The Movie I Watched For My Paper

When I started this journey, it was simply for an interesting English credit, however what I found was much more. Watching some of the movies in our curriculum has elevated my level of knowledge of American films. This course was called American on film Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the movies. In this, you gave us one last assignment to choose a film that represent some or all of these qualities. The movie I chose for this final essay embodies all of those qualities. The movie that I have chosen is a film named Six Degrees of Separation. This movie was written by John Guare, and based on a true story in the 1980s. This movie is place in the backdrop of New York City, mostly filmed in a Fifth Avenue apartment where

Choices are the decisions we make in life, some are good others are bad. Choosing a bad decision can affect families mentally, financially and emotionally. Bad choices always have consequences. A persons emotions can alter them into making terrible choices. Sometimes there is not a choice that is positive.

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

A huge portion of the movies that our children watch are without mother figures “either the mothers died onscreen, or they were mysteriously disposed of before the movie began. So many animated movies. Not a mother in sight.” (Boxer, 2014) Boxer points out several facts in many of our children related books and movies. The first point that Boxer makes is, that mothers are either not being included in the movie or killed off in the beginning. The second point Boxer makes is that in many children’s classics, the mother is replaced by an evil stepmother or overly heroic father. “Carolyn Dever, a professor of English, noted that the character development begins “in the space of the missing mother.” The unfolding of plot and personality suggests, depends on the dead mother.” (Boxer, 2014) The youth of the past and present are being subjected to an acceptance of gender bias by mother figures being replaced by fathers in animated films.

Hence, it all comes down to how people control their emotions and how they choose to portray what they are feeling. Emotional responses are both physiological and psychological. These responses influence perception, learning, and performance. People commonly experience negative emotions such

Amygdala, prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and hypothalamus are the main four brain regions involved in how we experience emotions (Feist et al., 2015). One way to explain emotions is to describe them as adaptations to the problems that our ancestors experienced. This model explains emotions as evolutionary adaptations (Feist et al., 2015). In this model, emotions affect physiological systems in ways to help us “deal efficiently with critical situations” (Feist et al., 2015). For example, when we sense danger, our circulatory system, respiratory system, and muscles work harder to help us escape from the danger. In this case, a set of adaptations is associated with a certain emotion (i.e. fear) and thus, emotions can be explained as evolutionary adaptations, allowing us to cope with the

The two factors are that emotion is a result from the state of arousal and a cognition where one recognizes and understands the experience in order to label why one feels this way.

Emotion is a convoluted state of reactions accompanied by physiological and psychological changes that impact thought or behavior. Recognize, no single emotion can be consolidated to a

Researchers have debated about the phenomenon with emotions. Debates on this topic have and will continue to for many more years. Researchers have attempted to understand why one has emotions and came up with the five different theories. The first theory is the James-Lange theory, which argues that an event can cause physiological arousal first and, it can be interpret this as an arousal. Second theory is the Cannon-Bard theory that argues that all humans experience a physiological arousal and an emotional one at the same time. It still does not give any attention to the role of the thoughts or an outward

Webster’s dictionary defines Emotion as: a strong feeling (such as love, anger, joy, hate or fear). An emotion is a function that allows a human being to make judgements on actions and choices within situations in which one sees an importance or significant connection. Our emotions allow us to prepare for action such as; fight or flight, approach, or to undergo action to obtain a goal that was forged by an emotion. "An emotion is a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioural or expressive response." In the 1980’s Robert Plutchik introduced a system of emotional identification which he termed the “wheel of emotions.” His aim was to draw attention to how emotions can be combined together to move one from a basic emotion to a more complex and powerful emotional state that forces action. Plutchik suggested that there are 8 primary emotional dimensions: happiness vs. sadness; anger vs. fear; trust vs. disgust; and surprise vs. anticipation. He then went on to say that, for example, happiness and anticipation can be combined to create an emotional state of excitement.

The field of emotion research holds a number of conceptual questions, such as what exactly emotions are or how do conscious experiences of emotion and their physiological responses interplay. Three theories best plot the contrasts of this relationship; the common sense theory, the James-Lange theory and the Canon-Bard theory. The common sense theory states that the perception of a threatening stimulus facilitates the feeling of an emotion leading to corresponding bodily changes (Cameron & Jago, 2008). James-Lange theory, a direct opposition of the common sense theory, argues for emotion facilitation as a response to our physiological changes (Lang, 1994). Finally, Cannon-Bard’s theory assigns a joint responsibility to physiological

It has been claimed that human emotions are the sole product of biological functioning. The James Lange Theory of Emotion (1884) proposes that there are three components of emotions which can be attributed to the automatic nervous system (ANS). The three components are Cognition (appraisal of the event), Action (Fight or flight) and Feeling (Aspect of the emotion). Here we see that a biological attribution of emotion has been in place since the 1800s and has been common knowledge for some time. This essay will assess and examine evidence that has been provided to support the idea that emotions are the product of biology.

Emotions are conceptualized as response tendencies to changes or shifts in an individual’s circumstances and are, consciously or unconsciously experienced as having personal significance (Fredrickson, 2001; Garland et al., 2010). Emotions have 3 main characteristics: feelings, arousal or physiological changes, and expressive behavior.

When talking about emotion it seems a fairly simple topic and immediately "feeling" words come to mind; sad, happy, and confused. These are basic emotions and easy to understand. What isn't so simple about emotions is their process and how they form and work. Emotions are reactions to sensory information like sight, smell, taste, touch and sound (Tracing Emotion’s Pathways 94). However, it is not that simple; an emotional reaction or response is made aware of and understood by a part of the brain called the sensory cortex. These emotional responses or reactions to sensory stimuli are processed by a part of the brain called the amygdala (What’s An Emotion). The amygdala is a huge asset to the cognitive factors of emotions because in processing emotions you become able to understand, recognize, and control them. So then how do emotions evoke a physiological reaction such as tearing up when one feels sad, laughing with joy, and trembling with fear? These physiological reactions that one may experience come from the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is, “a collection of fibers that extend throughout