Essay 5 (Emotion)

Essay 5 (Emotion)

A generic term used for conscious and subjective experience that is characterized mainly through biological reactions, mental states and psychological expression in the field of psychology and philosophy is commonly known as emotion. It is often considered and linked with equally influential factors such as temperament, mood, motivation, disposition and personality and it is also influenced by neurotransmitters and hormones such as noradrenaline, dopamine, cortisol, oxytocin and serotonin. Emotions are considered as the driving force behind positive or negative motivation in an individual. The emotions are attached to arousal of human's nervous system, therefore most of the people are found unable to manage it (Moors, 2009). Mood is a kind of emotion that diffuses affective states that remains for much longer periods than the emotions and its intensity is lower than emotions. Another encompassing term that is used in describing the terms such as feelings, moods and emotions is known as affect in psychological terms. Affect and emotion are interchangeably used but in reality there is a clear difference among both of them.

Conscious emotions are emotions that are linked to an individual's consciousness. Shame, pride, embarrassment and guilt are some of the clear examples of conscious emotions. There are several benefits of conscious emotions, which include reparation of social errors and reinforcement of social behaviors in the society (Koole, 2009). According to various studies, lack of conscious emotion can contribute towards cause of poor behavior in individuals. There are five main features of conscious emotion. Conscious emotion: is cognitively complex; lacks in distant and universally identified facial expressions; requires self representation and self awareness; facilitates in attainment of critical social goals; and it emerges much later than the normal emotions. Emotion and cognition interact in various forms and the most interesting thing that is observed among ...