Emotions are highly varied affective states of consciousness that we experience in different situations. For example, we might feel angry when someone calls us a derogatory name, or we might feel flooded with excitement after winning the lottery, or extremely depressed after the passing of a loved one. Emotions are involved in our everyday lives, and yet the exact mechanism behind emotions still hasn't been completely deciphered. The commonsense view of emotions contends that we experience a frightening situation, experience fear, and then react. In contrast, the James-Lange Theory states that we exprience the frightening situation, react, and then exprience the fear elicited by the frightening situation. The reasoning behind the James-Lange Theory is that a feeling is a kind of sensation, and a sensation must be the result of some biochemical change in the body.
Emotions serve many functions, from conferring adaptive advantages to playing significant roles in moral decision-making. Evolutionarily, fear alerts us to escape from danger, anger directs us to attack an intruder, and disgust tells us to avoid something that might cause illness. On the other hand, when faced with a difficult task that may involve the lives of others, emotions help us make moral decisions. For example, say a runaway trolley were about to hit five people on a track, and the only way you could prevent this from happening were to switch the trolley onto another track where it would kill one person. Would you pull the switch? In this case, most people with moral fiber would have difficulty answering. However, research has shown that people with damage to the prefrontal cortex are more likely than average to choose the utilitarian option of killing only one person over five. The reason for this is that people with damage to the prefrontal cortex often make impulsive decisions and generally don't respond appropriately in emotional situations.
Emotions play a tremendous role in the ways that we live and the functionality of our society. Try to imagine what our society would look like if we suddenly became more apathetic towards one another. Looks a bit scary, right? This past summer, I was taking an online class called Developmental Psychology, and one of my assignments was to observe children in some social setting and type a research proposal based on my observations. It had to be a group larger than 5 between the ages of about 4-11. The due date for the assignment was rapidly approaching and I still hadn't managed to find a group of children to observe in a natural social setting. I thought, "Well, school's out for the summer so I can't just sit in a class and observe children in a classroom, and I wonder what parents might think if I just sat at a park and wrote notes on their children's activities." The former would've been impossible and the latter seemed really awkward. The day before the due date and I went to get my car's oil changed at the Toyota dealership in McAllen, and I noticed there was a small group of children (about 6 or 7) playing in a play-pen in the waiting area of the dealership. "HOW PERFECT!" I thought. Immediately, I began to take notes from afar and I noticed something peculiar happening. The children weren't interacting. They were sitting down on a long stretch of tables against the wall of the play-pen, and it seemed like they were coloring. I couldn't exactly tell what they were doing until I walked near them on my way to the bathroom. I realized that the dealership now offered children iPads to play with in the play-pen. Four of the children in the play-pen were related to each other, and I knew this because they called the same woman "Mom" several times. The youngest of the four was about 2 years old, and he held onto a bottle in his hand. He was the only child that wasn't playing on the iPads. Aside from the iPads, there were all kinds of neat toys and books the children could play with scattered throughout the rest of the play-pen, but the toys remained untouched throughout my entire time at the dealership. These children were glued to the iPads and hardly ever socialized with one another. It completely astonished me! At one point, the 2-year-old fell on the floor and began to sob. I was surprised to see that none of his older siblings cared to rush over and help him up. They simply carried on with their game-play on the iPads. At the end of my observations, I proposed to evaluate the effect of technology on the socio-emotional development of children. This is an important issue to investigate now that children are being handed iPads by the school districts. What long-term effects will this intrusion of technology have on the future generations? Based on my observations, I noticed that the children seemed very desensitized towards one another. Perhaps we can expect a future generation that is more apathetic/robot-like, unless we come up with a set of rules and regulations for technology use that will prevent any delays in socio-emotional development amongst children. Researchers have already found ways to optimize people's emotions and learning performance using video-based multimedia material for learning. Another important piece of research in this field involves 14 case studies of preschool children living in the United Kingdom. The researchers investigated the effects of learning with technology at home (mobile phones, laptops, televisions, etc.) along with the role of family in young children's learning. It was found that the children acquired operational skills to understand the functions of different items, such as the mouse, touch screen, etc. Another finding was that the children developed dispositions to learn such as socio-emotional and cognitive features that facilitate a child's capacity for learning. Increased self-esteem and confidence were gained from successful learning. It is important to note that increased self-esteem and confidence are intrapersonal socio-emotional factors, but not interpersonal. My proposal was to focus on the effects of interpersonal socio-emotional development. Surely, we can make an effort to improve the interpersonal socio-emotional development of young children being exposed to technological learning instruments during the critical developmental periods of their lives.
Without a doubt, social networks on the Internet have had profound effects on many behaviors, namely suicidal behaviors. Many children and adults alike have committed suicide over cyber bullying. This is a prevalent problem in today's society, and increased efforts need to be made to prevent further disruptive cyber behaviors. On another note, now that data aggregate companies are allowed to pool Internet users' search information for marketing purposes, it is equally important to determine the psychological impact of the advertisements being directed towards Internet users. For example, a person who searches dietary supplements may already have a negative self-image, and the increased dietary or weight loss ads may either help an individual who is progressively losing weight or completely discourage an individual who is having difficulty losing the excess weight. Needless to say, further research efforts are needed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the technological front that continues to advance and change at a rapid pace.
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Emotions are an integral part of our lives. A vital function of our emotions is to communicate in a way that most other organisms can't, i.e. through empathy. Life would certainly be vastly different if we lost this aspect of ourselves. I wonder if we'd still be able to call ourselves humans without emotions. They are definitely a defining feature of our very existence. Life would not be the same without happiness, love, sadness, anger, disgust, or fear. I try my best to keep myself occupied, healthy, and happy. Though that may be difficult at times, I endure the rough patches and carry on. Some would call me resilient, but I like to think that I have simply found an abundance of reasons to live for: my family, my friends, and all the perils of the world. I enjoy helping those in need, and I strive to make other people smile because there is no other feeling I find worthy of my time than my love of joy.
Life is one big battle.
You can either sink or swim.
If you're feeling low and seeking advice all I have to say is: exo malo bonum.
Just keep your chin up with your eyes on the horizon.
The sun always sets before it rises.
