The versatility of emotions, their manifestation at various levels of reflection and activity, complex relationships with subject content, the ability to merge and form combinations exclude the possibility of a simple linear classification. Today, psychology has a number of independent or partially overlapping characteristics and grounds for dividing emotional phenomena.
Classification of emotions according to the nature of their direction.
Firstly, very often emotions are divided according to the nature of their direction, i.e. may be positive or negative. Everything that helps satisfy needs causes positive emotions, and everything that interferes causes negative emotions. This classification is universal because for any positive emotion you can select a negative one that is opposed to it.
Students are asked to find words denoting opposite emotions: pleasure, gloating, joy, despondency, pride, jealousy, love, disgust.
Any qualitatively diverse feelings and emotions (love, anger, fear, pity, affection, hatred, etc.) can be considered positive, negative or vague (indicative). If the need is satisfied or there is hope for its satisfaction, then positive emotional experiences arise. If something interferes with the satisfaction of needs or the impossibility of satisfying them is realized, then a negative emotional attitude towards the interfering factors develops. An indefinite (indicative) emotional experience occurs in a new, unfamiliar situation, in the absence of experience in relations with the new surrounding world or when becoming familiar with objects of activity.
Classifications of emotions in connection with needs.
When classifying emotions, some psychologists proceed from the needs that provoke the appearance of these emotions. This position is taken by P.V. Simonov and B.I. Dodonov.
I. Dodonov notes that it is generally impossible to create a universal classification of emotions, therefore a classification suitable for solving one range of problems turns out to be ineffective when solving another range of problems. He proposed his own classification of emotions, and not for all, but only for those of them in which a person most often feels the need and which attach direct value to the very process of his activity, which thanks to this acquires the quality of interesting work or study, “sweet” dreams, gratifying memories, etc. For this reason, sadness was included in his classification (since there are people who like to be slightly sad) and envy was not included (since even envious people cannot be said to like to envy). Thus, the classification proposed by Dodonov concerns only “valuable”, in his terminology, emotions. Essentially, the basis of this classification are needs and goals, that is, the motives that are served by certain emotions. Depending on the subjective value of experiences, B. I. Dodonova identifies the following types of emotions.
1. Altruistic emotions. These experiences arise from the need for assistance, help, patronage of other people, and the desire to bring people joy and happiness. Altruistic emotions are manifested in the experience of concern for the fate of someone and in care, in empathy for the joy and good fortune of another, in feelings of tenderness, tenderness, devotion, participation, pity.
2. Communicative emotions. They arise based on the need for communication. According to Dodonov, not every emotion that arises during communication is communicative. When communicating, different emotions arise, but only those that arise as a reaction to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the desire for emotional intimacy (to have a friend, a sympathetic interlocutor, etc.), the desire to communicate, share thoughts and experiences, and find a response are communicative. . The author includes a feeling of sympathy, affection, a feeling of respect for someone, a feeling of appreciation, gratitude, a feeling of adoration for someone, a desire to earn approval from loved ones and respected people.
3. Gloric emotions (from Latin gloria - glory). These emotions are associated with the need for self-affirmation, fame, and the desire to win recognition and honor. They arise during a real or imaginary “reaping of laurels”, when a person becomes the subject of everyone's attention and admiration. Otherwise, he experiences negative emotions. These emotions manifest themselves in a feeling of wounded pride and a desire to take revenge, in a pleasant tickling of pride, in a feeling of pride, superiority, in satisfaction that a person has grown in his own eyes.
4. Praxic emotions (or praxic feelings, according to P. M. Yakobson). These are emotions that arise in connection with an activity, its success or failure, the desire to succeed at work, and the presence of difficulties. Dodonov connects their appearance with the “target reflex”, according to I. P. Pavlov. These emotions are expressed in a feeling of tension, passion for work, admiring the results of one’s work, pleasant fatigue, and satisfaction that the day was not in vain.
5. Pugnic emotions (from Latin pugna - fight). They are associated with the need to overcome danger, on the basis of which interest in fighting arises. This is a thirst for thrills, an intoxication with danger, risk, a sense of sports excitement, “sports anger,” the utmost mobilization of one’s capabilities, and determination.
6. Romantic emotions. These are emotions associated with the desire for everything unusual, mysterious, and unknown. They manifest themselves in anticipation of a “bright miracle”, in an alluring sense of distance, in a feeling of special significance of what is happening, or in an ominously mysterious feeling.
7. Gnostic emotions (from the Greek gnosis - knowledge). These are what are commonly called intellectual feelings. They are associated not simply with the need to obtain any new information, but with the need for “cognitive harmony,” as Dodonov writes. The essence of this harmony is to find the familiar, familiar, understandable in the new, unknown, to penetrate into the essence of the phenomenon, thus bringing all available information to a “common denominator.” A typical situation that arouses these emotions is a problem situation. These emotions manifest themselves in a feeling of surprise or bewilderment, a feeling of clarity or vagueness, in the desire to overcome the contradiction in one’s own reasoning, to bring everything into the system, in a feeling of conjecture, the proximity of a solution, in the joy of discovering the truth.
8. Aesthetic emotions. There are two main points of view regarding these emotions. First: aesthetic emotions do not exist in their pure form. These are experiences in which various emotions are intertwined. Second: aesthetic emotion is nothing more than a feeling of beauty. According to Dodonov, not every perception of a work of art evokes aesthetic emotions. Aesthetic emotions are manifested in the enjoyment of beauty, in the feeling of elegant, graceful, sublime or majestic, exciting drama (“sweet pain”). A variety of aesthetic feelings are lyrical feelings of light sadness and thoughtfulness, touch, a bitterly pleasant feeling of loneliness, the sweetness of memories of the past.
9. Hedonic emotions. These are emotions associated with satisfying the need for bodily and mental comfort. These emotions are expressed in the enjoyment of pleasant physical sensations from tasty food, warmth, sun, etc., in a feeling of carelessness and serenity, in bliss (“sweet laziness”), in mild euphoria, in voluptuousness.
10. Active emotions (from the French acquisition - acquisition). These emotions arise in connection with an interest in accumulating, collecting, and acquiring things. They manifest themselves in joy on the occasion of acquiring a new thing, increasing their collection, in a pleasant feeling when reviewing their savings, etc.
For a more complete acquaintance with the theory of Dodonov B.I. You can check out his book “Emotion as Value.”
Classification of emotions from the point of view of influence on human activity.
The German philosopher I. Kant divided emotions into sthenic (from the Greek στενοζ - increasing the vital activity of the body, and asthenic - weakening it).
1. Stenic emotions contribute to increased activity of the body and the person as a whole (a surge of energy, strength, increased performance, quick thinking, etc.). Stenic emotions stimulate activity, increase a person’s energy and tension, and encourage him to act and speak. In this case, the person is ready to “move mountains.” And, conversely, sometimes experiences are characterized by a kind of stiffness, passivity, then they talk about asthenic emotions. Therefore, depending on the situation and individual characteristics, emotions can influence behavior differently. Thus, a person experiencing feelings of fear may experience increased muscle strength and may rush towards danger. The same feeling of fear can cause a complete loss of strength; fear can make one’s knees buckle. Grief can cause apathy and inactivity in a weak person, while a strong person doubles his energy, finding solace in work and Creativity. The most famous sthenic emotions: joy, inspiration, delight, anger, rage.
2. Asthenic emotions suppress a person’s activity and have an inhibitory effect (the opposite effect: racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating). The inhibitory effect is also reflected in motor activity (fatigue, sluggish gait, heaviness).
This division of emotions raises the question: is emotion a harmful or beneficial phenomenon for a person?
Emotions are useful because they contribute to human adaptation, since most emotions are accompanied by the mobilization of the body’s energy resources. In this sense, emotions have a positive meaning.
The opposite point of view: on the other hand, emotion is always disadaptation of the body and personality to various situations. When a person does not see a way out of the current situation, it is difficult for him, therefore, there is a violation of the appropriateness of behavior.
Ilyin E.P. lists the following emotions:
1. Emotions of expectation and forecast (Excitement, Anxiety, Fear, Despair)
2.Satisfaction and joy
3. Frustration emotions (Resentment, Disappointment, Annoyance, Anger, Frenzy, Sadness, Dejection, Melancholy and nostalgia, Grief)
4. Communicative emotions (Fun, Embarrassment, Confusion, Shame, Guilt as a reflection of conscience, Contempt)
5. Intellectual “emotions”, or affective-cognitive complexes (Surprise, Interest, Sense of Humor, Emotion of Guess, “Feeling” of confidence-uncertainty (doubt)
The next basis for classification is the division of emotions into primary (basic) and secondary.
P. Ekman and his colleagues, based on the study of facial expression, identify six such emotions: anger, fear, disgust, surprise, sadness and joy. P. Ekman wrote many interesting books, including a book on emotion recognition - “The Psychology of Emotions” and “The Psychology of Lying.”
K. Izard names 10 basic emotions: anger, contempt, disgust, distress (grief-suffering), fear, guilt, interest, joy, shame, surprise.
From his point of view, basic emotions must have the following mandatory characteristics:
1) have distinct and specific neural substrates;
2) manifest themselves through an expressive and specific configuration of muscle movements of the face (facial expressions);
3) entail a distinct and specific experience that is conscious to the person;
4) arose as a result of evolutionary biological processes;
5) have an organizing and motivating influence on a person, serve his adaptation.
However, Izard himself admits that some emotions classified as basic do not have all these characteristics. Thus, the emotion of guilt does not have a clear facial and pantomimic expression. On the other hand, some researchers attribute other characteristics to basic emotions.
Obviously, those emotions that have deep phylogenetic roots can be called basic, that is, they are present not only in humans, but also in animals. Other emotions that are unique to humans (shame, guilt) do not apply to them. Interest and shyness can hardly be called emotions either. Complex emotions include interest, surprise, joy, suffering, grief, depression, anger, disgust, contempt, hostility, fear, anxiety, shame, etc. K. Izard calls them fundamental emotions that have their own range of psychological characteristics and external manifestations.
Interest (as an emotion) is a positive emotional state that promotes the development of skills and abilities, the acquisition of knowledge and motivating learning.
Joy is a positive emotional state associated with the ability to sufficiently fully satisfy an actual need, the probability of which until this moment was small or, in any case, uncertain.
Surprise is an emotional reaction to sudden circumstances that does not have a clearly defined positive or negative sign. Surprise inhibits all previous emotions, directing attention to the object that caused it, and can turn into interest.
Sadness is a negative emotional state associated with received reliable or apparent information about the impossibility of satisfying the most important needs of life, which until that moment seemed more or less probable, most often occurs in the form of emotional stress. Suffering has the character of an asthenic (weakening a person) emotion.
Anger is an emotional state, negative in sign, usually occurring in the form of affect and caused by the sudden emergence of a serious obstacle to the satisfaction of a need that is extremely important for the subject. Unlike suffering, anger has a philosophical character (i.e., it causes a rise, albeit short-lived, in vitality).
Disgust is a negative emotional state caused by objects (objects, people, circumstances, etc.), contact with which (physical interaction, communication in communication, etc.) comes into sharp conflict with the ideological, moral or aesthetic principles and attitudes of the subject. Disgust, when combined with anger, can motivate aggressive behavior in interpersonal relationships, where attack is motivated by anger and disgust by the desire to get rid of someone or something.
Contempt is a negative emotional state that arises in interpersonal relationships and is generated by a mismatch in the life positions, views and behavior of the subject with the life positions, views and behavior of the object of feeling. The latter are presented to the subject as base, not corresponding to accepted moral standards and aesthetic criteria.
Fear is a negative emotional state that appears when the subject receives information about possible damage to his life well-being, about a real or imagined danger that threatens him. In contrast to the emotion of suffering, caused by direct blocking of the most important needs, a person, experiencing the emotion of fear, has only a probabilistic forecast of possible troubles and acts on the basis of this (often insufficiently reliable or exaggerated) forecast.
Shame is a negative state, expressed in the awareness of the inconsistency of one’s own thoughts, actions and appearance not only with the expectations of others, but also with one’s own ideas about appropriate behavior and appearance.
You can read more about the characteristics of specific emotions in K. Izard’s book “Psychology of Emotions” or also in the book by E.P. Ilyin. "Emotions and feelings."
Classification of feelings
Depending on the subject area to which they relate, feelings are divided into moral, aesthetic, intellectual and practical.
Moral, or moral, are the feelings experienced by people when they perceive the phenomena of reality and compare these phenomena with the norms developed by society. The manifestation of these feelings presupposes that a person has acquired moral norms and rules of conduct in the society in which he lives. Moral norms develop and change in the process of historical development of a society, depending on its traditions, customs, religion, dominant ideology, etc. The actions and actions of people that correspond to the views on morality in a given society are considered moral; actions that do not correspond to these views are considered immoral and immoral. Moral feelings include a sense of duty, humanity, benevolence, love, friendship, patriotism, sympathy, etc. Immoral feelings include greed, selfishness, cruelty, etc. It should be noted that in different societies these feelings may have some differences in content.
Aesthetic feelings represent a person’s emotional attitude to beauty in nature, in people’s lives and in art. Observing the objects and phenomena of reality around us, a person can experience a special feeling of admiration for their beauty. A person experiences especially deep emotions when perceiving works of fiction, music, fine art, drama and other types of art. This is due to the fact that both moral and intellectual feelings are specifically intertwined in them. The aesthetic attitude manifests itself through different feelings - delight, joy, contempt, disgust, melancholy, suffering, etc.
Intellectual feelings are experiences that arise in the process of human cognitive activity. The most typical situation that gives rise to intellectual feelings is a problem situation. Success or failure, ease or difficulty of mental activity cause a whole range of experiences in a person. Intellectual feelings not only accompany human cognitive activity, but also stimulate, enhance it, influence the speed and productivity of thinking, the content and accuracy of the knowledge gained. The existence of intellectual feelings - surprise, curiosity, inquisitiveness, a feeling of joy about the discovery made, a feeling of doubt about the correctness of the decision, a feeling of confidence in the correctness of the proof - is clear evidence of the relationship between intellectual and emotional processes.
Conclusion
In conclusion of this section of our lecture, we can say that many scientists have made attempts to give universal classifications of emotions, and each of them put forward their own basis for this.
Attempts to classify emotional states, experiences and feelings were made repeatedly (by D. Hume, R. Descartes, W. Wundt, A. Bain, N. Grot, T. Ribot, K. Ushinsky, M. Astvatsaturov, K. Pluchik and others). However, none of the proposed classifications has received widespread recognition and has not been preserved as an effective tool for further searches and clarifications. According to P.V. Simonov, this is explained by the fact that all these classifications were built on an incorrect theoretical basis or without it at all.
The difficulty of classifying emotions lies in the fact that, on the one hand, it is difficult to determine whether the identified emotion is really an independent type or whether it is a designation of the same emotion in different words (synonyms), and on the other hand, whether it is a new verbal designation emotions are only a reflection of the degree of its expression (for example, anxiety - fear - horror).
I. Dodonov notes that it is generally impossible to create a universal classification of emotions, therefore a classification suitable for solving one range of problems turns out to be ineffective when solving another range of problems.
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Emotions are one of the forms of reflection. Emotions do not reflect the objects, objects, phenomena themselves, but their relationship to the needs, goals and motives of the person experiencing these emotions. 3 main concepts: reflection, attitude, experience. Emotions are processes that reflect the personal significance and assessment of external and internal situations for a person’s life in the form of experiences.
Main types of emotions(classification according to the strength and activity of manifestations): affects, passions, emotions themselves, mood, feelings, stress. Affect is a rapidly developing emotional process of an explosive nature, which, under certain circumstances, can provide a release in action. Passion is a strong, persistent, long-lasting feeling that, having taken root in a person, captures him and owns him. Actually, emotions are longer lasting than affects. Reaction not only to events that have happened, but also to probable ones. In contrast, affects can be weakly manifested. Mood is a general emotional state over a long period of time. Colors and gives an emotional tone. Unlike emotions and feelings, mood is not objective, but personal. It is not situational, but extended over time. Feelings are even more than emotions, stable mental states that have a clearly defined objective character: they express a stable attitude towards some objects (real or imaginary). Stress is an emotional state that arises in an unusually difficult situation and is experienced with great internal tension and anxiety. A person cannot experience a feeling in general, without reference, but only to someone or something.
Depending on the focus, the following are distinguished: types of feelings: moral (a person’s experience of his relationship to other people), intellectual (feelings associated with cognitive activity), aesthetic (feelings of beauty when perceiving art, natural phenomena), praxic (feelings associated with human activity). Moral feelings. These include all those feelings that a person experiences when perceiving the phenomena of reality from the point of view of the moral principle, starting from the categories of morality developed by society. The area of moral feelings includes everything that determines our attitude towards ourselves, towards people, and human relationships. This is empathy; feeling of goodwill towards people; indignation at injustice, cruelty, immoral acts; sense of camaraderie; feeling of friendship. Intellectual feelings are associated with the mental, cognitive activity of a person and constantly accompany it. Intellectual feelings express a person’s attitude towards his thoughts, the process and results of intellectual activity. It is a feeling of surprise, a feeling of doubt, a feeling of confidence, a feeling of satisfaction. Aesthetic feelings. In the process of social development, man acquired the ability to perceive the phenomena of the surrounding reality, guided not only by moral standards, but also by the concepts of beauty. Aesthetic experiences are very diverse and complex. They go through gradations, ranging from slight excitement about what they perceive and ending with deep excitement about what they see. Aesthetic experiences can reach a high level of generality, and then they speak of a sense of the tragic, a sense of the sublime, a sense of the comic, a sense of humor, inherent only to man. Praxic feelings. The area of human practice (in the broadest sense of the word), i.e. various forms of human activity become the subject of his emotional attitude. Since practical feelings represent an emotional response to all the richness and diversity of human activity, these feelings are characterized by different contents and varying degrees of intensity of experience. Differences in the sphere of practical feelings are determined by the nature (positive or negative) of the emotional coloring of the activity being performed. For the content and nature of practical feelings, a very important role is played by the significance for a person of the activity that he carries out, with which he connects it for himself in relation to life goals and plans, his social needs.
Topic 2.5 Emotions and feelings
Target: to form ideas about emotions and feelings as mental processes, to substantiate their significance for the development of a person’s personality.
Tasks:
1. Form the conceptual apparatus of the discipline, expand knowledge about human mental processes;
2. To form ideological positions when mastering knowledge about the cognitive sphere of a person;
3. Create conditions for the development of students’ cognitive interest in understanding the patterns of development of their own cognitive sphere.
Questions:
1. The concept of emotions and feelings. Classification and types of emotions.
2. Functions of emotions: communicative, motivational, evaluative, signaling and regulatory.
3. The relationship between feelings and emotions. Types of feelings: moral, ethical, intellectual, aesthetic. Feelings as an indicator of social development of the individual.
The concept of emotions and feelings. Classification and types of emotions.
Emotions are an integral part of human existence, without emotions a person would act like a passionless automaton, would not be able to be sad and happy, experience excitement and admiration. A person experiences what happens to him and what is done by him; he relates in a certain way to what surrounds him and to himself.
Emotions and feelings– the process of reflecting a person’s subjective attitude towards objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, other people and himself in the form of direct experience. Emotions express the state of the subject and his attitude towards the object.
Emotions and feelings– forms of experiencing a relationship to an object, emotions – unstable and short-term, feelings – stable and long-lasting.
The physiological basis of emotional experiences are neurohumoral changes in the body in response to various signals.
Emotions- a complex mental process that includes three main components.
1. Physiological - represents changes in physiological systems that occur during emotions (changes in heart rate, breathing rate, changes in metabolic processes, hormonal, etc.).
2. Psychological - the actual experience (joy, grief, fear, etc.).
3. Behavioral - expression (facial expressions, gestures) and various actions (flight, fight, etc.).
The first two components of emotions are their internal manifestations, which are “closed” inside the body. Excessive emotional energy is released and discharged thanks to the third component - behavior. Since the cultural norms of modern society, as a rule, require restraint in the manifestation of feelings, a delayed release of excess energy is necessary for a person’s physical and mental health. It can occur in the form of any movements and actions acceptable for the person and for society: outdoor games, walking, running, shaping, dancing, household activities (washing, cleaning, etc.).
Emotions differ from cognitive mental processes and have certain distinctive characteristics .
Firstly, they are characterized polarity, that is, they have a positive or negative sign: fun - sadness, joy - sadness; happiness - grief, etc. In complex human feelings, these poles often act as a contradictory unity (love for a person is combined with longing and concern for him).
The second distinguishing characteristic of emotions is their energy saturation It was in connection with emotions that Freud introduced the concept of energy into psychology. The energy of emotions manifests itself in the opposites of tension and release.
There are sthenic emotions, characterized by an increase in activity (delight, anger) and asthenic, accompanied by a decrease in activity (sadness, sadness).
Another important characteristic of emotions is their integrity,integrity: all psychophysiological systems of a person and his personality participate in emotional experience; they instantly cover the entire body and give a person’s experiences a certain coloring.
Therefore, psychophysiological changes can serve as indicators of the emotional state: shifts in heart rate, breathing, body temperature, galvanic skin response, etc. (For example, English psychophysiologists recorded changes in GSR in subjects during the process of remembering the air raids on London).
Finally, it is necessary to note one more feature of emotions - inseparability them from other mental processes. Emotions are, as it were, woven into the fabric of mental life; they accompany all mental processes. In sensations they act as the emotional tone of sensations (pleasant - unpleasant), in thinking - as intellectual feelings (inspiration, interest, etc.).
Emotions are not a cognitive process in the proper sense of the word, since they do not reflect the properties and characteristics of the external environment; they reflect the subjective significance of an object for a person.
Highlight kinds emotions : by direction (neutral, positive and negative), by impact on the personality (constructive and destructive), by intensity:
· mood– a background emotion of low intensity, the causes of which, as a rule, are not realized, and which has little effect on the effectiveness of activity.
· tension– level of intensity of emotional experience, when typical behavioral reactions (voice, speech, tone, etc.) are disrupted. It can be operational, i.e. caused by the complexity of performing an action (operation), for example, a new or precise movement, and emotional - fear of failure, increased responsibility for the result, etc.
· passion– passion, during which other events of the surrounding reality are de-actualized, i.e. reduce their significance, for example, engaging in hobbies, gambling, etc.
· stress– nonspecific, i.e. response to a stimulus that does not correspond to the signal. It can manifest itself as either a minor or a significant change in state and behavior, up to the cessation of activity.
· affect– strong experience with loss of conscious control over one’s actions (for example, hysteria).
Thus, Wundt identified a triad of the direction of feelings, dividing pleasure and displeasure, tension and resolution, excitement and calm. It reflects the sign of emotion, the level of its sthenicity and dynamic characteristics: from tension to release. Based on this triad, any emotion can be characterized.
Classification of emotions. In the process of development of psychological science, attempts have been made repeatedly to classify emotions.
One of the first attempts belongs to Descartes, who identified 6 feelings: joy, sadness, surprise, desire, love, hatred. Descartes believed that these feelings are basic, basic, their combination gives rise to the whole variety of human emotions.
At the beginning of the century, an American psychologist Woodworth proposed a linear scale of emotions that reflects the entire continuum of emotional manifestations:
1. Love, fun, joy.
2. Surprise.
3. Fear, suffering.
4. Anger, determination.
5. Disgust.
6. Contempt.
On this scale, each emotion is somewhere between two neighboring ones.
American psychologist K. Izard suggests considering the following as the main or, in his terminology, fundamental emotions:
1. Interest.
2. Joy.
3. Surprise.
4. Grief, suffering and depression.
6. Disgust.
7. Contempt.
9. Shame and shyness.
Izard calls these 10 emotions fundamental because each of them has: a) a specific neural substrate; b) expressive neuromuscular complexes characteristic only of it; c) own subjective experience (phenomenological quality). Each of these emotions is described according to several parameters: the sign of the emotion, the conditions of its occurrence, its biological and psychological significance.
It should be noted that these classifications are more of an enumeration. Attempts to classify emotions based on specific grounds belong to other researchers.
Functions of emotions
About functions of emotions There are different points of view in psychology. In particular, emotions are considered as a rudiment, an affective trace of instinct (McDaugall), and, like any rudiment, emotion is doomed to gradual extinction and death.
Functions emotions are as follows:
· communicative– transfer of information;
· motivational– stimulation of activity;
· evaluative– performance criterion;
· signal– warning of possible danger;
· regulating– changing the condition through hormonal balance.
Any interaction between people is always accompanied by emotional manifestations; Mimic, pantomimic movements allow a person to convey information about his attitude towards other people, phenomena, events, and his condition. Thus, emotions perform communicative function.
Emotions serve a function motivation for activity and stimulation Thus, interest “catches” attention and keeps it on the object, fear forces one to avoid dangerous objects and situations. Due to their special energy saturation, emotions stimulate the flow of other mental processes and activities. This is associated with the mobilization of all the forces of the body in difficult, responsible situations (during an exam, a responsible performance, emergency situations, etc.).
The most important function of emotions is evaluative,emotions evaluate the significance of objects and situations. Moreover, very often such an assessment is carried out in conditions of a lack of time or information about an object or situation. An emotionally charged attitude compensates for the impossibility of a complete logical analysis. Indeed, often in situations of lack of information, the emerging emotional background helps a person to orient himself and make a decision about whether a suddenly arising object is useful or harmful, whether it should be avoided, etc.
Human emotions are closely related to needs, they arise in activities aimed at satisfying needs, they restructure human behavior in the direction of satisfying needs, this is where their regulating function.
3. The relationship between feelings and emotions. Types of feelings. Feelings as an indicator of social development of the individual
Feelings - more persistent mental formations, they can be defined as a complex type of stable emotional attitude of a person to various aspects of reality.Feelings are formed, as a rule, on the basis of secondary, spiritual needs and are characterized by a longer duration.
Feelings are differentiated depending on the subject area to which they relate. In accordance with this, they are divided into: intellectual, aesthetic, moral.
Intellectual feelings- experiences that arise in the process of intellectual activity, such as curiosity, surprise, doubt, etc.
Aesthetic feelings arise and develop during the perception and creation of beauty and represent a person’s emotional attitude to beauty in nature, in people’s lives and in art (for example, a feeling of love for music, a feeling of admiration for a painting).
Moral feelings- the emotional attitude of an individual to people’s behavior and to his own. In this case, behavior is compared with the norms developed by society (for example, a sense of duty, humanity, goodwill, love, friendship, sympathy, etc.).
Questions for group reflection:
1. What quality of reality is presented to a person directly in the emotions he experiences?
2. Describe in detail the essence of the dual nature of emotions.
3. What is an emotional situation?
4. How does an emotional reaction differ from an emotional state?
5. List the main functions of emotions.
Self-study question:
The role of attention, feelings and emotions in sports activities.
Additional material:
Emotional states longer lasting and more stable than emotional reactions. They coordinate the needs and aspirations of a person with his capabilities and resources at any given moment in time. Emotional states are characterized by changes in neuropsychic tone.
Emotional properties- the most stable characteristics of a person, characterizing the individual characteristics of emotional response, typical for a particular person. These include a number of features, such as emotional excitability, emotional lability, emotional viscosity, emotional responsiveness and empathy, emotional coarsening, alexithymia.
Emotional lability - variability of emotions and mood, for various, often the most insignificant reasons. Emotions fluctuate in a very wide range from sentimentality and tenderness to tearfulness and weakness.
Emotional monotony characterized by monotony, immobility of emotional reactions, lack of emotional response to events.
At emotional viscosity reactions are accompanied by fixation of affect and attention on any significant objects. (Instead of reacting, the personality focuses on grievances, failures, and exciting topics).
Emotional rigidity- inflexibility, rigidity and limited range of emotional response.
Emotional callousness- inability to determine the appropriateness and dose of emotional reactions. It manifests itself in the fact that the personality loses restraint, delicacy, tact, becomes annoying, disinhibited, and boastful.
One of the manifestations of emotional properties is alexithymia - reduced ability or difficulty in verbalizing emotional states. Alexithymia is characterized by difficulty in defining and describing one’s own emotional states and experiences; difficulty distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations; decreased ability to symbolize; the personality is focused more on external events than on internal experiences. There is a hypothesis according to which limited awareness of emotions and cognitive processing of affect leads to a focus of consciousness on the somatic component of emotional arousal and an increase in physiological reactions to stress.
The listed emotional properties can manifest themselves as individual characteristics of a person, which are based on the characteristics of the nervous system and temperament, but they can also be a consequence of pathological changes in the brain, the result of trauma or psychosomatic diseases.
Emotional responsiveness and empathy. Emotional responsiveness is manifested in the fact that a person easily, flexibly and quickly emotionally reacts to environmental influences. When people become the object of emotional responsiveness, a person exhibits a special property - empathy.Empathy is understood as the ability to enter into the states of another person, to empathize, to sympathize with him. The basis of empathy is emotional responsiveness, general sensitivity, sensitivity, as well as intuition and attention, observation are important. Empathic abilities form the basis of professionally important qualities in social professions, that is, wherever communication, understanding, and interaction are an integral part of professional activity (doctors, teachers, social workers, etc.).
Everything that a person encounters in his life evokes one attitude or another in him. A person’s certain attitude is manifested even towards individual qualities and properties of surrounding objects. The sphere of feelings includes annoyance and patriotism, joy and fear, delight and grief.
Feelings- these are human relationships experienced in various forms to objects and phenomena of reality. Human life is unbearable without experiences; if a person is deprived of the opportunity to experience feelings, then the so-called “emotional hunger” sets in, which he seeks to satisfy by listening to his favorite music, reading an action-packed book, etc. Moreover, for emotional saturation, not only positive feelings are needed, but also feelings associated with suffering.
The most developed and complex form of emotional processes in humans are feelings, which are not only an emotional, but also a conceptual reflection.
Feelings are formed throughout a person’s life in conditions. Feelings that meet higher social needs are called higher feelings. For example, love for the Motherland, your people, your city, and other people. They are characterized by structural complexity, great strength, duration, stability, independence from specific situations and the state of the body. Such an example is the love of a mother for her child; the mother may become angry with the child, be dissatisfied with his behavior, punish, but all this does not affect her feeling, which remains strong and relatively stable.
The complexity of higher feelings is determined by their complex structure. That is, they consist of several different and sometimes opposing emotions, which seem to crystallize on a certain object. For example, falling in love is a less complex feeling than love, since in addition to falling in love, the latter presupposes tenderness, friendship, affection, jealousy and other emotions that produce a feeling of love that cannot be expressed in words.
Depending on the nature of a person’s relationship to various objects of the social environment, the main types of higher feelings are identified: moral, practical, intellectual, aesthetic.
Moral feelings a person experiences in relation to society, other people, as well as to himself, such as a sense of patriotism, friendship, love, conscience, which regulate interpersonal relationships.
Feelings that are associated with a person’s performance of other activities are called practical. They arise in the process of activity in connection with its success or failure. Positive practical feelings include hard work, pleasant fatigue, a sense of passion for work, and satisfaction with the work done. When negative practical feelings predominate, a person perceives work as hard labor.
Certain types of work, learning, and some games require intense mental activity. The process of mental activity is accompanied by intellectual emotions. If they acquire the qualities of stability and stability, they appear as intellectual feelings: curiosity, joy of discovering truth, surprise, doubt.
The feelings that a person experiences when creating beauty in life and in art are called aesthetic. Aesthetic feelings are cultivated through familiarization with nature, admiring the forest, sun, river, etc. In order to comprehend the laws of beauty and harmony, it is useful for children to engage in drawing, dancing, music and other types of artistic activities.
Throughout the development of people, a special form of mental reflection of significant objects and events has been formed - emotions. The same object or event evokes different emotions in different people, because everyone has their own specific attitude.
Emotions- these are subjective human reactions to the influence of external and internal stimuli, reflecting in the form of experiences their personal significance for the subject and manifesting themselves in the form of pleasure or displeasure.
In the narrow sense of the word, emotions are the direct, temporary experience of some feeling. So, if we consider the feelings experienced by fans on the stands of the stadium and sports in general (the feeling of love for football, hockey, tennis), then these experiences cannot be called an emotion. Emotions here will be represented by the state of pleasure and admiration that a fan experiences when watching a good game.
Functions and types of emotions
Emotions were recognized as having an important positive role in people’s lives, and the following positive functions began to be associated with them: motivational-regulatory, communicative, signaling and protective.
Motivational-regulatory function is that emotions are involved in motivating human behavior and can motivate, guide and regulate. Sometimes emotions can replace thinking in regulating behavior.
Communication function lies in the fact that emotions, or more precisely, the methods of their external expression, carry information about the mental and physical state of a person. Thanks to emotions, we understand each other better. By observing changes in emotional states, it becomes possible to judge what is happening in the psyche. Comment: people belonging to different cultures are able to accurately perceive and evaluate many expressions of the human face, and identify from it such emotions as joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise. This also applies to those peoples who have never been in direct contact with each other.
Signal function. Life without emotions is just as impossible as life without. Emotions, Charles Darwin argued, arose in the process of evolution as a means by which living beings establish the significance of certain conditions to satisfy their actual needs. Emotionally expressive movements (facial expressions, gestures, pantomime) serve as signals about the state of the human needs system.
Protective function is expressed in the fact that, arising as an instant, quick reaction of the body, it can protect a person from dangers.
It has been established that the more complex a living being is organized, the higher the level on the evolutionary ladder it occupies, the richer and more diverse the range of emotions that it is capable of experiencing.
The nature of the experience (pleasure or displeasure) determines the sign of emotions - positive And negative. From the point of view of influence on human activity, emotions are divided into sthenic and asthenic. Stenic emotions stimulate activity, increase a person’s energy and tension, and encourage him to act and speak. The catchphrase: “ready to move mountains.” And, conversely, sometimes experiences are characterized by a kind of stiffness, passivity, then they talk about asthenic emotions. Therefore, depending on the situation and individual characteristics, emotions can influence behavior differently. Thus, grief can cause apathy and inactivity in a weak person, while a strong person doubles his energy, finding solace in work and creativity.
Modality- the main qualitative characteristic of emotions, which determines their type according to the specificity and special coloring of experiences. According to modality, three basic emotions are distinguished: fear, anger and joy. With all its diversity, almost any emotion is a unique expression of one of these emotions. Anxiety, worry, fear, horror are various manifestations of fear; anger, irritability, rage - anger; fun, rejoicing, triumph - joy.
K. Izard identified the following basic emotions
Interest(as an emotion) - a positive emotional state that promotes the development of skills and knowledge.
Joy- a positive emotional state associated with the ability to sufficiently fully satisfy an actual need, the likelihood of which until this moment was small or, in any case, uncertain.
Astonishment- an emotional reaction to sudden circumstances that does not have a clearly defined positive or negative sign. Surprise inhibits all previous emotions, directing attention to the object that caused it, and can turn into interest.
Suffering- a negative emotional state associated with received reliable or apparent information about the impossibility of satisfying the most important needs of life, which until that moment seemed more or less probable, most often occurs in the form of emotional stress.
Anger- an emotional state, negative in sign, usually occurring in the form of affect and caused by the sudden emergence of a serious obstacle to the satisfaction of a need that is extremely important for the subject.
Disgust- a negative emotional state caused by objects (objects, people, circumstances), contact with which (physical interaction, communication in communication, etc.) comes into sharp conflict with the ideological, moral or aesthetic principles and attitudes of the subject. Disgust, when combined with anger, can motivate aggressive behavior in interpersonal relationships, where attack is motivated by anger and disgust by the desire to get rid of someone or something.
Contempt- a negative emotional state that arises in interpersonal relationships and is generated by a mismatch in the life positions, views and behavior of the subject with the life positions, views and behavior of the object of feeling. The latter are presented to the subject as base, not corresponding to accepted moral standards and aesthetic criteria.
Fear- a negative emotional state that appears when the subject receives information about a possible threat to his well-being in life, about a real or imaginary danger. In contrast to the emotion of suffering, caused by direct blocking of the most important needs, a person, experiencing the emotion of fear, has only a probabilistic forecast of possible trouble and acts on the basis of this (often an insufficiently reliable or exaggerated forecast).
Shame- a negative state, expressed in the awareness of the inconsistency of one’s own thoughts, actions and appearance not only with the expectations of others, but also with one’s own ideas about appropriate behavior and appearance.
Emotions are also characterized by strength, duration and awareness. The range of differences in the strength of internal experience and external manifestations is very large for emotions of any modality. Joy can manifest itself as a weak emotion, for example, when a person experiences a feeling of satisfaction. Delight is an emotion of greater power. Anger ranges from irritability and indignation to hatred and rage; fear ranges from mild anxiety to horror. The duration of emotions lasts from a few seconds to many years. The degree of awareness of emotions can also vary. Sometimes it is difficult for a person to understand what emotion he is experiencing and why it arises.
Emotional experiences are ambiguous. The same object can evoke inconsistent, contradictory emotions. This phenomenon is called ambivalence(duality) of feelings. For example, you can respect someone for their ability to work and at the same time condemn them for their temper.
The qualities that characterize each specific emotional reaction can be combined in different ways, which creates many-sided forms of their expression. The main forms of expression of emotions are feeling tone, situational emotion, affect, passion, stress, mood and feeling.
Sensual tone is expressed in the fact that many human sensations have their own emotional connotation. That is, people do not just feel a smell or taste, but perceive it as pleasant or unpleasant. Images of perception, memory, thinking, imagination are also emotionally charged. A. N. Leontiev considered one of the essential qualities of human cognition to be a phenomenon that he called “bias” in the reflection of the world.
Situational emotions arise in the process of human life more often than other emotional reactions. Their main characteristics are considered to be relatively low strength, short duration, rapid change of emotions, and low external visibility.
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The variety of forms of manifestation of emotions and feelings required combining them into a class. Emotions can vary in modality, intensity, genetic origin, based on empirical description, etc. The most common classification of emotions is their distinction into emotions themselves, affects, mood, passion and stress. Emotions themselves are of a long-term nature and express a person’s evaluative attitude towards a current or possible situation, towards his activities, towards his actions.
Affects are strong short-term emotional experiences that arise in conditions of a sharp change in the most important circumstances for a person. Affect develops in extreme conditions, when a person is unable to find an adequate way of behavior in a dangerous, difficult situation.
Mood is a stable, weakly expressed state of a person, which has a personal character of expression. A vague general state, determined depending on how a person’s relationships develop, how he relates to events in his own life.
Passion is strong, deep. An absolutely dominant emotional experience, expressed in concentration and concentration of forces, their focus on achieving a goal.
Stress is a special form of emotional experience that requires a person to mobilize all his strength. It arises in situations of threat, danger, leads to changes in the course of mental processes, to emotional shifts, to transformation of the motivational structure.
In modern psychology, the most popular is the classification of emotions proposed by the German scientist K. Izard. He identifies and describes 10 basic emotions: interests, surprise, suffering, joy, anger, disgust, contempt, shame, guilt, fear.
Interest is defined as a state that promotes the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities that motivate learning.
Joy is a state that provides the opportunity to satisfy current needs.
Surprise prepares the subject for successful actions and for new sudden events.
Suffering is expressed in the inability to satisfy the most important needs of life, characterized by despondency, loneliness, isolation and loss of spirit.
The most severe form of suffering is grief.
Anger is characterized by the presence of negative energy that leads a person into a state of passion, and arises in response to an obstacle to achieving passionately desired goals.
Disgust arises as an experience associated with a mismatch in consciousness between values that are significant to a person and those objects that do not correspond to these values.
Contempt is also associated with a discrepancy between a person’s life positions and views and the positions and views of the object of feelings. Contempt arises in interpersonal interactions.
Fear is an experience associated with a premonition of trouble, characterized by uncertainty and complete insecurity.
Shame is a state expressed in the awareness of the inconsistency of thoughts and actions with one’s own perception of thoughts and actions.
Guilt is a state that arises when committing inappropriate actions and realizing that a person has compromised his own beliefs.
The classification of feelings in psychology is based on reflecting the specifics of human relationships. Psychologists distinguish three classes of feelings: ethical, intellectual, aesthetic.
By ethical (moral) feelings we mean those that a person experiences when perceiving the phenomena of reality from the point of view of morality developed either by humanity or a specific society. The object of moral feelings are individuals, groups, and collectives. Feelings arise due to the fact that in the consciousness of a real person all phenomena are inseparable from moral norms, rules and requirements of society. Moral feelings include love, humanism, patriotism, responsiveness, justice, dignity, etc.
The highest form of manifestation of feelings is love of goodness, and the main function is the regulation of human behavior.
Intellectual feelings are generated by a person’s cognitive relations to the surrounding reality. The subject of intellectual feelings is both the process of acquiring knowledge and the result. Intellectual feelings include interest, surprise, curiosity, etc. The pinnacle of intellectual feelings is a generalized feeling of love for truth, which becomes the driving force behind the knowledge of reality. Aesthetic feelings are generated by a person’s attitude towards the beautiful and the ugly. They manifest themselves in artistic assessments and tastes in a person’s perception of the surrounding reality. At the same time, a person experiences feelings of a range, at one pole of which there are feelings of pleasure, delight, and at the other - disgust, ugliness.
The range of feelings that a person strives for characterizes his individuality; attitudes towards certain sets of feelings are an important component of the personality’s orientation.
In domestic psychology Dodonov V.I. Ten such sets of feelings were identified: 1) altruistic - feelings expressed in the need for assistance, help, patronage of other people; 2) communicative feelings - express the desire to communicate; 3) gloric – associated with the needs for self-affirmation and glory; 4) practical - with experiences caused by the success or failure of performing an activity; 5) fearful - with overcoming danger, trials in struggle; 6) gnostic – with receiving information; 7) aesthetic – with harmony in relationships between people and the world; 8) romantic - with unusual mysterious actions; 9) hedonistic – with pleasure and comfort; 10) acquisitive - with an interest in accumulation, collecting.
The dominant complex will determine the personality type.
