Aspects of Psychology - Essay Example

t on emotions. If the emotions were to be further classified as positive and negative emotions it may be said that my weekend was great. However I must recognise the role played by the people and situations in eliciting the emotions I expressed. For example, although my Friday began on a high note with a lot of expectation the misplacement of a bag threatened the day until friends stepped in supportively and with understanding were able to tolerate my negative emotions. I find the link in my emotional expressions to various theories explaining the origin and function of emotions in humans.

For example James-Lange’s theory posits that physiological arousal in emotional expression is a result of stimulus from events around an individual and the expression is the conscious interpretation of the experience. This was expressed on Saturday when events seeme to work against my expected plan (Coon, 2009). Cannon-Bard in his theory on the other hand proposes that simulteneous emotional and physiological responses are caused by stimuli in the environment. I was surprised at the power of emotional support from people close to me because more than once in the three days it was able to restore me from negative emotions when things seemed not to favor me.

The deloay of the bus elicited great anger that physiologically made me cry at the feeling of being let down and also letting down a friend. It may not be possible to explain with all theories but the theory by Schachter and Singer cannot be ignored because of its role in emotional classification. Although emotional and physiological responses are simultenous it may not be easy to manage them unless they are classified based on the arousal agent. This is best described in the diary from the notes indicated against each emotional response because I believe that the activities (stimuli) were responsible for the emotions.

This is because of the subconscious and occasionally conscious cognitive appraisals I made from the events unfolding around me as put in the Lazarus theory. In overall assessment of aspects of my emotional expression in the three days can be best classified as cognitive, physiological and behavioral (Brannon, 1999). This classification may help shade more light on the exact meaning in the emotions, whether negative or positive. The table below summarizes a few of them: Emotion Cognitive Physiological Behavioral Joy When things were very pleasurable usually from positive surprises Shade tears I tended to talk a lot or simply whistle a tune or Anxiety Positively when I anticipated interesting experience Negatively when I anti