Physiological basis and external expression of feelings and emotions. Physiology of emotions Physiological properties of emotions and feelings
19. Emotions. Physiological foundations of emotions and feelings. Properties, types and general patterns of emotions and feelings. Affect as a legally significant category.
Emotions are a mental process of impulsive regulation of behavior, based on a sensory reflection of the need-based significance of external influences, their beneficialness or harmfulness for the life of an individual.
Emotion is the body’s general reaction to vitally significant influences (from the Latin “emoveo” - I worry).
Emotions and feelings are a subjective attitude towards objects and phenomena that arise as a result of reflecting their connection with needs.
All emotions are objectively correlated and bivalent - they are either positive or negative (since objects either satisfy or do not satisfy a corresponding need).
Emotions encourage stereotypical forms of behavior.
Replacing needs, emotions themselves are in many cases an incentive to action, a motivation factor.
Vary lower emotions, based on instincts and being their expression (emotions of hunger, thirst, fear, selfishness, etc.), and higher, truly human emotions – feelings (debt, love, shame) that are formed in humans as the individual develops as a personality .
Feelings, more than emotions, are associated with the second signaling system. Feelings can be long-lasting and persistent. The most stable feelings are personality traits (honesty, humanity, etc.).
Biological and information theory of emotions
Biologist. The theory of emotions (P.K. Anokhin) postulates: positive emotions arise in connection with the achievement of a successful result and reinforce the behavioral act leading to this result. Negative emotions inhibit unsuccessful behavioral acts and direct the body to search for new adaptive actions.
“The information theory of emotions (P.V. Simonov) states: “Emotion is a reflection by the brain of the strength of the need and the likelihood of its satisfaction at the moment.”
The following types of emotions can be distinguished. states:
1) interest - excitement;
2) pleasure - joy;
3) surprise - amazement;
4) grief - suffering;
5) anger - rage;
6) disgust - disgust;
7) contempt - disdain;
8) fear - horror;
9) shame - shyness;
10) guilt - repentance.
Each of these emotions has its own neural substrate.
From these ten fundamental emotions, 120 complex emotions are formed. complexes - triads (grief - anger-disgust).
Physiological basis of emotions and feelings
Emotions and feelings are associated with different states of the brain:
With stimulation of certain subcortical areas of the brain
With changes in the activity of the autonomic nervous system.
Impulses from external influences enter the brain in two streams. One is sent to the zones of the cerebral cortex, where they are deciphered in the form of sensations and perceptions, awareness of their meaning and significance. The other comes to the subcortical formations (hypothalamus), where the relationship of external influences to the needs of the body, subjectively experienced in the form of emotions, is established.
Emotions are assumed to be a function of the right hemisphere. If the left, dominant hemisphere controls verbal, logical functions, then the right non-verbal, feeling-emotional sphere.
Emotions cause different states of consciousness. Thus, the emotion of interest focuses cognitive activity on the definition. object, inhibits the switching of consciousness to other objects.
As a result of a sharp disruption of habitual influences, when a person is unable to respond to a situation with habitual behavioral complexes, disorganization of consciousness occurs, reaching its limit during affects.
The hypothalamus is the center of suffering and pleasure, aggression and calm.
Emotions and feelings are always accompanied a number of vegetative phenomena: changes in the frequency of heart contraction, breathing, muscle tone, vascular lumen (hence the paleness or redness of the skin).
Strong emotions cause cessation of salivation (dry mouth), suppression of internal organs, changes in blood pressure, and muscle activity.
Modern electronic devices make it possible to accurately establish the dependence of organic changes on emotions. states. The complex equipment that records these psychosomatic correlations is called polygraph.
In some countries it is used for crime investigation purposes and is called a lie detector (lie detector). This method of investigating a crime does not exclude random coincidences. Light detector data cannot be used as evidence of a crime. No technical means can be an instrument for establishing lies or truth. This is a function of the investigator’s cognitive activity.
Properties and types of emotions and feelings
1)Depending on their quality (positive and negative).
2)Depending on the significance of the aspects of reality reflected in feelings: deep and shallow feelings.
Depending on the influence of emotions and feelings on activity activity, they are divided into sthenic(from rp. force) and asthenic. Stenic_feelings (joy and inspiration) encourage activity. activities, mobilize human strength. Asthenic emotions and feelings relax a person, paralyze his strength (panic or fear). The same feeling can have different effects on the activities of different people. For example, a feeling of fear can both mobilize and demobilize a person’s strength. It depends on the individual. characteristics of the individual and his volitional states.
3)Emotions and feelings vary by intensity(strong and weak) and 4) duration(short-term and sustainable).
Higher feelings are divided according to their content: practical, intellectual, moral and aesthetic.
Dynamics of emotion: emergence, higher tension and discharge.
5) According to their regulatory function, emotions are divided into the following types:
Emotion tone of sensation;
Emotion response;
Mood;
Conflict emotions states: stress, affect, frustration.
The highest emotions are feelings.
Emotion tone of sensations. Various sensations (smells, colors, sounds, etc.) are pleasant, neutral or unpleasant for us. Emotion the tone of sensation is our attitude to the quality of sensation.
Emotion response- operational emotional reaction to current changes in the environment (beautiful landscape).
One of the types of emotions. response is syntony - empathy of emotions. the condition of other people. Researchers note that people who were brought up in conditions of insufficient emotions. contact, as well as satiety, become incapable of emotions. empathy.
Mood- this is a situationally determined dominance of a certain emotion or feeling, strengthening or weakening mental activity over a more or less long period.
Mood called positive or negative influences: success or failure at work, a comfortable or uncomfortable environment, well-being, etc.
Mood is always causally determined, although its cause is sometimes not realized. It is associated with the attitude towards various phenomena (approval, regret, resentment, etc.).
Types of mood: positive or negative.
They have a certain intensity, severity, tension and stability.
High level of psycho. activity under the influence of emotions or feelings - in inspired Yes, the lowest is apathy.
Mental disorganization. activity caused by negative influences is a state upset .
A person’s emotional stability under various emotiogenic influences is expressed in the stability of his behavior. Resistance to difficulties, tolerance to the behavior of other people is called tolerance(from Latin patience). Depending on the predominance of a person’s experience, the corresponding mood becomes stable and characteristic of him.
A person can regulate his mood to a certain extent by focusing his consciousness on the positive aspects of life and the prospects for its improvement.
Conflict emotions condition.
Stress- nervous psycho. overvoltage caused by a strong impact from above, an adequate response to which has not previously been formed, but must be found in the current situation.
Super strong irritants - stressors - cause vegetative changes (increased heart rate, increased blood sugar, etc.) - the body prepares for intense protective changes. In response to an extremely difficult situation, a person reacts with a complex of defensive reactions.
Stressful conditions inevitably arise in all cases of threat to the life of an individual. and encourage them to find a way out of the emergency situation.
The concept of stress was introduced by the Canadian scientist G. Selye (1936) - a set of adaptive and protective reactions of the body to influences that cause physical stress. or crazy. injury.
He identified three stages: 1) anxiety; 2) resistance and 3) exhaustion.
The anxiety reaction consists of a shock and counter-shock phase, when the disturbed psyche is restored. functions.
The resistance stage is characterized by the emergence of increased resistance to stressors, a factor harmful to the body. With prolonged exposure to stressors, the body's strength dries up and the stage of exhaustion begins.
R. Lazarus introduced the concept of physiological and psychic. stress.
Physiol.stress - extremely unfavorable physical conditions that cause a violation of the integrity of the body and its functions (very high and low temperatures).
Psychological stress is those influences that people themselves assess as very harmful to their well-being.
Acute negative form of stress - distress(from English grief, exhaustion) is life-threatening, but with austress(“good” stress) the individual’s adaptation mechanisms are worked out.
A special type of stress is "stress of life" - acute conflict states of the individual caused by strategically significant social stressors.
Stress is dangerous to life, but it is also necessary for life. Under stress, a person’s maximum adaptive capabilities are revealed. This is how stress differs from affect.
Affect(from Lat. to do according to feeling) - suddenly emerging in an acute conflict situation excessive nervousness. overexcitement, manifested in temporary disorganization of consciousness (its narrowing) and in extreme activation of impulsive actions. It is caused by very strong and unexpected. irritants when a person is not prepared for a deliberate reaction.
In charge of the ind. personality traits can cause affect- deep resentment from insult, danger, physical. violence.
The state of affect is characterized the fact that behavior during affect is not regulated by a premeditated goal , but a feeling that completely covers a person and causes impulsive actions.
Neurophysiological mechanism of affect is a sharp change in the balance of nervous processes, a “collision” of nervous processes. Affect is accompanied by significant changes in the activity of internal organs (breathing, cardiac activity, blood chemistry), sudden external movements (sharp screaming, crying).
The state of affect is associated with impaired clarity of consciousness and is accompanied by partial amnesia and memory impairment.
In all manifestations of affect (fear, anger, despair, jealousy, outburst of passion, etc.) three stages can be distinguished:
♦ at the first stage, all mental activity is sharply disorganized, orientation in reality is disrupted;
♦ on the second - overexcitation is accompanied by sudden, poorly controlled impulsive actions;
♦ at the final stage, nervous tension subsides, a state of depression, weakness and partial amnesia occurs.
Subjectively, affect is experienced as a state, as if imposed on a person from the outside, against his will. However, with enhanced volitional control in the initial stage of development of affect, it can be prevented. It is important to focus consciousness on the extremely negative consequences of affective behavior.
However, the most important condition for overcoming affects is the moral quality of the individual, the person’s life experience and his upbringing.
A state of passion is not a state of insanity. Affect is not a painful, not pathological disorganization of the psyche. Disorganization of consciousness during passion can only be taken into account as a circumstance mitigating responsibility, as well as when qualifying a criminal act. Meaning physiological affect. It should be distinguished from pathological affect-painful neuropsychic. overexcitation associated with complete clouding of consciousness and paralysis of the will.
Impulsive actions committed in a state of physiol. affect:
Little conscious, but this does not mean that they are completely unrelated to consciousness. Only a mentally ill person is unaware of anything.
Thoughtless, but not random.
A crime committed in a state of passion is criminally punishable, because a person is always able to prevent the onset of passion, and the state of passion itself does not predetermine antisocial actions (Article 107 of the Criminal Code).
The causes of affect are different: violence, bullying or grave insult on the part of the victim or other illegal or immoral actions (inaction) of the victim, as well as a long-term psychologically traumatic situation that arose in connection with the systematic illegal or immoral behavior of the victim.
Affect can arise both as a result of memories of a traumatic event and for minor reasons as a result of the accumulation of feelings.
Affective actions, being actions prompted only by feelings, do not and cannot have a motive. Motive is a structural element only of fully conscious actions. The specificity of actions in a state of passion is that a strong feeling in itself is an incentive to action, it is a reaction in response to a traumatic stimulus.
In actions in a state of passion, there are neither conscious specific goals nor conscious methods of action.
The guilt of a person who committed a crime in a state of passion is justified not by the presence of criminal intent and the corresponding motive, but by the fact that this person, being in a state of sanity, allowed a criminal result, although he did not foresee it in advance.
All of the above allows us to assert that the concept of “affect” and legal. the concept of “strong emotional disturbance” does not completely coincide, because the law assumes that there may be different degrees of emotional disturbance, established by the court. Affect is the highest degree of capture of consciousness by feelings, it is an explosion of feelings. More precisely, with affect, behavior is prompted not even by a feeling, but by a vital emotion (an emotion associated with the instinct of self-preservation).
Since strong emotional disturbance affects the qualification of the crime and the measure of punishment, this condition is subject to proof and to establish it requires a forensic psychologist. examination.
Let's consider one type of affect, which is most often found in investigative and court cases. practice - fear.
Fear- unconditional reflex emotion. reaction to danger, manifested in a sharp change in the life of the organism.
For many people, fear is an asthenic emotion that causes stupor, immobility, numbness, or decreased muscle tone. A characteristic symptom of fear is trembling of the body muscles, the appearance of dry mouth (hence the hoarseness and muffled voice), a sharp increase in heart rate, increased blood sugar, etc.
Instinctive fear caused by a stimulus that signals possible physical pain.
Fear can be reduced by being active and taking reasonable safety measures. In these cases, fear turns into caution, into a state of apprehension.
Fear is a passive defensive reaction to danger posed by a stronger person. If any threat of danger comes from a weaker person, then the reaction to this danger can acquire an actively defensive, offensive character - anger.
Fear and anger can reach the level of affect, but they can also be expressed to a lesser extent emotionally. tensions may be associated with circumstances mitigating criminal liability.
Frustration(from lat. failure, deception) is a conflicting negative emotional state that arises in connection with the collapse of hopes, unexpectedly arising insurmountable obstacles to achieving highly significant goals.
Frustration is often associated with aggressive behavior directed against frustrator - source of frustration. If the causes of frustration cannot be eliminated, deep depressive state associated with significant and prolonged disorganization of the psyche (weakening of memory, ability to think logically).
The difficulty of defining frustration is due to the fact that a person cannot eliminate the causes of this condition. Therefore, in a state of frustration, a person looks for some kind of compensating outlets, goes into the world of dreams, and sometimes returns to earlier stages of mental development (regresses).
Frustration tolerance is an individual’s resistance to frustration. influences.
Feelings are an emotional form of reflection of socially significant phenomena. They are caused by the correspondence or deviation of certain circumstances from the parameters of the life activity of a given person as an individual. If inferior, situational emotions are connected with the satisfaction of biological needs, then higher emotions - feelings are associated with personal, socially significant values.
Human feelings are hierarchically organized - each individual has dominant feelings that determine his main personal orientation. They regulate the most significant areas of human interaction with reality. The hierarchy of feelings determines motivational sphere personality.
Vary practical, moral, aesthetic and intellectual feelings.
Praxic feelings (from the Greek experience, practice) are feelings that arise in practical activity. Aristotle also said that there are as many types of feelings as there are types of activities.
Moral (moral) feelings- emotional a state associated with the assessment of behavior depending on its compliance or non-compliance with social standards
Morality is a set of rules and norms of behavior developed by society. The theory of these norms and rules is called ethics, and their practical use is called morality.
Moral standards are society's requirements for individual behavior. They are divided into standard norms, norms-prohibitions and norms-frameworks. They are implemented through public opinion, authority, traditions and customs. To implement these norms, an appropriate attitude towards them is necessary. And chapters. feeling plays a role.
Moral feelings are divided into :
Short term,
Situational (joy, admiration, delight, indignation),
Sustained intimate experiences (devotion, affection, friendship, love, etc.)
General experiences (patriotism, internationalism, collectivism).
Negatives should not be mixed. moral qualities (cruelty, selfishness, envy, lust for power) from neg. moral feelings.
So, regret or remorse, being negative. feelings play a positive role in human behavior.
Moral feelings encourage one to consider the interests of other people. They mobilize a person to activity.
For a morally educated person, any deviation from generally accepted norms of behavior evokes a sharp critical assessment.
If it is absent, then behavior takes on the characteristics of immorality or dishonesty.
Immorality is characterized by the fact that a person knows about the appropriate norms of behavior, but does not consider them obligatory either for himself or for other people; dishonesty - the fact that a person knows generally accepted norms of behavior, but considers them obligatory only for others.
In the practice of a lawyer, there are a wide variety of nuances of morality (justice, duty, conscience, honor).
Justice and injustice - These are moral assessments in general. phenomena through which some are justified and others are condemned. Duty - this is the moral necessity of fulfilling duties that are determined by a person’s place in the social system. relationships. There are different types of duty: universal, civil, military, service, family, etc. The sense of duty is the awareness and experience of the responsibilities that a person undertakes when entering into certain relationships with other people. The meaning of people's lives is connected with the fulfillment of a correctly understood duty. Fulfilling a duty brings the highest feeling of satisfaction.
Conscience - it is a feeling that causes a person to react to the demands of society. This reaction depends on the person's understanding of moral responsibility for his behavior.
Sense of honor - this is heightened emotion. impressionability in relation to those aspects of one’s activities that are most significant for a given society as a whole or for a particular social group.
Guilt- this is a person’s self-reproach for violating his own positions, norms, and beliefs.
People have different thresholds of guilt, greater or lesser susceptibility to self-blame. There is also an obsessive feeling of guilt that goes beyond the psyche. health.
Aesthetic feelings (from Greek. aisthetikos - feeling) - receptivity to beauty in the surrounding objective and social environment, giving value to beauty.
People's actions are assessed simultaneously as both an ethical and an aesthetic phenomenon; they are experienced as both beautiful (or ugly) and good (or evil).
Depending on the properties of phenomena, aesthetic feelings are expressed as an experience of the beautiful or ugly, tragic or comic.
The feeling of tragedy is associated with a reflection of the contradiction between necessity and possibility, with a reflection of the confrontation between the beautiful and the ugly. The sense of the comic is based on the discrepancy between one or another social phenomenon, people’s actions, and the objective properties of things: new - old, content - form, the real essence of a person - his opinion about himself, etc.
Intellectual feelings- emotional states associated with the realization of cognitive needs. The joy of knowledge is one of the most powerful feelings for which a person rushes into space and to the bottom of the ocean, risks his life and refuses to satisfy many needs.
Psycho. states of cognitive orientation:
Curiosities - the state of consciousness being directed towards removing uncertainty from a particular problem situation. L curiosity - a state of cognitive activity, intellectual impressionability, stable cognitive focus on certain objects.
Cognition is associated with activity in a problem situation. Reflection of a problem situation causes a state bewilderment or surprise. Surprise is a more emotionally rich state than bewilderment; it activates cognitive activity. Surprise accompanied by very strong emotions. experiences, turns into amazement. Amazement arises from receiving very significant and completely unexpected information.
One of the most valuable intellectual feelings of a person is dissatisfaction with achieved knowledge, the desire for constant knowledge.
General patterns of emotions and feelings.
1) Feelings developed for one object, are transferred to a certain extent for the entire class of homogeneous objects. Thus, generalization and transfer feelings are one of their patterns.
2) Another pattern is dullness of feelings under the influence of long-term stimuli. Influences that evoke new feelings are usually preferred to familiar, boring ones (a joke repeated too often does not cause pleasure).
Both positive and negative feelings are subject to dulling. A person, to a certain extent, gets used to everything, including negative influences. Dulling negative feelings is dangerous because they signal an unfavorable situation, prompting it to change.
3) contrast of feelings. Feelings that arise when exposed to various stimuli are compared and influence each other, interact.(Pleasure is felt more strongly following displeasure.)
4) summation of feelings. Feelings systematically evoked by one or another object accumulate and are summed up. Thus, as a result of the summation of feelings, our love and respect for our parents is strengthened throughout our lives).
Sometimes opposite feelings, manifesting themselves simultaneously, also strengthen each other. Thus, the feeling of fear that arises when crossing an abyss enhances the feeling of pleasure associated with overcoming the obstacle.
Emotion states that have not received an outcome in relation to actions, sometimes are replaced emots. states associated with another (failure in one activity is compensated by success in another).
5). Emotional states can be replaced. Thus, failure in one activity can be compensated by success in another activity. One of the patterns of emotions and feelings is their switchability. Emotions that are not satisfied with one object can be transferred to other objects. In some cases, emotions are mutually incompatible - ambivalent, and intrapersonal conflict arises. Thus, for an alcoholic, love for his family conflicts with hatred for it when he is deprived of the opportunity to drink alcohol.
6) Conflict between opposites, ambivalent feelings are overcome in various ways: by repressing some feelings under some justificatory pretext, by distorting certain ideas. Sometimes this can acquire a pathological character, in which objective reality becomes, as it were, incompatible with the consciousness of the patient.
Emotions and feelings have external expression - expression. Externally, emotions and feelings are expressed by movements of the facial muscles (facial expressions), body muscles (pantomime, gestures, posture, posture), changes in tone of voice, and tempo of speech.
Emotions and feelings in investigative practice
Emotions and feelings are an important factor in the interaction of the investigator with all participants in the investigation. Emotion contact is a necessary condition for the successful implementation of the investigation process.
The main feature of contact is emotion. a state that arises in connection with dominant, current needs.
An objective and comprehensive investigation requires knowledge of:
The identities of the participants in the investigation,
Value positions of the individual,
The hierarchy of her needs, the nature of her biological characteristics.
People are especially offended by indifference, arrogance, and even more so by contempt. The investigator’s task is not so much to establish contact as not to disrupt it with his wrong actions.
A lawyer must be able to control his emotions, preventing their diffusion, when emotions become a factor in the disorganization of consciousness and begin to interfere with an objective and comprehensive investigation of a crime and the logical construction of a system of evidence.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the intellectualist position was widespread: organic manifestations of emotions are a consequence of mental phenomena. I. F. Herbart believed, for example, that the fundamental psychological fact is the idea, and the feelings we experience correspond to the connection that is established between different ideas, and can be considered as a reaction to the conflict between ideas. For example, the image of a deceased acquaintance, compared with the image of this acquaintance as still alive, gives rise to sadness. In turn, this affective state involuntarily, almost reflexively, causes tears and organic changes that characterize grief.
Another famous nineteenth century psychologist W. Wundt took a similar position. In his opinion, emotions are, first of all, changes characterized by the direct influence of feelings on the course of ideas and, to some extent, the influence of the latter on feelings, and organic processes are only a consequence of emotions.
As can be seen, initially in the study of emotions the opinion about the subjective, i.e. mental, nature of emotions was established. Mental processes cause certain organic changes.
However, in 1872 the great naturalist C. Darwin published the book “The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals,” which was a turning point in understanding the connection between biological and psychological phenomena, including in relation to emotions. The evolutionary principle has been shown to apply not only to biological development, but also to the mental and behavioral development of animals (indeed, both are considered part of the biological). Darwin showed that there are many similarities in the behavior of animals and humans.
Observing the external expression of various emotional states in animals and people, he discovered great similarities in the expressive bodily movements of anthropoids and children born blind. These observations formed the basis of the theory of emotions, which was called evolutionary. According to this theory, emotions appeared in the process of evolution of living beings as vital adaptive mechanisms that contribute to the adaptation of the organism to the conditions and situations of its existence.
Bodily changes that accompany various emotional states (facial expressions, other movements) are nothing more than the rudiments of real adaptive reactions of the body, appropriate at the previous stage of evolution. For example, if hands become wet when afraid, this means that once upon a time, in our ape-like ancestors, this reaction in case of danger made it easier to grab tree branches. Facial expressions of surprise, including a slightly open mouth, are still useful today: thereby equalizing the pressure in the middle ear compared to the surrounding air, which contributes to better perception of sound information.
If previously the prevailing theory was that emotions are a consequence of intellectual experiences, then at the end of the nineteenth century “the pendulum swung in the other direction.” In 1884, an article appears W. James"What is an emotion?" James (and independently of him G. Lange) formulated a theory according to which the emergence of emotions is caused by changes caused by external influences both in the voluntary motor sphere and in the sphere of involuntary acts, for example, the activity of the cardiovascular system. The sensations associated with these changes are emotional experiences.
James's phrase is widely known that “We are sad because we cry; we are afraid because we tremble; we rejoice because we laugh.” That is, now it is organic changes that have begun to be considered the root cause of emotions (the so-called James-Lange theory). Reflecting in the human psyche through a feedback system, the bodily gives rise to an emotional experience of the corresponding modality. Peripheral organic changes, which were previously considered as consequences of emotions, became their root cause.
The emergence of the James-Lange theory led to a simplified understanding of the mechanisms of voluntary regulation. It was previously thought that unwanted emotions such as grief or anger could be suppressed by intentionally engaging in actions that would normally result in positive emotions. According to the new theory, it was necessary first of all to remove organic manifestations of grief or anger (for example, stop walking from corner to corner).
Expressed a slightly different point of view W. Cannon. He discovered that the bodily changes observed during the occurrence of different emotional states are very similar to each other and are not so diverse as to satisfactorily explain the qualitative differences in the highest emotional experiences of a person. Internal organs, as it turns out, are rather insensitive and low-dynamic structures. They get excited very slowly, while emotions usually arise and develop quite quickly. Cannon discovered that organic changes artificially induced in humans are not always accompanied by emotional experiences. Cannon even conducted an experiment that found that artificially causing the cessation of organic signals in the brain did not prevent the occurrence of emotions.
Summing up his research, Cannon formulated that bodily processes during emotions are biologically expedient, since they serve as a preliminary adjustment of the entire organism to a situation when it will be required to expend increased energy resources. In this case, emotional experiences and corresponding organic changes arise in the same brain center - the thalamus.
Later P. Bard showed that, in fact, both bodily changes and the emotional experiences associated with them arise almost simultaneously, and of all the brain structures, it is not the thalamus itself that is most functionally connected with emotions, but the hypothalamus and the central parts of the limbic system.
In animal experiments X. Delgado found that with the help of electrical influences on these structures it is possible to control such emotional states as anger and fear.
In general, the ideas about the role of the organic in the formation of emotions of James, Lange, Cannon, and Bard began to be called the psychoorganic theory of emotions. Subsequently, this theory developed and is being developed mainly with the help of electrophysiological studies of the brain.
This is how another one, the Lindsay-Hebb activation theory, arose, according to which the emotional state is determined by the influence of the reticular formation of the lower part of the brain stem, since this structure is responsible for the level of activity of the body and individual areas of the brain. And emotional manifestations are nothing more than a change in the level and structure of activity of the nervous system in response to any stimulus. Therefore, it is the reticular formation that determines the dynamic parameters of emotional states: their strength, duration, variability. And emotion - in contrast to the emotional state - is a violation or restoration of balance in the structures of the central nervous system as a result of exposure to any stimulus.
There have been approaches to the study of emotions from a slightly different direction. Emotions can be considered not as the result of some changes, but as the cause of certain changes in the body and behavior. Emotions regulate human activity, revealing a very definite influence on it, depending on the nature and intensity of the emotional experience. D. Hebb experimentally obtained a curve expressing the relationship between the level of emotional arousal of a person and the success of his practical activity. In his research, it was found that the relationship between emotional arousal and human performance is graphically expressed in the form of a normal distribution curve.
This was a somewhat unexpected and at the same time very important result. It turned out that in order to achieve the highest results in activity, both too weak and too strong emotional arousal are undesirable. The activity is most effective with average emotional arousal. At the same time, it was discovered that each individual person is characterized by a certain optimal range of emotional excitability, which ensures maximum efficiency at work.
This optimal level of emotional arousal depends on many factors, for example, on the characteristics of the activity being performed and the conditions in which it takes place, on the individual characteristics of the person (for example, the strength of the nervous system) who performs it, and on much more.
Emotions are also considered through cognitive factors, i.e. thinking and consciousness. L. Festinger in his theory of cognitive dissonance showed that there is an emotional state of dissonance that arises in a situation where the subject has psychologically contradictory information about an object. According to this theory, a person experiences a positive emotional experience when his expectations are confirmed, i.e. when the actual results of activities correspond to those planned and are consistent with them. The resulting positive emotional state is called consonance. Negative emotions arise in cases where there is a discrepancy or dissonance between the expected and actual results of activity.
Cognitive dissonance as a negative emotional state causes general discomfort; a person strives to get rid of this discomfort. To do this, he has two ways: either change his expectations so that they correspond to reality, or try to obtain new information that would be consistent with previous expectations.
Too often in modern psychology, the theory of cognitive dissonance is used as a universal concept to explain human behavior and actions in a wide variety of situations. In the determination of behavior and the emergence of human emotional states, cognitive factors are given much more importance than organic changes. Many representatives of this direction believe that cognitive assessments of the situation most directly influence the nature of emotional experience. It is often forgotten that cognitive dissonance is just one of many other emotions; it has its own mechanisms of development, and these mechanisms do not need to be extended to all emotions.
Without exception, all mental processes are in one way or another involved in the emergence and development of emotions. S. Shekhter showed the role of memory and human motivation in emotional processes (cognitive-physiological theory). According to this theory, the resulting emotional state, in addition to perceived stimuli and the bodily changes generated by them, is influenced by a person’s past experience and his subjective assessment of the current situation. In this case, the assessment is formed on the basis of interests and needs that are relevant to him.
Many experiments have shown the role of verbal instructions on the way we perceive a situation and, as a consequence, on the formation of emotions. In addition to verbal instructions during the experiment, additional information received by the subject is of great importance. In many cases, the experimenters were simply able to deceive the subjects. Those were given pills and were told that these pills would cause a state of euphoria. A state of mild euphoria actually occurred, but the pills were actually pacifiers (placebos).
Russian psychophysiologist P.V. Simonov proposed an information theory of emotions. According to this theory, emotional states are determined by the quality and intensity of the individual’s actual need and the assessment he gives of the likelihood of its satisfaction. A person makes an assessment of this probability on the basis of innate and previously acquired individual experience, involuntarily comparing information about the means, time, and resources supposedly necessary to satisfy the need with the information received at the moment. According to this theory, for example, the emotion of fear develops with a lack of information about the means necessary for protection. Simonov proposed the formula:
E = P x (In - Is),
E - the power of emotion,
P - the value of the current need,
In - information necessary to meet current needs,
IS - existing information, i.e. the information that a person currently has.
Emotions and feelings are associated with different functional states of the brain, excitation of certain subcortical areas of the brain, and changes in the activity of the autonomic nervous system. I.P. Pavlov noted that emotions are associated with the activity of subcortical formations.
Emotions as a genetically determined nonspecific behavioral program are determined by a complex of nervous structures included in the so-called limbic system of the brain. This system includes the most ancient parts of the midbrain, diencephalon and forebrain.
1 See: Pavlov I. P. Poly. collection Op.: In 6 vols. M.; L., 1951. T. 3. P. 242-244.
§ 2. Physiological foundations of emotions
The limbic system is associated with autonomic nervous system And reticular formation(located in the brain stem and providing energy resources for brain activity).
Brain researchers have discovered in the subcortical region (in the hypothalamus) special neural structures that are centers of suffering and pleasure, aggression and calm.
In the experiments of J. Olds, a rat with an electrode implanted into the pleasure center first randomly pressed a lever, which, closing an electrical circuit, caused excitation of this center; but after that she did not leave the lever for hours, making several thousand presses, refusing sleep and food.”
X. M. R. Delgado discovered centers of “aggression and calmness.” By implanting electrodes into the bull's brain, he controlled the animal's aggressiveness with radio signals and even fought with the bull in the arena. The enraged animal, rushing at the experimenter, stopped close to him as soon as the radio signal excited the “calming center.”
Emotions are also associated with the activity of the cerebral cortex. It is assumed (R.W. Sperry) that emotions are a function of the right hemisphere of the brain.
The left, dominant, hemisphere controls verbal, logical functions, the right hemisphere controls the sensory-emotional sphere.
Emotions and feelings are accompanied by a number of vegetative phenomena: changes in the frequency of heart contraction, breathing, muscle tone, vascular lumen (hence the paleness or redness of the skin). It is no coincidence that the heart is considered a symbol of feelings. Hippocrates was also able to distinguish up to 60 shades in the work of the heart, depending on the emotional state of a person. Strong emotions cause cessation of salivation (dry mouth), suppression of internal organs, changes in blood pressure, and muscle activity.
In a state of emotional arousal, a person is capable of a manifold increase in physical effort. Sometimes a physically weak person overcomes obstacles that are only accessible to trained athletes.
Cm.: OldsJ. Identification of the reinforcing systems of the brain using the method of self-stimulation // Mechanisms of the whole brain. M., 1963. 2 See: DelgadoX. M.R. Brain and consciousness. M., 1971.
134 Chapter 4. Emotional mental processes
Modern electronic devices make it possible to accurately determine the dependence of organic functional changes on emotional states. Emotional states are correlated with brain biocurrents (electroencephalogram - EEG), voice overtones (vocalogram) and many vegetative reactions: skin electrical conductivity (galvanic skin response - GSR), changes in the lumen of blood vessels (plethysmogram), muscle tone (myogram), pulse rate, respiration , reaction time.
The complex equipment that records these psychosomatic correlations is called polygraph. In some countries it is used for crime investigation purposes and is called a lie detector (lie detector). Offering the suspect various tests, the investigator uses instruments to record psychosomatic reactions: sweating (affecting the electrical conductivity of the skin), changes in the lumen of blood vessels, etc.
For example, if it is suspected that a given person has committed a theft in Johnson’s house, then, by connecting the appropriate sensors of the devices to him, they are offered to listen to a number of surnames, among which the surname “Johnson” is called. If, when pronounced, the emotional state of the suspect changes, a conclusion is drawn about his possible involvement in the crime. This method of investigating a crime does not exclude random coincidences. When pronouncing the surname “Johnson,” the suspect may indeed experience emotionally driven vegetative reactions, but for completely different reasons (for example, the suspect may remember a former president to whom he had a negative attitude, etc.).
The light detector data cannot be used as evidence of a crime: it is used only for preliminary orientation of the investigation.
Types of emotions
Emotions and feelings vary depending on their quality(positive and negative), depth, intensity And duration influence on activities.
IN quality the uniqueness of emotions and feelings expresses how a person relates to the corresponding phenomenon: positive
§ 3. Types of emotions
positive or negative. Depending on how significant the reality reflected in emotions and feelings is, deep And shallow emotions and feelings.
Depending on the impact on activity, emotions and feelings are divided into sthenic(from Greek sthenos - strength) and asthenic. Stenic feelings encourage active activity and mobilize a person’s strength. Thus, feelings of joy or inspiration stimulate a person to energetic activity. Asthenic emotions relax a person and paralyze his strength.
In the structure of activity it is possible to distinguish basic emotions that determine the strategic directions of an individual’s life, and their derivatives operational emotions.
Basic emotions determine the value orientation of the individual, and operational ones determine his attitude to various conditions of activity. That which contributes to the achievement of a goal causes positive emotions, that which hinders it causes negative emotions.
The classification of basic emotions coincides with the classification of the individual's basic needs. Derived emotions cannot be classified - they are as diverse as the living conditions of people. Derived emotions determine the most effective directions in achieving the goal, the most significant means and conditions for this.
The leading emotional-regulatory mechanism is emotion of success-failure. The emotion of success strengthens the initial motivations for the goal, the emotion of failure slows down and sometimes disorganizes activity. All possible manifestations of joy, delight, pleasure, on the one hand, grief, frustration, stress and affect, on the other, represent modifications of the basic emotion of success or failure.
A person is able to emotionally anticipate his possible successes and failures. This eliminates unnecessary trial steps. A person generalizes the experience of his successes and failures, joys and sorrows. He is always able to determine with a certain degree of certainty whether the game is “worth the candle.” In extreme situations, the emotion of success or failure is transformed into affect delight, fear or anger.
Thus, all emotions are aligned along the vector of the biological or socially determined significance of various phenomena for a given individual.
136 Chapter 4. Emotional mental processes
Various sensations (smells, colors, sounds, etc.) are pleasant, neutral or unpleasant for us. Emotional tone of sensation- our attitude to the quality of sensation, a mental reflection of the need properties of an object. We like the smell of flowers, the sound of the sea surf, the color of the sky at sunset, but the smell of rot and the grinding of brakes are unpleasant.
There is even an organic painful aversion to certain stimuli - idiosyncrasy (for example, to the sounds made by a metal object grinding on glass).
The emotional attitude towards vital influences is inherited. This allows the body to react to it already at the first meeting with a harmful object. The emotional tone of various influences, fixed in memory, is then included in various perceptions and ideas.
Emotional memory and a person’s emotional experience play a significant role in cases where it is necessary to act in conditions of a deficit of conceptual information.
Emotional response- prompt emotional reaction to current changes in the subject environment. (For example, you saw a beautiful landscape - an emotional response arises.) An emotional response is determined by a person’s emotional excitability, his emotional tone. One type of emotional response is syntony - empathy for the emotional state of other people - the most important social quality of a person.
The ability for emotional consonance depends on the conditions of upbringing. People who were brought up in conditions of insufficient emotional contact or satiety with emotional contacts become incapable of emotional empathy.
Mood is the general emotional background level of mental activity, determined by the personal significance of situational or stable factors. The main feature of mood is its irradiation- distribution to everything
§ 3. Types of emotions
spheres of activity, influence on the general vitality of the individual.
A state of joy, delight, sadness or melancholy is an integrative manifestation of a person’s general mental organization, the result of a general personal reaction to certain circumstances.
Low mood can be caused by biochemical processes in our body, unfavorable atmospheric phenomena or the emotional cycles of a given individual.
Depending on the predominance of a person’s experience, the corresponding mood becomes stable and characteristic of him. It is necessary to cherish a good mood and cultivate it. It stimulates active, fruitful activity and improves relationships between people.
A person can, to a certain extent, regulate his mood by focusing his consciousness on the positive aspects of life and the prospects for its improvement.
Emotions arose in the process of evolution of humans and animals; they play an important role in the formation of behavioral reactions, aspirations and satisfaction of the body's needs.
Emotion- a special form of mental activity, which in the form of direct experience reflects not objective phenomena, but a subjective attitude towards them. The peculiarity of emotions is that they directly reflect the significance of objects and situations acting on an individual, the degree of their compliance with the needs of the subject. Emotions perform a connecting function between reality and needs.
The word "emotion" (lat. emovere- excite, excite) began to be used in the 17th century, speaking about feelings (joy, desire, pain, etc.) as opposed to thoughts. -AND. P. Pavlov believed that emotions arise when a dynamic stereotype is remade. I. P. Pavlov’s views on the mechanism of emotions were developed in biological theory of emotions P.K. Anokhina (1964) and information theory of emotions P. V. Simonova (1970).
According to the need-information theory of P. V. Simonov, “emotion is a reflection by the brain of humans and higher animals of any actual need (its quality and magnitude) and the likelihood (possibility) of its satisfaction, which the subject involuntarily evaluates on the basis of innate and previously acquired individual experience"*.
According to this theory, the rule for the emergence of emotions is expressed by the following structural formula:
E=/(L(yn-Is)b where E is the emotion, its degree and sign; P- the strength and quality of the current need; In- information about the funds necessary to satisfy the need;
* Simonov V.P. Motivated brain. M., 1987. P. 63.
Is- information about existing funds that the subject actually has; In- Is- assessment of the likelihood (possibility) of satisfying a need based on innate and ontogenetic experience.
Positive emotions arise when there is an excess of available information. (Is) compared to what is needed (In) and a previously existing forecast or with an increasing probability of achieving the goal. Naturally, negative emotions arise in the opposite situation: Is< Ин.
According to the biological theory of emotions by P.K. Anokhin, negative emotions arise when a system (organism) cannot achieve an adaptive result that is useful for itself, and positive emotions arise when such a useful result is achieved. This theory is based on the idea of a functional system.
The structure of the functional system is complex, it includes:
■ afferent synthesis;
■ decision making;
"acceptor of action results;
■ efferent synthesis (or program of action);
■ formation of the action itself and evaluation of the achieved result (Fig. 6.1).
The system-forming factor that determines the beginning of the system’s functioning is need, or motivation.
The processes of afferent synthesis, covering motivational excitation, triggering (temporary) and situational afferentation, and the memory apparatus, are realized using a special mechanism that provides the necessary tone for this in the cerebral cortex and other brain structures. This mechanism regulates and distributes activating and inactivating influences,
NERVE CENTER
coming from the limbic and reticular systems of the brain. The behavioral expression of activation in the central nervous system created by a special mechanism is orienting-exploratory reactions and human search activity.
Completion of the afferent synthesis stage is accompanied by a transition to the decision-making stage, in which the type and direction of behavior is determined. Decision making is realized through a special behavioral act - the formation of an apparatus for accepting the results of an action. This is a device that programs the results of future events. It updates the innate and individual memory of animals and humans in relation to the properties of external objects that can satisfy the emerging need, as well as methods of action aimed at achieving or avoiding the target object. Often this device is programmed with the entire search path for corresponding stimuli in the external environment.
Thanks to the apparatus of the acceptor of action results, in which the goal and methods of behavior are programmed, the body can compare them with incoming afferent information about the results and parameters of the action being performed, i.e. with reverse afferentation.
It is the results of the comparison that determine subsequent behavior. If the signal about the completed action fully corresponds to the information contained in the action result acceptor, then the search behavior ends: the corresponding need is satisfied. If the real and expected results do not coincide, then indicative research activities appear. Afferent synthesis is rebuilt, a new decision is made, a new acceptor of the results of action is created, and a new program of action is built. This happens until the results of the behavior correspond to the parameters of the new acceptor of the results of the action. And then the behavioral act ends with the last stage - the satisfaction of the need.
Thus, emotions arise as a result of correlating the body’s needs with the possibility of satisfying them. If the useful adaptive result is greater than the need (motivational arousal and the standard formed in the acceptor of the results of the action), then a positive emotion arises; if less, a negative emotion arises. If the result corresponds to the need, then a state of physiological comfort arises.
Emotional zones are located in the diencephalon and in some ancient parts of the cerebral hemispheres - the limbic system.
The hypothalamus and cingulate gyrus are most closely associated with emotional behavior. In addition, many brain structures outside the limbic system also strongly influence emotional behavior. Among them, a special role belongs to the amygdala, as well as the frontal and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex.
The amygdala is located in the cortex, at the base of the temporal lobe. The amygdala has been proven to be related to aggressive behavior, since after its removal, aggressive reactions disappear. The emotional functions of the amygdala are realized on
Relatively late stages of behavior, when actualized needs have already been transformed into corresponding emotional states. The amygdala weighs competing emotions generated by competing needs and thereby determines the choice of behavior.
The cerebral cortex is of great importance in the regulation of emotions. Damage to the frontal lobes of the cortex leads to profound disturbances in the emotional sphere of a person. Two syndromes predominantly develop: emotional dullness And disinhibition of emotions and desires. In this case, emotions associated with conscious activity, social relationships, and creativity are primarily disrupted. Bilateral (bilateral) removal of the temporal poles in monkeys leads to the suppression of their aggressiveness and fear. The effect is similar to the destruction of the tonsil. The anterior lobe of the limbic cortex controls emotional intonation and expressiveness of speech in humans. After bilateral hemorrhage in this area, a person’s speech becomes monotonous.
The cingulate gyrus has bilateral connections with many subcortical structures (septum, superior colliculus, etc.), as well as with various areas of the cortex in the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. Its connections are more extensive than those of any other part of the brain, since it serves as the highest coordinator of various brain systems involved in the formation of emotions.
Thus, two groups of emotion regulation centers can be distinguished. The first group is the subcortical centers located in the diencephalon and responsible mainly for biological emotions. The second group is the cortical centers involved in the manifestation of social emotions. A study of the functions of the left and right hemispheres revealed the existence of emotional asymmetry in the brain. The left hemisphere is responsible for positive emotions, and the right hemisphere for negative ones. A right-sided lesion is combined with frivolity, carelessness, and a left-sided lesion is associated with anxiety and preoccupation. The emotional states of complacency, irresponsibility, and carelessness that arise under the influence of alcohol are associated with its effect on the right hemisphere of the brain.
Recognition of facial expressions is more related to the function of the right hemisphere. Damage to the temporal lobe, especially on the right, impairs the discrimination of emotional intonation in speech. When the left hemisphere is turned off, recognition of the emotional coloring of voices improves. Damage to the left hemisphere makes the situation incomprehensible, not amenable to logical comprehension and verbal description and, therefore, emotionally negative. When the right hemisphere is turned off, the situation seems simple, clear, understandable, which causes a predominance of positive emotions.
People with right hemisphere damage have a poor sense of humor. When they are asked to choose the funniest of the proposed plot pictures, they are ready to laugh about each one. In people with left-sided lesions, their sense of humor is almost intact.
Sensory information is of great importance in the formation of emotions in a person: sensory starvation causes emotional disorders. Show-
The expression of emotions is always associated with changes in the activity of the autonomic organs, motor sphere, nervous structures and endocrine glands.
Functions of emotions
There are several functions of emotions: reflective (evaluative), stimulating, reinforcing, switching, communicative.
Reflective function expressed in a generalized assessment of events. The generalization of all types of activity of the body is to determine the localization of the harmful effects. An example is the behavior of a person who has suffered a limb injury: focusing on pain, he immediately finds a position for the leg that reduces pain.
A person’s emotional evaluative abilities are formed not only on the basis of his individual experience, but also as a result of emotional empathy that arises in communication with other people, in particular, through the perception of works of art.
Emotion reveals the search zone where a solution to the problem of satisfying a need will be found. A need is a need that an organism experiences from time to time and which it seeks to eliminate through behavior. The actualization of any need encourages mastery of a subject that can satisfy this need. Thus, the emergence of a need is the reason for any purposeful human behavior. Emotional experience contains an image of the object of need satisfaction and one’s biased attitude towards it, which prompts a person to action.
Reinforcing function. The formation of any conditioned reflex requires significant reinforcements For example, a well-fed animal cannot develop a conditioned food reflex, since it will not have the need for food, which is a reinforcement. The real reinforcement when developing a conditioned food reflex is a reward (encouragement). Receiving a reward from an animal is associated with positive emotions. This is the reinforcing function of emotions.
Switching function emotions provides the ability to switch from one action to another. It manifests itself especially clearly in the competition of motives, as a result of which the dominant need is determined. Thus, in extreme conditions, a contradiction may arise between the natural human instinct of self-preservation and the social need to follow a certain ethical norm. The contradiction is expressed in the form of a struggle between fear and a sense of duty, fear and shame. The outcome depends on the strength of motives and personal attitudes.
Communication function emotions allows a person to convey his experiences to other people, inform them about his attitude towards phenomena, objects, etc. Facial expressions, gestures, postures, expressive sighs, changes in intonation are the “language of human feelings”, a means of communicating not so much thoughts as emotions.
It is known that there are polar (opposite) emotions. For example, joy and sadness, anger and fear, interest and disgust, shame and contempt. Over the course of evolution, facial signals have developed into a system that allows information about the intentions or state of an individual to be conveyed and thus increases the vigilance of another creature in its environment. For example, a frightened face signals danger.
Basic human emotions
Interest- the most frequently experienced positive emotion, caused by the novelty of an object and awakens in a person a desire to explore, intervene, and expand experience by including new information. With intense interest, a person feels inspired and revitalized. It is this kind of revitalization that ensures the connection of interest with cognitive or motor activity. The subjective experience of interest is most often accompanied by emotions of satisfaction and joy.
Interest is a necessary factor for the normal course of the perception process. Without interest, the development of thinking would be seriously impaired. Lack of interest threatens the development of intelligence no less than the destruction of brain tissue.
Interest is one of the fundamental innate emotions in a normal, healthy person and prevails over other emotions. Interest is characteristic of a child’s activities from the moment of birth.
Joy - the emotion is unplanned, completely unexpected and occurs whenever a person receives information that is pleasant for him.
The expression of joy on the face is universal and easily recognized by all peoples. The biological and evolutionary significance of this emotion is to facilitate and strengthen social bonds. Joy involves liberation from negative emotions that destroy the body. A state of joy can change the process of sensation and perception. All sensory sensations seem more pleasant: the roses are redder, the sky is bluer, etc.
Astonishment. The external cause of surprise is a sudden and unexpected event, for example, the appearance of a friend, various hitherto unknown information, etc. The feeling of surprise does not last long, it is comparable to a weak electric shock. At the moment of surprise, a state of uncertainty arises.
The function of surprise is to prepare a person for new and sudden events: the nervous system is brought out of the state in which it is currently located, the neural pathways are freed up for new activity. Most people rate surprise as a positive experience. Many researchers associate the ability to experience surprise with the level of development of cognitive abilities and intelligence.
Grief, suffering arises as a result of prolonged exposure to a very strong unfavorable situation. It could be pain, disappointment, failure, loss. Suffering can be caused by memories or precognition
conditions under which it may occur. Grief is usually a reaction to loss or separation from loved ones.
Alienation from other people (psychological or physical) is one of the main and most common causes of suffering. You can be lonely and feel suffering even in a crowd of people. The cause of suffering can be failure, both real and imagined.
A suffering person often cries, which makes his condition easier
Xia. In everyday life, suffering is often accompanied by other emotions.
Suffering experienced with fear leads to increased anxiety. When a child
scolded for crying, a connection may arise with the suffering of shame, which leads to the development
tia of painful shyness. G-,.;...
Anger may manifest itself not only as a feeling of “physical or mental
obstacles to anything we want to do, but also by personal insult,
disrupting a situation of interest or joy, deception, coercion to do something
then against my will. ■-■;"
An angry person feels strong and energetic, and feels the need for physical action, as a sharp mobilization of energy occurs. Anger is assessed by people as an unpleasant emotion, because in a state of anger a person can lose control over his actions and this subsequently leads to feelings of guilt or suffering.
During the process of anthropogenesis, anger was of great importance for survival, since it made it possible to quickly mobilize the individual’s energy resources and make him ready for active self-defense. With the development of civilization, the importance of the protective function of anger has decreased. But small, controlled anger can be a source of psychological strength (self-belief), which is needed, for example, if you have to defend yourself. The inability to express righteous anger can interfere with clear thinking, impair relationships, and lead to mental health problems.
Disgust- negative emotional state. Disgust is caused by objects (people, circumstances), contact with which (physical interaction, communication) comes into sharp conflict with the ideological, moral or aesthetic principles and attitudes of the subject. Disgust combined with anger can motivate aggressive behavior. A person wants to eliminate the object of disgust or distance himself from it.
Disgust can be directed at an idea or a person, including one's own. In the latter case, it leads to a decrease in self-esteem and causes self-condemnation.
Contempt, like anger and disgust, it is a negative feeling. A person is hostile to someone whom he despises and feels superior to this object.
Hostility is a trigger for the development of aggression. It is impossible to unambiguously assess aggression as positive or negative human behavior. In some cases, aggressiveness plays a constructive role, for example,
People experience fear in different ways. It all depends on whether the child felt protected as a child or whether his life was under threat.
Fear is a very strong emotion that limits and slows down perception, thinking, and behavior. Fear makes a person’s behavior constrained and unfree; a person feels uncertainty, insecurity and an impending threat. The subjective experience of fear can vary - from an unpleasant feeling to horror.
Shame And shyness arise only through emotional contact with other people, whose opinions and feelings are most significant for a person, in violation of social and moral norms.
These emotions make a person susceptible to the feelings and assessments of others. Shame is one of the regulators of a person’s social behavior in society and contributes to the development of his skills and abilities.
Shame and shyness are experienced differently depending on the individual characteristics (innate and acquired) of the subject.
A person begins to feel shame if his own “I” creates a feeling of failure, defeat. Some people feel embarrassed when they are praised.
Guilt- an emotional experience that is a consequence of socialization and serves the function of strengthening social norms. The feeling of guilt develops under the condition that a person accepts certain moral values, acquires a sense of moral obligation and faithful adherence to these values, as well as a sufficient ability for self-criticism.
Self-esteem of the correctness of behavior depends on the moral, cultural, ideological, ethical and other values and norms of the society in which a person is brought up. Guilt arises in situations in which a person feels personally responsible for his or her “wrong” actions.
Guilt sharply suppresses all other emotions and disrupts a person’s communication with other people. Guilt weighs heavily on the mind. While shame temporarily clouds thinking, guilt forces a person in his imagination to return again and again to an unpleasant situation, “gnawing” at him. This can cause the formation of neurosis or mental disorders.
Like all mental processes, emotional states and feelings are the result of brain activity. The emergence of emotions begins with changes occurring in the external world. And these changes already lead to changes in the processes occurring inside a person: an increase or decrease in vital activity, the stimulation of some needs and the extinction of others, etc. Physiological processes characteristic of the experience of feelings are associated with both complex unconditioned and conditioned reflexes. Systems of conditioned reflexes are closed and fixed in the cerebral cortex, and complex unconditioned reflexes are carried out through the subcortical nodes of the hemispheres, the visual hillocks related to the brain stem, and other centers that transmit nervous excitation from the higher parts of the brain to the autonomic nervous system. . Thus, the experiences of feelings and emotions are the result of the joint activity of the cortex and subcortical centers.
The more important the changes that happen around him and with him are for a person, the deeper the emotional experience. The resulting serious restructuring of the system of temporary connections causes excitation processes that, spreading across the cerebral cortex, capture the subcortical centers. In the parts of the brain lying below the cerebral cortex, there are various centers of physiological activity of the body: respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, secretory, etc. Therefore, excitation of the subcortical centers causes increased activity of a number of internal organs. In this regard, the experience of emotions and feelings is accompanied by a change in the rhythm of breathing (a person chokes from excitement, gasps and breathes intermittently) and cardiac activity (the heart freezes or beats intensely), the blood supply to individual parts of the body changes (they turn red from shame, pale from horror), and is disrupted. functioning of the secretory glands (tears from grief, dry mouth from excitement, “cold” sweat from fear), etc. Since ancient times, these processes occurring in the internal organs of the body have often been taken as the cause of feelings. In modern physiology and psychology, what was taken as a cause is only a consequence of other processes occurring in the human brain.
The cerebral cortex under normal conditions has an inhibitory effect on the subcortical centers, and thus external expressions of feelings are restrained. If the cerebral cortex comes into a state of excessive excitation when exposed to stimuli of greater strength, when overworked, or when intoxicated, then as a result the centers lying below the cortex become overexcited, as a result of which the usual restraint disappears. And if in the subcortical nodes of the hemispheres and diencephalon, in the case of negative induction, the process of widespread inhibition spreads, depression, weakening or stiffness of muscular movements, decline in cardiovascular activity and respiration, etc. are observed. Thus, when experiencing feelings, during emotional states, it is observed with an increase and decrease in impulsivity of various aspects of human life.
Recently, physiological research has revealed the importance of certain highly specialized brain structures for the emergence of emotional states. Experiments were carried out on animals in which electrodes were implanted into certain areas of the hypothalamus (D. Olds' experiments); when certain areas were irritated, the experimental subjects experienced clearly pleasant emotional positive sensations, the resumption of which they actively sought; these areas were called “pleasure centers.” When other brain structures were irritated by the electrode, it was noticed that the animal experienced negative emotions and tried in every possible way to avoid the situation of influencing these areas, which were therefore called “centers of suffering.” It has been established that there is a connection between different areas responsible for the emergence of negative emotions - “suffering centers” located in different parts of the brain form a single system. In this regard, negative emotions are experienced quite uniformly, signaling the general ill-being of the body. At the same time, in the center, those who specialized in the production of positive emotions are less connected with each other, which serves as the basis for a greater diversity, a more differentiated picture of positive emotions.
Of course, in the peculiarities of the functioning of the human brain one should not see a direct analogy with the physiology of emotional states in animals, but it is obviously possible to put forward reasonable hypotheses based on the above facts about the physiological prerequisites of human emotions.
Essentially important data for understanding the nature of emotions were also obtained from the study of functional asymmetry of the brain. In particular, it turned out that the left hemisphere is more associated with the emergence and maintenance of positive emotions, and the right hemisphere is more associated with negative emotions.
All studies of the physiological foundations of emotions clearly show their polar nature: pleasure-displeasure, pleasure-suffering, pleasant-unpleasant, etc. This polarity of emotional states finds its basis in the specialization of brain structures and the patterns of physiological processes.
Initially, in the study of emotions, the opinion about the subjective, i.e. mental, nature of emotions was established. According to this point of view, mental processes cause certain organic changes. However, in 1872, Charles Darwin published the book “The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals,” which was a turning point in understanding the connection between biological and psychological phenomena, in particular, the body and emotions. It was proven that the evolutionary principle is applicable not only to the biophysical, but also to the psychological and behavioral development of living things, that there is no impassable gap between the behavior of animals and humans. Darwin showed that anthropoids and children born blind have much in common in the external expression of different emotional states and in expressive bodily movements. These observations formed the basis of the theory of emotions, which was called evolutionary. Emotions, according to this theory, appeared in the process of evolution of living beings as vital adaptive mechanisms that contribute to the adaptation of the organism to the conditions and situations of its life. The bodily changes that accompany various emotional states, in particular those associated with the corresponding emotions of movement, according to Darwin, are nothing more than the rudiments of real adaptive reactions of the body. And indeed, the commonality of the emotional expressions of man and, in any case, of the higher animals that stand closest to man is so obvious that it defies any dispute.
Charles Darwin's ideas were adopted and developed in another theory, which became widely known in psychology. Its authors were W. James and K. Lange. They formulated a theory according to which the emergence of emotions is caused by changes caused by external influences, both in the voluntary motor sphere and in the sphere of involuntary acts, for example, the activity of the cardiovascular system. The sensations associated with these changes are emotional experiences. W. James believed that certain physical states are characteristic of different emotions - curiosity, delight, fear, anger and excitement. The corresponding bodily changes were called organic manifestations of emotions. According to the James-Lange theory, it is organic changes that are the root causes of emotions. Reflected in a person’s head through a feedback system, they generate an emotional experience of the corresponding modality. First, under the influence of external stimuli, changes characteristic of emotions occur in the body, and only then - as a consequence - does the emotion itself arise.
This theoretically complete and sufficiently developed theory was captivating for two reasons: on the one hand, it really gave a visible natural scientific, biological justification for emotional reactions; and on the other hand, it did not have the shortcomings of those theories that could not explain why emotions that no one needs, the remnants of animal existence, continue to live and turn out to be so important, such significant experiences, closest to the core of the personality.
At first, James Lange's theory was reproached for being "materialistic", because James and Lange wanted to reduce a person's feelings to the reflection in his consciousness of the organic processes occurring in his body. In response to these reproaches, James declared that only the lower emotions inherited by man from his animal ancestors are of organic origin. This may apply to such groups of emotions as fear, anger, despair, rage, but, of course, does not apply to such “subtle”, as he puts it, emotions such as religious feeling, the feeling of a man’s love for a woman, aesthetic experience, etc. . Thus, James sharply distinguished between the areas of lower and higher emotions.
These theories laid the foundation for the construction of a number of metaphysical theories in the doctrine of emotions. In this respect, the theory of James and Lange was a step back in comparison with the work of Darwin and the direction that directly developed from him.
An alternative point of view on the relationship between organic and emotional processes was expressed by W. Cannon. He found that the bodily changes observed during the occurrence of different emotional states are very similar to each other and are not so diverse as to explain the qualitative differences in the highest emotional experiences of a person. At the same time, the internal organs, with changes in the states of which Jame and Lange associated the emergence of emotional states, are rather insensitive structures that very slowly come to a state of excitement, and emotions usually arise and develop quite quickly. Moreover, Cannon discovered that organic changes artificially induced in humans are not always accompanied by emotional experiences. Cannon's strongest argument against the James-Lange theory was an experiment he conducted, as a result of which it was discovered that artificially induced cessation of the flow of organic signals into the brain does not prevent the occurrence of emotions.
Cannon believed that bodily processes during emotions are biologically expedient, since they serve as a preliminary adjustment of the entire organism to a situation where it will be required to expend increased energy resources. At the same time, emotional experiences and corresponding organic changes, in his opinion, arise in the same brain center - the thalamus.
Later, P. Bard showed that in fact, both bodily changes and the emotional experiences associated with them arise almost simultaneously, and of all the brain structures, it is not even the thalamus itself that is most functionally connected with emotions, but the hypothalamus and the central parts of the limbic system. systems. Later, in experiments conducted on animals, X. Delgado found that with the help of electrical influences on these structures it is possible to control such emotional states as anger and fear.
The psychological theory of emotions (as the concepts of James Lange and Cannon Bard can be called) was further developed under the influence of electrophysiological studies of the brain. On its basis, the activation theory of Lindsay Hebb arose. According to this theory, emotional states are determined by the influence of the reticular formation of the lower part of the brain stem. Emotions arise as a result of disruption and restoration of balance in the corresponding structures of the central nervous system. Activation theory is based on the following basic principles:
The electroencephalographic picture of brain function that occurs during emotions is an expression of the so-called “activation complex” associated with the activity of the reticular formation.
The work of the reticular formation determines many dynamic parameters of emotional states: their strength, duration, variability and a number of others.
Following theories that explain the relationship between emotional and organic processes, theories have emerged that describe the influence of emotions on the human psyche and behavior. Emotions, as it turned out, regulate activity, revealing a very definite influence on it, depending on the nature and intensity of the emotional experience. BEFORE. Hebb was able to experimentally obtain a curve expressing the relationship between the level of emotional arousal of a person and the success of his practical activity.
There is a curvilinear, “bell-shaped” relationship between emotional arousal and the effectiveness of human activity. To achieve the highest results in activity, both too weak and very strong emotional arousals are undesirable. For each person (and in general for all people) there is an optimum of emotional excitability, which ensures maximum efficiency in work. The optimal level of emotional arousal, in turn, depends on many factors: on the characteristics of the activity being performed, on the conditions in which it takes place, on the individuality of the person involved in it, and on much more. Too weak emotional arousal does not provide proper motivation for activity, and too strong one destroys it, disorganizes it and makes it practically uncontrollable.
In humans, in the dynamics of emotional processes and states, cognitive-psychological factors play no less a role than organic and physical influences (cognitive means related to knowledge). In this regard, new concepts have been proposed that explain human emotions by the dynamic features of cognitive processes.
One of the first such theories was the theory of cognitive dissonance by L. Festinger. According to it, a positive emotional experience occurs in a person when his expectations are confirmed and cognitive ideas come true, i.e. when the real results of activity correspond to the intended ones, are consistent with them, or, what is the same, are in consonance. Negative emotions arise and intensify in cases where there is a discrepancy, inconsistency or dissonance between the expected and actual results of activity.
Subjectively, a person usually experiences a state of cognitive dissonance as discomfort, and he strives to get rid of it as soon as possible. The way out of the state of cognitive dissonance can be twofold: either change cognitive expectations and plans so that they correspond to the actual result obtained, or try to get a new result that would be consistent with previous expectations.
In modern psychology, the theory of cognitive dissonance is often used to explain a person’s actions and actions in various social situations. Emotions are considered as the main motive for corresponding actions and deeds. The underlying cognitive factors are given a much greater role in determining human behavior than organic changes.
The dominant cognitivist orientation of modern psychological research has led to the fact that conscious assessments that a person gives to a situation are also considered as emotional factors. It is believed that such assessments directly influence the nature of the emotional experience.
S. Schechter contributed to what was said about the conditions and factors for the emergence of emotions and their dynamics by W. James, K. Lange, W. Cannon, P. Bard, D. Hebb and L. Festinger. He and his co-authors proposed that emotions arise from physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal. Some event or situation causes physiological arousal, and the individual has a need to evaluate the content of the situation that caused this arousal. The type or quality of emotion experienced by an individual does not depend on the sensation arising from physiological arousal, but on how the individual evaluates the situation in which it occurs. Assessing the situation allows the individual to label the feeling of excitement experienced as joy or anger, fear or disgust, or any other emotion appropriate to the situation. According to Schechter, the same physiological arousal can be experienced as joy or as anger (or any other emotion) depending on the interpretation of the situation.
He showed that a person’s memory and motivation make a significant contribution to emotional processes. The concept of emotions proposed by S. Schechter is called cognitive-physiological.
In one of the experiments aimed at proving the stated provisions of the cognitive theory of emotions, people were given a physiologically neutral solution as a “medicine”, accompanied by various instructions. In one case, they were told that this “medicine” would cause them to experience a state of euphoria, and in another, a state of anger. After taking the appropriate “medicine”, after some time, when according to the instructions it should have started to act, the subjects were asked how they felt. It turned out that the emotional experiences they described corresponded to those expected from the instructions given to them.
It was also shown that the nature and intensity of a person’s emotional experiences in a given situation depend on how they are experienced by others nearby. This means that emotional states can be transmitted from person to person, and in humans, unlike animals, the quality of communicated experiences depends on his personal attitude towards the one with whom he empathizes.
The information concept of emotions by P. V. Simonov can also be classified as cognitivist. According to this theory, emotional states are determined by the quality and intensity of the individual’s actual need and the assessment he gives of the likelihood of its satisfaction. A person makes an assessment of this probability on the basis of innate and previously acquired individual experience, involuntarily comparing information about the means, time, and resources supposedly necessary to satisfy the need with the information received at the moment. For example, the emotion of fear develops when there is a lack of information about the means necessary for protection.
P.V. Simonov tried to present in a brief symbolic form his set of factors influencing the occurrence and nature of emotion. He proposed the following formula for this:
E = P (I n - I s),
E - emotion, its strength and quality;
P - the magnitude and specificity of the current need;
I n - information necessary to satisfy current needs;
And c - existing information, i.e. the information that a person has at the moment.
The consequences arising from the formula are as follows: if a person does not have a need (P = 0), then he does not experience emotions (E = 0); The emotion does not arise even when the person experiencing the need has full opportunity to realize it. If the subjective assessment of the likelihood of need satisfaction is high, positive feelings appear. Negative emotions arise if the subject negatively evaluates the possibility of satisfying a need. Thus, consciously or unconsciously, a person constantly compares information about what is required to satisfy a need with what he has, and depending on the results of the comparison, he experiences different emotions.
The results of experimental studies suggest that the cerebral cortex plays a leading role in the regulation of emotional states. I.P. Pavlov showed that it is the cortex that regulates the flow and expression of emotions, keeps under its control all phenomena occurring in the body, has an inhibitory effect on the subcortical centers, and controls them. If the cerebral cortex comes into a state of excessive excitement (due to overwork, intoxication, etc.), then overexcitation of the centers lying below the cortex occurs, as a result of which the usual restraint disappears. In the case of widespread inhibition, depression, weakening or stiffness of muscle movements, decline in cardiovascular activity and respiration, etc. are observed.
The fact that the cerebral cortex plays a very important role in the regulation of emotional states is evidenced by clinical cases in which there is a sharp discrepancy between subjective experience and their external expression. In patients with lesions of the cerebral cortex, any stimulus can cause a completely inappropriate external reaction: bursts of laughter or streams of tears. However, when laughing, these patients feel sad, and when crying, they sometimes experience joy.
The second signaling system plays a significant role in a person’s emotional experiences, since experiences arise not only from the direct influences of the external environment, but can also be caused by words and thoughts. Thus, a read story produces a corresponding emotional state. Currently, it is generally accepted that the second signaling system is the physiological basis of higher human feelings - intellectual, moral, aesthetic.
To date, there is no single point of view on the nature of emotions. Research into emotions continues to be intensive. The currently accumulated experimental and theoretical material allows us to talk about the dual nature of emotions. On the one hand, these are subjective factors, which include various mental phenomena, including cognitive processes, organizational features of a person’s value system, etc. On the other hand, emotions are determined by the physiological characteristics of the individual. It can be argued that emotions arise as a result of exposure to a certain stimulus, and their appearance is nothing more than a manifestation of human adaptation mechanisms and the regulation of his behavior. We can also assume that emotions were formed during the evolution of the animal world and they reached their maximum level of development in humans, since in him they are presented objectively at the level of feelings.