Body Reactions to Emotion-Evoking Situations - Research Paper Example

Body Reactions to Emotion-Evoking Situations Our bodies often react to situations that elicit heavy emotional responses (Prinz, 2006). This paper presents a study of how the body reacts to different situations. In carrying out this research, I decided to observe how people react to situations that evoke heavy emotional responses. Since such situations do not arise every day, I decided to use movies to observe that behavior. Movies such as horror movies, soap operas, high-level comedy and thrillers are known for eliciting emotional responses in the audience. So one Friday evening, I decided to go to a cinema to watch a movie where a horror movie called The Ruins was to show that night. At a round 8pm, I entered the cinema hall. It was dark inside which was an excellent atmosphere for such a movie as the effect on the audience was sure to be profound. I looked for some space and, lucky enough, I got myself sandwiched between a lady and a man. This was excellent as I could be able to observe the response of a man and a lady simultaneously and compare the results. That Friday evening was the beginning of a number of visits to the cinema hall, where I watched movies like Anaconda, The Wrong Turn, Piranha, soap operas like In the Name of Love, Storm Over Paradise and Triumph Of Love and thrillers like 24 and Spartacus. In all these situations, I observed the responses among different people and their body reactions. I also made some observations on myself on how my body reacted. This research was carried out with reference to the literature that explains the relationship between the body and emotions; how the body reacts to different emotions. Eckhart Tolle argues that emotions arise when the body reacts to the mind. He asserts that emotions are reflections of the mind in one’s body. But how do we observe the body’s reaction to different emotions? Most emotions are expressed through the face hence if one is interested in studying emotions must study the face’s expressions to different emotions (Tolle, 2004). Apart from the face, other body parts that can be used to express emotions include the shoulders and the head. The posture of a person’s head can explain the emotional experience of that particular person. Different emotions are expressed differently by the body. The body’s reaction to shock is different from the body’s reaction to anger. Moreover, different body parts are involved in the reaction of different emotions, although the face is the dominant part in the expression of emotions.. Psychologists attribute most physical health problems like backache to emotions, especially emotional stress. Prinz (2006) asserts that if we understand how the various body parts relate to certain emotions, we can be able to understand our subconscious. This can help in healing diseases related to emotions as understanding our subconscious helps in knowing the root cause of the problem. Several theories have been developed by scientists on the way emotions are generated and the body reactions to such emotions. One such theory that was advanced to explain the relationship between the body’s reactions and emotions was developed basing on the study by an American scientist by the name William James and a Danish scientist called Carl Lange. Studying independently, the two scientists asserted that two factors determine the feeling of an emotion: the reaction of the body and how a person understands that reaction after an event. William and Lange believed that changes in the body occur before the interpretation of the changes. The two are what constitute emotion. The study by Lange and James led to development of theory called James Lange theory (William and McDermott, 1978). Other theories that have since been developed to explain the same include the theory by Cannon and Bard and also by American scientists, Singer and Schacter. Bard and Cannon made use of the nervous system to explain how emotions are generated and the response of the body to such emotions. They assert that the body reacts to a stimulus by sending a message to the brain via the nervous system. The brain responds by causing the body to react (Roeckelein, 1998). Our bodies react to emotions through such behaviors as muscle tensing, frowning, rapid breathing, running, rapid heartbeat, flushed face and others. These body expressions can help us have clues of what other people are going through. However, body expressions depend on the culture of people. Same body expressions can mean different emotions in different cultures (Fahy et al, 2010). In collection of data, I discovered that horror movies elicited fear in the audience. This was manifested in the way their bodies reacted. Looking around, I discovered that everyone was tensed. Although everyone was equally scared and tensed, men were trying to conceal their emotions while ladies were openly expressing their emotions. Most ladies were clutching on men seated near them. To discover the extend of the emotions in the audience, I touched one man nearby and he jumped with a startled look. I discovered that I was scared too. The rate of my heartbeat had gone up. However, when I visited the cinema hall the second and third time to watch the same horror movie, the body’s response to the scary scenes had waned. People were generally relaxed on watching the movie subsequent times. I made the same discovery about myself. I was relatively relaxed on watching the movie the second and third time. This was a discovery that provided a twist in the generalized belief that a scene that elicits fear will make the body react by tensing, running or hitting. On subsequent times, watching the movies was far from being scary. The movies looked normal and that initial sensation that was experienced in watching the movie the first time was not there. The same observation was made in watching the other movies. Another interesting observation I made was that when people are watching horror movies at night, they are more scared than when they are watching the same movie during daytime. The question remains, why? The body’s reaction to a certain stimulus is determined by how the mind perceives that stimulus. For instance, a rather harmless object or animal can make a person take to his/her heels because his/her mind perceives that object or animal to be dangerous. But because the mind has perceived it as dangerous, it will, according to Cannon and Bard, send a message to the body through the nervous system. The body, on receiving the message, will react accordingly. Again, the belief created in the mind of a person about a certain situation is determined by the culture of a people. A situation might elicit different reactions when presented to different people. For instance, a chameleon is taken to be a dangerous animal by most Africans hence will elicit fear if it is taken in an African context. The same chameleon will elicit a different reaction if it is taken to a place like China where it is believed to be used as food. The kind of emotion a stimulus elicits depends on the kind of meaning the mind has attached to it. This explains why watching the movie at night elicited more fear in the audience than watching it during daytime. This is because people have come to associate night with evil and danger. Perhaps some feared that the cannibals might pop out of the movie and come for them The mind and body have always worked together, the mind perceiving and the body reacting to such perceptions (Kim, 2010). For instance, if the mind perceives danger, the body reacts to that information by getting tensed and it either gets ready to fight off the danger or to take a flight. However, if the mind is exposed to the same stimulus or situation for a long time, its perception about the stimulus changes. Subsequently, the body’s reaction towards that stimulus or situation also changes. This was the case with the continued watching of the movies. As the audience continued watching the same movie for a number of times, their minds changed their perceptions from viewing the movies as eliciting certain emotional responses to those that are just normal. With time, the movies could not elicit any emotional response from the audience. With continued watching, the movies even became boring. Since the body always depends on the mind for instructions to act, the body can no longer get tensed when watching the horror movie since the mind does not perceive the movie as a horror but a movie like any other movie. Therefore, for a body to react to a certain emotion-evoking situation the mind must be involved. The mind must perceive the situation, give it a certain meaning and then instruct the body to react towards that situation according to the meaning the mind has given that situation. If the mind is repeatedly exposed to that same situation, it develops immunity towards it hence the meaning initially accorded to the situation might slowly change. This will impact on the body’s reaction towards that situation. Alternatively, the mind might not change the meaning it has accorded a situation but it might learn to react towards that situation differently. This will change the way the mind instructs the body to react towards the situation. For instance, a person who lives in a snake infested area might learn not to run away on spotting a snake but to behave in a way that he/she will avoid being bitten by the snake. In general, a body’s reactions to emotion-evoking situations depend on the mind’s perception of the situation. For instance, if the mind perceives danger, the body will react by been tense. This shows how the body is depended on the mind for its reactions. The knowledge of the body’s reactions to various stimuli can help us understand and analyze the subconscious. This is helpful especially to psychiatrics who are involved in the treatment of mental diseases brought about by depression. References Carroll, N. (1990). The philosophy of horror. Or, the paradoxes of the heart. London: Routledge Fahy, T.R., Nickel, P. and Morris, J. (2010). The philosophy of horror (The philosophy of popular culture). Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky James,W. and McDermott, J.J. (1978). The writings of William James: A comprehensive edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press Kim, J. (2010). Philosophy of the mind. Colorado: Westview Press Prinz, J. (2006). Gut reactions: A perceptional theory of emotion. (Philosophy of mind). New York: Oxford University Press Roeckelein, J.E. (1998). Dictionary of theories, laws, and concepts in psychology. Connecticut : Greenwood Tolle, E. (2004). The power of now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment. Carlifornia, CA: New World Library Read More