What is Emotion?
Hi there!
Welcome back to the MoodiNews. Every Thursday, we discuss a variety of matters related to mental health and self-improvement.
I’m so glad you’re here.
Happy 2023, everyone!
In today’s post, we will be discussing: EMOTIONS! YAY!
This will be the first of several posts discussing what emotions are, why they exist, and how to build emotional intelligence.
We will start this week by defining what emotions are and exploring why we have them.
To begin, let’s start with a broad definition of the word emotion:
Merriam-Webster defines emotion as, “a conscious mental reaction (such as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body.”
BUT… that’s too many words! So, here’s a more succinct definition:
Emotion is a psychophysiological response that generates a state of feeling, often accompanied by an action urge (to do something).
Some people are more emotionally sensitive than others, but, on a broad and varying scale, all people feel emotion.
But why do we even have emotions?
That’s a great question!
In short, the answer is because we need them—from an evolutionary standpoint, emotions are extremely adaptive. Even though they are sometimes painful, annoying, etc., emotions help keep us alive.
When discussing the adaptive utility of emotion, here are a few examples: emotions help us communicate efficiently with other people; guide our perception and identity in relation to the larger world; and motivate us to act quickly when something important captures our attention.
(Fun fact: Have you ever noticed that the word emotion includes the word motion right in it? The word emotion actually derives from the Latin word emovere, which means “to move.” At its core, the purpose of emotion is to initiate action—and to that end, it is one of the most primal, powerful motivating forces in nature!)
Ultimately, emotions are very useful for self-preservation. Without them, we would lose our desire to connect with other people, learn new skills, or defend ourselves against attack. Similarly to how physical pain (or a lack thereof) warns us of functional issues within the body, emotions inform us of the perceived, relative state of our internal and external environments—including how well-adjusted we feel to those environments at any given moment.
To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, I’ve listed below some common primary emotions (i.e. the most central, core emotions that people feel instinctively), along with each emotion’s corresponding action urge (i.e. functional purpose). Remember—emotions stand to notify us of any potential threats to our existence (no matter how trivial), and then serve to influence our behavior/responses accordingly.
Emotions of APPROACH:
Joy (evokes engagement)
Surprise (evokes curiosity)
Anger (evokes protection or assertion)
Emotions of AVOIDANCE:
Shame (evokes retreat or withdrawal)
Fear (evokes flight or freeze response)
Sadness (evokes withdrawal or comfort-seeking behaviors)
As you can see, emotions play a critical role in maintaining our subjective well-being. Despite the misery and difficulty that they can sometimes cause, our goal should never be to fully eradicate our emotions.
In fact, once we have a firm grasp on our emotions, they can become an invaluable asset to the development of a life well-lived. It is for this reason that one of the primary purposes of psychotherapy is to help people learn how to decode and regulate (i.e. control) their emotions. (Indeed, when people learn to yield the adaptive power of emotion in their favor, they dramatically increase their capacity for self-improvement. Unfortunately, however, the capacity to generate emotion stems from a system of psychophysiological adaptation that is so complex, that it can be hard (or nearly impossible) for people to learn how to manage it without sufficient guidance, support, and safety.)
Thanks for joining me today.
Next week, we will continue to unpack some basic principles behind emotional functioning, and we will segue into a conversation on emotional intelligence. After that, will discuss how to regulate unwanted emotions in order to feel better!