What made emotions

Emotions are given to us at birth or acquired?

It is believed that the emotions - is an innate mechanism. Something happens, neurons receive the signal, and we issue a stereotypical uncontrolled emotion. We frown when you're angry and smile when pleased. And the whole world is doing so well, because it's inherent nature. It turns out that we are born with the ability to read the emotions of people.

neuroscientist Lisa Barrett contests this concept. It argues that to define the emotion is not enough to analyze only the facial expression. One and the same emotion can manifest itself in different ways, there are no binding templates. Emotions - this is what we learn, and what our brain constructs.

How and why there are emotions?

During the evolution of the human brain to control the body continuously studied. The brain is constantly faces a choice where to direct resources of the body: we weigh, which require this or that reaction and that it will give us away. Our brain is trying to figure out how the body will respond to a particular stimulus, and how much energy can be spent on this reaction.

When the feelings are very strong, we will use emotional patterns to process incoming signals from the sensory organs. Thus we design emotions.

What is emotion?

Emotion - a combination of our knowledge about some experiences and feelings that we experience in this regard.

Emotion can be felt only when there is a representation of it. For example, in the culture of the inhabitants of Tahiti has no concept of "sadness." Instead, they have a word for "sickness like a cold." Here is what they are experiencing in the situations in which we would be sad.

How do we learn to emotions?

In early childhood representations about emotions lay the parents.

Children do not need to teach the feelings they have, and so have. The child is able to experience pleasure, tranquility, anxiety. But express emotions (Eg, sad, when there is something bad) children learn from adults. In later life, we continue to improve this skill and replenish set of emotions.

Is it true that if the emotions have a name, then it can not be tested?

You can, but it's more complicated than the familiar call emotion. You know what myuotyahyapeya (Finnish shame)? Even if not, you've probably experienced it. Another thing is that without a brain concepts require more effort to construct an emotion.

But if you know a word and hear it often, you start to include appropriate emotion automatically. Team "include Finnish shame" is shorter and easier to understand than "turn the shame of another person, when he did a stupid thing."

Is it possible to learn to control emotions?

Learn to switch their emotional state of one-click does not work, but to achieve some success can.

It is useful to expand its emotional range. The large number of emotions we have, the thinner we feel their shades, and the more accurate we can find adequate. For example, people with chronic pain is useful to distinguish between pain and discomfort - it is possible to separate the physical pain of the experience.

Is it possible to read the emotions on the face?

You can try, but very often we are wrong. If you ask people to guess the emotion, closing first the lower half of the face in the photo, and then the top answers are contradictory: in the upper part of one and the same person, many make out the sadness, and the bottom - joy.

To determine emotion, you need to pay attention not only on the person, but also to gestures, voice and behavior. In addition we show emotions is very individual. Joy by Scandinavian very far from expressing the joy of the Italian.

And what about the contemptuous facial expressions? Holders of "difficult-boiling" often complain that they have just such a person.

The so-called face bitch - it's actually a neutral facial expression. If you disassemble it into components, nothing negative will not be found. But people tend to draw conclusions on the basis of not only the facial expressions, but also its relationship to man.