Love and Emotions in Couple Settings - Thesis Example

Love and Emotions in Couple Settings of of Introduction This section of the paper will focus on a critical review of literature in order to provide an insight into the research topic at hand. Fundamentally, the research investigates the effect of ‘love’ as a priming stimulus on the helping behaviours and gender differences of confederates and participants in giving and receiving of help. The basic research premise is that there is a positive priming of stimulus when there is an element and aspect of love in the expression of two people who in love. To this end, the paper fundamentally seeks to examine how males and females receive help in an atmosphere where love is expressed in communication. The literature review will involve a critical analysis and review of secondary sources. The secondary sources will include books and journals in order to establish important pointers and ideas relating to the concepts and theories to be utilised in this study. The literature review will involve a critique of landmark definitions and important theories and concepts that will be important in formulating a conceptual and theoretical framework for the discussions in the research. Drivers of Action in Relationships in the General Context There are many pointers and views on how people are motivated to take actions in their relationships with others. This is because people have various emotions and pointers that induce them to take one action as opposed to another. “Fear of supernatural punishment may serve as a deterrent to counternormative behaviour, even in anonymous situations free from human social monitoring.” (Shariff & Norenzayan, 2011, p. 85). This implies that a general tendency towards a belief in the supernatural provides a major guiding principle on how people behave and are driven to act. Religious views and religious sensitivity play various roles in generosity and the willingness to help and assist people close to a person (Ahmed & Salas, 2008; Preston, Salomon, & Ritter, 2013). This is because spirituality and the belief in God generally provides some degree of prosociality as a means of helping out in a way that a person helping a close associate is seen as a way of indirectly carrying out the commandments of God (Shariff & Norenzayan, God is Watching You: Priming God Concepts Increases Prosocial Behaviour in an Anonymous Economic Game, 2007). This implies that people are generally induced to carry out various actions as a means of connecting to God and carrying out His commandments by helping other people and trying to assist people and do good. Therefore, couple interactions can be said to have various factors that induces positive actions and stimuli in the relationship. Therefore, there is an element or an aspect of religiosity that induces people to take part in some social actions that might be seen as positive and proactive in helping other people. However, the critical study of these topics identified that the impact of religion on prosociality is based on the circumstances and features of the individual and this include the age, gender, education, income and religion (Shariff & Norenzayan, God is Watching You: Priming God Concepts Increases Prosocial Behaviour in an Anonymous Economic Game, 2007). This implies that these different human features influence the nature and tendency of people to help at different points in time. This is because Shariff and Norenzayan were able to identify a chain of relationships and patterns that varied according to the features of individual persons in doing things and in gaining motivation for various actions. Also, people are influenced by the setting and circumstances around which a person is induced to do something or the other. This is because the setting affects the overall mood and the emotions of a person and this influences his actions and desire to do things at a given point in time (Abbate, Ruggieria, & Boca, 2013). Thus, the senses of a person react to the changes in the environment and this influences the mood and the emotions of a person and influences him or her to embark on a given course of action instead of another or others. Thus, Abbate et al state that “in some circumstances, priming a concept automatically activates related behavioural schemas.” (2013, p. 1841). This is because the human mind and emotions are trained in order to respond and behave in certain patterns when some circumstances and situations are induced around them. Hence, there is a natural consequence of the person to tilt to some particular actions as and when the circumstances demand that particular process and system. Non-verbal communication is also identified as an important and vital aspect and process that changes the actions and conduct of people (Newberry, Gallant, & Riley, 2013). This is because they are communication processes that are used by a person that causes other people’s actions and emotions to change significantly. A study by Borup et al (2012) indicated that people are often influenced by what they see others doing, and this, combined with certain words have a stronger effect on changing the actions and moods of others in order to prompt them to do certain things (Borup, West, & and Graham, 2012). This means that actions are often prompted by the verbal and non-verbal cues that another person causes another to experience or feel in a given environment. Thus, in this section, it is understood and outlined that the beliefs of an individual plays a significant role in prompting a person’s action to a given way and manner. Secondly, the element of the environment and surrounding plays a major role in shaping a person’s action in a given point in time. Hence, the kind of mood a person has at a given point in time has a strong correlation with what is going on in the surrounding around the person. There are variations in these trends that are based on the age, sex, education, income and religion of individuals. Also, non-verbal communication adds up to the intensity of any act that is meant to change a person’s actions towards a given trend. It can therefore be deduced that the emotions of a person swings and is modified by the circumstances and surroundings of the person. And this plays a major role in couple-based interactions between different people. Emotions and Behavioural Changes Emotions are important in shaping the way people act. Psychologists define emotions as “... a complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behaviour.” (Myers, 2012, p. 48) Thus, emotions refer to the changes in a person’s moods, temperaments in order to create a form of motivation that informs action. Most theorists posit that emotions are changes in people’s feelings that are manifested in various external physical changes that can be observed (Carretie, Hinojosa, & Mercado, 2003). This implies that emotions have an impact on the human mind and emotions get people to change their attitudes and pursue a given course of action, rather than another. Emotional responses are usually from the perception of people and this induces people to take particular courses of action (Desmet & Hekkert, 2002). Emotions are therefore important drives and major aspects of a person’s life that informs conduct and affects the way people carry out various actions and processes. “Emotions per se are transient events, produced in response to external or self-generated emotive stimuli, and typically characterized by attention to the stimulus, involuntary arousal reactions and changes in motor behaviour, subjective feeling states and subsequent biasing of behaviour” (Critchley, 2003, p. 35). This implies that emotions are things that swing and change within an individual. This is because emotions are a reflection of what a person feels and is influenced to feel at a given point of time. Hence, emotions are based on the impact of a perceptions and acts of the external environment on the mind, feelings and immediate desires of a person. Perceptions and views of the things around a person causes him to carry out various actions and various behaviours as a means of reflecting the circumstances around an individual. Attention or focus are important aspects of the definition of a person’s emotions at every point in time (Schupp, Junghöfer, Weike, & Hamm, 2003). Emotions are based on what a person is focusing on at a given point in time. Hence, what a person turns his attention to is the basis that informs the individual’s feelings and desire. This causes a person to move in a particular direction and this affects the behaviour and the actions of a person. The main agent for changing emotions and feelings within an individual has to do with the brain and neurons that transmits various messages to different parts of the body (Goldstein, Brendel, Tuescher, Hong, Epstein, & Beutel, 2007). Thus, the realities and circumstances perceived by a person causes that individual to conduct himself in a given way and manner. This involves the process and system through which the person’s neurons and bodily nerves that connects the various parts of the body to induce a given action. Sometimes, these actions are unconscious, whilst these actions are sometimes conscious since people tend to have varying degrees of reaction to various kinds of situations around them (Goldstein, Brendel, Tuescher, Hong, Epstein, & Beutel, 2007). A study conducted about the impacts of symbols on the minds of people indicated that people are programmed to react in similar fashion when they see some kind of symbols that connects them to a given ideology or principle (Erdelyi & Appelbaum, 1973). This implies that people are the human mind is one that responds to various elements of society when they are packaged and presented to an area or a medium of intensity. This causes people to act in a certain manner that naturally comes up as a result of the contact or encounter with the symbol in question. Therefore, it is stated that emotions are prone to affectivity and this leads to reactionary behaviours and actions (Salters‐Pedneault, Gentesa, & Roemer, 2007). Everyone’s emotions are aroused by affective circumstances that lead to cognitive interference. “Cognitive interference is defined as the different thoughts that intrude on task-related activity and serve to reduce the quality and level of performance.” (Sarason, Pierce, & Sarason, 2014, p. 326). Cognitive interference is about the various circumstances that affect the way a person perceives circumstances and things around him or her. Hence, cognitive interference are the issues and matters that arouse our feelings and emotions and causes us to behave in certain ways and act in various situations and contexts. It can therefore be established that emotions have an impact on the brains of people and this influences the movement of the body and how people act. This implies that emotions incite action and emotions cause people to do things in a somewhat unconscious aspect and manner. However, the extent of these changes and modifications vary from person to person and from circumstance to circumstance. This is because people have different mindsets and views of things. Hence, the way a military man might behave when a sudden firing of a gun occurs is different from a civilian due to the conditioning of their minds and their experiences (Carretie, Hinojosa, & Mercado, 2003). Thus, it can be construed that different people have different circumstances and situations within which they do their things and carry out their actions. This can perhaps be analysed and reviewed by an examination of the concept of emotional stimulus and how it affects different peoples of different backgrounds. Emotional Stimulus and Conditioning of Minds The Pavlovian Conditioning asserts that the minds and emotions of human beings and other living things are conditioned in such a way that when we perceived things, they freeze and react under a natural stimulus (Pearce, 1987; Rescorla, 1988). The Pavlovian Conditioning theorises that in the event of a stimulating event, there are three main events the human or living thing goes through: 1. Orienting; 2. Freezing; 3. Flight-or-Fight (Davidson, James, & Scherer, 2012). This is an elucidation of the natural trend and practical system through which the human mind perceives an incident which arouses their emotions, internalises these emotions and take a particular course of action (Rescorla, 1988). Therefore, the pre-encounter mood of the individual is changed and modified as a direct consequence of the issue or situation that the individual perceives. This causes a change in the person’s outlook and mindset due to the emotional stimulus that occur in-between. Hence, the individual choose a particular action to undertake which causes the person to do things that is a natural consequences of the circumstances and situations that are encountered by the individual in question. In order to discuss “emotional stimulus”, some authorities first draw a distinction between “emotional stimulus” and “non-emotional stimulus”. An emotional stimulus is seen as a group of different stimuli that are seen to be the direct reaction to something that occurs at a given period of time (De Houwer & Hermans, 2010). This implies that emotional stimulus is a more pronounced and a very obvious situation that can be documented and reviewed by authorities and other observes. In addition to this, such an emotional reaction must be obvious and can be seen to be different from other types and other forms of reactions that people go through in different situations and contexts (Salters‐Pedneault, Gentesa, & Roemer, 2007). Thus, most theories are somewhat an elicitation of emotional stimuli. These emotional outbursts and reactions are seen to be different from other kinds of emotional reactions. “Most emotion theories agree that emotional stimuli represent a special type of stimulus as they possess high relevance for the survival and wellbeing of the observer.” (De Houwer & Hermans, 2010, p. 71). Hence, these are compulsive reactions that are somewhat conspicuous and fairly apparent to different people around an individual or groups of persons. They are carried out for the survival and the upkeep of people and they manifest themselves in the form of action tendencies, bodily responses, behavioural responses and change in subjective feelings. The appraisal of emotional stimuli has to do with the appraisal of events and the appraisal of actions in the context of the values of the individual and the main changes that the event causes on the person (Davidson, James, & Scherer, 2012; De Houwer & Hermans, 2010). This process is influenced significantly by the situation and the setting within which the relevant events occur. Measuring Emotional Stimulus Several scholars present the argument of stimulus convergence which involves the situation and context within which emotional stimuli are ignited and people act in ways that are reactive and in sync with the event that occurred. There are different ways through which these stimulus convergence situations and circumstances can be identified for any kind of serious observation and evaluation. There are two types of conditions that are identified as the relevant situations in which emotional stimulus can be measured: 1. Necessary condition 2. Significant condition (Ellis & Newton, 2010). A necessary condition is defined by Ellis and Newton as one which causes people to act in a certain obvious and laid down situation. Significant condition “is that the presence of the emotional stimulus itself has been experienced” (Ellis & Newton, 2010, p. 250). In the process of measuring and evaluating this, there are different approaches and methods that are used to operationalise and analyse the different circumstances and their impacts on a person. There is the perceptual measure and the attentional measure (De Houwer & Hermans, 2010). Perceptual measure is used to identify the correct valence and the correct level of impact and how it induces emotional stimulus. On the other hand, attentional measure is about monitoring the input and output effects of a given significant event that is caused by stimulus convergence. Another approach that is used by psychologists and other academics in examining and evaluating emotional convergence present the concept of emotional appraisal which is a three-way issue and matter in order to examine and deduce the impact of a given an emotional stimuli (Coon, 2006). Figure 1: Contemporary Model of Emotional Appraisal (Coon, 2006) This approach involves inducing some kind of emotionally stimulating event that causes some kind observable reaction that is documented by the appraiser. Thus, the corresponding reactive emotion is also documented in order to define the main impact of the emotionally stimulating event. Another view is to measure the emotional intensity, which is the extent to which a person reacts to a given emotionally stimulating event (Staats & Staats, 1996). Emotional intensity refers to the extent of the reaction that came up as a result of the cognitive appraisal of a given event or activity. This creates a system through which the reaction of people can be measured to a given event or process. This helps to identify the trends of reactions across various classes of people in the society (Cohen, 2006). Also, most researchers take into account Reaction Time (RT) and this is the time it takes between the action occurring and the time the individual in question reacts to it (Weiner & Freedheim, 2012). Reaction time is also complemented by response accuracy which is about the predictability of the reaction a person will put up when a relevant event of emotional intensity occurs (Weiner & Freedheim, 2012). Semantic Priming and the Priming of Stimulus Priming of stimulus involves the culmination of different emotional stimulation that causes people to tilt towards a given trend of actions (Off, 2009). Different scholars have different views and different presentation of how the priming of emotional stimulus occurs. However, most of them tend to agree that the priming of stimulus is based on the prompting of action on the part of a person who continuously hears a given pattern of words presented by a given person or individual (Kavalier, 2009). Goldstein identifies two kinds of priming of stimulus which are: repetitive priming and conceptual priming (Goldstein E. , 2010). Repetitive stimulus is about getting a given stimulation based on the continuous usage of certain words and certain phrases. This creates a kind of awareness and sensitivity that prompts action based on the continuous repetition of the information in question. On the other hand, conceptual priming has to do with the creation of a given notion or theory about something a situation that is created as a result of the continuous repetition of a given set of information. Priming of stimulus has to do with the repetition of ideas and words to a given person (Goldstein E. , 2010). In psychological experiments, the priming stimulus is viewed as the word or group of words that are repeated over and over again in the experiment (Bower, 1990). On the other hand, the predicted end or predicted action that is expected of the party to the research is called the target stimulus (Bower, 1990). In the area of priming stimulus, the main variables that are relevant in studies include: 1. Semantic context; 2. Word frequency; 3. Stimulus quality; 4. Stimulus repetition (McNamara, 2004) Hence, the context within which the words being used in the process is applied plays a role in the understanding of the receiver of the information. Also, the continuous use of words and the nature of the word’s frequency play a role in the emotional stimulus of the person hearing the information. Stimulus quality and the nature of the stimulus also play a role. Some stimuli are capable of creating an effect when they are repeated continuous. On the other hand, the priming of stimulus is limited at some point by what is known as semantic dementia. Semantic dementia is “a condition in which there is widespread loss of information about the meaning of words and concepts but executive functioning is reasonably intact in the early stages” (Eysenck & Keane, 2013, p. 272). Gender and Priming of Stimulus “Men and women exhibit differences in the asymmetry of lateralised function on many tasks including verbal tasks, spatial tasks and information processing tasks” (Van Dyke, 2012, p. 1). This assertion by Van Dyke is backed by a wealth of experiments and processes that come together to explain why the brains of men and women are the same and perceive things significantly differently. There are also gender-based stereotypes towards some types and forms of stimulus priming processes and systems (Preedy, Watson, & Martin, 2011). And this seem to be associated with the psychological views and psychological processes espoused by the different classes of people in both genders. Also, evidence suggests that women are more sensitive to the construct of words and sentences meant to portray information to them than men (Trofimovich & McDonough, 2012). The subject and verb constructions in sentences and the various inversions provide a system of creating priming stimulus amongst different kinds of people. Repetition priming is identified to be an important part in the automization of gender stereotypes (Eckes & Trautner, 2000). This is because it brings to bear the re-enactment of various gender roles that affects the way people are perceived and most people use traditional roles and processes that are associated to different genders. This is because there is a tendency for people to continue to use some words that are traditionally used to refer to people of various genders but in order to conduct any comparative analysis of the different genders, there is the need for a common ground to be found that is used as the base point for the evaluation of the different genders (Shafir, 2012). Gaps in Research Fundamentally, the research is to examine the positive priming impact of the word “love” in relation to helping behaviours. It is identified that helping behaviours are influenced by things that are more than mere words and mere requests. The study shows that the beliefs of a person play a role in defining the prosociality of that individual. In other words, the kind of beliefs a person has influences him or her to help others and try to assist. And this psychological position of people varies in relation to the age, sex, education, income and religion of persons. Therefore, helping others in relationship has to do with various factors that can potentially work alongside kind words like “love” in getting people to carry out various acts of help and assistance in a couple-based interaction. The surrounding and setting within which “love” is spoken about and discussed plays a role in defining the helping relationship that culminates at the time in question. This is because the environment and the surrounding within which a person carries out his acts and makes requests are important in shaping and defining the atmosphere. This is something that other non-related researchers identify to be major causes of emotional stimulus. Other authors and scholars also identify the elements of non-verbal communication as major aspects of communication that affects the mood and emotions of people who receive information about love. Emotions are viewed by various scholars as a change in orientation that results from the transformation of elements in the external environment. Many writers also identify that emotions are changes in feelings and attitudes as a result of various elements and items that people perceive by their senses. These emotions change a person’s actions and feelings. Other authorities also identify that emotions are subject to the things people focus on at different points in time. Hence, the word “love” has a tendency of changing the various emotions and desires that people have for each other. Emotions are seen by other authors as events that change the orientation and outlook. Thus, the emotions changes a person’s actions and causes the person in question to react in a given way and fashion. Emotions in our study, could be viewed as some kind of desire or willingness to help an individual or a person. Thus, it can be hypothesised that the word “love” incites emotions and causes people to desire to build feelings and a motivation to help other people of the opposite sex that they are in a romantic relationship with. Emotion is universally viewed as events and processes that changes people’s actions. However, there are different views of how emotions arouse people’s feelings and prompt reactions amongst people. Most others on the other agree that different people have different emotional reactions to various circumstances. However, a popular model looks at the arousal, cognitive inference and reactivity. This culminates in the quest to examine the reactions and the circumstances in order to analyse and evaluate the impact and influence of different people and different persons under the same or similar circumstances. The measurement of emotions and changes in relation to the circumstances provides various levels of results since they influence the model used to evaluate them. Some researchers examine the changes in the actions, bodily responses and changes in subjective feelings as a means of evaluating and finding the extent to which a change has occurred in the emotions of a person. Other authorities also examine the events and the resultant impact based on what is normal and what is considered to be abnormal. Therefore, in creating a laboratory setting within which different people’s emotions and reactions to events can be analysed, a researcher will have to identify the necessary condition and significant condition of the inducers so they can make observations about the extent and impact of various incidents and activities that occur in the research or study. Perception and attentional measures can be used to examine the valance that occurred with an emotional situation and the input-output relationship between cause and effect respectively. This can be an important measure. The main headings under which such observations can be done include the emotional stimulus, cognitive appraisal and reactive emotion. This culminates in the second hypothesis of the research which states that: the continuous repetition of the word “love” causes emotional stimulus after the recipient conducts a cognitive appraisal and this gives way to reactive emotions that can be measured by examining the reaction time and the response accuracy. The third hypothesis of the study can be viewed in relation to the priming stimulus. From the literature review, there are types and forms of priming stimulus and this can be viewed and reviewed from different angles. Basically, there is the repetitive priming as well as the conceptual priming. Thus, in studies, there is the priming stimulus and the target stimulus which are two main kind of stimulus which expresses the cause and effects of a given emotional event. For the purposes of our study, we can identify that the priming stimulus is the word “love”. And the target stimulus is “helping behaviour”. These different priming processes are limited by the semantic context, word frequency, stimulus quality and stimulus repetition. These variables work together to create and spell out the relationship between priming stimulus and target stimulus. Also, issues like stimulus dementia causes people to easily forget about the significance of words and information that is shared in various contexts and situations. Evidence exists to scientifically prove that women are more likely to become moved by the word “love”. This is because women are more sensitive to words and various biological and psychological research works have been conducted. This gives us the last and final hypothesis which indicates that: females are more likely to come up with more helpful behaviour when the Bibliography Abbate, C. S., Ruggieria, S., & Boca, S. (2013). 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