How Important are Emotions in Human Cognition? Essay

What is emotional intelligence? Why it is important to understand emotional intelligence in today’s society? People can have a wide range of emotions from being happy, confused, angry, sad, etc. As individuals’, it’s important to understand our own emotions as well as those around us at home, work, and in social environments. If we are able to comprehend and control our emotions, it makes it easier for us to see others’ perceptions of ourselves.

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

Jennifer S. Lerner, author of Emotion and Decision Making, talks about how our emotions can actively affect our actions. In Lerner’s book, it states, “We start with emotions arising from the judgement or a choice at hand, a type of emotion that strongly and routinely shapes decision making.” Our emotions cause us to make certain decisions in our everyday lives. For example a person who is feeling nervous and anxious about a specific outcome of a risky situation may choose a more safe route. A person who admires an organization may donate money. In both cases, our the way we feel about something or someone determines how we address a situation and how we treat someone or something. In some way our emotions act as our conscience in each situation we go through that requires us to choose an outcome .

Attempts to define “emotion” have proved to be rather difficult. Instead of searching for a comprehensive definition, Gross (2011) describes the three core features of emotions. First, emotions occur when an individual decides that a situation is relevant to his or her goals. Second, emotions are multi-faceted, and involve both subjective and physiological experiences, as well as behaviors. The third feature involves the authoritative nature of emotions. They have the powerful ability to interrupt ongoing processes, assert their priority over other activities, and force their way into awareness. For example, some traditions describe emotions as “disorganized interruptions of mental activity” (Salovey & Mayer, 1989). Emotions are such an

Dance is the beginning of the unit and therefore serves as an introduction to mental and emotions.

Human emotions can be considered a blessing. They enable people to show empathy and kindness to others; to comfort or help someone that needs it. To be human means to have emotions. However, it is important that people have control over their emotions. This is especially true with strong emotions or feelings. This essay will focus on three emotions in particular: anger, love, and hatred. These three feelings commonly cloud people’s judgements, which in turn, causes them to make bad decisions. Overall, making decisions based on emotions leads to negative outcomes.

Emotions can make a powerful or hollow connection between two people. Although a person’s emotions can define their relationship with someone else, emotions can also separate the two people. Relationships can be more meaningful when the people involved are on the same page. Positive emotional connections create stability in relationships.

Our emotions, moral, values, and general emotional responses influence decisions to an extent that inhibits rationality and practicality. Understanding the repercussions of this, I still believe that these features are not necessarily something we need to rid ourselves of. Is the great influence of our emotions not a defining, distinguishing characteristic of humans? The crimes that we view as being severe might not be diminishing as many people as other smaller-scale crimes, but these crimes are attacking much higher values of humanity, responsibility, and trust that people hold so dear. The ability to place such inanimate emotions above individual lives is something only we, as humans, are capable of, and is then something we should not give up so readily.

Children will often have behavior issues that result in difficulties adjusting to school. Emotion competence and emotion knowledge is the ability to recognize, interpret, and respond constructively to emotions (Miller et al., 2006). What role does emotion knowledge as well as emotion competence have in the behavior and adjustment to school for preschool children? The answer to that question is unclear. Researchers have uncovered evidence that provides mixed results regarding the importance of emotion knowledge and competence in the behavior adjustment to school by preschool children.

The debates surrounding the argument that emotion can influence cognitive processing are a matter of contention and cognitive psychologists understanding of how emotions can influence cognition is an area of debate in its infancy. Research studying emotion was previously negligible until methods by which emotions could be measured were devised, such as through brain imaging techniques. The essay will discuss whether emotions can influence cognition and the extent of this influence and will look into its effect on two specific cognitive processes, memory and attention.

As humans evolve so do emotions. Emotions continue to perform the same function that they have been performing for thousands of years, but they have evolved into more complex entities that challenges and questions. Emotion contributes to cognition and intellect. Emotion and cognition explain the choices characters make throughout a story. Decisions like whether or not to embark on a journey relies on both emotional and logical rationale. Characters internally discuss the economics of choice, risk and reward, through pragmatic and emotional reasoning. At times, one method of reasoning surpasses the other, so decisions are made more on emotion than logic or vice versa, therefore influencing the course of a story. However, no decision is completely made by one or the other. Despite intellect’s reputation as purely objective and devoid of emotion, thinking and cognitive processes cannot occur without some degree of emotional input. This relationships applies in reverse as emotion cannot exist without a cognitive input. Don Hockenbury, Associate Professor of Psychology at Tulsa Community College, describes emotions as “ a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a subjective experience, a

The two main emotional factors that influence memory and forgetting are flashbulb and repression. A flashbulb memory is a memory that has a high emotional significance they are accurate and long lasting. It is almost a photographic memory of a particularly emotional event that is imprinted on your mind. For example an event such as September the 11th, people can remember things such as how they heard it happened, what clothes they were wearing and who they were with very clearly. This is because it was such a sudden emotional impact when they heard it that it got imprinted in their memory. Repression is an emotional factor in forgetting. It is that we forget because we have great anxiety about certain memories. This is because certain

Chapter 1 explains the work of a Harvard psychologist named William James. William published the article “What is an Emotion?” in a philosophical journal entitled Mind in 1884. His paper is an argument for the primacy and necessity of bodily systems in producing emotional feelings. James-Lange theory states that physiological arousal instigates the experience of emotion. A Harvard physiologist, Walter Cannon, roundly criticized James’ theory, claiming that, according to the Cannon Bard theory, physiological changes follow emotional expression.

In everyday life there is a constant evidence of interaction between cognition and emotion. If we see something funny we laugh, if we fear we run or hide, if we are distressed we find it hard to concentrate. However we do not need to present any of the emotions to others, we can regulate them, think about situations and consequences and estimate the outcome. We are able to control our emotions. Ochsner and Gross(2005,p.242) argues that capacity to control emotion is important for human adaptation. The question is to what extent does cognition control emotion?

In our everyday lives, we are constantly interacting with other individuals. These interactions have an effect on our emotions. We have to learn how to identify and deal with these emotions because they have a direct effect on how we deal with issues at work. Individuals can work their way through this process by becoming aware of the importance of emotional intelligence.