About Emotions - Essay Example

? EMOTIONS (part and 2) Emotions Part Basically, emotions are sensations or feelings that weexperience ‘inside’ us when faced with a particular situation or when reminded of a situation that occurred in the past. For instance, if a situation arises which is not in one’s favour, or which one does not like, one is bound to experience negative emotions. These negative emotions can be anger, hatred, disappointment, sorrow, grief, and many others similar to these. Therefore, emotions are ‘about’ things that are positive as well as negative. Also, they do not occur out of the blue, i.e. there has to be something which is causing them. Moreover, one cannot choose what emotion to experience or when to experience it, because emotions are a phenomenon which happens ‘to’ us, whether we like it or not (Rorty 1980). According to me, emotions are a very powerful phenomenon. I believe that they have a strong influence over people’s personalities. This is because one’s personality can be determined by the type of emotions one expresses. For instance, if a person throws things around whenever he/she is angry, others perceive that person to be hot-tempered. Emotions not only have the ability to change and shape personalities, but they also have the power to shape whole societies as well. For example, certain societies are prejudiced against particular things, such as skin colour, financial position, and many other things. Therefore, all or majority of the people in these societies experience the same emotion (pride) because they all think alike. Similarly, emotions occur in cultural and institutional contexts as well. Cultures differ from one another as their perceptions and ways of expressing emotions are different. Likewise, in institutions, those who are unable to cope with studies or other institutional factors face the same emotions (such as anxiety or stress) (Emmerling et al 2008). Emotions have majorly affected me on a personal level, and depend on the kind of situations I face. For instance, the problem I face at my university is that I struggle with my studies because my first language is not English. Due to this I am always overcome with confusion and agitation. Moreover, I am not able to talk confidently in front of my peers; I become very nervous and my tongue gets ‘tied’ out of the fear of speaking in my broken English and stumbling upon my words in front of everyone. This is why I avoid making so many friends and getting involved in social circles, due to which I have very few friends here. My emotions have also affected me on an objective level. Many of my peers have told me that I am a bit hostile, and tend to become tensed and angry over the slightest of things. Moreover, they can tell that I am a person who worries because of that ‘constant frown’ on my forehead. My emotions also influence my perception of various things. For example, when someone tries to help me develop my computer skills (which I am also weak in), the jealousy I feel towards that person’s good computer skills makes me think that the person is making fun of me. Bibliography Emmerling, Robert J, Vinod K. Shanwal, and Manas K. Mandal. Emotional Intelligence: Theoretical and Cultural Perspectives. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2008.  Parrott, W G. Emotions in Social Psychology: Essential Readings. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 2001. Print. Rorty, Ame?lie. Explaining Emotions. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. Print. Part 2 This first question that I have chosen is “Are emotions biological or learnt?” I have chosen this question because I have always wondered whether emotions are ‘real’ feelings and biologically part of us, or whether they have been learnt (and thus can be ‘overcome’). I have discovered that facial expressions have a strong link with the emotions people feel. These facial expressions indicate what emotion a person is going through from inside. I believe that emotions are socially and culturally learnt, instead of being biological. The reason for this is because as a child, one learns which emotions are linked to which kind of facial expressions. For instance, if a child’s mother enters a lucky draw and wins the grand prize, she is bound to scream out in joy. Even if one’s mother is not that expressive about her feelings, she will at least smile, or display some kind of facial expression depicting her happiness. Seeing the situation at hand and the expression on the mother’s face, one can learn that if a good thing happens, one should smile (or show any other similar facial expression) to indicate that one is happy. Another reason why I believe that emotions are socially learnt is that one has the power to display a facial expression which is opposite of what emotion one is going through. This can be in cases when one does not want to show others how one is feeling at that moment. Moreover, people in different cultures experience and display different emotions, depending on the beliefs which are instilled into them from a young age (Husain 2012). The second question that I have chosen is “Does culture have an influence over emotions?” The reason why I have chosen this question is because it relates a lot to what I have experienced on a personal level. I highly believe that one’s culture plays a major role in shaping one’s emotions. Culture influences a person’s way of thinking, and therefore the emotions that a person feels at particular instances. Not only that, culture also has a hand in determining the kind of facial expression. There is a childhood memory of mine, which is the reason why I have this opinion. When I came here from South Africa in 2003, I was very distraught at saying goodbye to all my childhood friends and family. This is because in my culture, we have a very close-knit gathering of people. However, once I came here and shared my feelings with a few of my fellow students here, I was surprised to find out that they did not feel the sorrow I had felt on coming here. In fact, some of them, who had also come from abroad, were happy to come here as they thought that they had gained ‘more freedom’. Thus, the emotions we feel are largely as a result of what values and beliefs our culture has taught us ever since we were little. Another way in which culture influences our emotions is the way of expressing emotions. For instance, people from one culture might express their happiness by crying out a certain word, while people from another culture might express their happiness by performing a certain type of dance (Parrott 2001). Bibliography Husain, A. Social Psychology. India: Pearson Education, 2012.Print Parrott, W G. Emotions in Social Psychology: Essential Readings. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 2001. Print. Read More