Theme Emotions.

Questions to study:

1. The concept of emotions.

2. Properties of emotions. Structure of emotions.

The concept of emotions.

The term "emotion"(from lat. emovere - excite, excite) is customary to designate a special group of mental processes and states in which a person’s subjective attitude to the external and internal events of his life is expressed.

Ideas about the nature, patterns and manifestations of emotions and the course of development of psychological science have undergone significant changes , including both doubts about the existence of any regularities in the functioning of emotions or the possibility of their experimental study, and a complete denial of the need to use such a concept (for example, E, Daffp).

The first theoretically based interpretation of emotional phenomena belongs to introspectionist psychologists: emotions are a special group phenomena of consciousness, having two main manifestations (pleasure and displeasure). Also, representatives of introspective psychology drew attention to the connection between emotional phenomena and activity internal organs. The development of research in this direction led to a rather radical change at the end of the 19th century in views on the nature of emotional phenomena, which began to be viewed as specific type or derivative physiological processes (behaviorism, James-Lange theory, etc.). In parallel, another direction developed that explained the origin of emotions based on their evolutionary-biological purpose, from the functions that they perform in a person’s adaptation to the world around him (C. Darwin and others).

The concept of emotions, developed in domestic (reflective) psychology, is based on the thesis that mental processes are a specific product of brain activity, the essence of which is to reflect the surrounding reality. Emotions are one of the types functional state brain, a form of reflective and regulating brain activity. In addition, emotions are “a person’s attitude to the world, to what he experiences and does, in the form of direct experience” (S.L. Rubinstein).

Thus, in domestic psychology Two main aspects of emotions are emphasized:

1) reflection aspect: emotions are specific form reflection of the significance of objects and events of reality for the subject. Emotions are a special class of mental processes and states associated with instincts, needs and motives, reflecting in the form of direct experience (satisfaction, joy, fear, etc.) the significance of the phenomena and situations affecting the individual for the implementation of his life activities;

2) attitude aspect: emotions express a person’s subjective attitude to the world. According to P.M. Jacobson, “emotional life is a unique form of reflection of reality, in which a person’s subjective relationship to the world is expressed.”

Unlike introspective psychology, emotions in reflective psychology are interpreted not as an independent world of subjective phenomena, not as a specific type of spiritual facts (as opposed to material facts), but as a set of processes generated by the activity of the brain (as a material substrate). In contrast to behaviorists, domestic psychologists argue that emotions are not a specific type of physiological reaction; emotion is a mental phenomenon. At the same time, they emphasize the importance of those physiological mechanisms that are a condition for the emergence of emotional processes (basic ideas about physiological mechanisms emotions are based primarily on Pavlovian theory). In contrast to proponents of depth psychology, it is argued that emotions are not caused by the influence of internal instinctive forces, but by the relationship between a person and the world around him.

Recognizing emotions as a special class psychic phenomena is closely related to the problem of determining their specificity (differences from cognitive or motivational-need processes). According to G.M. Breslav, emotions are mediators between motivational and cognitive processes. K. Izard notes that emotions, unlike needs, do not have such a property as cyclicality.

To the main differences between emotional and cognitive processes The following can be included:

Emotional phenomena relate to a single subject, while cognitive phenomena refer to diverse objects, and accordingly, the former are characterized by subjectivity, and the latter by the objectivity of the content of experience;

Relationships that are expressed in emotions are always personal, subjective in nature and differ significantly from those objective relationships between objects and phenomena of reality that are established by a person in the process of learning about the world around him. The same object or the same phenomenon of reality can sometimes evoke a completely opposite subjective attitude;

Emotional phenomena are less affected social factors, are more associated with innate mechanisms. They are also less mediated by speech and other sign systems, less conscious, less manageable and controlled than cognitive processes;

The qualitative features (modalities) of emotional phenomena - joy, fear, anger, etc. - are specific and differ from the qualitative features of the cognitive sphere (for example, sensory modalities);

Emotional phenomena are closely related to human needs. Cognitive processes are less determined by needs;

Emotional phenomena are closely related to various physiological processes and conditions (vegetative, hormonal, etc.). Cognitive processes interact to a lesser extent and in different ways with the work of various physiological systems;

Emotional phenomena are included as an obligatory component in the structure of personality as its main (“nuclear”) formations. Therefore, various emotional disturbances lead, as a rule, to different personality disorders. Cognitive processes determine the structure of the personality to a lesser extent: their violations (for example, partial cognitive disorders) are compatible with the preservation of the personality as such.

As J. Reikowski notes, in everyday experience, order, harmony, and organization are usually attributed to the functioning of intellectual processes, while emotional reactions are characterized by uncertainty, unpredictability and chaos. However, at present there is reason to believe that everything is just the opposite: it is thinking that can flow freely, in an uncertain and unpredictable way, while the functioning of emotions is subject to strictly defined patterns, and everything that is determined by them is quite stereotypical, stable and - despite on the variety of forms - similar.

The apparent paradox of this thesis, or rather, its apparent inconsistency with everyday experience, is due to the fact that the possibility of predicting the behavior of a person who is guided by rational ideas is much greater than the possibility of predicting the behavior of a person gripped by emotion and, therefore, reacting in an unexpected way. for others in a way. This unpredictability of reactions and actions performed under the influence of emotions is connected to some extent with the fact that the laws governing emotional processes, in contrast to the laws of thinking, have not been systematically studied until recently. Moreover, it was believed that if they existed, they were difficult to identify and use. However, over the past decades there has been accumulated a large number of facts, a lot of observations and experimental data have been systematized, allowing us to determine the place of emotions in common system knowledge about human mental activity.

Thus, emotions - this is a special class of mental phenomena that express, in the form of direct experience, the significance of external and internal events for the subject and regulate his activity and behavior in accordance with them.

The concept of emotions and feelings. Classification and types of emotions.

Emotions are an integral part of human existence, without emotions a person would act like a passionless automaton, would not be able to be sad and happy, experience excitement and admiration. A person experiences what happens to him and what is done by him; he relates in a certain way to what surrounds him and to himself.

Emotions and feelings– the process of reflecting a person’s subjective attitude towards objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, other people and himself in the form of direct experience. Emotions express the state of the subject and his attitude towards the object.

Emotions and feelings– forms of experiencing a relationship to an object, emotions – unstable and short-term, feelings – stable and long-lasting.

Physiological basis emotional experiences are neurohumoral changes in the body in response to various signals.

Emotions- a complex mental process that includes three main components.

1. Physiological - represents changes in physiological systems that occur during emotions (changes in heart rate, breathing rate, changes in metabolic processes, hormonal, etc.).

2. Psychological - the actual experience (joy, grief, fear, etc.).

3. Behavioral - expression (facial expressions, gestures) and various actions(flight, fight, etc.).

The first two components of emotions are their internal manifestations, which are “closed” inside the body. Excessive emotional energy is released and discharged thanks to the third component - behavior. Since the cultural norms of modern society, as a rule, require restraint in the manifestation of feelings, a delayed release of excess energy is necessary for a person’s physical and mental health. It can occur in the form of any movements and actions acceptable for the person and for society: outdoor games, walking, running, shaping, dancing, household activities (washing, cleaning, etc.).

Emotions differ from cognitive mental processes and have certain distinctive characteristics .

Firstly, they are characterized polarity, that is, they have a positive or negative sign: fun - sadness, joy - sadness; happiness - grief, etc. In complex human feelings, these poles often act as a contradictory unity (love for a person is combined with longing and concern for him).

Second distinctive characteristic emotions is theirs energy saturation It was in connection with emotions that Freud introduced the concept of energy into psychology. The energy of emotions manifests itself in the opposites of tension and release.

There are sthenic emotions, characterized by an increase in activity (delight, anger) and asthenic, accompanied by a decrease in activity (sadness, sadness).

Another important characteristic of emotions is their integrity,integrity: all psychophysiological systems of a person and his personality participate in emotional experience; they instantly cover the entire body and give a person’s experiences a certain coloring.

Therefore, psychophysiological changes can serve as indicators of the emotional state: shifts in heart rate, breathing, body temperature, galvanic skin response, etc. (For example, English psychophysiologists recorded changes in GSR in subjects during the process of remembering the air raids on London).

Finally, it is necessary to note one more feature of emotions - inseparability them from other mental processes. Emotions seem to be woven into the fabric mental life, they accompany all mental processes. In sensations they act as the emotional tone of sensations (pleasant - unpleasant), in thinking - as intellectual feelings (inspiration, interest, etc.).

Emotions are not a cognitive process in the proper sense of the word, since they do not reflect properties and characteristics external environment, they reflect the subjective significance of the object for a person.

Highlight kinds emotions : by direction (neutral, positive and negative), by impact on the personality (constructive and destructive), by intensity:

· mood– a background emotion of low intensity, the causes of which, as a rule, are not realized, and which has little effect on the effectiveness of activity.

· tension– level of intensity of emotional experience, when typical behavioral reactions (voice, speech, tone, etc.) are disrupted. It can be operational, i.e. caused by the complexity of performing an action (operation), for example, a new or precise movement, and emotional - fear of failure, increased responsibility for the result, etc.

· passion– passion, during which other events of the surrounding reality are de-actualized, i.e. reduce their significance, for example, engaging in hobbies, gambling, etc.

· stress– nonspecific, i.e. response to a stimulus that does not correspond to the signal. It can manifest itself as either a minor or a significant change in state and behavior, up to the cessation of activity.

· affect– strong experience with loss of conscious control over one’s actions (for example, hysteria).

Thus, Wundt identified a triad of the direction of feelings, dividing pleasure and displeasure, tension and resolution, excitement and calm. It reflects the sign of emotion, the level of its sthenicity and dynamic characteristics: from tension to release. Based on this triad, any emotion can be characterized.

Classification of emotions. In the process of development of psychological science, attempts have been made repeatedly to classify emotions.

One of the first attempts belongs to Descartes, who identified 6 feelings: joy, sadness, surprise, desire, love, hatred. Descartes believed that these feelings are basic, basic, their combination gives rise to the whole variety of human emotions.

At the beginning of the century, an American psychologist Woodworth proposed a linear scale of emotions that reflects the entire continuum of emotional manifestations:

1. Love, fun, joy.

2. Surprise.

3. Fear, suffering.

4. Anger, determination.

5. Disgust.

6. Contempt.

On this scale, each emotion is somewhere between two neighboring ones.

American psychologist K. Izard suggests considering the following as the main or, in his terminology, fundamental emotions:

1. Interest.

2. Joy.

3. Surprise.

4. Grief, suffering and depression.

6. Disgust.

7. Contempt.

9. Shame and shyness.

Izard calls these 10 emotions fundamental because each of them has: a) a specific neural substrate; b) expressive neuromuscular complexes characteristic only of it; c) own subjective experience (phenomenological quality). Each of these emotions is described according to several parameters: the sign of the emotion, the conditions of its occurrence, its biological and psychological significance.

It should be noted that these classifications are more of an enumeration. Attempts to classify emotions based on specific grounds belong to other researchers.

Functions of emotions

About functions of emotions There are different points of view in psychology. In particular, emotions are considered as a rudiment, an affective trace of instinct (McDaugall), and, like any rudiment, emotion is doomed to gradual extinction and death.

Functions emotions are as follows:

· communicative– transfer of information;

· motivational– stimulation of activity;

· evaluative– performance criterion;

· signal– warning about possible danger;

· regulating– changing the condition through hormonal balance.

Any interaction between people is always accompanied by emotional manifestations; Mimic, pantomimic movements allow a person to convey information about his attitude towards other people, phenomena, events, and his condition. Thus, emotions perform communicative function.

Emotions serve a function motivation for activity and stimulation Thus, interest “catches” attention and keeps it on the object, fear forces one to avoid dangerous objects and situations. Due to their special energy saturation, emotions stimulate the flow of other mental processes and activities. This is associated with the mobilization of all the forces of the body in difficult, responsible situations (under exam conditions, responsible performance, emergency situations and so on.).

The most important function emotions is evaluative,emotions evaluate the significance of objects and situations. Moreover, very often such an assessment is carried out in conditions of a lack of time or information about an object or situation. An emotionally charged attitude compensates for the impossibility of a complete logical analysis. Indeed, often in situations of lack of information, the emerging emotional background helps a person to orient himself and make a decision about whether a suddenly arising object is useful or harmful, whether it should be avoided, etc.

Human emotions are closely related to needs, they arise in activities aimed at satisfying needs, they restructure human behavior in the direction of satisfying needs, this is where their regulating function.

3. The relationship between feelings and emotions. Types of feelings. Feelings as an indicator social development personalities

Feelings - more durable psychic formations, they can be defined as a complex type of stable emotional attitude of a person to various aspects of reality.Feelings are formed, as a rule, on the basis of secondary, spiritual needs and are characterized by a longer duration.

Feelings are differentiated depending on the subject area to which they relate. In accordance with this, they are divided into: intellectual, aesthetic, moral.

Intellectual feelings- experiences that arise during the process intellectual activity, such as curiosity, surprise, doubt, etc.

Aesthetic feelings arise and develop during the perception and creation of beauty and represent a person’s emotional attitude to beauty in nature, in people’s lives and in art (for example, a feeling of love for music, a feeling of admiration for a painting).

Moral feelings- the emotional attitude of an individual to people’s behavior and to his own. In this case, behavior is compared with the norms developed by society (for example, a sense of duty, humanity, goodwill, love, friendship, sympathy, etc.).

Questions for group reflection:

1. What quality of reality is presented to a person directly in the emotions he experiences?

2. Describe in detail the essence of the dual nature of emotions.

3. What is an emotional situation?

4. How does an emotional reaction differ from an emotional state?

5. List the main functions of emotions.

Question for self-study:

The role of attention, feelings and emotions in sports activities.

Additional material:

Emotional states longer lasting and more stable than emotional reactions. They coordinate the needs and aspirations of a person with his capabilities and resources at any given moment in time. Emotional states are characterized by changes in neuropsychic tone.

Emotional properties- the most stable characteristics of a person, characterizing the individual characteristics of emotional response, typical for a particular person. These include a number of features, such as emotional excitability, emotional lability, emotional viscosity, emotional responsiveness and empathy, emotional coarsening, alexithymia.

Emotional lability - variability of emotions and mood, for various, often the most insignificant reasons. Emotions fluctuate in a very wide range from sentimentality and tenderness to tearfulness and weakness.

Emotional monotony characterized by monotony, immobility of emotional reactions, lack of emotional response to events.

At emotional viscosity reactions are accompanied by fixation of affect and attention on any significant objects. (Instead of reacting, the personality focuses on grievances, failures, and exciting topics).

Emotional rigidity- inflexibility, rigidity and limited range of emotional response.

Emotional callousness- inability to determine the appropriateness and dose of emotional reactions. It manifests itself in the fact that the personality loses restraint, delicacy, tact, becomes annoying, disinhibited, and boastful.

One of the manifestations of emotional properties is alexithymia - reduced ability or difficulty in verbalizing emotional states. Alexithymia is characterized by difficulty in defining and describing one’s own emotional states and experiences; difficulty distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations; decreased ability to symbolize; the personality is focused more on external events than on internal experiences. There is a hypothesis according to which limited awareness of emotions and cognitive processing of affect leads to a focus of consciousness on the somatic component of emotional arousal and an increase in physiological reactions to stress.

The listed emotional properties can manifest themselves as individual characteristics of a person, which are based on the characteristics of the nervous system and temperament, but they can also be a consequence of pathological changes in the brain, the result of trauma or psychosomatic diseases.

Emotional responsiveness and empathy. Emotional responsiveness is manifested in the fact that a person easily, flexibly and quickly emotionally reacts to environmental influences. When people become the object of emotional responsiveness, a person exhibits a special property - empathy.Empathy is understood as the ability to enter into the states of another person, to empathize, to sympathize with him. The basis of empathy is emotional responsiveness, general sensitivity, sensitivity, as well as intuition and attention, observation are important. Empathic abilities form the basis of professionally important qualities in social professions, that is, wherever communication, understanding, interaction are an integral part professional activity(doctors, teachers, social workers, etc.).

In essence, the storm is nothing!

In a storm, only stronger hands.

And the sail will help and the keel.

It's much harder not to go crazy with boredom

And withstand complete calm.

"Time Machine"

Concept and functions of emotions

Emotions are a process of impulsive regulation of behavior based on reflecting the significance of external influences, their beneficialness or harmfulness for human life.

Emotions arise in response to phenomena in environment, meeting or not meeting human needs. When needs are not met, negative emotions arise, and when a particular need is satisfied, positive emotions arise. The emotion of success (positive) strengthens a person’s desire to achieve a goal, the emotion of failure (negative) slows down and sometimes disorganizes activity.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that emotions carry out energetic mobilization of the body. For example, joy is accompanied by increased innervation in the muscles, while small arteries expand, blood flow to the skin increases, the skin becomes warmer, accelerated blood circulation facilitates tissue nutrition and helps improve physiological processes. Joy makes you young, as it is created optimal conditions nutrition of all body tissues. On the contrary, the physiological manifestations of sadness are characterized by a paralyzing effect on the muscles. As a result, movements are slow and weak, blood vessels are compressed, tissues are bleeding, chills, lack of air and heaviness in the chest appear. Sorrows make you look very old, since they are accompanied by changes in the skin, hair, nails, teeth, etc. So, if you want to maintain youth longer, then do not lose your peace of mind over trifles, rejoice more often and strive to maintain a good mood.

A person cannot live without emotions. Those people whose lives are too monotonous, who are deprived of the opportunity to receive strong emotions from time to time, even negative ones, begin to experience real emotional hunger. The absence of strong emotions leads to decreased performance. Imagine an athlete who is openly indifferent to training and performances, who does not experience the joy of victory and the bitterness and shame of defeat. It is difficult to expect that there will be a result from this.

Trying to overcome emotional hunger, a person may subconsciously strive to commit dangerous and risky actions. Any risky action, especially one associated in our minds with some kind of danger, evokes strong emotions. Wanting to experience an emotional uplift or get a dose of adrenaline, some storm dangerous mountain peaks, others rush at breakneck speed along the highway, go on risky journeys, get involved in adventurous stories, etc. A person, trying to satisfy the need for strong emotions, creates problematic situations for himself and often subsequently does not know how to cope with them.

Many who lack strong emotional experiences replenish their emotional hunger by watching horror films, action-packed action films, TV series, i.e. emotionally experience the passions of other people.

So, everyday strong emotions will be destructive for a person, but it is impossible to completely eliminate strong experiences from our lives. Emotions play a very important role in human life and activity.

Signaling function of emotions.

Executive function of emotions.

Emotions are also important for controlling human behavior, being one of the psychophysiological mechanisms of this control. After all, the emergence of one or another attitude towards an object affects motivation, the process of making a decision about an action or deed, and the physiological changes accompanying emotions affect the quality of activity and a person’s performance. Emotions often mobilize us to active activity; with the help of emotions, we effortlessly switch to another type of activity; strong emotions can maintain high performance for a long time.

Protective function of emotions

Associated with the emergence of fear. It warns of real or imaginary danger, thereby facilitating better thinking through the situation that has arisen and a more thorough determination of the likelihood of success or failure. Thus, fear protects a person from unpleasant consequences for him, and possibly from death.

Academician P.K. Anokhin emphasized that emotions are important for consolidating and stabilizing the rational behavior of animals and humans. Positive emotions that arise when achieving a goal are remembered and, in the appropriate situation, can be retrieved from memory to obtain the same useful result. Negative emotions extracted from memory, on the contrary, prevent you from making mistakes again. From the point of view of P.K. Anokhin, emotional experiences have become entrenched in evolution as a mechanism that keeps life processes within optimal boundaries and prevents the destructive nature of a lack or excess of vital factors.

Mobilizing function of emotions

The point is that strong emotions allow the body to mobilize all forces, even deeply reserved ones. For example, fear can help mobilize a person's reserves by releasing additional amounts of adrenaline into the blood, for example, when fleeing. Contributes to the mobilization of the body's strength and encouragement and joy.

Compensatory function of emotions

Consists of replacing information that is missing to make a decision or make a judgment about something. The emotion that arises when encountering an unfamiliar object gives the object an appropriate coloring (whether a bad person has been met or a good one) based on its similarity to previously encountered objects. Although with the help of emotion a person makes a generalized and not always justified assessment of an object and situation, it still helps him get out of a dead end when he does not know what to do in a given situation.

The presence of reflective-evaluative and compensatory functions in a person allows one to quickly decide the question of whether to make contact with a person or not.

Disorganizing function of emotions.

Strong negative emotions (anger, fear, malice, etc.) can disrupt a person’s behavior and prevent the achievement of any goal. For example, anger provokes a person to stupidly repeat the same actions that do not lead to success. Strong anxiety makes it difficult to concentrate on a task; a person may forget what he needs to do.

Introduction.

When thinking about emotions and feelings, a question may come that seems strange and unexpected at first glance: why are feelings needed, why are emotions needed? Thanks to cognitive processes, the surrounding reality is reflected. At the same time, each of the studied processes makes its own contribution: sensations deliver information about individual properties and signs of objects and phenomena, perceptions provide their holistic images, memory stores what is perceived, thinking and fantasy process this material into thoughts and new images. Thanks to will and active activity, a person carries out his plans, etc. Maybe it would be easy to do without joy and suffering, pleasure and annoyance, and finally, without love and hatred? At the same time, from our own experience we know that all our cognitive and objective activities, in general, our entire life, are unthinkable without emotions, without feelings. It is not without reason that the idea of a three-member structure of mental life has long arisen: mind, will and feeling; about the opposition of mind and heart - “the mind and the heart are not in harmony,” etc. At the same time, as historians of psychology have noted, the greatest attention has always been paid to the study of cognitive and volitional processes, while the study of emotional life remained the province of poetry and music. However, these days, many scientists and entire scientific teams are working on the problem of emotions and feelings. And one of the main questions remains - why are feelings needed? In other words, what are their functions, what role do they play in a person’s mental life?

2. Concepts about emotions and feelings.

A person, learning about the world around him, relates to the objects and phenomena he knows in a certain way - with admiration, anger, joy, sadness. This is, perhaps, first of all, thanks to emotions (from the Latin emoveo - I shake, I worry) - a specific form of mental reflection of a person’s subjective attitude to objects or phenomena in the form of a direct experience of pleasant or unpleasant. Emotions are based on the complex activity of the subcortex and autonomic nervous system, which ensures the functioning of muscles and internal organs. Because of this, the manifestation of emotions is closely related to functional changes in the body - the work of the muscles of the whole body, including the facial ones, with the activity of the heart and blood vessels, respiratory organs, and endocrine glands. Through emotion, a person learns how significant the objects or phenomena he knows are for satisfying his needs. The greater the significance of cognizable objects, the deeper a person’s experiences. Thus, emotions perform a signaling function. In addition, stable experiences in a certain way change a person’s behavior, guide and support it, which allows us to talk about the regulatory function of emotion. The communicative function of emotions is also distinguished. The external manifestation of emotions in facial expressions and pantomimes allows you to inform other people about your attitude towards objects and phenomena of reality. The highest level of development of emotions, characterizing a person’s stable experience of his relationship to objects and phenomena that have motivational, guiding significance, are feelings. Feelings are associated with the idea of some object - specific or generalized (for example, a feeling of love for a person, for the Motherland). How a stable emotional attitude towards an object may not coincide with the emotional reaction to it in a specific passing situation. Human feelings are cultural and historical in nature; special sign systems (social symbolism, rites, ritual actions, etc.) play a significant role in their formation and development. .

2.1.Physiological mechanisms of emotion formation.

“Emotions and feelings are associated with various functional states of the brain, excitation of its certain subcortical areas and with changes in the activity of the autonomic nervous system. I.P. Pavlov noted that emotions are associated with the activity of subcortical formations.” . Emotions, as a genetically determined nonspecific behavioral program, are determined by a complex of nervous structures that are part of the so-called limbic system of the brain. This system includes the most ancient parts of the midbrain, diencephalon and forebrain.

The limbic system is connected with the autonomic nervous system and the reticular formation (located in the brain stem and providing energy resources for brain activity).

Impulses from external influences enter the brain in two streams. One of them is sent to the corresponding zones of the cerebral cortex, where the meaning and significance of these impulses are realized and they are deciphered in the form of sensations and perceptions. Another flow comes to the subcortical formations (hypothalamus, etc.), where a direct relationship of these influences to the basic needs of the body, subjectively experienced in the form of emotions, is established. Brain researchers have discovered in the subcortical region (in the hypothalamus) special nerve structures that are centers of suffering and pleasure, aggression and calm. . Emotions are also associated with the activity of the cerebral cortex. Supposed, that emotions are a function of the right hemisphere brain The left, dominant, hemisphere controls verbal, logical functions, the right hemisphere controls the sensory-emotional sphere. Emotions and feelings are accompanied by a number of vegetative phenomena: changes in the frequency of heart contraction, breathing, muscle tone, vascular lumen (hence the paleness or redness of the skin). It is no coincidence that the heart is considered a symbol of feelings. Hippocrates was also able to distinguish up to 60 shades in the work of the heart, depending on the emotional state of a person. Strong emotions cause cessation of salivation (dry mouth), suppression of the functioning of internal organs, changes in blood pressure, and muscle activity. In a state of emotional arousal, a person is capable of a manifold increase in physical effort. Sometimes a physically weak person overcomes obstacles that are only accessible to trained athletes. The connection between emotions and changes in the activity of the endocrine glands has long been empirically established and was even used in legal proceedings among some peoples. So, in Ancient China, a suspect, during judicial trial holding a handful of rice in his mouth. If, after listening to the accusation, he took out the rice dry, then he was considered guilty: strong emotional stress causes the cessation of the activity of the salivary glands.

3. Types of emotions and feelings.

Emotional processes and states in the life of an organism perform an adaptive function. Thus, one of the positive functions of affect is that it imposes on the subject stereotypical actions, which represent a certain way of “emergency” resolution of the situation fixed in evolution: flight, numbness, aggression, etc. . Everything we encounter in everyday life evokes a certain attitude in us. Some objects and phenomena evoke our sympathy, others, on the contrary, disgust. Some arouse interest and curiosity, others - indifference. Even those individual properties of objects, information about which we receive through sensations, for example color, taste, smell, are not indifferent to us. Feeling them, we experience pleasure or displeasure, sometimes clearly expressed, sometimes barely noticeable. This peculiar coloring of sensations, characterizing our attitude to the individual qualities of an object, is called sensual tone of sensations. A more complex attitude towards oneself is caused by the facts of life, taken in their entirety, in all the diversity of their properties and features. Attitudes towards them are expressed in such complex sensory experiences as joy, grief, sympathy, disdain, anger, pride, shame, fear. All these experiences are feelings or emotions. Emotions characterize a person’s needs and the objects to which they are directed. In the process of evolution, emotional sensations and states have become biologically entrenched as a way of maintaining the life process within its optimal boundaries. Their significance for the body is to warn about the destructive nature of any factors. Thus, emotions are one of the main mechanisms for regulating the functional state of the body and human activity. . From the point of view of influence on human activity, emotions are divided into sthenic and asthenic. Stenic emotions stimulate activity, increase a person’s energy and tension, and encourage him to act and speak. In this case, the person is ready for “mountains to be turned upside down.” And vice versa, sometimes experiences lead to stiffness and passivity, then they talk about asthenic emotions. Therefore, depending on the situation and individual characteristics, emotions can influence behavior differently. Thus, a person experiencing a feeling of fear may experience an increase in muscle strength, and he may rush towards danger. The same feeling of fear can cause a complete loss of strength; fear can make one’s knees buckle. It should be noted that attempts have been made repeatedly to identify the main, “fundamental” emotions. In particular, it is customary to highlight the following emotions: Joy - a positive emotional state associated with the ability to sufficiently fully satisfy an actual need. Astonishment - an emotional reaction to sudden circumstances that does not have a clearly defined positive or negative sign. Suffering - a negative emotional state associated with received reliable or apparent information about the impossibility of satisfying the most important needs of life. Anger- an emotional state, negative in sign, usually occurring in the form of affect and caused by the sudden emergence of a serious obstacle to the satisfaction of a need that is extremely important for the subject. Disgust - a negative emotional state caused by objects (objects, people, circumstances, etc.), contact with which comes into sharp conflict with the ideological, moral or aesthetic principles and attitudes of the subject. . Feelings have a clearly expressed objective character. They reflect a stable attitude towards any specific objects (real and imaginary). A person cannot experience feelings at all if they are not related to someone or something. For example, a person is unable to experience the feeling of love if he does not have an object of affection. In the same way, he cannot experience hatred if he does not have what he hates. Feelings arose and were formed in the process of cultural and historical development of man. IN individual development human feelings act as a significant factor in the formation of the motivational sphere. A person always strives to engage in an activity that he likes and gives him positive feelings. Feelings play significant role and in building contacts with other people. It should be noted that feelings are always individual. What one person likes may cause negative feelings in another. This is explained by the fact that feelings are mediated by the system of value systems of a particular person. Feelings are a complex type of stable emotional attitude of a person to various aspects of reality . Depending on the sphere to which they relate, feelings are divided into: 1) Aesthetic. Perception of the beautiful world. A sense of beauty, greatness, baseness, comic, tragic. 2) Intellectual. Accompany the process of cognition, imagination and creativity. Feelings of amazement, doubt, bewilderment, disdain, curiosity. 3) Moral. They characterize the subject’s activity in relation to another person, people and society as a whole. A sense of duty, conscience, envy, patriotism, superiority. 4) Practical. They manifest themselves in practical activities and reflect an emotional attitude to both the results and the labor process. .

3.1.Functions of feelings and emotions.

In order to study any psychological phenomenon, including emotions and feelings, it is necessary to understand what functional significance it has in the behavior of an individual - for example, to answer the question of what emotions and feelings are used for in everyday life. The above analysis of the biological mechanisms of emotions allows us to identify several basic functions of emotions and feelings. . 1) Reinforcing and consolidating the functions of emotions. From a general biological point of view, the usefulness of emotions lies in the fact that they represent a mechanism that “keeps the life process within its optimal boundaries and prevents the destructive nature of the lack or excess of any factors in the life of a given organism.” Being closely related to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of an actual need, emotion acts as a reinforcing factor that pushes the body to eliminate the original need. . Positive emotion reinforces the adaptive effect. From this we can conclude that, in general biological terms, the function of emotions is to play the role of a factor that reinforces and consolidates a useful action. This implies the importance of emotions in teaching and learning. In learning, emotion acts as a reinforcing factor, and in teaching, positive emotions stimulate the student’s learning activity. Without positive emotions there can be no effective teaching. 2) Activation-mobilization function of emotions. This function is manifested in the activation of the activity of the whole organism, all its systems in conditions of satisfying current needs. Emotions transfer the entire body to another level of functioning, activate all mental processes, and mobilize past experiences. 3) Hypercompensatory function. It manifests itself in the fact that emotions lead to excessive mobilization of the body’s energy resources. Evolution has repeatedly confirmed the advantages of energy waste compared to the threat of a lack of metabolic support for upcoming activity, when there is no accurate information about its actual volume. The mechanism that triggers emotions in this case is the lack of complete information for building adaptive behavior. . 4) Information function of emotions. Analyzing the situation of information support for activity and behavior, Simonov formulated an information theory of emotions. Its essence lies in the statement that “... the emotions of higher animals and humans represent a special brain apparatus that reflects the magnitude of the need and the likelihood of its satisfaction in this moment. Moreover, the degree of emotional stress depends quantitatively on the strength of the need, as well as on the difference between the information predictably necessary to satisfy the need and the information available to the subject or received by him.” Emotions implement cognitive and evaluative functions. In this case, by reducing the accuracy of the response, a general adaptation effect is achieved. 5) Integral function of emotions. A characteristic feature of emotions is that their action covers the entire body, “producing almost instantaneous integration (unification into a single whole) of all functions of the body.” Emotions themselves can be primarily an absolute signal of useful or harmful effects on the body. . Experience was a universal mechanism that ensures the survival of the organism (animal and human). 6) Function of formation of consciousness. Consciousness, as is known, is a secondary, subjective form of mental existence. This is a reflection of your feelings, perceptions, ideas, thoughts, experiences. The process of awareness of mental phenomena is associated with awareness of their objectivity. The possibility of awareness of the object of perception lies in the mechanism of the mental process of perception itself. Unlike the perception of external objects, in the case of emotions a person perceives his experiences. In these experiences the subject reveals himself. In experiences, he himself acts as an object of knowledge. And if the process of awareness of mental phenomena is associated with awareness of their objectivity, then in experiences the subject becomes aware of himself. Thus, it can be assumed that consciousness begins to form with awareness of oneself, and this awareness is based on the experiences of the subject. In other words, consciousness begins with experience. To a certain extent, the stated hypothesis is confirmed by the fact of the child’s natural ego-centricity. The environment, including the social one, is important to him only to the extent that it is related to the satisfaction of his natural needs. And satisfying needs is associated with experiences. Experiences lead to self-awareness, to the fact that a child, aware of himself through his experiences, finds himself in the center of the world. 7) The function of forming internal real human life. Understanding emotions as experiences allows us to determine their place in the structure of mental phenomena. A person lives life by experiencing it. Every event in life is accompanied by emotions (experiences). In the mind of an individual, any experience is associated with the motives and goals of his life and activities. It is usually the experience of something seemingly the most insignificant event, which, however, entered a person’s life as a defining moment. Particularly important experiences associated with the role of this or that event in a person’s life become an event in his personal life. “The concept of experience expresses a special specific aspect of consciousness; it may be more or less expressed in it, but it is always inherent in every real, concrete mental phenomenon; it is always given in interpenetration and unity with another moment - knowledge, especially essential for consciousness.” It is impossible to overestimate this representation of experience in each specific mental phenomenon, because experience turns consciousness into a living phenomenon. Consciousness is not conscious knowledge about the objective world, but living knowledge - knowledge imbued with experience. Realizing the enormous importance of this fact, Rubinstein put the principle of the unity of experience and knowledge in first place among other principles of knowledge of the nature of the psyche. As noted above, from a general biological point of view, the usefulness of emotions lies in their reinforcing and consolidating function. From a general psychological point of view, the role of emotions is to shape the entire internal mental life of the subject. Experiences intimately enter into any mental process. The subject's sensations, perceptions, ideas, and thoughts always contain a component of experiences. That is why experiences can become the basis for the unification of all mental processes, all internal mental life. Experiences act as a systemic factor in internal mental life, the basis for its manifestation in the personal “I”. In all likelihood, this is why pathological disorders are primarily found in disorders of the emotional and sensory sphere of the personality.

The world of emotions is very complex and diverse. The subtlety of its organization and the versatility of expression are often not realized by the person himself. Complexity mental analysis The feelings experienced are also explained by the fact that the attitude towards objects and phenomena depends on the cognitive activity or volitional activity that the individual exhibits. Emotions are a unique personal attitude of a person to the surrounding reality and to himself. To Contents emotional sphere included as specific emotional states, experienced in the form of emotions, affects, moods, and stable personal formations in the form of intellectual, aesthetic, moral and other feelings. In the broadest sense, positive experiences are distinguished: admiration, jubilation, joy, etc.; and negative ones - envy, sadness, despair, jealousy, etc. They either stimulate activity, or, on the contrary, suppress and destroy it. They express the individual's assessment of his interaction with the environment.

Emotions are a special class of subjective psychological states that reflect, in the form of direct experiences, feelings of pleasant or unpleasant, a person’s relationship to the world and people, the process and results of his practical activity. The class of emotions includes moods, feelings, affects, passions, and stress. These are the so-called “pure” emotions. They are included in all mental processes and human states. Any manifestations of his activity are accompanied by emotional experiences.

IN psychological dictionary the following definition of emotions is given: “Emotions (from the Latin emovere - to excite, excite) are states associated with the assessment of the significance for the individual of the factors acting on him and expressed primarily in the form of direct experiences of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of his current needs.”

In humans, the main function of emotions is that thanks to emotions we understand each other better, we can, without using speech, judge each other’s states and better tune in to joint activities and communication. A remarkable fact, for example, is that people belonging to different cultures, are able to accurately perceive and evaluate the expressions of a human face, determine from it such emotional states as joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise. This, in particular, applies to those peoples who have never been in contact with each other.

This fact not only convincingly proves the innate nature of basic emotions and their expression on the face, but also the presence of a genotypically determined ability to understand them in living beings. It is well known that higher animals and humans are capable of perceiving and assessing each other’s emotional states by facial expressions.

Relatively recent studies have shown that anthropoids, just like humans, are able not only to “read” the emotional states of their relatives in the face, but also to empathize with them, probably experiencing the same emotions as the animal they are talking to. empathize. In one of the experiments where such a hypothesis was tested, a great ape was forced to watch another monkey being punished in front of its eyes, which at the same time was experiencing an outwardly pronounced state of neurosis. Subsequently, it turned out that similar physiological functional changes were found in the body of the “observer” - that monkey who simply watched another being punished in its presence.

However, not all emotionally expressive expressions are innate. Some of them have been found to be acquired during life as a result of training and upbringing. First of all, this conclusion relates to gestures as a way of culturally determined external expression of a person’s emotional states and affective attitudes towards something.

In domestic psychology long time Human emotional processes have been studied much less intensively than cognitive processes. In particular, L.S. Vygotsky wrote that “in people, emotion is isolated from the realm of instincts and transferred to a completely new sphere of the psyche.” For us, this position is especially important, since it gives reason to believe that emotions develop and function in a specific way due to conditions in the structure of various human activities and communication as well. The author develops a dialectical-materialistic approach to psychological research emotions and feelings. He considered one of the main questions of psychology to be “the question of the connection between intellect and affect.” It was in the separation of the intellectual side of our consciousness from its affective, volitional side that L.S. Vygotsky saw one of the main defects of all traditional psychology.

The problem of “intelligence and affect” was posed even more acutely in the works of S.L. Rubinstein. The idea of the unity of cognitive and emotional processes permeates all of his work. The author believes that the true concrete unit of the psyche is the holistic act of reflection of an object by the subject. This reflection is very complex, it includes the unity of two opposing components - knowledge and attitude, intellectual and affective, of which one or the other acts as the predominant one. Implementing this idea, Rubinstein comes to the conclusion: “emotion itself is the unity of the emotional and the intellectual.” Thus, without the participation of the emotional-sensory sphere, not a single mental process or human activity occurs. Quite often the emotional component is the predominant one.

A.N. Leontiev believed that “the function of emotions is to guide the subject to their actual source, that emotions signal the personal meaning of existence, the events that play out in his life.” The author considers the issue of emotions and feelings in the system of activity: “Emotions do not subjugate activity, but are its result and the “mechanism” of its movement.” He expresses a certain position on the issue of the function of emotions: “Emotions perform the function of internal signals, internal in the sense that they are not mental reflection the most objective reality. The peculiarity of emotions is that they reflect the relationship between motives (needs) and success or the possibility of successful implementation of the subject’s activity corresponding to them. At the same time, we are not talking about the reflexes of these relationships, but about their directly sensory reflection, about experience.” In terms of the emergence of emotions, it is important that “emotions are relevant to activity, and are not actions or operations that implement it.”

Life without emotions is just as impossible as life without sensations. Emotions, argued the famous naturalist Darwin, arose in the process of evolution as a means by which living beings establish the significance of certain conditions to satisfy their actual needs.

In higher animals, and especially in humans, expressive movements have become a finely differentiated language with the help of which living beings exchange information about their states and what is happening around them. These are the expressive and communicative functions of emotions. They are also the most important factor regulation of cognitive processes.

In critical conditions, when the subject is unable to find a quick and reasonable way out of a dangerous situation, a special type of emotional processes arises - affect. One of the significant manifestations of affect is that, “by imposing stereotypical actions on the subject, it represents a certain way of “emergency” resolution of situations, fixed in evolution, flight, numbness, aggression, etc.

The important mobilization, integrative and protective role of emotions was once pointed out by P.K. Anokhin. He wrote: “Producing almost instantaneous integration (unification into a single whole) of all functions of the body, emotions themselves and first of all can be an absolute signal of a beneficial or harmful effect on the body, often even before the localization of the effect and the specific response mechanism are determined. organism." Thanks to the timely occurrence of emotion, the body has the opportunity to adapt extremely advantageously to environmental conditions. He is able to quickly, with great speed, respond to external influence without yet defining its type, shape, and other specific specific parameters.

Emotional sensations are biologically, in the process of evolution, established as a unique way of maintaining the life process within its optimal boundaries and warn about the destructive nature of the lack or excess of any factors.

The more complexly organized a living being is, the higher the level on the evolutionary ladder it occupies, the richer the range of various emotional states that it is capable of experiencing. The quantity and quality of a person’s needs generally corresponds to the number and variety of emotional experiences and feelings characteristic of him, and the higher the need in its social and moral significance, the more exalted the feeling associated with it.

The oldest in origin, the simplest and most widespread form of emotional experiences among living beings is the pleasure obtained from satisfying organic needs, and the displeasure associated with the inability to do this when the corresponding need intensifies. Almost all elementary organic sensations have their own emotional tone. ABOUT close connection, which exists between emotions and the activities of the body, is evidenced by the fact that every emotional state is accompanied by many physiological changes body.

This circumstance is essential for understanding the vital role of emotions. It suggests that our subjective experiences are not an immediate, direct reflection of our own organic processes. The characteristics of the emotional states we experience are probably associated not so much with the organic changes that accompany them, but rather with the sensations that arise during this process.

Nevertheless, there is a certain relationship between the specifics of emotional sensations and organic reactions still exists. It is expressed in the form of the following connection, which has received experimental confirmation: the closer to the central nervous system the source of organic changes associated with emotions is located, and the fewer sensitive nerve endings it contains, the weaker the subjective emotional experience that arises. In addition, an artificial decrease in organic sensitivity leads to a weakening of the strength of emotional experiences.

The basic emotional states that a person experiences are divided into actual emotions, feelings and affects. Emotions and feelings anticipate the process aimed at satisfying a need, have an ideational character and are, as it were, at the beginning of it. Emotions and feelings express the meaning of a situation for a person from the point of view of a currently relevant need, the significance of the upcoming action or activity for its satisfaction. Emotions can be caused by both real and imagined situations. They, like feelings, are perceived by a person as his own internal experiences, transmitted to other people, and empathized with.

Emotions are relatively weakly expressed in external behavior, sometimes from the outside they are completely invisible to an outsider if a person knows how to hide his feelings well. They, accompanying one or another behavioral act, are not even always conscious, although all behavior is associated with emotions, since it is aimed at satisfying a need. A person's emotional experience is usually much broader than the experience of his individual experiences. A person’s feelings, on the contrary, are outwardly very noticeable.

Emotions and feelings are personal formations. They characterize a person socially and psychologically. Emphasizing the actual personal significance of emotional processes, V.K. Viliunas writes: “An emotional event can cause the formation of new emotional relationships to various circumstances... The object of love-hate becomes everything that is cognized by the subject as the cause of pleasure-displeasure.”

Emotions usually follow the actualization of the motive and before the rational assessment of the adequacy of the subject’s activity to it. They are a direct reflection, an experience of existing relationships, and not their reflection. Emotions are capable of anticipating situations and events that have not yet actually occurred, and arise in connection with ideas about previously experienced or imagined situations.

Feelings are objective in nature and are associated with a representation or idea about a certain object. Another feature of feelings is that they are improved and, developing, form a number of levels, starting from immediate feelings and ending with higher feelings related to spiritual values and ideals.

The feelings are historical. They are different for different nations and can be expressed differently in different historical periods among people belonging to the same nations and cultures.

In the individual development of a person, feelings play an important socializing role. They act as a significant factor in the formation of personality, especially its motivational sphere. On the basis of positive emotional experiences such as feelings, the needs and interests of a person appear and are consolidated.

Feelings are a product of human cultural and historical development. They are associated with certain objects, activities and people surrounding a person.

Feelings play a motivating role in a person’s life and activity, in his communication with people around him. In relation to the world around him, a person strives to act in such a way as to reinforce and strengthen his positive feelings. For him, they are always connected with the work of consciousness and can be voluntarily regulated.

Affects are particularly pronounced emotional states, accompanied by visible changes in the behavior of the person who experiences them. Affect does not precede behavior, but is, as it were, shifted to its end. This is a reaction that arises as a result of an action or deed that has already been committed and expresses its subjective emotional coloring from the point of view of the extent to which, as a result of this action, it was possible to achieve the set goal, to satisfy the need that stimulated it.

Affects contribute to the formation of so-called affective complexes in perception, expressing the integrity of the perception of certain situations. The development of affect is subject to the following law: the stronger the initial motivational stimulus of behavior and the more effort had to be spent on implementing it, the smaller the result obtained as a result of all this, the stronger the resulting affect. Unlike emotions and feelings, affects occur violently, quickly, and are accompanied by pronounced organic changes and motor reactions.

Affects, as a rule, interfere with the normal organization of behavior and its rationality. They are capable of leaving strong and lasting marks in long-term memory. Unlike affects, the work of emotions and feelings is associated primarily with short-term and operative memory. Emotional tension accumulated as a result of the occurrence of affectogenic situations can accumulate and sooner or later, if it is not released in time, lead to a strong and violent emotional release, which, while relieving tension, often entails a feeling of fatigue, depression, depression.

One of the most common types of affect these days is stress. It is a state of excessively strong and prolonged psychological stress that occurs in a person when he nervous system gets emotional overload. Stress disorganizes a person’s activities and disrupts the normal course of his behavior. Stress, especially if it is frequent and prolonged, has bad influence not only on the psychological state, but also on the physical health of a person. They represent the main “risk factors” for the emergence and exacerbation of diseases such as cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases.

Thus, we settled on the concept of “emotions”, the main factors determining them, and also described the main emotional states.

In the next paragraph, we will consider the divisions (classifications) of emotions proposed by various authors.