P.B.

ALCANO & ALEMAN

UNIT 4; FUNCTIONS OF
EMOTIONS AND MOTIVATION

INTRAPERSONAL
FUNCTIONS OF
EMOTIONS
MODULE I
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INTRODUCTION
Emotions play a crucial role in our lives because
they have important functions. The section on the
intrapersonal functions of emotion describes the
roles that emotions play within each of us
individually. All in all we will see that emotions are
a crucially important aspect of our psychological
composition, having meaning and function to each
of us individually, to our relationships with others in
groups, and to our societies as a whole.

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LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
• Gain an appreciation of the importance of emotion in

human life.

• Understand the functions and meanings of emotion in

three areas of life: the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and

social–cultural.

• Give examples of the role and function of emotion in each

of the three areas described.

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INTRODUCTION
0.2
It is impossible to imagine life without emotion. We treasure
our feelings—the joy at a ball game, the pleasure of the
touch of a loved one, or the fun with friends on a night out.
Even negative emotions are important, such as the sadness
when a loved one dies, the anger when violated, the fear that
overcomes us in a scary or unknown situation, or the guilt or
shame toward others when our sins are made public. Emotions
color life experiences and give those experiences meaning
and flavor.

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EMOTIONS HELP US ACT

QUICKLY WITH MINIMAL
CONSCIOUS AWARENESS
Emotions are rapid information-processing systems that help us act
with minimal thinking (Tooby & Cosmides, 2008). Problems
associated with birth, battle, death, and seduction have occurred
throughout evolutionary history and emotions evolved to aid humans
in adapting to those problems rapidly and with minimal conscious
cognitive intervention. f we did not have emotions, we could not
make rapid decisions concerning whether to attack, defend, flee,
care for others, reject food, or approach something useful, all of
which were functionally adaptive in our evolutionary history and
helped us to survive.

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EMOTIONS PREPARE
THE BODY FOR
IMMEDIATE ACTION
The emotion of disgust serves to
protect us from toxins and
Emotions prepare us for behavior. When
contamination, of the physical and triggered, emotions orchestrate systems such
moral variety. as perception, attention, inference, learning,
memory, goal choice, motivational priorities,
physiological reactions, motor behaviors, and
behavioral decision making. Emotions
simultaneously activate certain systems and
deactivate others in order to prevent the
chaos of competing systems operating at the
Emotions initiate a system of components that same time, allowing for coordinated
includes subjective experience, expressive responses to environmental stimuli

behaviors, physiological reactions, action

tendencies, and cognition, all for the purposes of
specific actions; the term “emotion” is, in reality, a PAGE 08
metaphor for these reactions.
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EMOTIONS
INFLUENCE
THOUGHTS
Emotions are also connected to thoughts and memories.
Memories are not just facts that are encoded in our brains; they are
colored with the emotions felt at those times the facts occurred
(Wang & Ross, 2007). Thus, emotions serve as the neural glue that
connects those disparate facts in our minds. That is why it is easier to
remember happy thoughts when happy, and angry times when angry.
It is difficult to think critically and clearly when we feel intense
emotions, but easier when we are not overwhelmed with emotions

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Emotions prepare our bodies for immediate action, influence thoughts, and can
be felt, they are important motivators of future behavior. Many of us strive to
experience the feelings of satisfaction, joy, pride, or triumph in our
accomplishments and achievements. At the same time, we also work very hard to
avoid strong negative feelings. Emotions, therefore, not only influence immediate
actions but also serve as an important motivational basis for future behaviors.

EMOTIONS
MOTIVATE
FUTURE
BEHAVIORS
SELECTED WORK 2019-2020 PAGE 10
INTRAPERSONAL

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