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Emotions . S. Richards Spring 2010. Emotions:. Emotions – States of feeling. 1. May increase due to situations. 2. May motivate certain behavior. Strong emotions spark activity in the Autonomic Nervous System . . History of Emotions: .
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Emotions S. Richards Spring 2010
Emotions: • Emotions – States of feeling. • 1. May increase due to situations. • 2. May motivate certain behavior. • Strong emotions spark activity in the Autonomic Nervous System.
History of Emotions: • Many ancient Chinese believed that there were four inborn (instinctive) human emotions: Happiness, Anger, Sorrow or Fear. • John B. Watson believed that there are three instinctual emotions: fear, rage and love. • Katherine Bridges in 1932 believed that everyone is born with one basic emotion: excitement, then excitement divides into other emotions as children develop.
Emotions & Scientific Research: • 99% of mothers reported that their babies showed curiosity. • 95% of mothers reported that their babies showed joy. • 84% reported their babies showed anger. • 74% reported their babies showed surprise. • 54% reported their babies showed fear.
Happiness: • William James (1902) said that the motive behind everything people do is “How to gain, how to keep and how to recover happiness.” • When someone is unhappy, it affects the rest of their life. When someone is happy, it affects the rest of their life. • The happier you are, the more likely you will help someone else.
Anger: • This is a common response to an insult or an attack. • Angry people may seek revenge against a person. • Some people get angry a few times a week, some people several times a day.
Anger Continued… • What is the BEST way to handle anger? Hold it in? Lash out? • The most effective way to handle anger is to become assertive instead of hostile. • Talk to the person who is creating anger, which will reduce that feeling of anger. • Handling anger can also be a cultural situation.
Facial Expressions: • Cross-cultural evidence suggests that facial expressions are probably inborn – certain facial expressions appear to be the same around the world. • Smiling – universal sign of friendliness and approval. • Baring teeth – universal sign of anger. • They conducted a study with college students at a European university to tribal members in New Guinean – In all groups, they agreed with the emotions that was being portrayed in each photograph they were shown.
Theories of Emotions: 1.) The Opponent-Process Theory • Richard Solomon believed that emotions come out in pairs, with one emotion being followed by its opposite. • People are trying to maintain balance in their emotional lives. • When balance is upset by a situation, an emotion come, then the person must retain balance.
Theories of Emotion: 2.) The Commonsense Approach • When a certain situation happens, a person quickly interprets the situation. • Body senses a feeling, feeling turns into an emotion. • Thoughts/Feelings/Emotions are all intertwined. • Activities of there nervous system and hormones play a more important role in determining emotion than what people are thinking about their situations.
Theories of Emotion: 3.) The James-Lange Theory • Williams James suggested that people’s emotions follow rather than cause their behavioral reactions to their situations. • People ACT first THEN react! • Instinctive Bodily Response Patterns – certain situations trigger reactions.
Theories of Emotion: 4.) The Cannon-Bard Theory • Walter Cannon (1927) and Philip Bard (1934) suggested that emotions come with bodily responses that are created by situations a person is in.
Theories of Emotion: 5.) The Theory of Cognitive Appraisal • The way people label an emotion depends on their thinking of the situation. • If the people they are with overreact, that person is MORE likely to overreact. ______________________________________________ Activity: Two Truths & a Lie!