To what extent does cognition control emotion ? 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 the next paragraphs I will consider some theories, factors and evidence on cognitive controlling of emotion in terms of
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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.
However Zajonc ( Yiend, Mackintosh,2005 ) argued against Lazarus ( Yiend, Mackintosh,2005 ) theories and opened up a primacy debate between cognition and emotion and their precedence. Zajonc( Yiend, Mackintosh,2005) says there is no need for appraisal from cognition before emotion. Emotion can arise directly and that experience of emotion always precede cognitive processing of that emotion. He found in his mere exposure study that people tend to prefer familiar things. Whilst subjects were engaged in an other task, Zajonc ( Yiend, Mackintosh,2005 ) showed them some items subliminally - without conscious awareness. According to his findings participants had no conscious recognition of displayed items but they had a preference to them. On the bases of the results he assumed that there is no need for cognitive appraisal to have affective experience. Strangely he implied that cognitive processing must be conscious only. He did not take in account at the time that even unconscious processing is a part of cognitive processes and by comparing preference judgement with affect or emotion was also rather a brave assumption. The debate between both Lazarus and Zajonc came to
The name of this article is called, “Cognitive, Social and Psychological Determinants of Emotional State.” In 1962, Schachter and Singer put their two-factor theory of emotion to the test. Schachter and Singer believed that physical arousal played a huge role in emotions. They came up with one of the earliest cognitive theories of emotion. In the experiment, they provide three main hypotheses, which were derived from the aim of the study. The first one asks, if a person experiences a state of arousal for which they have no immediate
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
Chances are you would react differently to seeing a puppy than you would upon seeing an axe murderer in a cornfield. Perhaps seeing your best friend and seeing your ex would elicit contrasting responses. In discussions concerning reactions, one controversial issue has been what causes response variations. Some psychologists argue that reactions are learned responses that we've been conditioned to utilize. By contrast, others contend that responses are governed by cognitive theory which states that emotions control how we respond. It is my own view that it is a combination of learning and emotion that decide our reactions. An example of this theory is the comparison of my responses to two separate essays on rather similar topics.
Moreover, although consensus has generally agreed on the structure of self-regulation (Ursache et al., 2012), recent research has highlighted an intricate relation between executive functioning and another other aspect of emotion, emotionality (Ferrier et al., 2014). Emotionality, the combination of the expression and experience of emotion, is observable everywhere in a preschool classroom. Recall that emotion regulation, cognitive regulation (i.e., executive functioning), and behavioral regulation are all considered essential aspects of self-regulation (Jahromi & Stifter, 2008; Ursache, et al., 2012). Moreover, remember that behavioral regulation has been defined as the “execution and manifestation of cognitive processes in overt behavior” (Morrison et al., 2010, p. 204). In the same light, just as behavioral regulation is the expression of corresponding cognitive processes (i.e., cognitive regulation/ executive functioning), we propose that emotionality be conceptualized as the corresponding expression of emotional processes (i.e., emotion regulation). It is worth mentioning that the emotionality we refer to is conceptually distinct from the term emotionality used in temperament research to describe an innate emotional disposition (e.g., Blair et al.,
Emotion regulation refers to any attempted process, successful or unsuccessful, that acts upon the emotion. Emotions may be positive (e.g., happy, proud) or negative (e.g., sad, anxious) in valence and can also vary in intensity, with the same stimulus evoking different responses in individuals. For example, a picture of a dog might evoke joy for a dog-lover and fear for someone afraid of dogs. Even the same person may experience different emotions depending on the context. If someone’s dog has just died, seeing a picture of a dog could evoke sadness and longing. Imagine that an adolescent girl sees two of her peers whispering and snickering during lunch. This event may trigger multiple emotional reactions, including the experience of anxiety and sadness. Consider the variety of processes this girl could engage in and how they might affect her emotions; she could dwell on and brood about the experience, prolonging her sadness; she could think about the situation differently (e.g., as having nothing to do with her), diminishing her sadness; she could do something to distract herself from her emotions (e.g., eat lunch), temporarily alleviating her anxiety; and/or she could worry about what the girls are saying, maintaining her anxiety. There are many more possibilities and each one may lead to a cascade of interactions within the adolescent and her interaction with
“Action and feelings go together… by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling.” - William James
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Act 2 of YBAW gives us 3 three techniques for regulating emotions in order to stay cool under pressure. The first technique is a “labeling” which involves the word to identify an emotional sensation. It helps us to decrease our emotional arousal so that we can bring our emotions back to the surface. The second technique is a “reappraisal” which allows us to increase both certainty and autonomy. Sometimes, we can’t avoid the situation which brings the outburst of emotion, and reappraisal is a powerful strategy that allows us to manage our increased arousal. This technique is also classified to four types: “reinterpreting”, “normalizing”, “reordering”, and “repositioning”. All these types of techniques are used in our everyday life. However,
In The Effect of the Social Regulation of Emotion on Emotional Long-Term Memory, 219 undergraduate students participated. They earned extra credit or participation points for their time. Participants completed two different tasks of long-term memory: first task was a training task requiring the completion of a packet with questionnaires and while looking at images, participants held a stress ball. The second task, given a week after the training task, was the testing task, which consisted of completing a packet with questionnaires and this time participants held a female researcher’s hand, though she was not visible to the participants. For the given tasks, participants in the training part were to view six blocks; two of the blocks had
Despite of these influences on each other, emotion and cognition processing brain areas are still considered to be separate and distinct (LeDoux, 2000).
Emotion regulation is the occurrence of when an emotion is happening to an individual and how one expresses it. The process mode, (Gross, 2014)l introduces five main ideas that regulate one’s emotions. Gross explains that there are five concepts in the model, which represents five families of an emotion regulation process, (Gross, 2014). The five main concepts are situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change and response modulation. (Gross, 2014) The model displays a movement from left to right, which gives the idea of movement through time, (Gross, 2014), According to Gross (2014) “situation is selected, modified, attended to, appraised, and yields a particular set of emotional regulation,” (Gross,
A great deal of investigation remains to be done before one can draw specific conclusions as to why and how individual differences in executive functioning predicts successful emotion regulation. To make more precise predictions going forward, researchers need to single out different forms of emotion regulation, and investigate what cognitive and neurological processes they rely on to succeed. Understanding their mechanisms and functional processes will shed light on how they are connected to the executive
Maturation is especially important for individuals as it provides several competitive evolutionary advantages (Locke & Bogin, 2006). Through this process, individuals develop and acquire control over their emotions and behaviours. This ability to monitor and adapt our emotions, cognition and behaviours in accordance to the social and intellectual demands of particular contexts is often referred to as self-regulation (Demetriou, 2000; Zimmerman, 2000). Various complex cognitive skills are required for self-regulation. These skills encompass the constant observation of our thoughts and behaviours, knowledge of the demands of any situation, the capability to alter conditions of our current behaviour as required to achieve a goal or suit a situation and attention to how favourably the demands of a context are met (Evans & Rosenbaum, 2008).
Emotion regulation is a relatively new field in psychology, having only emerged in the past 25 years. Ever since the early 1990’s, more and more psychologists have become interested in the topic, leading to many studies and articles each year regarding the subject (Gross, 2014). Emotion regulation is the process of being aware and in control of one’s own emotions. It also refers to how or if emotions are expressed or controlled. Suppression is a form of emotion regulation, and is the act of consciously reducing emotional expression, or intentionally not showing emotion. These processes are incredibly useful to convert harmful emotions that could cause detrimental outcomes into harmless, or even useful thoughts or actions. An example of this would be using the anticipation for summer break to motivate you to push through to the end of the semester rather than drowning in stress and doing poorly. There are endless applications for this skill, but first it needs to be understood. According to Gross (2014), there are three main attributes to emotion regulation. The first attribute is finding an objective to use to change the emotion. This can be anything, as long as it is able to change or redirect the desired emotion. These objectives can be intra-personal, or inter-personal, or even both at the same time. The second attribute of emotion regulation is acting upon the system that will actually change the emotions. These actions can be both conscious, such as trying to remain
previously noted, although we often think that cognition causes affect then causes behavior, in reality these components