Emotions, Mood, and Motives

Emotion is a very complex mental process. The phenomenon of emotion has puzzled scientists all over the world over a long period of time. Scherer defined emotion as an episode of interrelated, synchronized changes in the states of most of the five organismic subsystems in response to the evaluation of an external or internal stimulus event (Scherer, 2001). This researcher highlights information about the components and suppositions of emotion. The central idea is that emotion is a complex process of translation of information from brain to mind, which runs incredibly fast.

A variety of definitions have been provided for emotion. Emotion is a very important aspect in the context of quality and meaning of existence. According to Ekman (1934), there is a variety of components that prescribe certain emotion. First, physiological features are the most individually significant components of emotion. All people are able to notice physical changes when something very specific, delightful or disgusting happens to them. The behavioral component is very eloquent as it is a reflection of changeable emotions. It deals with the dynamics of movements, volume of human voice, and different action tendencies. Emotions can be considered as a result of past subjective experience. It means that this component is not a stored parameter of each individual. In case when some impressions are delightful for one individual, they are not necessarily acceptable for others. The cognitive component of emotions deals with intensity. That is how human beliefs and views influence on the character of emotions.

Certainly, daily situations produce an affective or emotional feeling. Unfortunately, people are not capable to control events that produce emotions. Consequently, they get either emotional or affective reaction. Scherer said that emotions are generally elicited by stimulus events: “It means that something happens to the organism that stimulates or triggers a response after having been evaluated for its significance.” Ekman (1934) exposed a similar attitude to this question. More often emotions are carried by human sense. Whether a situation is good or bad for one’s well-being is just a causality of situation. Wukmir (1967) proposed that emotion is a certain mechanism of reaction. Emotion is a mentioned above translation. If it carries advantages for an individual’s well-being, he/she experiences a positive emotion, such as joy or happiness. In case an expression is negative, for example sense of danger, ruby or anger, one is exposed to sorrow or sadness. The majority of emotions depend on the memorized information from the past. Emotional reactions can be even inadequate to what really happens. These are affective features. Some scientists state that the mechanism of emotional reaction leads people, their deeds and words all the time. It shapes the model of their behavior and appropriate emotional and related social skills. It is an individual choice to expose or hide emotions.

In conclusion, emotions are aimed to deal with the fundamental life tasks. Sometimes individual emotions can help to win a chance and achieve something great. On the other hand, uncontrolled emotions can damage the well-being of a personality. That is why this translation from our brain to our mind should be accurate and controlled as much as possible. It is hard to find a common tool to control hard impulses of our emotional life. Fortunately, people are still able to control external manifestation of their emotions.