The emotions They help us understand the world, make decisions and relate to our peers and everything around us. They are defined as physiological reactions that occur in our body in response to our own stimuli or those from our environment.
Three fundamental components of emotions
Emotions, as physiological processes, have three basic components:
- Cognitive: based on the conscious or unconscious, subjective assessment of a certain event.
- Neurophysiological: involuntary component that triggers reactions such as sweating, trembling, etc.
- Behavioral: the voluntary or involuntary behaviors that the emotion gives rise to: crying, gestures, tone of voice or others.
Three main functions of emotions
- Adaptive: each emotion has its own function to promote adaptation. It prepares us for action and gives us the drive and energy to offer an effective response aimed at the objective we wish to obtain.
- Social: they allow us to express our state of mind and make it known to others. They work with signals for the people around us, so that, in turn, they respond with specific attitudes and behaviors.
- Motivational: There is a bidirectional relationship between motivation and emotion. Emotion is located at the base of motivated behavior and pushes it and, furthermore, directs it to approach or avoid the objective of said behavior.
What are the main emotions?
There is a certain consensus regarding six basic emotions, although there are numerous theories on the matter. For Daniel Goleman, famous for his studies and publications on the are the following:
- Happiness
- Surprise
- Sadness
- Fear
- Gonna
- Disgust
As we say, there is a lot of literature on the matter. Professor Roberto Aguado, author of the Conscious Emotional Bonding model, defines a basic emotional universe composed of these six emotions and four others, remaining as follows:
- Fear
- Sadness
- Gonna
- Happiness
- Surprise
- Disgust
- Blame
- Admiration
- Curiosity
- Security
In this article, we are going to analyze at least three of them: fear, anger and sadness, which are traditionally included in the group of negative emotions.
- Fear
Although it is considered a negative or unpleasant emotion, it is actually very useful to us. It fulfills a very important adaptive protective function, it protects us from danger and corresponds to optimal brain function, since there are specific areas of our brain that govern this emotion. We perceive it when there is a threat, which can be physical or emotional, real or imaginary.
It is an emotion that can spur us on, giving us extra strength and energy to avoid or repel the threat, since it activates our body to keep us alive, with a survival nature.
It is necessary to learn to manage this emotion, since, if it is excessively high in intensity, it can cause blockage and we will not be able to give the appropriate response. The same will happen if the level is too low. Therefore, it must be regulated and find a certain balance. - Rage
It is the expression of anger. It also fulfills a protective function, helps us defend ourselves against external aggressions and mobilizes our energy in search of balance in relationships and respect. The same thing happens to fear. You run the risk of overshooting or missing out. It is important to learn to manage it to use it to our advantage. If we do not know how to handle it, we can fall into aggressive behavior that is never desirable or, on the opposite pole, into having an excessively submissive attitude. - Sadness
Its adaptive function is reintegration, it activates the psychological process necessary to overcome disappointments, losses or failures. In the same way it allows us to empathize with the sadness of others. It is a useful, but painful emotion.
Its manifestations can be diverse: on the physical level there may be crying, loss of appetite,…; at a mental level, concentration problems, focusing attention on the problem, etc., and at the behavioral level, generalized demotivation, isolation.
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