The Emotional psychology Studies how emotions manifest in humans. They do it through physiological activation, behavioral responses and cognitive processing:
- Each emotion causes a level of Physiological activation determined. This activation is manifested by changes in The autonomic nervous system (ANS) and in the neuroendocrine.
- The Behavioral responses Are usually motor, especially the facial muscles are activated.
- He Cognitive processing Is done before and after feeling the emotion, before to evaluate the situation and then to be aware of the emotional state in which we are.
The emotions Are behavioral, cognitive and physiological patterns that occur before a given stimulus. These patterns differ in each species and allow us to adjust our response depending on the stimulus, context and previous experience.
For example, if we see someone crying we can feel both positive and negative emotions and act accordingly. I may be crying with grief or joy. In the first case we would feel a negative emotion and we would go to comfort him and in the second we would feel a positive emotion and we would be happy.
In humans, emotions are special, because they are accompanied by feelings. Feelings are private and subjective experiences, are purely cognitive and are not accompanied by behaviors. A feeling is, for example, what we feel (worth redundancy) when we see a picture or hear a song.
It is believed that feelings are specific to humans because they do not fulfill an adaptive function, since feelings are not preceded by a behavioral response to stimuli. Therefore, it is believed that in the phylogenetic evolution (evolution of the species) appeared before the emotions and later the feelings.
Another function of emotions is to modulate the memory , Since the way we store information depends to a large extent on the emotion we feel when we get it. For example, we will remember better the phone of a person that we like that of a house for rent.
Emotions are elicited by stimuli that are relevant, either because of their biological importance, their physical characteristics or the previous experience of the individual. In humans, emotions can be triggered even by thoughts or memories.
3 components of the emotional response
The emotional response consists of three components: musculoskeletal, neurovegetative and endocrine. These components lead us to a state of arousal determined to prepare the body to give an adaptive response to the stimulus and to communicate to the individuals around us our emotions.
The musculoskeletal component encompasses the patterns of behavioral responses adapted to each situation. In addition to giving a response to the stimulus, these patterns also serve to inform others about our mood.
For example, if a stranger enters a plot and there is a dog that teaches the dog the person will know that the dog has identified him as an intruder and that, if he goes further, possibly attack him.
The neurovegetative component encompasses ANS responses. These responses activate the energy resources necessary to carry out the behaviors appropriate to the situation in which the person is.
Taking the example above, the sympathetic branch of the dog's ANS would increase its activation to prepare the musculature, which would be launched if it finally has to attack the intruder.
The main function of the endocrine component is to reinforce the actions of the ANS, segregating hormones that increase or decrease the activation of this system as the situation requires. Among other hormones, they are usually secreted Catecholamines , as the adrenalin Y Noradrenaline , Y Steroid hormones .
Theories of emotion
Theory of Darwin
Throughout history, many authors have developed theories and experiments to try to explain how emotions work.
One of the first theories described in this regard is included in the book The expression of emotions in man and animals ( Darwin , 1872). In this book, the English naturalist explains his theory on the evolution of the expression of emotions.
This theory is based on two premises:
- The way in which species express their emotions (facial and body gestures) has evolved from simple behaviors indicative of the response usually given by the individual.
- Emotional responses are adaptive and fulfill a communicative function, so they serve to communicate to other individuals what we feel and what behaviors we are going to carry out. As emotions are the result of evolution, they will continue to evolve by adapting to the circumstances and will endure over time.
Later, two psychologists elaborated two theories on emotion separately. The first was the American psychologist William James (1884) and the second the Danish psychologist Carl Lange . These theories were combined into one and today is known as the James-Lange theory.
Theory of James-Lange
The Theory of James-Lange States that when we receive a stimulus, it is first processed sensory in the sensory cortex, then the sensory cortex sends the information to the motor cortex to trigger the behavioral response, and finally, the feeling of the emotion becomes conscious when the whole Information of our physiological response reaches the neocortex (see figure 1).
Figure 1. Theory of James-Lange (adaptation of Redolar, 2014).
Although there are studies whose results support James-Lange's theory, it seems that it is not complete because it can not explain why in some cases of paralysis in which it is not possible to give a physiological response, people still feel the emotions with The same intensity.
The Cannon-Bard Theory
In 1920, the American physiologist Walter Cannon Created a new theory to rebut James-Lange's, based on the experiments performed by Philip Bard .
Bard's experiments were to perform progressive lesions on cats, from the cortex to the subcortical areas, and to study their behavior when presented with an emotional stimulus.
Bard found that, when injuries occurred in the Thalamus , The animals suffered a reduction in the expression of their emotions. In turn, if the lesions were produced in the cortex, they had an overreaction to the stimuli, compared to the responses given before the injury occurred.
As the theory was made based on these experiments, it was called Cannon-Bard theory. According to this theory, in the first place, the information of the emotional stimulus would be processed in the thalamic zones, being the thalamus the one in charge of putting the emotional responses in action.
The processed sensory information would also reach the cortex through the ascending thalamic pathways and the already processed emotional information would go to the cortex through the pathways Hypothalamus .
In the cortex all the information would be integrated and the emotion become conscious (see figure 2).
Figure 2. Cannon-Bard Theory (adaptation of Redolar, 2014).
This theory differs mainly from that of James-Lange, in that, while the former argued that the conscious sensation of feeling an emotion would be preceded by physiological activation, in the second theory the conscious feeling of emotion would feel at the same time as Physiological activation.
The first specific circuit for emotion
The first specific circuit for the emotion was elaborated by Paper In 1937.
Papez based his proposal on the clinical observations made to patients with lesions in the medial temporal lobe and in studies with animals with the injured hypothalamus. According to this author, once information on the stimulus reaches the thalamus it is divided into two pathways (see Figure 3):
- The path of thought: It carries the sensory information of the stimulus from the thalamus to the neocortex.
- The path of feeling: Takes information from the stimulus to the hypothalamus (specifically to the mammillary bodies) where the motor, neurovegetative and endocrine systems are activated. Subsequently the information would be sent to the cortex, the latter being bidirectional (hypothalamus or cortex).
Figure 3. Circuit of Papez (adaptation of Redolar, 2014).
As for the perception of emotional stimuli, Papez stipulated that it could be done in two ways (see figure 3):
- Activating the path of thought. Activation of this pathway would release memories of previous experiences in which the same stimulus was present, stimulus information and previous memories would be sent to the cortex, where information would be integrated and the perception of the emotional stimulus, So that the stimulus would be perceived on the basis of memories.
- Activating the path of feeling. This would simply activate the bi-directional pathway of the hypothalamus to the cortex, without regard to previous experiences.
In the following decade, in particular in 1949, Paul MacLean Expanded the theory of Papez by creating the MacLean circuit. This was based on the studies carried out by Heinrich Klüver and Paul Bucy With Rhesus monkeys who had their temporal lobes injured.
MacLean attached great importance to the role of the hippocampus as an integrator of sensory and physiological information. In addition, I included other areas such as the amygdala or prefrontal cortex, which would be connected to the limbic system (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. MacLean circuit (adaptation of Redolar, 2014).
Current Theories of Emotion
There are currently three well-differentiated groups of psychological theories of emotion: categorical, dimensional, and multi-component theories.
Categorical Theories
The Categorical theories They try to distinguish between basic and complex emotions. Basic emotions are innate and found in many species. We humans share them, regardless of our culture or society.
These emotions are the oldest, evolutionarily speaking, and some ways of expressing them are common in several species. Expressions of these emotions are made through simple response patterns (neurovegetative, endocrine and behavioral).
Complex emotions are acquired, that is, they are learned and shaped by society and culture. Evolutionarily speaking, they are newer than basic emotions and are especially important in humans because they can be shaped by language.
They are appearing and refining as the person grows, and is expressed through complex response patterns that often combine several patterns of simple responses.
Dimensional Theories
The Dimensional theories Focus on describing emotions as a continuum rather than in terms of all or nothing. That is to say, these theories establish a interval with two axes (for example, positive or negative valence) and include the emotions within that interval.
Most existing theories take as valence or arousal axes (intensity of activation).
Theories of multiple components
The Theories of multiple components They consider that emotions are not fixed, since the same emotion can feel more or less intense depending on certain factors.
One of the factors that has been studied more within these theories is the cognitive valuation of the emotion, that is to say the meaning that we give to the events.
Some of the theories that can be included within these categories are the Schachter-Singer theory or theory of the two factors of the emotion (1962) and the theory of Antonio Damasio Described in his book The error of Descartes (1994).
The first theory gives great importance to cognition when it comes to elaborating and interpreting emotions, since they realized that the same emotion could be experienced by having different neurovegetative activations.
Damasio, meanwhile, tries to establish a relationship between emotions and reason. Since, according to his theory of the somatic marker, emotions can help us make decisions, they can even substitute for reason in some situations in which a rapid response has to be made or all variables are not well known.
For example, if someone is in a dangerous situation the normal thing is not to think and reason what to do, if not to express an emotion, fear, and act accordingly (fleeing, attacking or remaining paralyzed do).
References
- Cannon, W. (1987). The James-Lange theory of emotions: a critical examination and an alternative theory. Am J Psychol, 100 , 567-586.
- Damasio, A. (1996). The somatic market hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 351 , 1413-1420.
- Papez, J. (1995). A proposed mechanism of emotion. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, 7 , 103-112.
- Redolar, D. (2014). Principles of emotion and social cognition. In D. Redolar, Cognitive Neuroscience (Pages 635-647). Madrid: Pan American Medical.
- Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychol Rev, 69 , 379-399.
Recommended Books
Damasio A. The error of Descartes. Barcelona: Criticism, 2006.