Human Emotions - Literature review Example

Human Emotions: Literature Review There are various approaches to emotion ranging from phenomenological approach, structuralist approach and the post-structuralist approach. When the work of Egan (2005) is analyzed in the light of these various approaches, it becomes evident that none is conclusive enough to explain the role of cognitive process, natural inclination, and social circumstances in creating and controlling emotions. So, a new approach is required that takes all these factors into consideration and explains their actions and interactions. In the work ‘What are emotions? And how can they be measured?’ Scherer (2005) points out the fact that defining the term ‘emotion’ is not an easy task. It happens because any new concept requires the consensus of the wide scientific community and also because it requires exploration of lay and native concepts while dealing with lay persons. There are various theoretical perspectives of emotion. One such perspective views emotion as an inherent quality. For example, according to the traditional theory of emotions, emotion is an internal feeling. It is pointed out that social and cultural features have a role in deciding the way an emotion is expressed. According to Lupton (1998, p.10), the central tenet of this approach is that all humans are born with some basic emotions. That means, emotion is considered as an animalistic trait in humans that is of survival value. In addition, it is more influenced by impulse than by thought (ibid). This view is very visible in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. According Darwin (1899, p.15), emotions are central to survival, and are reactions to threats and angers in the environment. If the work ‘Emotional Consumption: Mapping Love and Masochism in an Exotic Dance Club’ by Egan (2005) is analyzed in the light of this ‘inherent emotion’ concept, one can see that the inherent ideology will not be able to explain the situation fully. To illustrate, it is observed by Egan that though the regulars tend to fall in love initially, after a certain period of time, they ask for reaffirmation of the dancers’ love, and on realizing the love is not real, the regulars give up. That means if love is considered as an emotion, it should be guided more by impulse than by reason. Then, it will not be possible to explain why the feeling of love disappears after a period of time. However, one can see the acceptance of sadism and masochism in the work of Egan though the scholar tends to consider them as the products of the patriarchal society instead of considering them as innate qualities. It is pointed out by the scholar that the regulars get satisfied in the dancers because the dancers reflect the interests of males without expressing their own needs. That means the males actually fall in love with the reflection of their own self-interests. So, their own wives who possess and express own interests tend to bore their husbands. However, the study fails in the fact that the emotions of females are not analyzed in the way that of males are analyzed. The study does not mention if any changes take place in the attitude of the dancers towards the regular males as time progresses. Another conceptual framework that deserves consideration is the Component Theories of emotion. According to the theory, emotion is defined as an episode of interrelated, synchronized changes in the states of all or most of the five organismic subsystems in response to the evaluation of an external or internal stimulus event as relevant to major concerns of the organism. The five subsystems have their own respective states and the emotion episode consists of coordinated changes in each of the subsystems over time. The so called organismic subsystems are information processing, support, executive, action, and monitor. According to Yang (n.d), the emotion components in the order of the subsystems are appraisal, bodily symptoms, action tendencies, facial and vocal expression, and emotional experience. The work ‘Emotional Consumption: Mapping Love and Masochism in an Exotic Dance Club’ by Egan (2005) is of considerable significance among the scholarly works on emotion and social organization. Admittedly, the work points out that the commodified relationships within an exotic dance club are full of power, sexual desire, and fantasy, and many a time, the regular visitors fall in love with the dancers. The scholar points out that even though there are rules of the club that restrict sex and the reality that the women dancers are there to do business, regular visitors tend to fall in love with the women and claim that the dancers are more lovable than their own wives. Admittedly, all the visitors to a dance club are aware about the fact that love and sex are commodified there. So, even when a dancer shows special attention towards a regular, the reason is the desire to retain a regular source of income alive. According to the component process definition as discussed above, there is the cognitive component that processes the information available using the central nerve system. Here, one reaches a point that reveals a loophole in the Component Theory of emotion. If the component theory is correct, the regular visitors should be able to analyze the information and find that the dancers are unlikely to fall in love with them. Otherwise, it will become necessary to remove the cognitive component from the equation. The mere fact that emotions always evade the framework of rationality is evident from the work of Pavel O. Luksha. It is pointed out that in organizational context, emotions and moods are termed as ‘stochastic disturbance’. These factors often break the smooth functioning of firm mechanism. According to Luksha (n.d), it is necessary for the participants to be ‘emotionless’ to ensure efficient functioning of an organization. Thus, it becomes evident that organizations and society are the places where emotions are often restricted for the purpose of smooth functioning. On the other hand, according to Egan, it is the patriarchal society that made males used to subordinating females. Thus, there is contradiction in the fact that while one considers civil society as the suppressor of emotions, the other considers the same society as the creator of emotions. According to people like Sloman (1982), emotions are a vital element of cognitive process. That means, emotions have a lot of influence on cognitive process. It is also pointed out that in an organization, emotions like commitment which are very important for success cannot be developed if people are totally emotionless. This situation is much more visible in family firms. Factors like shared vision, collective narratives, and decision commitment in a family firm are the result of emotional attachment. That means in organizations, emotions have a very vital role to play (ibid). However, there are points that are totally contradictory in nature. To illustrate, Egan D shows how the emotion of love makes males feel more attached to the dancers in an exotic dance club than to their own wives. Here, instead of supporting cognitive process, emotion mars cognitive process. That makes people look into the concept of ‘emotional attachment’. It is pointed out by some people that sharing of meaning is often restricted to emotional attachments. Emotional attachments often take place as a result of common actions, successfully completed projects, and unmotivated positive attitude towards partners. If the observation by Egan that regulars tend to get emotionally attached to dancers is analyzed in the light of this finding, it becomes evident that the males are more likely to get emotionally attached to the dancers than to their own wives because the dancers are in the intentional effort to make their actions as attractive as possible for their male customers. Though such activities are not authentic, they are sufficient to make the males emotional. However, there is yet another claim by Egan that the regulars are happy when the female dancers mange to live up to their fancy. In order to understand this situation, it is beneficial to look into the phenomenological approach to emotion and selfhood. According to this approach, the feelings of distress, anxiety, boredom, alienation, love and sympathy are all reflected in ones emotional experience. In other words, how individual feels becomes how individual sees. According to this explanation, ones emotion in a given situation is dependent on ones judgment of the given situation. Thus, according to this ideology, one can claim that the male regulars in Egan’s study are the products of a patriarchal society where they get satisfaction in subjugating women. So, when they meet such women who intentionally try to present themselves as highly vulnerable and caring as men would like, men tend to feel that the dancers are their ideal females. Thus, the concept succeeds in proving that self-feelings are the core of emotional experience. However, the problem still remains as to how and why cognitive process does not have a role while handling self-feeling and reaching socially unacceptable emotions. Again, it becomes necessary to check if people are set by default to incline more towards certain emotions than other people are. Thus, in total, it becomes evident that there are both phenomenological account of emotion that attaches emotion to selfhood and the structuralist approach that considers emotion as something inherent. However, both have to accept the role of the other in explaining the situation. Lastly, there is the post-structuralist perspective that considers emotion as a discursive practice. According to this view, emotional experience can be explained as the rendering of bodily sensations into language. Some post-structuralists have pointed out that people from some cultures are more emotional than others. Thus, according to this ideology, emotions are not internal states, but are influenced by language and other cultural artifacts. If Egan’s observation is analyzed at this juncture, one can say that the regulars are not more inclined to fall in love with dancers than other visitors are, but as they visit regularly, they get more influenced by the environment. Thus they start loving the females. However, this approach fails to answer the presence of certain basic traits which are common to all cultures despite the differences in environment. Thus, in total, a look into the various approaches to emotions shows that none is conclusive enough to answer all the factors. It is necessary to develop a new approach that explains how natural instinct, cognition and environment act and interact in creating and managing emotions. References Darwin, C 1899, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Plain Label Books, New York. Egan, D 2005, ‘Emotional Consumption: Mapping Love and Masochism in an Exotic Dance Club’, Body & Society, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 87-108.  Lupton, D 1998, The Emotional Self: A Sociocultural Exploration, SAGE Publications, London. Luksha, PO n.d, ‘Emotions in organisation: More than mere fluctuations’, Centre for Research in Institutional Economics, pp.1-10. Sloman, A 1982, ‘Towards a grammar of emotions’, New Universities Quarterly, vol. 36, no.3, p.230- 235. Scherer, KR 2005, ‘What are emotions? And how can they be measured?’, Social Science Information, vol. 44, no, 4, pp. 695-729. Yang, G n.d, ‘Emotions and social movements’, pp.1389-1392, Viewed 27 Feb 2012 Read More