Cyrus Vs. Lazarus

At preschool age, guilt is a common aspect expressed by children when they do something they know they shouldn’t. Erikson’s theory is initiative versus guilt. By now the child has become convinced that they are a person all their own, discovering who they are as a person. Their emotional development is also a growing awareness of self, which is linked to the ability to feel a wide range of emotions. This allows them to make sense of other people’s reactions and to control their own. After a negative behavior, a child will feel guilt or shame after being told what they did was bad.

This paper will examine Robert C. Solomon's Emotions and Choices article, to best identify what anger is, and to what extent a rational human being is responsible for their anger. Firstly, Solomon's argument must be described. A quick summation of Solomon's argument can be found in the following four points: Emotions are judgements, emotions are chosen, emotions serve a purpose, and emotions are rational.1 To quote Solomon, he explains that “Emotions are not occurrences, and do not happen to us. They ... may be chosen like an action.”2

Children are very complex, unique and varied individuals whose genetics, connections and backgrounds all perform significant roles in their emotional development (Wilson, 2003). The genetic blueprint a child inherits from its parents may plot a course for development but the environment and the influences within can affect how the child is shaped, how they connect with and are perceived by others and how their emotions are or are not expressed. Wilson (2003) points out emotions as an experience that is linked to cognitive interpretation, context, subjective feeling, physical reaction and behavioural expression. Campos, Campos, and Barrett (1989) suggest emotions are processes of establishing, maintaining, or disrupting the relations between the person and the internal or external environment, when such relations are significant to the individual.

The regulation of emotions within adults is considerably more complex than within an infant. However, this does not mean that infants do not share the same feelings as adults do. Infant emotion regulation is evidently derived from their primary carers. Empirical research supports idea as stated by Diener (et al, 2002) whereby the study conducted involved infants completing a strange situations procedure, this explored the connection between mother-infant relationship and the behavioural strategies used by infants for emotion regulation. Therefore, behavioural strategies used by infants including self-soothing, withdrawal and self-distraction with objects is when it is clear that infants have the ability to control and monitor their emotions (Martins, 2012; Diener et al., 2002). These strategies are supported through various studies conducted by Martins (2012) as they explore infants who are able to cope with their emotions obtain certain strategies which contribute to their ability to regulate their behaviour for example using distractions. Evidently, this shows the development of infant emotion regulation skills (Diener et al, 2002). Moreover, infants experience a range of emotions in numerous frustrating situations, including some as simple as waiting to be fed or sitting in a car seat waiting to go out. It is from this that infants become more aware of their emotions and begin to find ways of coping

At 6 weeks infants develop a social smile, at 3 month laughter and curiosity develop, at 4 months full responsive smiles emerge, from 4-8 months they develop anger, from 9014 months they develop a fear of social events, at 12 months the are fearful of unexpected sights and sounds, and at 18 months they are self-aware, feel pride, shame, and embarrassment. In the first two years, infants develop from reactive pain and pleasure to complex patterns of social awareness. Emotions in infants are produced from their body as opposed to their thoughts. Therefore fast and uncensored reactions are common in infants. During their toddler years, the strength of their emotions will increase.

Our parents raise us hoping for us to develop certain character traits, but there comes to a point when we start to become our own person based on the experiences we go through, any situation, good or bad, can influence our personality mentally and emotionally. Emotion is what makes us human, it's how we cope and how we manage our crazy lives’. When our feelings get damaged or even nourished, it will change how we react

The infant will “cry out loudly, like the young of other animals, partly as a call to their parents for aid and partly from any great exertion”(Darwin, 174). Darwin’s observations of emotion, particularly that of a child resembles very closely to Freud’s id. The id represents the most basic inherited instincts that are most obvious during childhood and expressed through emotion. “The infant, possessing no ability to delay release, demands immediate gratification”(Cordon, 223). The newborn would then be “a creature entirely governed by the id…demanding food, drink, eliminating bodily waste and affection”(Cordon, 223). Once the child’s needs are met, they are content. This theory contributes to the desire for pleasure and the distaste for anything uncomfortable or as Freud described it, the pleasure principle. Darwin is related this behaviour and expression for emotion as a survival tactic in order to have the infants needs met through communication.

Psychoanalytic theory explains about importance of unconscious motivation and early experience in development (Clarke, 2000).

• that a person can learn to become aware of the interaction of cognition, emotion, and behavior; and that altering the ones that may be more directly under our control or influence – cognition and behavior – will impact the person’s responses on all levels.

Amongst applicable clinical knowledge that Beck shares in chapter thirteen is some insight into the nature of anger and its evolutionary purpose. Beck states that anger serves to motivate the individual to resolve a problem. Although the purpose of feeling angry in some situations could seem obvious from afar (such as when one child takes another child’s toy, so he retaliates with anger and grabs the toy back dramatically to scare the other off) it is not often clear to an individual what purpose anger serves at the moment that it is felt. Beck further illustrates this point by stating that the purpose of anger is analogous to the purpose of a smoke detector; like anger, smoke detectors alert an individual of a possible threat and orient him towards that threat. Beck also discusses

Part A: Formidability and the logic of human anger written by Aaron Sell, John Tooby, and Leda Cosmides: The research question for the article is that anger occurs when the brain unconsciously negotiates to settle a conflict of interest in favor of the angry person they are arguing with. In this article there are multiple hypothesis suggested, they are; Hypothesis 1; Stronger individuals and more attractive individuals have a better negotiating position when in conflict.

Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence, states, “This suggests that when the emotional brain is driving the body with a strong reaction—the heat of anger, say—there can be little or no empathy. Empathy requires enough calm and receptivity so that the subtle signals of feeling from another person can be received and mimicked by one's own emotional brain”. In other words, Goleman is arguing that when the emotional brain, the limbic system, overcomes the body with a strong emotional reaction, such as anger, it is hard for one to experience awareness, sensitivity, or understanding of another individual's feelings, or thoughts. Goleman is also stating, that for one to experience sensitivity, or understanding for another, they must

Observation of an infant in the family setting 'provides the observer with an opportunity to encounter primitive emotional states in the infant and his family...' (Rustin in Miller, 1989, 7). According to Rustin infant observation allows to 'explore the emotional events between infant and mother' and 'the aim is to describe the development of the relationship between infant and others (...) and try to understand the unconscious aspects of behaviour and patterns of communication' (Rustin in Miller, 1989, 7). Early infant observation plays a vital role in the psychodynamic training and it gives a thesis of how early emotional development is being influenced by subconscious family dynamics.

Returning to the main question of the essay, to what extent the cognition controls emotion, Lazarus with his findings give us an other evidence, that cognition can subjectively manipulate the way we response emotionally.

“Anger is a basic human emotion that is experienced by all people” (Mills, 2005). It is a natural response, triggered when someone feels hurt or mistreated. However, it is not just a clear-cut emotion that consists of one general feeling that is the same for everyone. The levels of anger that a person feels may not always be identical and there are varying degrees of responses that someone can express when they are experiencing this sentiment. How often a person gets angry, how intensely they feel this emotion, and how long it lasts varies for every individual. This results in a range of intensity of the anger that they express. Moreover, how a person decides to handle this emotional signal can be a decisive factor as to any consequential effects that may occur. Some forms of expression are perfectly healthy and normal for a person to exhibit, meanwhile others pose more serious problems. When it is “well managed, anger has very few detrimental health or interpersonal consequences” (Mills, 2005). Nevertheless, when someone demonstrates hostility they “not only increase [their] risk for an early death, but also risk social isolation, which itself is a major risk factor for serious illness and death” (Mills, 2005). The poems “A Poison Tree,” “Bitch,” and “Daddy” all demonstrate an expression of a distinctive quality of anger. In each of the works, a different level of this emotion is exhibited ranging from resentment to wrath. In both “Bitch” by Carolyn Kizer and “Daddy” by