Human Emotions
Emotions affect everything we do, colouring every thought and action.
They are an essential ingredient to our lives and our survival. But
how and why do we experience these emotions? What function do they
have? What would life be like without our emotions, if indeed there
would be life! Joseph LeDoux, a leading authority in the field of
neural science and author of 'The Emotional Brain' wrote, "Emotions
are the threads that hold mental life together. They define who we are
in our minds eye as well as in the eyes of others".
The word emotion is defined as "An agitation or disturbance of mind"
or "A vehement or excited mental state". Personally I like neither of
these definitions but due to the complexity of human emotions there is
no concise definition in psychological or physiological terms.
Scientists believe that emotions consist of more than just feelings.
They are evoked by certain situations or experiences. The significance
of these situations must be considered before conclusions can be drawn
and an emotion experienced. Emotions are thought to have 3 key
elements. These are a subjective feeling, physiological changes and
behaviours associated with a specific emotion such as smiling is
associated with happiness.
There have been many theories both psychological and physiological as
to how we experience emotions. However, unfortunately we still do not
fully understand how the emotional experience functions. An example of
an early theory is the James-Lange theory. This illustrates how an
emotional experience and emotional behaviour is interrelated
physiologically. It simply states that an emotional responses s...
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...apped and studied as separate
functions instead of one. In addition they have stated that the
majority of an emotional experience occurs subconsciously and that in
fact how we behave and what we feel is only the tip of the iceberg. I
believe that this has given me a new outlook on the functioning of an
emotional experience. Finally and I believe most facinating is the
role of evolution in the development of emotions and from this our
moral code. It is clear that emotions have evolved through time to
reach the emotional pinicle at which humans stand. What the future
holds is speculation but I believe that it will be facinating to
follow. As Artificial intelligence develops to levels and emotions are
mapped through our nervous system and brain, who knows, maybe
computers wil be able to feel pleasure, pain, anger and joy.
Human nature is not bound by the mind but is shown through the heart in friendship.
"And this is of course the difficult job, is it not: to move the spirit from it's nowhere pedestal to a somewhere place, while preserving its dignity and importance."
‘I can’t handle this.’ And guess what? We don’t handle it well. If I tell myself I won’t have a good time at the party I’m going to, I am likely to behave in ways that generate exactly that reality, eliciting from other people indifferent responses, proving my premise. (“A Course in Self-Esteem” 5)
We often believe that others are more like ourselves than they really are. Thus, our
Emotion is a complex construct that has been explored for many years, yet there is still much to be learned regarding this multifaceted phenomenon. Given the pivotal role that emotion plays in our everyday lives, scholars have demonstrated a continued interest in describing and understanding its functional and structural properties. At its most basic level, emotion is referred to as a positive or negative response towards a given stimulus, which is accompanied by cognitive, behavioral, and physiological characteristics (Carlson, 2013). Although emotions are often perceived to be feelings rather than behaviors, it is often the behavioral mechanisms rather than personal feelings that have adaptive and reproductive significance (Carlson, 2013). In essence, emotion serves as a regulatory mechanism of daily interactions and social relations (Algoe, Fredrickson, & Gable, 2013; Keltner & Haidt, 1999).
The Holocaust is a traumatic history. About six millions of Jews got killed during this period of time. Holocaust is a history of anti-Semitism in Europe, anti-Semitism gained their strength after World War One, Germany had lost the war, so the German people blame the Jews for losing the war, and the Jews became the scapegoat. So Anne Frank is one of those Jews who got discriminate during the Holocaust. She went to hiding with her family, and the diary she wrote during her hiding time remained after she got killed in the camp. Her diary was published after then, and in her diary she had state it “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” I totally agree with her in this statement.
was all right, so that he can accept it and move on. The narrator also
What is human nature? It is very simple. Human nature refers to the patterns of behavior that are typical of our species or our kind. Human undergoes change as all humans grow up they nature seems to change; the environment someone grow up in effects that persons nature. To fully understand human nature Dr. Marvin Harris takes us on trip to time, which makes sense because if we better understand our past and our origin we will better understand our very existence and our nature. We will know more about who we are where we are from and such other questions that puzzle the human mind.
In Chapter 4 of Lesbian Ethics, Sarah Hoagland argues that desire is a socially and politically constructed perception and that in today’s heterosexual society the current concept of desire forces and perpetuates the split between reason and emotion. Hoagland focuses on sexual desire, however her analysis can be applied to the desires of any person, object, or action. I will give an account of Hoagland’s view on desire, and reason and emotion; I will analyze three things that I desire: my career, developing a family, and making enough money for that family to live comfortably, why I desire them and how my desires are socially constructed; I will finish by determining, based on my analysis of desires, that I agree with Hoagland, that reason and emotion are inseparable and attempts to separate them are damaging.
By assessing the personal meaning of events, emotion comes up. What’s more, positive emotions have not only a role of marking happiness, but also a function to continue
emotions are, what comprises emotions and where they spring from. Most of the times we
Part 1: Choose one or two of the Spinoza´s Fourth Part of Ethics and explain the sense of the proposition. Add to your explanation an example and finally your own critical assessment of Spinoza 's position.
This essay concerns emotions and controversial arguments based on whether emotions are universal or a learned phenomenon. Most of the research in to cross cultural Psychology surround their attention on the biological aspect of emotions as being the primary source of the occurrence of emotions and has been the subject of numerous studies. However, culture is also known to affect and provoke emotional experiences. This essay will discuss the position of emotions from a Universalist view and from a cultural view. The following approach will focus on the universality of emotions.
Another one of Aristotle’s philosophy was regarding the emotion and selective perception that summarized by B.R. Hergenhahn in History of Psychology’s text book (p.56- 57). Aristotle brought the awareness on emotion when he proposed that without emotion, humans could be missing on what is relevant (S.Nancy, 1989). He suggested that emotions influenced and intensified one’s behavior. For instance, people who are afraid tend to run faster after being threatened by a snake as compared to leisurely jogging. When people are angered they have a tendency to pick a fight because emotion can drive one’s motive of action. Anger can be excited from the injury that someone has caused and fear does elicited when facing danger and both happened because of the presence of cognition process. Aristotle added that the emotion cannot be blind feelings but intended by directed states.
The distance learning environment creates a multitude of challenges that students or instructors do not have to deal with in a brick and mortar classroom. One controversial topic may be that people cannot express their emotions effectively online. Online environments are also complicated to have interactions and establish a presence. Is this really the case though? Is it challenging to show emotion online or have a presence; however, it is not impossible. These topics will be discussed in the following.