10. Theories explaining the mechanisms of the emergence of emotions.
VK Vilyunas rightly notes that “much of what is traditionally called the promising word“ theory ”in the theory of emotions is, in essence, rather separate fragments, only in aggregate approaching ... an ideally exhaustive theory” (1984 ,
With. 6). Each of them emphasizes one aspect of the problem, thus, considering only
a special case of the emergence of an emotion or some of its components. The trouble is also that theories created in different historical epochs do not have continuity. And can there be, in principle, a unified theory for, although related to each other, but still such different emotional phenomena as the emotional tone of sensations, emotions and feelings?
Since the time when philosophers and natural scientists began to think seriously about the nature and essence of emotions, two main positions have arisen. Scientists occupying one of them, the intellectualistic one, most clearly marked by I.-F. Herbart (1824-1825), argued that organic manifestations of emotions are a consequence of mental phenomena. According to Herbart, emotion is a connection that is established between representations. Emotion is a mental disorder caused by a mismatch (conflict) between representations. This affective state involuntarily induces autonomic changes.
Representatives of the other position - sensationalists - on the contrary, declared that organic reactions affect mental phenomena. F. Dufour (1883) wrote on this subject: “Have I not sufficiently proved that the source of our natural inclination to passions lies not in the soul, but is associated with the ability of the autonomic nervous system to communicate to the brain about the excitement it receives, that if we cannot it is impossible to arbitrarily regulate the functions of blood circulation, digestion, secretion, then it is impossible, therefore, in this case, to explain by our will the dysfunctions of these functions that arose under the influence of passions ”(p. 388).
These two positions were later developed in the cognitive theories of emotions and in the peripheral theory of emotions by W. James - G. Lange.
a) Evolutionary theory of emotions by Charles Darwin
Having published the book "Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals" in 1872, Charles Darwin showed the evolutionary path of development of emotions and substantiated the origin of their physiological manifestations. The essence of his ideas is that emotions are either useful or are only remnants (rudiments) of various expedient reactions that were developed in the process of evolution in the struggle for existence. An angry person blushes, breathes heavily and clenches his fists because in its primitive history, all anger led people to a fight, and it demanded vigorous muscle contractions and, consequently, increased breathing and blood circulation, ensuring muscle work. He explained the sweating of his hands in fear of the fact that in the ape-like ancestors of man, this reaction in danger made it easier to grasp the branches of trees.
Thus, Darwin argued that in the development and manifestation of emotions there is no impassable gap between man and animals. In particular, he showed that in the external expression of emotions, anthropoids and children born blind have much in common.
The ideas expressed by Darwin served as an impetus for the creation of other theories of emotions, in particular, the "peripheral" theory of W. James - G. Lange.
b) "Associative" theory of W. Wundt
W. Wundt's (1880) ideas about emotions are quite eclectic. On the one hand, he adhered to Herbart's point of view that, to some extent, representations influence feelings, and on the other hand, he believed that emotions are primarily internal changes characterized by the direct influence of feelings on the course of representations.
Wundt considers "bodily" reactions only as a consequence of feelings. By Wund-
that, mimicry arose initially in connection with elementary sensations, both from
an increase in the emotional tone of sensations; higher, more complex feelings (emo-
tion) developed later. However, when an emotion arises in a person's mind,
then every time it calls by association the corresponding to it, close in content
lower feeling or sensation. It is this that causes those mimic movements,
which correspond to the emotional tone of the sensations. For example, facial expressions
contempt (pushing the lower lip forward) is similar to that when a person
eyelid spits out something unpleasant that has got into his mouth.
c) The theory of W. Kennon - P. Bard
Even experiments carried out by physiologists at the end of the 19th century with the destruction of structures that conduct somatosensory and viscerosensory information into the brain gave Sherrington (1900) a reason to conclude that vegetative manifestations of emotion are secondary to its cerebral component, which is expressed by a mental state. The theory of James-Lange was also sharply criticized by the physiologist W. Kennon (Cannon, 1927), and for this he also had reasons. So, when all physiological manifestations were excluded in the experiment (when the nerve pathways between the internal organs and the cerebral cortex were dissected), the subjective experience was still preserved. Physiological shifts occur in many emotions as a secondary adaptive phenomenon, for example, to mobilize the body's reserve capabilities in the face of danger and the fear it generates, or as a form of discharge of tension that has arisen in the central nervous system.
Cannon noted two things. First, physiological shifts that arise with different emotions are very similar to each other and do not reflect their qualitative originality. Secondly, these physiological changes unfold slowly, while emotional experiences arise quickly, that is, precede the physiological reaction.
He also showed that artificially induced physiological changes characteristic of certain strong emotions do not always cause the expected emotional behavior. From the point of view of Cannon, emotions arise from a specific reaction of the central nervous system and in particular - the thalamus.
Thus, according to Cannon, the scheme of the stages of the emergence of emotions and the accompanying physiological shifts looks like this:
stimulus -> excitation of the thalamus -> emotion ->
physiological changes.
In the later studies of P. Bard (Bard, 1934 a, b), it was shown that emotional experiences and physiological changes accompanying them arise almost simultaneously. Thus, scheme (2) takes on a slightly different form:
Stimulus
Physiological
changes.
d) Psychoanalytic theory of emotions
3. Freud based his understanding of affect on the theory of drives and in fact identified both affect and drive with motivation. The most concentrated understanding of psychoanalysts about the mechanisms of the emergence of emotions was given by D. Rapaport (Rapaport, 1960). The essence of these ideas is as follows: a perceptual image perceived from the outside causes an unconscious process, during which there is a mobilization of instinctive energy unconscious by a person; if it cannot find application for itself in the external activity of a person (in the case when the attraction is tabooed by the culture existing in a given society), it looks for other channels of discharge in the form of involuntary activity; different types of such activity are "emotional expression" and "emotional experience". They can appear simultaneously, alternately, or completely independently of each other.
Freud and his followers considered only negative emotions arising from conflicting drives. Therefore, they distinguish three aspects in affect: the energetic component of the instinctive drive ("charge" of the affect), the process of "discharge" and the perception of the final discharge (sensation, or experience of emotion).
Freud's understanding of the mechanisms of the emergence of emotions as unconscious instinctual drives has been criticized by many scientists (Holt, 1967, etc.)
Conclusion
Consideration of various emotional phenomena noted in the psychological literature gives reason to say that the emotional sphere of a person has a complex multi-level structure and includes (in ascending order of biological and social significance) emotional tone, emotions, emotional properties of a person, feelings, as a result combinations of which emotional types of people are formed.
Emotional tone is the first and simplest form of emotional response. It has the highest and lowest levels of manifestation. The lower one corresponds to the emotional tone of sensations, the higher one - to the emotional tone of impressions from the perceived and presented. If the emotional tone of sensations arises only when the stimulus causing the sensation is directly affected by the events that once happened. Both for one and for the other type of emotional tone, bipolarity (pleasure-displeasure) is characteristic. The emotional tone can manifest itself both independently and in the composition of emotions, determining their positive or negative subjective coloring, that is, the sign of emotion.
Emotion is the next emotional phenomenon that occupies a much higher and more important place in the evolutionary development of the emotional sphere. This is the reaction of the body and personality to an emotionogenic (significant) situation or event for a person, aimed at adaptation (adaptation) to them. Moreover, in contrast to the emotional tone, which is the same response to various sensations and impressions (either pleasure or displeasure), emotion is a specialized response to a specific situation. It includes an assessment of the situation and the regulation of the energy flow in accordance with this assessment (its strengthening or weakening). Emotions can be unconditioned and conditioned reflex. It is essential that conditioned reflex emotion is an emotional reaction to a foreseeable stimulus; it makes it possible to prepare in advance for a meeting or to avoid it. The expression used when an emotion appears performs two functions: signaling one’s state to another person and discharging existing nervous excitement.
Since emotion involves mental, autonomic and psychomotor levels of response, it is nothing more than a psychophysiological (or emotional) state.
Since emotions are specific responses to significant stimuli, a person cannot experience them all the time. Indeed, not all situations and stimuli that a person encounters during the day are regarded by him as significant. And if so, then there is no emotional response to them. The possibility of the absence of emotions is also postulated by P.V. Simonov, when he asserts that with the equality of available and necessary information, emotions are equal to zero. VL Marishchuk and VI Evdokimov (2001) strongly disagree with this, according to which, “such a state does not exist in a person, because even a feeling of complete indifference is also an emotion or some kind of emotional disorder. Emotions are equal. zero only for the deceased "(p. 78). From my point of view, PV Simonov should be criticized not for his view of the possibility of an emotionless state, but for his formula. And in order not to experience emotion, it is not at all necessary to be dead.
Like the emotional tone, emotions are characterized by intensity, duration, and inertia. Affect is the same emotion, but in the nature of a short and intense flash. Mood, like affect, is not a specific (in terms of modality) form of emotional response, but characterizes the emotional background of a person for the period under consideration. This background can be due to the experienced emotion or a trace from it, the emotional tone of sensations and impressions (the memory of something pleasant or unpleasant), as well as testify to the absence of an emotional response and its traces at the moment (neutral background).
Both emotional tone and emotion have a whole set of properties: versatility, dynamism, adaptation, partiality, plasticity, retention in memory, irradiation, transference, ambivalence, switchability. At the same time, emotions have a property that the emotional tone is not endowed with: it is contagious.
Emotional properties of a person. The stable individual severity of the characteristics of emotions in a particular person (the rapid or slow onset of emotions, the strength (depth) of emotional experiences, their stability (rigidity) or rapid turnover, the stability of behavior and efficiency of activity to the influence of emotions, the severity of expressiveness) gives reason to talk about emotional human properties: emotional excitability, emotional depth, emotional rigidity - lability, emotional stability, expressiveness. As for the property of emotionality, which is distinguished as an integral emotional characteristic of a person and his temperament, including, in addition to expressiveness, the presence of one or another prevailing emotional background, this question remains largely unclear, as does the very concept of emotionality.
Feelings are the next in the hierarchy and the highest level of the emotional sphere of a person. Feeling is a persistent bias of a person to any animate or abstract object; it is an emotional setting that determines a person's readiness to emotionally respond to situations in which the object of feeling falls. Thus, feeling is tied to the object, and emotion is tied to the situation; feeling is attitude and emotion is reaction.
Emotions and feelings cause various types of emotional behavior: amusement, grief, hedonism and asceticism, aggression, manifestation of care, courtship, etc. We are talking specifically about behavior, and not about emotional reactions (changes in vegetation, expression).
Depending on the severity and dominance of emotions and feelings of a particular modality, emotional types can be distinguished: optimists and pessimists, anxious, shy, touchy, vengeful, empathic, sentimental, conscientious, inquisitive.
As for the role of emotion in the management of human behavior and activities, it is very diverse. This is a signaling about the arisen need and the felt sensations from external stimuli (the emotional tone of sensations plays a role here), and signaling about the situation at the time of making a decision (dangerous - not dangerous, etc.), and a reaction to the forecast of satisfaction of the need and to the self it is a satisfaction that contributes to the extinguishment of an existing need. Emotional response also contributes to the regulation of energy flow, feeding it the motivational process and helping to prepare the body for action in a particular significant situation.
List of used literature:
1. Anokhin P.K. The value of reticulation for various forms of higher nervous activity // Physiological journal of the USSR - 1957 - №11 p. 1072-1085.
2. Anokhin P.K. Emotions // Great Medical Encyclopedia v.35 - M., 1964, p.339
3. Anokhin P.K. The problem of decision making in psychology and physiology - M., 1976.
4. Aristotle's Writings. Metaphysics - M., 1976 - vol. 3, p. 65-369.
5. Wundt V. Essays on Psychology. M., 1912.
6. Izard K. Human emotions - M., 1980
7. Izard K. Psychology of emotions - St. Petersburg Peter 2000
8. Ilyin E.P. Emotions and feelings - St. Petersburg Peter 2002
9. Lazursky A.F. Essay on the Science of Characters - M., Science 1995
10. Lange N.N. Emotions. Psychological study. - M., 1896
11. Leonhard K. Accentuated Personalities - M., 1989
12. Leontiev A.N. Needs, motives, emotions: lecture notes - M., 1971
13. Rubinstein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology - M., 1946
14. Simonov P.V. What is emotion? - M., 1962
A person is born with a certain set of emotional reactions, moreover, animals also have emotions. These emotions are called primary. These include fear and anxiety as an expression of the need for self-preservation; joy arising from the satisfaction of vital needs, and anger as a result of limiting the need for movement.
At a later age, as a result of communication with people and as a result of the formation of their own "I", secondary emotions arise. They are not associated with vital needs, but from this they do not become less significant, on the contrary, they are the ones that bring the greatest suffering and joy.
Emotional phenomena are divided into affects, actually emotions, feelings, moods and stressful conditions.
The most powerful emotional response is affect... It captures a person entirely and subordinates his thoughts and movements. Affect is always situational, intense and relatively short-lived. It comes as a result of some kind of strong shock. In affect, attention changes: switchability decreases, only those phenomena that are relevant to the situation are perceived. As a rule, everything that happened before the event that caused the affective reaction is forgotten. Examples of affective reactions can be a state of euphoria after release from danger, stupor when reporting death, anger as a reaction to ridicule and bullying.
Emotions proper- This is a longer reaction that arises not only to the events that have taken place, but mainly to the supposed or remembered ones. Emotions reflect an event in the form of a generalized subjective assessment.
The senses- stable emotional states with a clearly expressed objective character. These are relationships to specific events or people (quite possibly imaginary).
Moods- the most prolonged emotional states. This is the background against which all other mental processes take place. Mood reflects a general attitude of accepting or rejecting the world. The mood prevailing in this person is possibly related to his temperament.
Stress- nonspecific reaction of the body to an unexpected and stressful environment. This is a physiological reaction, which is expressed in the mobilization of the body's reserve capabilities. The reaction is called nonspecific, since it occurs in response to any adverse effect - cold, fatigue, pain, humiliation, etc. The author of the theory of stress, Hans Selye, defines it as a set of phylogenetically programmed body responses that prepare it for physical activity by the type of resistance, fight or flight. These reactions are expressed in a change in the mode of operation of many organs and systems of the body, for example, the heart rate increases, blood clotting, and pulse rate increase. All physiological reactions are triggered by hormones released into the blood. It is known that different people react differently to stressful loads. Some have an active reaction - under stress, the effectiveness of their activities continues to grow to a certain limit - this is the "stress of a lion", while others have a passive reaction, the effectiveness of their activities drops immediately - "rabbit stress".
Psychologist and psychotherapist Yu. M. Orlov tried to explain the nature of some negative emotions that arise in the process of communication and significantly darken the life of many people. These are emotions of resentment, guilt and shame.
If you get kicked by a donkey, you will not be offended by it, although it hurts. If a stranger pushes you, then get angry, but don't be offended. But if a friend neglects your interests, a loved one does not behave with you the way you expect, and a relative comes from a business trip without gifts, then an unpleasant feeling arises, which is usually called an insult.
This feeling arises only in communication with people who are significant to us, from whom we expect a special attitude towards us. And when the expected attitude is at odds with the real one, resentment arises.
There are three components to any experience of resentment.:
- My expectations regarding the behavior of a person oriented towards me. How should he behave if he is my friend. Ideas about this are formed in the experience of communication.
- Behavior of the other, deviating from the expected in an unfavorable direction.
- Emotional response caused by a mismatch between expectations and behavior.
These three elements are interconnected by our belief that the other person is rigidly programmed by our expectations, devoid of independence. A similar desire to program the behavior of loved ones comes from childhood. When a small child feels uncomfortable and feels bad, he is offended and cries, thereby informing his parents that something is wrong. They must change their behavior. Feelings of resentment in a child stimulate feelings of guilt in parents. This is how the child brings up his parents. In childhood, such behavior is justified - otherwise the little creature would not survive, and parental skills would not have formed. The child feels like the center of the world and, naturally, the world must meet his expectations. In old age, people again become touchy: the weak have their own weapon - the formation of a sense of guilt in another. When an adult is offended, he begins to feel small and helpless, even his facial expression becomes infantile.
There is a lot of selfishness in offense. Offended, a person exploits the love of another, as it forms in him a sense of guilt. Since resentment is a painful sensation, we often try to hide it or replace it with other emotions. We take revenge, mentally or really, on the offender - aggression replaces the offense. Mental aggression is dangerous in that it involves the mechanisms of fighting, but does not use them. The best way to get rid of resentment is creativity. We can recommend the following motto: "A good life is the best revenge."
Guilt is the opposite of offense. Outwardly, it has no characteristic features, expression, gestures. We feel guilty because of the gift of thinking. There are also three components to experiencing guilt.:
- My ideas about how I should be in accordance with the expectations of another person. I am not exactly aware of the expectations of the other, I only simulate them. The model is built in accordance with general social attitudes. Our behavior is much more determined by the expectations of others than we assume.
- Perception and assessment of one's own behavior “here and now”.
- Comparing the expectation model with one's own behavior and detecting mismatch, which is perceived as guilt. This feeling is reinforced by the emotion and expression of resentment in the other.
Feelings of guilt are felt more strongly than resentment. We can deal with resentment by accepting the other as they are, that is, changing our expectations or forgiving the offender. In wine, we need to change the expectations of the other, and this is already unrealistic.
Feelings of guilt are good for immature people. Thus, children can be controlled without punishing them, but by causing them to feel guilty. It is important not to overdo it so that the child does not develop a neurosis based on a guilt complex.
Guilt cannot be experienced for too long, since unbearable suffering cannot be long, and it is weakened by feelings of anger or aggression, which draw off the energy of guilt.
From the guilty one we become the offender. Irrational guilt can also be found in illness. A person with his physical sufferings, as it were, pays for what he is supposed to be guilty of, and it becomes easier for him. But this is a heavy price to pay.
If we do not live up to the expectations of a generalized other or society, then a sense of shame arises. The functional meaning of shame lies in the regulation of human behavior in accordance with the "self-concept", which is largely a product of culture, not personal experience. Parents and educators, books and ideology form a person's idea of what he should be. At the same time, the society is guided by considerations of its own safety. Even culture can be seen as a mechanism to protect the integrity of a community and its weakest members. Culture restricts instincts, primarily aggressive and sexual, develops rules of behavior, for violation of which a person experiences psychological punishment in the form of shame or guilt. The ancients had an expression: "Scourged by shame, they are attracted to virtue."
Shame can be visualized as follows.:
- The way I should be "here and now" in accordance with the "I-concept".
- What I am "here and now".
- The mismatch between proper and real behavior and its experience.
Since we receive shame as punishment, the behavior dictated by shame is often infantile. But how many troubles from him! These are adolescent suicides, honor suicides, revenge, jealousy, and aggression. Awareness of the reasons for one's shame reveals the properties of the “I-concept” hidden in the unconscious. If a person is ashamed of not responding to a letter from a childhood friend whom he has not seen for many years, then we can assume that such a person is obligatory and devoted to friends. The shame arising from the violation of sexual inhibitions, even imaginary ones, often indicates the suppression of a person's sexual desires. That is, what a person is ashamed of says more about him than much else.
Shame is similar to the feeling of guilt, but in guilt we are focused on the expectations of a loved one; in shame there cannot be such an appraiser. But there is such a thing as social shame, when the assessments or opinions of a particular group of people are ashamed.
One can distinguish attributive shame, the subject of which is individual signs: physical disabilities, the absence of things valued in the group to which a person belongs, and existential shame - holistic, when they are ashamed of all the signs attributed to themselves. This shame is sometimes referred to as an inferiority complex. No matter how many people try to convince a person experiencing this complex, he, despite all his successes, does not believe himself, considers himself unworthy. At the heart of the emergence of an inferiority complex lies the loss of basic trust in the world and a lack of love in the early stages of human development. It is difficult to correct the psyche of an unwanted or unloved child, even if he is smart and handsome, he will still have a loser stain. At the same time, shame is an important emotion that contributes to the adaptation of a person to life in society. Thanks to shame, self-knowledge deepens, self-esteem, the ability to assess the consequences of one's actions, and sensitivity to the assessments of others are formed. This emotion is necessary at certain stages of development, but then shame must be able not only to experience, but to analyze.
There are other emotions that arise in communication, but they are not culturally justified. This - envy and vanity.Three components can also be distinguished in the structure of these emotions:
- The assumption that the other person is the same as me (we rarely envy the unattainable).
- Concentration of attention on this person or his individual properties and qualities, comparing these qualities with your own.
- Experiencing a particular emotion depending on the comparison results.
- Envy: "he is the same as me, but he has better."
- Vanity: "he is the same as me, but I have better."
- Gloating: "he is the same as me, but his is worse."
Comparison is a major component of these emotions. If a person refused to compare or separated himself from its results, then envy and gloating would be killed in the bud. But we cannot refuse comparison, because it is the main mental operation in the process of thinking and cognition. All properties of objects of nature are comprehended by comparison. Abandoning comparison, we would suppress the work of thought.
Comparison is customary - from early childhood, a child is compared with other children by parents, educators, teachers. As a result of this comparison, not only negative emotions (envy) arise, but also positive ones - pride, a feeling of one's exclusiveness. The child adopts the habit of comparing. Over the years, we begin to compare everyone: parents, friends, lovers, as well as ourselves.
The indomitable desire of a person to compare himself and others is constantly supported by a spirit of competition. Society awards primacy in whatever field it may arise. But in the face of constant competition, success and failure are equally dangerous. In case of failure, a person will be "crushed" by the more successful, and success awakens envy and hostility on the part of other people, and they will unite in the struggle against the successful one. Refusal to compete in the conditions of our civilization often contributes to the formation of a feeling of insecurity and even inferiority.
With pride, jealousy, gloating, we engage in a process of comparison. Therefore, cognition of these emotions always requires an answer to the question: "On what points, signs, properties do I compare myself with others, depriving myself of agreement with myself and involving others in a race that has no end?"
The comparison must be appropriate, otherwise it creates conflict. One should remember the words of the ancients: "As long as I am in my mind, I do not compare my darling with anyone."
Theories of human emotion
24.06.2017Snezhana Ivanova
Psychological theories of emotions each in their own way interpret the emergence of emotions at a particular time interval.
Emotions are an important part of our everyday reality. With their help, a person has the ability to react to the events taking place in accordance with his inner state. It is known that sometimes emotions guide our daily actions and actions. There are several theories of emotion that explain the origin of this phenomenon. Psychological theories of emotions each in their own way interpret their occurrence at a particular time interval. Let's consider them in more detail.
Emotion theories
Evolutionary theory
This theory of emotions is based on the well-known concept of Charles Darwin. Gradually, growth is present in everything. It is inherent in the nature of emotions, and not only in the animal kingdom. According to this concept, the emergence of emotions is due to the emergence of a person to a qualitatively new level of development. This level determines its further development. Emotions help an individual express his feelings, effectively interact with people around him, and achieve his goals. We all live in a society and in order to feel in demand, we constantly need to interact with representatives of our species. The evolutionary concept insists that human emotions evolved gradually over time, from lower levels to higher levels. This theory is based on the concept that the feelings of an individual person develop over the years. That is, an adult is capable of experiencing a whole range of emotions of varying degrees and can recognize a variety of feelings in himself. Children, on the other hand, often cannot explain to themselves what is happening to them, they do not know how to control their own emotional state and therefore turn out to be guided by feelings.
Rudimentary theory
This psychological theory of emotions is also quite interesting in its own way. The rudimentary concept is aimed at analyzing feelings from the point of view of the development of social consciousness. She considers the emergence of emotions as a behavioral reaction formed under the influence of elementary instincts. Affective reactions are due to nature, they are almost impossible to control by external efforts. The rudimentary theory says that emotions appeared in a person under the influence of affective reactions, that is, they were laid down initially. Affective reactions, in turn, are considered as residual phenomena given to us by nature itself. They testify to the inextricable bond between man and animals. Every living creature has a whole complex of reactions to certain stimuli, and people are by no means an exception here.
Psychoanalytic theory
The psychoanalytic theory of emotions has become widespread thanks to the research work of Sigmund Freud. This concept examines the phenomenon of the emergence of emotions through the prism of the psychological component. That is, a person spends a certain amount of energy to perceive information, ongoing events or interact with different people. The psychological component is very important here, since it affects a person's feelings, helps him understand himself and the world around him. It allows you to track the reaction of people and your own to the spoken words or actions. Psychological theory considers emotions as an integral part of everyday life. Without emotions, a person would not be able to fully exist and develop. Only by resorting to psychoanalysis can one try to explain some of the actions of people and their individual characteristics behavior. The analysis of feelings allows you to detect an urgent problem in time, which creates difficult situations.
An important role in determining the emotional component belongs to the unconscious. Sigmund Freud, speaking about the theory of the unconscious, noted the need to look beyond one's own capabilities. In his opinion, any psychological difficulties are based on unresolved problems of the past. Only by turning to your origins, you can actually defeat fears, doubts, insecurities and other psychological difficulties. A person contains a great potential, but cannot use it to the full due to the existence of constraining factors. What are these factors? Self-doubt, fear of appearing stupid, fear of new things, other behavioral reactions.
Two-factor theory
Its founder is the scientist Stanley Schechter. He developed the doctrine that human emotion has two main leaves, which, in fact, control the sphere of feelings: physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation. The first component usually determines the second. In other words, at first we succumb to some kind of reaction arising in the depths of our unconscious, and then we try to speculate with our heads and explain to ourselves what actually happened. With the help of the cognitive component, a person can draw specific conclusions, come to complex conclusions, and make discoveries. The psychological orientation of the theory of emotions suggests that the individual usually passes through himself all the events that happen to him. Emotional experiences have a deep meaning: they allow you to reach a completely new level of understanding of the essence of things. Not always a person can consciously explain something to himself, and then a problem arises: an intrapersonal conflict begins, since feelings continue to control him.
Need-information theory
The author of this theory is the Russian scientist Pavel Vasilievich Simonov. He investigated the problem of the relationship between emotions and psychological factors and identified a close pattern between them. How is it expressed? The fact is that in every person there is a need for knowledge of the world around him, as well as for self-knowledge. The desire to possess information is conditioned by the nature of man and his individual needs. Studying something, a person experiences certain feelings, it is they that encourage him to develop further, to learn something new. Emotions allow you to quickly and easily assimilate complex information. The theory proves that if knowledge has passed through the emotional sphere, then it will not be forgotten. Everything that a person experiences through his feelings remains with him.
Cognitive dissonance theory
Theories of emotion would be incomplete without this wonderful concept. Its founder is Leon Festinger. According to this concept, in everything that a person does, he puts his feelings. Positive feelings reinforce self-confidence, and negative ones help you achieve your goals despite the prevailing circumstances. The theory of cognitive dissonance shows that when there is some kind of discrepancy between feelings and reality, then a person tries to improve the conditions under which he could feel more comfortable. The emergence of feelings here is associated with a negative factor, although this leads to development. This theory reveals the psychological characteristics of a person, reveals the level of her needs and reactions.
Thus, when talking about theories of the origin of emotions, it is important to remember that each concept is worthy of respect. Every concept has its own, undeniable right to exist. Personal choice in everyday reality is to adhere to one of the theories of the origin of emotions, while rejecting others, or to recognize the existence of all concepts at once. This is because each person has the right to his own opinion and his own reality, in which he lives constantly. The psychological aspects of each concept regarding the sphere of feelings can be called correct, since they touch upon different components of one complex issue.
Scientific views on the nature and essence of emotional manifestations are presented in two main directions. Scientists belonging to the first, intellectualistic direction (I.F. Herbart, 1824-1825), argued that organic manifestations of emotions are a consequence of mental phenomena. According to Herbart, emotion is a connection that is established between representations, caused by a mismatch (conflict) between representations. This affective state involuntarily causes vegetative changes.
Representatives of the other position - sensationalists - on the contrary, declared that organic reactions affect mental phenomena. F. Dufour (1883) wrote about this: “Have I not sufficiently proved that the source of our natural inclination to passions lies not in the soul, but is associated with the ability of the autonomic nervous system to communicate to the brain about the excitation it receives, that if we cannot voluntarily regulate functions of blood circulation, digestion, secretion, then it is impossible, therefore, in this case, we can explain the violation of these functions by our will, which arose under the influence of passions. " These two positions were later developed in the cognitive theories of emotions and in the peripheral theory of emotions by W. James - G. Lange.
The modern history of emotions begins with the appearance in 1884 of an article by W. James "What is emotion?" W. James and, independently of him, G. Lange formulated a theory according to which the emergence of emotions is caused by changes both in the voluntary motor sphere and in the sphere of involuntary acts under the influence of external influences. The sensations associated with these changes are emotional experiences. According to James, "we are sad because we cry; we are afraid because we tremble; we rejoice because we laugh." Thus, peripheral organic changes, which were usually seen as a consequence of emotions, became their cause. Hence, a simplified interpretation of the voluntary regulation of emotions becomes understandable - it was believed that unwanted emotions, such as grief, could be suppressed if one deliberately performed actions characteristic of achieving positive emotions.
The James-Lange concept has raised a number of objections. The main points of criticism were expressed by W. Cannon, who drew attention to the fact that bodily reactions arising from various emotions are very similar to each other and as such are insufficient to satisfactorily explain the qualitative diversity of human emotions. In addition, organic changes artificially induced in humans are far from always accompanied by emotional experiences.
According to Cannon, bodily processes during emotions are biologically expedient, since they serve as a preliminary adjustment of the whole organism to a situation when an increased waste of energy resources is required from it. Emotional experiences and the corresponding organic changes arise in the same center - the thalamus. Later P. Bard showed that not the thalamus itself is associated with emotions from all brain structures, but the hypothalamus and the central part of the limbic system. Having published the book "Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals" in 1872, Charles Darwin showed the evolutionary path of development of emotions and substantiated the origin of their physiological manifestations. The essence of his evolutionary theory of the emergence and development of emotions is that emotions are either useful or are only remnants (rudiments) of various expedient reactions that were developed in the process of evolution in the struggle for existence. An angry person blushes, breathes heavily and clenches his fists because in its primitive history, all anger led people to a fight, and it demanded vigorous muscle contractions and, consequently, increased breathing and blood circulation, ensuring muscle work. He explained the sweating of hands with fear by the fact that in the ape-like ancestors of man, this reaction in danger made it easier to grasp the branches of trees. Thus, Darwin argued that in the development and manifestation of emotions there is no impassable chasm between man and animals. In particular, he showed that in the external expression of emotions, anthropoids and children born blind have much in common.
The "associative" theory of W. Wundt (1880) envisaged to some extent the influence of representations on feelings, and, on the other hand, characterized emotions as internal changes characterized by the direct influence of feelings on the course of representations. Wundt considers "bodily" reactions only as a consequence of feelings. According to Wundt, mimicry arose initially in connection with elementary sensations, as a reflection of the emotional tone of sensations; higher, more complex feelings (emotions) developed later. When an emotion arises in a person's consciousness, it always evokes by association a lower feeling or sensation corresponding to it, close in content, which causes those mimic movements that correspond to the emotional tone of sensations. So, for example, facial expressions of contempt (pushing the lower lip forward) are similar to the movement accompanying spitting out something unpleasant that has fallen into a person's mouth.
At the end of the 19th century, experiments carried out by physiologists with the destruction of structures that conduct somatosensory and viscerosensory information into the brain allowed C. Sherrington to conclude that vegetative manifestations of emotions are secondary in relation to its cerebral component, which is expressed by a mental state.
Physiologist W. Cannon, conducted experimental research on the study of emotions with the exclusion of all physiological manifestations. When the nerve pathways between the internal organs and the cerebral cortex were dissected, the subjective experience was still preserved. Physiological shifts develop for many emotions a second time, as an adaptive phenomenon (for mobilizing the body's reserve capabilities in the event of danger and the fear it generates, as a form of relaxation of tension that has arisen in the central nervous system). Kennon's research revealed two patterns. First, physiological shifts that arise with different emotions are very similar to each other and do not reflect their qualitative originality. Secondly, these physiological changes unfold slowly, while emotional experiences arise quickly, that is, precede the physiological reaction. He also showed that artificially induced physiological changes characteristic of certain strong emotions do not always cause the expected emotional behavior. From Cannon's point of view, emotions arise from a specific reaction of the central nervous system and, in particular, of the thalamus.
According to Kennon, the stages of the emergence of emotions and the accompanying physiological shifts can be represented as follows: the action of the stimulus -> excitation of the thalamus -> the development of emotion -> the occurrence of physiological changes. In later studies, P. Bard supplemented Kennon's ideas and showed that emotional experiences and physiological the shifts accompanying them occur almost simultaneously.
Psychoanalytic theory of emotions 3. Freud included a kind of views on the development of affect, the theory of drives. Z. Freud essentially identified both affect and attraction with motivation. The most concentrated idea of psychoanalysts about the mechanisms of the emergence of emotions is given by D. Rapaport. The essence of these ideas is as follows: a perceptual image perceived from the outside causes an unconscious process, during which there is a mobilization of instinctive energy unconscious by a person; if it cannot find application for itself in the external activity of a person (in the case when the attraction is tabooed by the culture existing in a given society), it looks for other channels of discharge in the form of involuntary activity. Different types of such activity are "emotional expression" and "emotional experience". They can appear simultaneously, alternately, or completely independently of each other.
Freud and his followers considered only negative emotions arising from conflicting drives. Therefore, they distinguish three aspects in affect: the energetic component of the instinctive drive ("charge" of the affect), the process of "discharge" and the perception of the final discharge (sensation, or experience of emotion).
Freud's understanding of the mechanisms of the emergence of emotions as unconscious instinctual drives has been criticized by many scientists.
Difficulties arising when trying to draw a directly distinguishable line between emotional and unemotional phenomena force us to look for the distinguishing features of emotions in the broader context of their manifestation, in particular in the external and internal conditions of their occurrence. Existing concepts differ in the importance they attach to this issue: if for some of them it is one of many, for others it is one of the central issues under consideration. The latter include, for example, the theories of W. James, J.-P. Sartre, P.K. Anokhin, P.V. Simonova, a group of so-called "conflict" theories. In the answers to the question under consideration, it is usually recognized that emotions arise when something meaningful to the individual happens. Discrepancies begin when trying to clarify the nature and extent of the significance of an event that can arouse emotion. If for W. Wundt or N. Groth any perceived event is significant, i.e. emotional already due to the fact that at the moment of perception it is a part of an individual's life, not knowing an impartial state and in everything capable of finding at least an insignificant shade of interesting, unexpected, unpleasant, etc., then, according to R.S. Lazarus, emotions arise in those exceptional cases when, on the basis of cognitive processes, a conclusion is made about the presence, on the one hand, of some threat, on the other hand, the impossibility of avoiding it. However, these seemingly so different points of view are not - mutually exclusive, they just talk about different things. In the work of Lazarus, a diagram of the emergence of only those "obvious" emotional states is given, which, in the terminology adopted in Soviet psychology, should rather be attributed to affects. Claparede presents the emergence of emotions-affects in a very similar way, however, his concept states that the preliminary assessment of the threat is made not by intellectual processes, as Lazarus believes, but by a special class of emotional phenomena - feelings.
Thus, the solution to the question of the conditions for the emergence of emotions is determined primarily by what class of emotional phenomena is discussed in a particular work. With a broad interpretation of emotions, their occurrence is associated with stable, ordinary conditions of existence, such as the reflection of an impact or an object (emotions express their subjective meaning), exacerbation of needs (emotions signal this to the subject), etc. With a narrow understanding of emotions, they are considered as a reaction to more specific conditions, such as frustration of need, impossibility of adequate behavior, conflict of a situation, unforeseen development of events, etc. concerning the conditions of their occurrence and, consequently, about the inevitable limitedness of attempts to cover these conditions in some generalized principle or position. These attempts are capable of equipping us with knowledge as abstract as the concept of "emotion in general", and brought to full coverage in them of the entire variety of emotional phenomena will be able to state only (as the generalization of existing points of view shows) the double conditioning of emotions: on the one hand, needs (motivation), on the other hand - the characteristics of the impacts.
The complexity of the path that must be traversed, wishing to reflect in the theory the real complexity of emotional life, one can get an idea of the unsurpassed analysis of the conditions for the emergence of emotions in the teachings of B. Spinoza. It shows that the emergence of emotions, along with such conditions analyzed in modern theories as frustration, violation of life constants or reflection of the possibility of achieving goals, is influenced by many other factors: associations by similarity and time, reflection causal links, The “fate” of the objects of our feelings, empathy, the idea of the fairness of what is happening, etc. Of course, this material needs to be adapted to modern concepts and terminology, but, on the other hand, it reveals many aspects of the problem that are clearly lacking in these ideas.
The history of psychology has been dominated by the tradition of separating emotional processes into a separate sphere, opposed to the sphere of knowledge in a fundamental distinction, for example, mind and heart, feelings and cognition, intellect and affect. The tendency to recognize, when comparing these spheres, the primacy and advantage of cognition processes is also quite pronounced. The extreme position in this respect was called intellectualism, the various directions of which considered emotions as a property or a kind of sensations, as a result of the interaction of ideas or a special type of cognition. The intellectualist interpretation of emotions holds a strong position in modern foreign psychology. So, in the works of R.U. Lipera's development of arguments for the motivating function of emotion ends somewhat unexpectedly with the assertion that emotion is perception.
Obviously, the views that reduce emotions to the processes of cognition, and, on the other hand, recognize in one form or another only the secondary nature of emotions, their dependence on cognitive reflection, differ fundamentally. There are differences in the degree of validity of these two points of view: the first is based mainly on theoretical concepts, while the second is also confirmed by clear phenomenological data stated in the statements that emotions accompany, “color” the cognitively reflected content, evaluate and express its subjective meaning ... Indeed, we are delighted or indignant, saddened or proud of necessarily someone or something, our sensations, thoughts, states, adventures, etc. are pleasant or painful. One might think that it is precisely because of its obviousness that the objectivity of emotions is recognized in a number of theories without much emphasis. Meanwhile, there is reason to assert that it is precisely this feature of them that is central to characterizing the attitude of emotions to the processes of cognition.
The objectivity of emotions excludes an interpretation that is common to their processes of cognition, and requires an idea of the emotional sphere as a separate layer of the mental, as if building on the cognitive image and occupying a position between it and internal mental formations (needs, experience, etc.). With this “localization”, emotions easily fit into the structure of the image as a carrier of a subjective attitude to what is reflected in it (this characteristic of emotions is very common). It also makes it easier to understand both the aforementioned double conditioning of emotions (needs and situations) and their complex relationships with cognitive processes.
According to a number of concepts, some directly emotiogenic event can cause the formation of new emotional attitudes to various circumstances associated with this event, and it is the cognitive image that serves as the basis for such a development of the emotional process. Thus, strong emotions can give an emotional coloring to almost everything that is somehow connected with the situation of their occurrence (A.R. Luria, Ya.M. Kalashnik). In more common cases, the subject of new emotional relationships is the conditions and signals of direct emotiogenic influences. According to one of the central definitions of B. Spinoza, everything that is perceived by the subject as the cause of pleasure-displeasure becomes the object of love-hate. In all such cases, the emotional process seems to follow the paths paved by the processes of cognition, obeying in its development those connections that are perceived by the subject in objective reality. However, it is important to emphasize that the processes of cognition here control only the development of the emotional process, in the initial generation of which, not cognition itself is decisive, but the correspondence of what is cognized to the needs of the individual.
But in relation to cognitive processes, emotions act not only in the passive role of the "guided" process. There is compelling evidence that emotions, in turn, are the most important factor in the regulation of cognitive processes. So, emotional coloring is one of the conditions that determine involuntary attention and memorization, the same factor can significantly facilitate or complicate the voluntary regulation of these processes; the influence of emotions on the processes of imagination and fantasy is well known; with an indefinite stimulus material or with a pronounced intensity, emotions can distort even the processes of perception; a whole range of speech characteristics depend on emotions, data is accumulating about their subtle regulating influence on thought processes. It should be noted that these various and very important manifestations of emotions are studied mainly in experimental psychology, while in theoretical works less attention is paid to them.
Thus, directing emotions to causes, signals, etc. significant events, the processes of cognition thereby determine their own fate, subsequently being guided by emotions to these reasons, etc. to better familiarize yourself with them and find out the best way to behave. Only such a complementary influence of the spheres of intellect and affect, which are respectively responsible for reflecting the objective conditions of activity and the subjective significance of these conditions, ensures the achievement of the ultimate goal of activity - satisfaction of needs.
This question, as it were, continues the previous one along the line of localization of emotions in the mental system, but it no longer illuminates the topological, but the functional characteristics of the emotional sphere, in other words, it considers the localization of emotions not so much in the system of psychological formations as in the system of forces that bring these formations into motion. We can immediately say that the solution of this issue is most directly related to the initial postulate about the volume of a class of phenomena attributed to emotional, and depends on whether specific experiences that have a motivating character - desires, impulses, aspirations, etc., are added to it.
Obviously, the problem of the nature of processes that induce activity is not simply one of the internal problems of the psychology of emotions. From its solution follow far-reaching conceptual conclusions concerning the fundamental understanding of the mental. So, it is this problem that is key for distinguishing in the history of psychology dichotomous (intellect - affect) and trichotomic (cognition - feeling - will) schemes of the mental. In modern psychology, it is not so acute, but its importance continues to be defended by the so-called motivational theories of emotions.
We must not forget that the problem of the determination of behavior has always attracted the attention of researchers, although the section of motivation, within which this problem is being studied at the present time, is relatively new for psychology. If the barrier created by the introduction of new terminology into psychology is overcome, the history of the development of ideas about the relationship between emotions and motivation will turn out to be very long and rich. For example, the teaching of B. Spinoza undoubtedly belongs to motivational (in the modern sense) theories. In the concepts of W. Wundt and N. Groth, who separate the motivating experiences from the emotional, the latter nevertheless remain an inevitable link in the development of motivation processes.
The isolation of the section of motivation in psychology is associated with a shift in the interests of researchers from the immediate, immediate causes of behavior to more and more distant and mediated ones. Indeed, the statement that it was committed because of a desire that has arisen is clearly not enough to fully explain a certain act. A specific action always corresponds to some more general life attitude, determined by the needs and values of the subject, his habits, past experience, etc., which in turn are determined by even more general laws of biological and social development, and only in this context can it receive its own a genuine causal explanation. The problem of motivation in the broadest sense, as it stands in psychological science as a whole, involves the elucidation of all the factors and determinants that motivate, direct and support the behavior of a living being.
Only a person has the opportunity to know the true reasons for his behavior, but the mistakes that he usually makes in this case indicate that this knowledge is based on indirect reflection and guesswork. On the other hand, the subject clearly experiences the emotional urges that arise in him, and it is by them that he is really guided in life, unless other motives hinder this (for example, the desire not to harm others, to be faithful to the sense of duty, etc.). It is this simple fact that underlies the concepts that emotions (including desires) motivate behavior.
Naturally, this position is completely unacceptable for authors who see a fundamental difference between emotions and motivating experiences, referring the latter to will or motivation, or even ignoring them altogether (which is very characteristic of modern psychology). The paradigm of such concepts is as follows: behavior is determined by needs and motives; emotions arise in specific situations (for example, frustration, conflict, success-failure) and perform their specific functions in them (for example, activation, mobilization, consolidation).
During the formation of psychology as an independent science at the turn of the 20th century, this second point of view practically supplanted the tradition of a unified interpretation of emotional and motivational processes characteristic of the entire preceding period of the development of ideas about emotions, and the modern academic framework for the presentation of psychology treats motivation and emotions as two relatively separate problems , the connections between which are comparable, for example, with the connections between perception and attention, or memory and thinking. However, as often happens, strengthening the positions of one of the opposing sides activates the actions of the other. It seems that this very mechanism has led to the emergence in the psychology of emotions of a whole series of works that defend the functional unity of emotional and need-motivational processes. The old ideas were defended most energetically in Russian literature - L.I. Petrazhitsky, in foreign countries, a few decades later - R.U. Leaper.
Summing up the discussion of the motivating function of emotions in foreign psychological literature, M. Arnold asserts: “The relationship between emotions and motivation, depicted in the theoretical literature, remains completely unclear. Although it has been argued over and over that emotion is motivating, hardly anyone was able to speak up and explain in no uncertain terms exactly how it happens. ” There is no exaggeration in these words. So, E. Duffy, defending in one of his works the need for a unified interpretation of motivational and emotional processes, at the same time asserts that both terms - motivation and emotion - are simply superfluous in the psychological dictionary.
The disappointment of the current picture should not come as a surprise for at least two reasons. First, the positions of parallelism and positivism, within which modern motivational theories of emotions are formulated, do not allow the world of subjective experiences to be singled out as a separate link in regulation processes, while this very condition allows not only formally uniting, but also distinguishing motivational and emotional processes in uniform interpretation. Second, by actually calling for a return to old forgotten ideas, motivational theories do not use the experience gained in their development in the past. Meanwhile, this experience is rich enough, and accusations of failure to provide an explanation for “how exactly emotions motivate” would be unfair to him.
A genuine functional interpretation of emotions can be obtained only in the context of the position defended by Soviet psychology about the necessary and active participation of subjective experiences in the regulation of activity. The solution that the question of the relation of emotion to motivation receives under these conditions is conveyed in the most concentrated form by S.L. Rubinstein, who asserts that emotions are a subjective form of the existence of needs. This means that motivation is revealed to the subject in the form of emotional phenomena that signal to him about the need-value of objects and encourage him to direct activity at them. At the same time, emotions and motivational processes are not identified:
being a subjective form of the existence of motivation, emotional experiences are only the final, effective form of its existence, not reflecting all those processes that prepare and determine the emergence of emotional assessments and impulses.
Like many others, the question of the universality of the motivational interpretation of emotions depends on the postulated volume of phenomena referred to as emotional. So, according to the theory of R.U. Lipera, emotions are only one of the forms of motivation responsible for the induction of behavior along with such "physiologically conditioned" motives as hunger or physical pain. Obviously, even if the experiences of hunger and pain are not considered emotional, this does not prevent the recognition that it is they that present the subject with needs (food and self-preservation), representing a concrete-subjective form of their existence. Therefore, the decision of the question of whether all the motivation is revealed to the subject in the form of emotions depends solely on how the boundary separating the experiences of an emotional and non-emotional nature will be drawn.
emotion motivation universality interpretation
Bibliographic list
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