Emotion [Cont.]

1. General excitement is the only emotional response newborn infants clearly express.

2. Emotional life blossoms rapidly. There is a ^consistent order in which emotions appear. First a split between pleasant & unpleasant. Darwin believed that emotional expressions were retained during the course of human evolution because communicating feelings to others is an aid to Survival. All basic human emotions appear before age 2. Recent research suggests that even by the end of the first year, babies can express happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, and interest. Development of the ability to express emotion is probably related to maturation of the brain, since children of all cultures show a similar pattern. Even deaf and blind children make same facial gestures to express or display joy, sadness, disgust, and so on.

3. Adults control and develop gestures that can become unique to various cultures --Chinese stick out tongue to express surprise --not to show disrespect or to tease. However, facial expressions of fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger and happiness are recognized by people of all cultures. Smile most universal and easily recognized facial expression.

NOTE: Kinesthesis [body language]
The study of communication through body movement, posture, gestures, and facial expressions.

Body language communicates an overall emotional tone.
Overall posture can indicate one's emotional state.

Facial blends. A mixture of two or more basic expressions. Face is capable of producing some 20,000 different expressions. Face most expressive and most frequently noticed part of body.

Facial expressions can be boiled down to basic dimensions of:

pleasantness-unpleasantness

Attention-rejection
Activation

Body: Other emotional feelings telegraphed by the body:

Relaxation or tension
Liking or disliking are the most general

6. COPING
Coping may depend on how a situation is "sized up." Public speaking that is viewed as a threat --imagining failure, rejection, or embarrassment --invites disaster which might not occur if viewed as a challenge

Primary appraisal. You decide if a situation is relevant or irrelevant, positive or threatening. ("Am I okay or in trouble?")

Secondary appraisal. You assess your resources and choose a way to meet the threat or challenge. ("What can I do about this situation?")

Problem-focused coping. Aimed at managing or altering the distressing situation itself.

Emotion-focused coping. Tries instead to control his or her emotional reaction (deep breathing, etc.)

7. PSYCHOLOGICAL DEFENSE
Anxiety often accompanies threatening situations. Feels tense, uneasy, apprehensive, worried, and vulnerable. Since it is unpleasant and uncomfortable, we are often motivated to avoid it.

Defense mechanism. Any technique used to avoid, deny, or distort sources of threat or anxiety. Also used to maintain an idealized self-image so that we can comfortably live with ourselves. Most of the defense mechanisms are distortions of reality and are mostly unconscious. A Psychological defense mechanisms may lessen anxiety caused by stressful situations or by our own shortcomings and limitations. People who overuse defense mechanisms become less adaptable. They consume great amounts of emotional energy to control anxiety and to maintain an unrealistic self-image. Can, however, provide time for learning to cope in a more effective manner with continuing threats and frustrations. ^Some of the most common defense mechanisms:

Compensation. Counteracting a real or imagined weakness by emphasizing desirable traits or seeking to excel in other areas. Defenses against inferiority. May go to unusual lengths to excel in other areas to overcome a real or imagined weakness. (+)

Denial. Protect oneself from an unpleasant reality by refusing to perceive it, accept it, or believe it. Closely linked with death, illness, and similar painful and threatening experiences.

Fantasy. Fulfilling unmet desires in imagined achievements or activities.

Intellectualization. Separating emotion from a threatening or anxiety-provoking situation by talking or thinking about it in impersonal terms.

Isolation. Separating contradictory thoughts or feelings into "logic-tight" mental compartments so that they do not come into conflict.

Projection. Attributing one's own feelings, shortcomings, or unacceptable impulses to others. It is an unconscious process. Protects us from the anxiety that would occur if we were to discern our own faults or unacceptable traits. Tends, rather, to see them in others. Lowers anxiety by exaggerating negative traits in others --directing attention away from one's own failing. [Shop owner cheats customers, convinced they are bent on cheating him.]

Rationalization. Justifying one's own behavior by giving reasonable and rational but false reasons for it. Reasonable, rational and convincing excuses. Reasons for what we ourselves find somewhat questionable. Rationalization as a protection.

Reaction formation. Preventing dangerous impulses from being expressed by exaggerating opposite behavior. Impulses are repressed, but also -- are held in check by exaggerated opposite behavior to block threatening impulses or feelings ("smother love" rather than hostility towards children).

Regression. Retreating to an earlier level of development or to earlier, less demanding habits or situations. Any return to earlier, less demanding situations or habits.

Repression. Preventing painful or dangerous thoughts from entering consciousness. Powerful forces holding these painful memories from awareness. We protect ourselves by repressing thoughts or impulses that are painful or threatening. Feelings of hostility toward a loved one, the names of disliked people, and past failures and embarrassments are common targets of repression.

Sublimation. Working off unmet or frustrated desires (especially sexual) or unacceptable impulses in activities that are constructive or accepted by society. Freud's idea that art, music, dance, poetry, scientific investigation, and other creative activities rechannel sexual energies into productive behavior --and his feeling that any strong desire can be sublimated. Greed may be refined into successful business career, lying into story telling or politics, etc.

Learned Helplessness. Resigned to fate, having already learned that there is nothing that can be done to prevent it. Similar effects occur when humans fail or when they receive punishment they cannot predict or prevent. Are apt to act helpless in other situations if they attribute their failure to lasting, general factors. However, human attribution has a large effect on helplessness. Attributing failure to specific factors in the original situation tends to prevent learned helplessness from spreading ("I wasn't really interested." or "I'm not too good at.....") Feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness, decreased activity, lowered aggression, loss of sexual drive and appetite, tendency to see oneself as failing even when this is not the case.

Depression. Feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness, decreased activity, lowered aggression, loss of sexual drive and appetite, tendency to see oneself as failing even when this isn't the case. May be caused by learned helplessness. Unending series of shocks and failures --has learned to endure whatever shocks life has in store for him or her.

Hope. Powerful antidote to depression and helplessness. May be fund individually in religion, nature, human companionship, or even technology. Effectively drawn from shock into safe is one effective technique for animal to regain hope. Mastery training can make animals more resistant to learned helplessness. Findings suggest that we might even be able to "immunize" people against helplessness and depression by giving them experience at mastering seemingly impossible challenges. (Outward Bound schools)