Our basic universal emotions are joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust. Jonathan Haidt and others propose a theory that there are other emotions evolved over time which has become more important in this modern age.
"ELEVATION - The Uplifting Emotion:Elevation seems to be a universal feeling. Although not yet studied in modern-day pre-literate societies, it has been documented in people from Japan, India, the US and the Palestinian territories. That puts it in the same league as the Big Six. But to be considered as a basic emotion it should also have a purpose. If emotions are to fulfil their role as survival aids, they must motivate activities that help us thrive. So what is elevation for? Originally Haidt thought that it makes us nobler towards others. But when he asked volunteers to watch either an uplifting episode of Oprah or a non-uplifting scene from the sitcom Seinfeld, and then gave them a chance to help a stranger, there was no difference in behaviour between the two groups.
Elevation is also relatively rare. People typically experience it less than once a week, although there are wide individual differences. Where it does score, though, is in being highly significant. "If you ask people to remember their most cherished experiences of their whole life, elevatory moments are likely to feature in their top five," says Haidt. What's more, if we can harness elevation to build trust, it could have particular relevance in the modern world for strengthening or repairing personal relationships. Haidt envisages a time, for example, when marital therapists might try to induce it so as to enhance the effectiveness of couples' counselling sessions.
INTEREST - The Curious Emotion:
Interest also seems to have a purpose. Psychologist Paul Silvia at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, believes it motivates people to learn - not for money, not for an exam, but for its own sake, to increase their knowledge just because they want to.
This could explain why interest has come into its own in the modern world. It can be seen as a counterbalance to the fear and anxiety that surrounds unfamiliar experiences. Without interest we would shy away from new or complicated things because they tend to make us nervous. "This makes sense if we think in terms of evolutionary history, as unfamiliar situations could often be dangerous," says Silvia. "But in the modern world, it would be disastrous because we couldn't flourish intellectually."
Another strong argument for interest deserving a status boost is that it can go wrong. One criterion that some psychologists use to define a basic emotion is that it should have associated aberrations or pathologies. Excessive fear, for example, generates panic or chronic anxiety. Likewise, too much interest results in repetitive, consuming and compulsive behaviour.So how does interest fare in the emotions league? As naturally curious creatures, we experience it daily and devote a lot of time and brainpower to things that interest us. That alone could make it a major emotional player. But the real power of interest, according to Silvia, lies in its ability to keep us engaged in our frenetic lives rather than becoming overwhelmed by information overload. That's also a reason for trying to understand what stimulates interest. "We have to find ways of helping people learn, to keep them from becoming anxious and tuning out in the face of this monstrous amount of information," he says.
GRATITUDE - The Relationship-Boosting Emotion:
Like all emotions worth their salt, though, gratitude motivates us to act: it makes us want to acknowledge and repay a kindness or thoughtful gesture. So gratitude might simply ensure a quid pro quo repayment mechanism, but new research suggests there may be more to it than that.Sara Algoe of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that gratitude makes cohabiting couples feel more connected. She reasons that truly thoughtful gestures help us find the individuals who really "get us". The grateful feeling is a signal that we should get to know them better as they are the ones likely to be there for us in the future. So, once you are in a romantic relationship, feelings of gratitude serve as a little reminder of how great your partner is. Long term, Algoe says, gratitude is there to help promote a positive cycle of give and take, creating an upward spiral of satisfaction in the relationship.
If Algoe is correct, gratitude has big potential benefits in the modern world. High-quality relationships are good for our health, notes her colleague Barbara Fredrickson. She goes further in her book, Positivity (Crown, 2009), suggesting that by cultivating gratitude we might increase social harmony in groups, fostering lower employee turnover, more volunteering in communities, perhaps even less crime, less littering and less wasting of resources.
PRIDE - The Emotion With Two Faces:
Pride may manifest itself in two different ways, but we cannot tell these apart by their outward appearance, she says (Emotion, vol 7, p 789). Both types cause people to tilt their heads back, extend their arms from their body and try to look as large as possible. As Charles Darwin noted in his book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), a proud person looks "swollen or puffed up". So there is a characteristic prideful look, but in contrast to the basic emotions, the face only plays a small role, with a slight smile creeping across it.
So what is the point of pride, and why do we have two prides that feel different but look the same? In general, when people see pride expressed they associate it with high status. So pride motivates us to do well so that we gain respect. There are two distinct ways to do this, which perhaps explains the flip sides of pride.Status can take two forms, says anthropologist Joe Henrich, also at UBC. The first is based on dominance and commonly seen in non-human primates, whereby bigger and stronger individuals are revered because they could overwhelm or kill others. The human equivalents include the playground bully and officious boss. The second kind of status is prestige. In this case, respect and power is gained through knowledge or skill. "This fits in with the two kinds of pride," says Tracy. "One is associated with aggression and overconfidence, while the other motivates achievement, hard work and altruistic behaviour."
CONFUSION - The Time-For-Change Emotion:
Dacher Keltner at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that it is the "feeling that the environment is giving insufficient or contradictory information". But is confusion really an emotion?
For some psychologists, the idea is scandalous. Others describe confusion as the fringiest of the fringe. Nevertheless, Silvia thinks there is a good case to be made for considering confusion as a basic emotion, not least because it is so easy to spot. The brow furrows, the eyes narrow, the lip might even get bitten - you know confusion when you see it. In fact, one study found it was the second most recognisable everyday expression, only surpassed by joy (Emotion, vol 3, p 68).
What, then, is confusion for? It's a knowledge-based emotion, in the same "family" as interest and surprise, says Silvia. He believes it is our brain's way of telling us that the way we are thinking about things is not working, that our mental model of the world is flawed or inadequate. Sometimes this will make us withdraw, but it can also motivate us to shift our attention or change our learning strategy, he says.
A related idea is that a confused facial expression alerts others to help the confused person. If so, confusion serves to bring new knowledge and encourage social relationships, making it, perhaps, the perfect 21st-century emotion."
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