Definition of emotion

Emotion is a reaction that humans give in response to an event. The type of emotion a person feels depends on the circumstances they are facing. For example, when you score the highest marks in an examination, you feel elated and extremely happy. The happiness which you feel is an emotion.

Emotion can be of different types. It is not necessary that a person will feel a specific emotion all the time. Emotion is dynamic; hence, feeling happy at one instance and feeling sad at the other is normal. 

Definition of Emotion

The book Discovering Psychology gives an appropriate answer to the question “What is emotion?” Emotion is a psychological state consisting of three stages: a subjective experience, psychological response, and behavioural response.

Research has identified and categorised emotions into different parts. The different types of emotions identified by various specialists over the course of human history are as follows:

• In 1972, Paul Eckman concluded that there are six types of emotions which include fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, and sadness.
• In the latter half of the 1980s, Robert Putchik discovered a new emotion classification system called the “when of emotions.” This model gave information about the various emotions which can be combined and mixed. 

 In 1999, Eckman expanded his lists of emotions and included a few more, such as embarrassment, shame, excitement, pride, satisfaction, and amusement.

 Important elements of emotions

To get a deep understanding of emotion, we need to focus on the three key elements: a subjective experience, psychological response, and behavioural response.

• Subjective Experience

Experts believe that there are some fundamental emotions that people feel regardless of their background and culture. For example, anger is an emotion that can be felt by people at different stages throughout their lives. Short-tempered people might get angry quickly, compared to people who don’t have temperament issues.

Also, it is not necessary that we experience pure forms of emotion every time. In some situations, we might experience an emotion that is a mix of two or more. For example, when you start a new job, you might feel joyous and excited initially, but as you get older, your excitement and joyfulness reduces. 

• Physiological Response

Emotion directly affects the physiological state of our body. For example, sometimes our stomach lurches with anxiety, which indirectly affects the heart rate and causes fear. Thus, anxiety and fear illicit physiological responses in our bodies. 

Our nervous system is designed to handle physical responses such as blood flow and digestion. When the body faces a threat, these responses automatically prepare our body to get rid of the danger or face the danger head-on. In addition, recent studies have shown that the brain plays a major role in generating emotion. According to studies, the amygdala, a part of the brain, has an essential role in generating emotion, especially fear.

The amygdala is a small almond-shaped structure linked to motivational states such as hunger, thirst, memory, and emotion. To prove the role of the amygdala in creating emotions, researchers showed people some threatening images. It was found that viewing those images made the amygdala activated. 

• Behavioural Response

Behavioural response is the element of emotion with which you are familiar. Human beings spend a huge amount of time interpreting the emotional expressions of people around them. The ability to accurately identify the expressions put forward by the people is linked to emotional intelligence, and these explanations play a major role in body language.

How to control emotions?

Emotions drive people towards making decisions that might not prove to be productive for them. Often, when people start to think from an emotional perspective, they lose rational thinking. When a person loses rational thinking, there are chances that the person makes a decision that is not accurate for them. Hence, people should have an understanding of how to control emotions. 

A person who lacks emotional control can follow these simple steps for controlling emotions.

• Take a deep breath

When a challenging situation turns up in front of an individual, the first thought which comes up in the mind of the individual is the lack of ability to do it. Many people fail at this stage and leave the task unattended. However, in such a situation, if a person stops and calms down by taking deep breaths, there are chances that the person might accomplish the work. Because when we take deep breaths, more oxygen is pumped into the brain, and therefore the negative emotion of not completing a task goes away.

• Find out what is causing a particular emotion.

Often, people feel angry about a situation and just lash out against it. Expressing anger is completely normal and one of the best ways to get rid of stress. But at the same time, a person should also focus on digging deep into the issue and identifying the cause behind the emotion. Because digging deep and finding the cause of the emotion will lead them towards controlling it the next time.

• Replace negative thoughts

Negativity is a common emotion. When people face difficult situations, there are chances that negative thoughts creep in. However, a person going through a struggling phase should focus on keeping the negativity away by looking at the brighter side of a consequence. Moreover, they should also focus on following the process instead of the result.

Conclusion

Emotions play a major role in one’s life. A person who has the capability of controlling emotion in difficult scenarios is definitely going to win more wars throughout their life. Yet again, controlling emotions at every stage of your life is not the correct way to live a healthy life because if you constantly kill emotions, then the energy they bring is wasted and hence brain functioning lowers down. Thus, a perfect balance should be maintained between emotions.