We have the old custom, inherited from philosophy, to always face reason and emotions, as if emotions altered reasoning. We attribute emotions to this hedonic, transcendental and irrational character that makes us think they are useless. But it’s a big mistake. Emotions play a very important role, help guide our behavior and act quickly, among them, the most relevant are the basic emotions: surprise, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and anger.
These basic emotions appear during the development of anyone regardless of the context in which they are located, usually processes related to evolution and adaptation, which have an innate and universal neural substrate, and a characteristic associated affective state, which we might consider calling feeling.
- Surprise can be defined as a reaction caused by something unexpected.
- Unpublished or strange.
- That is.
- When a stimulus appears that the subject has not considered in his predictions or diagrams.
- The subjective experience that accompanies it is a sense of uncertainty with a state in which the person feels like an empty mind.
As for physiological reactions, we are faced with a slowing of the heart rate and an increase in muscle tone and respiratory amplitude, in addition a strong voice appears, accompanied by spontaneous vocalizations.
The function of surprise is to empty the working memory of any residual activity to deal with the unforeseen stimulus, so this state activates the attention processes, as well as the conduct of exploration and curiosity, this emotion is usually followed by another emotion that will depend on the quality of the unforeseen stimulus, thus showing its positivity (joy) or negativity (angry).
Disgust is one of the basic emotions known since Darwin’s work on animal emotion and is characterized by a feeling of disgust or avoidance at the real or imaginary possibility of ingesting a harmful substance with polluting properties. of a great aversion and a clear aversion to inducing stimulus.
The central physiological effects are the appearance of several types of gastrointestinal discomfort accompanied by nausea. In addition, there is an overall increase in activation; increased heart and respiratory rate, skin conductance and muscle tension.
The adaptive function of disgust is to reject any stimulus that may cause intoxication, nausea and discomfort help to avoid any harmful intake to the body, in addition, over time this emotion has acquired a social character of rejection of social stimuli that are toxic to us.
It is the most studied emotion in animals and humans. Fear is a negative or aversive emotional state with a very high activation that prompts one to avoid and escape from dangerous situations. The experience of this emotion causes a feeling of great tension, as well as a concern for one’s safety and health.
Physiological correlates show a rapid increase in activation and preparation for exhaust. Heart activity soars and respiratory activity accelerates, causing superficial and irregular breathing.
Fear is an evolutionary legacy that has an obvious survival value, this emotion is useful to prepare the body and generate escape or adaptation behaviors against potentially dangerous stimuli, in addition, facilitates the learning of new responses that protect the person from danger.
Of all the basic emotions, joy is perhaps the most positive: it is directly associated with pleasure and happiness; it appears, for example, in response to the achievement of a personal objective or to the mitigation of a state of unrest. The way we manifest it, it may seem that it has for our survival only a simple reflection of our inner state.
However, joy is one of the systems available to the body to incentivize action, and it also serves as a reward for these behaviors beneficial to yourself, joy soars when we perform an action that achieves a goal, and thanks to this, this Behavior will be repeated so that we can feel that feeling of pleasure again. This is perhaps the most natural reinforcement we can count on.
Physiologically, we find an increase in heart rate and a higher respiratory rate, in addition, in brain chemistry, we find a greater release of endorphins and dopamine.
In basic emotions, sadness implies the greatest negativity, this emotion is characterized by moodiness and a significant reduction in the level of cognitive activity and behavior, despite the bad reputation of this emotion, performs functions equal to or more important than other basic emotions.
The function of sadness is to act in situations where the subject is powerless or cannot take any direct action to resolve what makes him suffer, such as the death of a loved one, so sadness reduces the level of activity, in order to save resources. and prevent us from making unnecessary efforts.
In addition, it acts in a self-protective way, generating a perceptual filter that focuses attention on the person himself rather than a harmful stimulus, and more importantly, encourages the search for social supports that facilitate the exit of a depressive situation.
Anger is the feeling that arises when a person is subjected to situations that provoke frustration or are hostile, the experience that results from this emotion is classified as unpleasant, with a feeling of tension that motivates us to act, is an emotion with many faces and, in many cases, ambiguous, because depending on the situation can be considered more or less justified.
At the physiological level, we have identified an excessive increase in activation in the body and a preparation for action, we observed an increase in heart activity, muscle tone and respiratory amplitude, as well as a significant increase in adrenaline in the blood which, in turn, will increase cognitive tension.
Anger has a clear evolutionary function, providing us with the resources to face a frustrating situation, when faced with a danger or overcome a challenge, this spending of resources to increase activation helps us succeed. the goal, comes sadness; to solve the problem with other tools.
Whether positive, negative or neutral, the truth is that all emotions perform functions that favor our survival, on the other hand, they also present the danger of mastering our behavior by their intensity, it is in these cases that emotional regulation takes on special importance. because that’s what can remove the negative side of this emotional diversion from the reins of our lives.