The Psychological Science Behind Emotion

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a scientific approach to inquiring how exactly humans form emotion and why they display the same emotion differently. The author distinguishes between primary and secondary emotions, and continues with a discussion of how people express emotions through facial feedback, and how there are display rules which rely on social and cultural norms.

From the Paper:

"According to our book, Emotion (408) is defined as "A state of arousal involving facial and bodily changes, brain activation, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, and tendencies toward action, all shaped by cultural rules". The part about that definition which strikes me as valuable is that emotions are shaped by cultural rules. What exactly does this mean? To me, it means that we are initially a blank slate and are immediately looking for something in our atmosphere to model after. Being as the culture I have always lived in has been filled with people, the part of my atmosphere that I most often looked towards for examples was the social aspect.
"The social aspect to me included not only my parents and siblings but also my friends and other people who I could observe. A classic example of developing emotion which is shaped by our surroundings (especially our culture) is the central idea of work versus play. In other words, when I see my older brother become upset when he is forced to do his homework or see my parents become mentally drained after coming home from work, I begin to develop my own emotion of how I should react when faced with the situation of having to engage in similar activities. I also began to see that after the people around me had completed all of their work and were able to have some fun, they displayed a joyous form of emotion. Ever since I was a child, this was how I modeled myself."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Tavris, , and Wade. Psychology. 9th. Print.

More papers on The Psychological Science Behind Emotion:

• Book Review # 40817 : "The Gay Science"
• Analytical Essay # 7591 : "The Talking Cure: The Science Behind Psychotherapy"
• Essay # 61542 : "Qualitative Research"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: