MODULE 4 – EMOTIONAL SELF: ACHIEVING MY EMOTIONAL COMPETENCIES

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

At the end of this module, the students will be able to:

1. discuss the nature and kinds of emotions;

2. identify the physiological reactions to emotions;
3. enumerate ways of controlling and managing emotions; and
4. explain the primary emotional responses of the self to achieve emotional maturity.

MODULE OUTLINE:

Meaning and Nature of Emotion

Fundamentals of Emotion
Aspects of Emotion
Theories of Emotion
Emotions vs. Feelings
Control of Emotion
Emotion Management Strategies

Meaning and Nature of Emotion

Tracing the etymological definition of emotion, this term comes from the word “emovere”
(Latin) which means “to move out.” This conveys an idea that there is something inside that that needs
an outward expression.

There is a need in learning emotion because at one time or another in our life, we have felt them
and expressed them.

An emotion is defined in terms of four components. First, you interpret or appraise some
stimulus in terms of your well-being. Second, you have a subjective feeling, such as fear or happiness.
Third, you experience physiological responses, such as changes in heart rate or breathing. Fourth, you
may show observable behaviors, such as smiling or crying.

Can you guess how many emotions a human can experience?

The answer might shock you – it’s around 34,000.

With so many, how can one navigate the turbulent waters of emotions, its different intensities,
and compositions, without getting lost?

The answer – an emotion wheel.

Through years of studying emotions, Dr. Robert Plutchik, an American psychologist, proposed
that there are eight primary emotions that serve as the foundation for all others: joy, sadness, trust,
disgust, fear, anger, surprise and anticipation (Pollack, 2016).

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 This means that, while it’s impossible to fully understand all 34,000 distinguishable emotions,
learning how to accurately identify how each of the primary emotions is expressed within you can be
empowering. It’s especially useful for moments of intense feelings when the mind is unable to remain
objective as it operates from its older compartments that deal with the fight or flight response (Watkins,
2014).

Fundamentals of Emotion

Based on Plutchik’s (1980) configuration of emotion, there are eight fundamental emotions,
namely joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, and anticipation.

Plutchik’s wheel of emotion demonstrates how emotions are related to one another. Emotions
adjacent to one another on the wheel are closely related and can be combined. The combinations can be
found on the outer part of the wheel; for instance, love is the combination of joy and trust. Meanwhile,
emotions across each other are conceptual opposites. For example, sadness is the opposite of joy, and
anticipation is the opposite of surprise. The eight fundamental emotions also come in a variety of
intensities. Those nearest to the center signify the most intense forms while those farthest from the
center are the weaker forms.

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 Wheel of Emotion
Each circle sector has an opposite emotion. The opposite of sadness is joy, and the opposite of
trust is disgust.

The emotions with no color represent an emotion that is a mix of the 2 primary emotions. For
example, anticipation and joy combine to be optimism. Joy and trust combine to be love.

Combinations of these basic emotions result in advanced emotions, such as optimism, love,
submission, awe, disappointment, remorse, contempt, and aggression. This Wheel of Emotions diagram
beautifully depicts the relationships between each emotion in the form of a spectrum.

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Primary Emotions

 Joy
 Trust
 Fear
 Surprise
 Sadness
 Disgust
 Anger
 Anticipation

Opposite Emotions

 Joy vs. Sadness

 Trust vs. Disgust
 Fear vs. Anger
 Surprise vs. Anticipation

Advanced Emotions

 Joy + Trust = LOVE

 Trust + Fear = SUBMISSION
 Fear + Surprise = AWE
 Surprise + Sadness = DISAPPROVAL
 Sadness + Disgust = REMORSE
 Disgust + Anger = CONTEMPT
 Anger + Anticipation = AGGRESIVENESS
 Anticipation + Joy = OPTIMISM

Intense Forms

 Joy - ECSTASY
 Trust - ADMIRATION
 Fear - TERROR
 Surprise - AMAZEMENT
 Sadness - GRIEF
 Disgust - LOATHING
 Anger - RAGE
 Anticipation – VIGILANCE

Weaker Forms

 Joy - SERENITY
 Trust - ACCEPTANCE
 Fear - APPREHENSION
 Surprise – DISTRACTION
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  Sadness – PENSIVENESS
 Disgust - BOREDOM
 Anger - ANNOYANCE
 Anticipation – INTEREST

Aspects of Emotion

Emotion is well interpreted through its components. These are:

1. Personal-Emotional Experience. This refers to those characteristics of emotion which the

person consciously feels, knows and can describe verbally. Examples are Anger or Rage, Fear
and Love.

2. Physiological Aspect. This aspect of emotion refers to those bodily changes such as stirred-up
breathing, heart rate, circulation of blood and other physiological function that occur during the
experience of emotion.

3. Behavioral Aspect. This is an aspect of emotion on how the person acts and what that person
does. It is a pattern of expression such as smiling, laughing, crying and the likes.

4. Motivational Aspect. In this aspect, emotion is regarded as motive. It inspires a person working
towards a particular goal and avoiding others. It can also be considered a driving force to creative
activity.

Peripheral Theories

These theories emphasize that physiological changes give rise to emotional feelings.

1. James-Lange Theory

“Our brains interpret specific physiological changes as feelings or emotions and that
there is a different physiological pattern underlying each emotion.”

a. Physiological Changes

The stimulus affects an area of the brain called hypothalamus, which controls the
nervous system. One division of the autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic,
activates a number of physiological responses, such as increases in heart rate, blood
pressure, breathing, etc.

b. Interpretation of Changes

Your brain analyzes each pattern of physiological responses and interprets each
pattern as a different emotion.

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 c. Emotional Feeling

The brain will interpret specific emotions based on the experienced specific
patterns of physiological responses. The person may also show observable facial
expressions.

James-Lange Sequence for Emotions

Experience Brain interprets Feel specific Show

physiological physiological emotions observable
changes changes behavior

This theory proposes that emotional experience occurs after the bodily changes.
The sequence of events on emotional state:

a. Perception of the situation first which will produce the emotion

b. Perception of the reaction as the basis of emotional experience
c. Awareness of the emotion in terms of bodily reaction

2. Cannon-Bards Hypothalamic Theory

This theory holds the nerve impulses coming into the hypothalamus from the
receptors. The impulses will be sent to the cortex and to the viscera simultaneously. The arrival
of the impulses to the cortex gives the conscious experience of the emotion. The same impulses
will also be sent to the viscera for motor reactions.

3. Facial Feedback Theory

“The sensations or feedback from the movement of your muscles and skin are interpreted
by your brain as different emotions.”

a. Physiological changes

The stimulus results in a number of physiological responses. These responses

include the movements of your facial muscles and skin.

b. Interpretation of Changes

Different movements of muscles and skin cause different facial expressions

whose feedback is sent to your brain. In turn, your brain interprets the feedback from
different facial muscle-skin patterns as different emotions.

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 c. Emotional feeling

Feedback from your various facial muscles results in feeling different emotions.

Facial Feedback Sequence for Emotions

Changes on Brain Experience Show

facial interprets of specific observable
muscles and feedback emotion behavior
skin from
muscles

This theory explains that the facial expression has something to do with our
experienced emotion. In this suggestion, different bodily reactions cause different facial
expression whose feedback is sent to the brain. The brain interprets the feedback from the
different facial muscles-skin patterns as different emotions.

Cognitive Appraisal Theories

These theories say that interpretation or appraisal of a situation, object, or event can contribute
to, or result in, experiencing different emotional states.

1. Schachter-Singer Theory

“Thoughts are important in generating and identifying emotional feelings.” Here’s what
they did in the Schachter-Singer ground-breaking experiment.

a. Physiological Arousal

First, Schachter and Singer injected some of their subjects with a hormone,
epinephrine, that caused physiological arousal, such as increased heart rate and blood
pressure. However, subjects were told that the injections were vitamins and were not told
that they would experience physiological arousal.

b. Interpretation of Cues

Second, after injections, subjects were placed in different situations – a happy one
or an angry one.

c. Emotional Feeling

Those subjects in the happy situation often reported feeling happy, and their
observable reactions were smiles. However, those in the angry situation often reported
feeling angry, and their observable behaviors were angry facial expressions.

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 Schachter-Singer Sequence for Emotions

Physiological Cognitive Emotional Show

arousal Interpretation feeling observable
of cues behavior

2. Cognitive Theory

This theory states that the emotion which we feel is an interpretation of the stirred-up
bodily states. The basic idea is that the bodily state of emotional arousal is much the cause of
many different emotions. The state of bodily arousal is ambiguous, but we interpret or have
cognitions of it. The emotion is experienced according to the situation which caused the emotion.
The sequence is presented in this way:

a. Perception of the emotion-producing situation.

b. Stirred-up bodily state or bodily reactions which are ambiguous
c. Interpretation and labeling of the bodily reaction so that they fit to perceive situation.

Emotions vs Feelings

Emotions precede feelings, are physical, and instinctual. Because they are physical, they can be
objectively measured by blood flow, brain activity, facial micro-expressions, and body language.

Feelings are mental associations and reactions to emotions, and are subjective being influenced
by personal experience, beliefs, and memories. A feeling is a mental portrayal of what is going on in
your body when you have an emotion and is the by-product of your brain perceiving and assigning
meaning to the emotion. Feelings are the next things that happen after having an emotion, involve
cognitive input, usually subconscious, and cannot be measured precisely.

Antonio D’Amasio, professor of neuroscience at The University of California and author of

several books on the subject, explains it as:

Feelings are mental experiences of body states, which arise as the brain interprets emotions,
themselves physical states arising from the body’s responses to external stimuli. (The order of such
events is: I am threatened, experience fear, and feel horror.)

Control of Emotion

An emotionally mature person is one who has learned to control his emotions. One of the marks
of an educated person is his or her ability to show correct emotional responses to different situations. It
is suggested here that people need to control their emotion as well as its expression. This control of
emotion does not mean suppression or elimination of it but making responses which are morally and
socially accepted.

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 The following are suggestions for emotional control:

1. Emotional control calls for awareness of reality.

2. Emotional control may involve a choice of alternatives that may not altogether be
satisfactory.
3. Emotional control may also involve a general awareness of types of emotional problems
one has to encounter and what emotional reactions he or she is expected to give in
meeting problems.
4. Emotional control deals with the determination to overcome bad emotional habits.

Emotion Management Strategies

Langley (2012) lays out some tips on managing emotions:

1. Smile to make yourself feel good. Face a mirror and smile. After some time, your mood will be
better and you might even laugh naturally. Do it for at least 30 seconds.
2. Smile to make others feel good. Smiling opens up your connection with others. It also leads to
experiencing empathy.
3. Get up and move. Exercise activates happy hormones that include endorphin, dopamine, and
serotonin, among others. Movement is also important for the lymphatic system to get the toxins
out of your body. Get up from your desk and jump and bounce regularly.
4. Check in with your body. Scan your body by feeling the tensions building up. Learn to relate
these tensions with the emotion you feel to understand how your feelings affect your physiology.
5. Physically remove the tension. If you feel tense in your chest, stretch and breathe deeply.
6. Breathe. Perform diaphragmatic or deep breathing by contracting your diaphragm. Let your
lower lungs fill with oxygen to pass around your body and brain. You will feel a tingly
sensation and your belly will expand. Do this exercise for at least 60 seconds. The body cannot
sustain anger when you are breathing deeply.
7. Talk to someone. It is healthier to vent your anger and frustrations to a friend rather than to
suppress them. Express your feelings so you can start to resolve the situation.
8. Disengage and re-engage emotions. Learn to park your emotions to deal with at a later time,
but do not avoid them. You must acknowledge your feelings then utilize your emotional
intelligence to improve them.
9. Label your emotions. After acknowledging your emotions, label them. This activity reduces the
intensity of your emotions. The part of the brain that feels the emotion is the same part that
names it.
10. Label emotions for others. You can often defuse a tense situation by acknowledging the
feelings of others. When you ask, “I sense that you are angry. Can you tell me how you feel?”
the other person will be encouraged to consider and label his/her emotion as well. He/she may
respond with “Yes, I feel angry,” or No, I am not angry; I am annoyed.”