situation to avoid unwanted emotions, or trying not to think about it and doing distracting activities.

8. One emotion covering another3

   Emotion-focused therapy calls this secondary emotion, for example "feeling anger to avoid sadness" or being "afraid of their fear".

Two views of what an emotion is

1. Basic emotions1

   From Darwin's 1872 book on expression to Ekman: a few emotions evolved, with universal expressions and dedicated brain circuits.

2. Constructed emotion2

   Barrett: the brain predicts, and labels continuous pleasant-unpleasant arousal with learned concepts, as we see continuous light as separate colours.

3. The evidence point2

   Constructionists note that body and brain measures have not consistently shown distinct fingerprints for each emotion category.

4. Cognition and arousal1

   Schachter and Singer showed the same drug-induced arousal felt like anger or amusement depending on the situation.

How therapists use it

1. Regulation1

   Emotion regulation is the strategies people use to influence their own emotions; it is linked to well-being in people with mental disorders.

2. Different doors in1

   Cognitive approaches work on the thinking component; Gestalt therapy works through movement and facial expression.

Where to start reading

The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.

1. 2017 · 9 years ago

   How Emotions Are Made2

   Lisa Feldman Barrett's book on the constructed view (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).