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3. Self Management

Chapter 5 - Emotions 1

  • Functions of emotions:
    • Intra-personal functions: role of emotions within the individual.
    • Inter-personal functions: role of emotions between individuals.
    • Social and cultural functions: role of emotions in maintaining social order and cultural norms.
  • An emotion is a subjective state of being that we often describe as our feelings.
  • Emotions result from the combination of subjective experience, expression, cognitive appraisal, and physiological responses:
    • Subjective experience refers to an external or internal stimulus that triggers an emotional response.
    • Emotional expression refers to the way one displays an emotion and includes nonverbal and verbal behaviors.
    • Cognitive appraisal in which a person tries to determine the way they will be impacted by a situation; aka, assessing the situation.
    • Physiological responses are the bodily changes that occur when a person experiences an emotion; such as increased heart rate, sweating, and muscle tension.
  • All in all, we will see that emotions inform us of who we are, what our relationships with others are like, and how to behave in social interactions.
  • Emotions give meaning to events; without emotions, those events would be mere facts. Emotions help coordinate interpersonal relationships. And emotions play an important role in the cultural functioning of keeping human societies together.

Intra-personal Functions of Emotion

  • Emotions help us act quickly with minimal conscious awareness:
    • In a battle, fear emotions help us to make a rapid decision to fight or flee saving our lives.
    • Disgust emotions helps us to quickly throw away spoiled or bad food.
    • Emotions evolved so that we can act without that depth of thinking.
  • Emotions prepare the body for immediate action:
    • Emotions prepare us for actions associated with the emotion; but wether we act on it or not is up to us.
    • Fear emotions stimulate the blood and muscles to prepare for action, while inhibiting digestion which is not needed at that moment.
  • Emotions influence thoughts:
    • Memories are not just facts that are encoded in our brains; they are colored with the emotions felt at those times the facts occurred.
    • We remember sad events when we are sad, and happy events when we are happy.
    • Also, it is hard to think clearly when we are angry or anxious.
  • Emotions motivate future behavior:
    • Seeking joy or triumph, and avoiding sadness or defeat motivates us to study or work hard.
    • Emotions not only influence immediate actions but also serve as an important motivational basis for future behaviors.

Inter-personal Functions of Emotion

  • Emotions are expressed both verbally through words and non-verbally through facial expressions, voices, gestures, body postures, and movements.
  • We are constantly expressing emotions when interacting with others, and others can reliably judge those emotional expressions.
  • Emotions and their expressions communicate information to others about our feelings, intentions, relationship with the target of the emotions, and the environment.
  • Emotional Expressions Facilitate Specific Behaviors in Perceivers:
    • If someone is in angry, other people will recognize that and avoid provoking them.
    • If someone is in fear, we can help them to feel safe.
    • Some emotions trigger specific behaviors or emotions in others; e.g., a smile triggers a smile in return, or anger triggers fear in others.
  • Emotional Expressions Signal the Nature of Interpersonal Relationships:
    • Expressions of contempt and disgust in marital interactions are associated with marital dissatisfaction and divorce.
  • Emotional Expressions Provide Incentives for Desired Social Behavior:
    • Social referencing the process whereby infants seek out information from others to clarify a situation and then use that information to act.

Social and Cultural Functions of Emotion

  • One of the important functions of culture is to provide this necessary coordination and organization.
  • Doing so allows individuals and groups to negotiate the social complexity of human social life, thereby maintaining social order and preventing social chaos.
  • Cultures also inform us about what to do with our emotions (that is, how to manage or modify them) when we experience them.

5.3 Culture and Emotion

  • Most scholars agree that members of different cultures may vary in the foods they eat, the languages they speak, and the holidays they celebrate.
  • There is disagreement about the extent to which culture shapes people’s emotions and feelings: including what people feel, what they express, and what they do during an emotional event.
  • Social scientist stand on culture and emotions:
    • Universalists:
      • Despite cultural differences, all emotions are universal and biologically based on the environments our ancestors lived in.
      • They describe their emotions as automatic, natural, physiological, and instinctual.
    • Social constructivists:
      • Despite common evolutionary heritage, different groups of humans evolved to adapt to their distinctive environments, hence, emotions are different across cultures.
  • Views of Self in North American (NA) and East Asian (EA) Contexts:
    • NA prefers individualism: prioritizing individual needs over group needs.
    • EA prefers collectivism: prioritizing group needs over individual needs.
    • NA’s dominant model is independent self: being a person means being distinct from others and act accordingly in all situations.
    • EA’s dominant model is interdependent self: being a person means being connected to others and being responsive to situational demands; hence, they are more likely to suppress their emotions in social situations.
  • Culture Influences People’s Emotional Responses:
    • Emotional response: physiological (body response) cognitive (subjective experience, e.g. the degree of happiness), and behavioral (expressions such as sweating).
    • The physiological response to emotions is universal. but the cognitive and behavioral responses are influenced by culture.
  • Cultural Differences in Emotional Suppression:
    • If a culture encourages emotional expression, such as North America, then suppressing emotions can lead to negative outcomes.
    • In European Americans, emotional suppression is associated with higher levels of depression and lower levels of life satisfaction.
    • If a culture discourages personal emotional expression, such as East Asia, then suppressing emotions is how to appropriately interact with others, and hence it has no negative outcomes.
  • Cultural Influences on Subjective Emotional Experiences:
    • Culture affects whether people are likely to feel bad during good events.
    • In North American contexts, people rarely feel bad after good experiences.
    • In East Asian contexts are more likely to feel bad and good (“mixed” emotions) during positive events (e.g., feeling worried after winning an important competition).
  • Culture Influences the Weight Placed Factors that Impact Happiness:
    • Americans based their life satisfaction primarily on self-esteem, whereas Hong Kong Chinese based their life satisfaction equally on self-esteem and relationship harmony.
    • In other words, rather than using social norms as a guideline for what constitutes an ideal life, people in individualistic cultures tend to evaluate their satisfaction according to how they feel emotionally.
    • In collectivist cultures, however, people’s life satisfaction tends to be based on a balance between their emotions and norms.

Social Emotional Interaction in Collaborative Learning 2

  • Emotions are easily influenced by the surrounding environment and objects, and in response, we may behave differently depending on the interaction between us and the object/environment, which shape social-emotional interactions.

How to master your emotions 3

  • Emotions are tools:
    • Anger is a tool to become strong.
    • Compassion is a tool to become giver.

The Power of NOT Reacting 4

  • Recognize extreme emotions and delay impulsive reactions, so you can respond with a clear mind and make good decisions.
  • 12 Habits to control your emotions (non-reactive):
    1. Chemical countdown: count down from 5 to 1 to calm down; it is enough for the impulsive chemicals neurotransmitters to decrease in your brain.
    2. Find your roots: tey searching the root of the problem that causes the emotion. E.g., instead of reacting to a bad political comment, ask yourself why did that comment caused the anger in the first place.
    3. Sources of resentment: identify the sources of resentment and work on them immediately; the longer it takes you to resolve them, the more they will grow to the point that you lose the ability to identify their causes, hence, solving them becomes harder.
    4. Name your emotions: name the emotion you are feeling, and you will be better able to control it.
    5. Manage your stress: stress is the root of all negative emotions; manage it by exercising, meditating, or doing yoga.
    6. Opportunities for expression: find a way to express your emotions, such as writing, painting, or talking to a friend.
    7. Channel your feelings: channel your feelings into something productive, such as working out or cleaning.
    8. The empathy routine: put yourself in the other person’s shoes to understand their perspective.
    9. Posses your emotions: take responsibility of your emotions, own them, and do not be ashamed of having them.
    10. The boiling point: identify the boiling point of your emotions and take a break before reaching it.
    11. Create your Mantra: create a mantra that you can repeat to yourself when you feel overwhelmed.
    12. The power of breathing: take deep breaths to calm down and think clearly.

References

  1. Scarbrough, S. (2023). Psychology of human relations. Open Oregon Educational Resources by Pressbooks. https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/psychologyofhumanrelations/part/chapter-5-emotions/ Read Chapter 5 - Emotions ↩

  2. Huang, X., & Lajoie, S. P. (2023). Social emotional interaction in collaborative learning: Why it matters and how can we measure it? Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 7(1), 100447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100447 ↩

  3. Freedom in Thought. (2019, January 15). How to master your emotions | Emotional Intelligence [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/QGQQ7pJQqHk ↩

  4. Top Think. (2023, June 29). The Power of NOT Reacting | 12 Habits to Control Your Emotions [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/skZagPiKQfQ ↩