Why we feel what we feel

Emotions are among the many things which we cannot always control.

Human beings are not always aware of their emotions, much less what may have triggered them. Often our faces give away what we are feeling, and facial expression of emotion is universal across all human cultures. The work of Charles Darwin and Paul Ekman demonstrates this clearly, as can be seen in this fascinating video.

"We are about as effective at stopping an emotion as we are at preventing a sneeze", Damasio (2000). However many of us do become very efficient at acting as if we are not feeling a particular emotion; perhaps sometimes resulting in less control of certain impulses (e.g. impulse control disorders). While some of us may become skilled at controlling expression of emotion, most of us cannot control our bodily responses to anxiety etc.

When the original Star Trek series was made, it was considered that emotion was a human disability , and Spock was considered to be better at decision making due to his Vulcan lack of emotion. We now know that those who cannot access sensitive emotion actually make poor decisions.

Emotions serve vital evolutionary functions; producing quick reactions to circumstance. For example, an emotive reaction might be to run away, to freeze or to fight, while a reaction to stress may be to repeat a comforting behaviour such as grooming.

The systems which produce emotions are very much involved with the body's ability to regulate itself and to adapt to the environment. These systems begin at the brain stem and go up to the higher brain region, regulating and mapping the state of the body.

Once an emotion becomes conscious, we may try to guess what caused it, but we cannot be sure. A tiny chemical change at a junction smaller than a pinhead may be the cause of a change in emotion; and this could be triggered by diet, hormones, weather or a faint waft of an aroma. Any number of minute changes in the environment, body or brain can result in altered emotions, either conscious or not.

When we do become aware of an emotion, then we can decide whether to continue thinking about it, and if so, how. We can also implement a number of tools to help us feel better.

You can explore more about what to do once you become aware of your emotions, by reading our Thought section.

Further reading

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrgNKGjSyxA&feature=related
Bower, G.H. (1981) ‘Mood and memory’, American Psychologist, vol.36, pp.129–
48. Chichester, Wiley.
Calder, A.J., Lawrence, A.D. and Young, A.W. (2001) ‘Neuropsychology of fear and loathing’, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol.2, no.5, pp.352–63. LeDoux, J.E. (1996) The Emotional Brain, New York, Simon and Schuster.
Damasio, A (1996)Handbook of Cognition and Emotion, Chichester, Wiley.‘The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, vol.351, pp.1413–20.
Damasio A, (2000) The Feeling of What Happens", Vintage Press
Darwin, C. (1998, first published 1872) The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (3rd edn), London, Harper Collins.
Lazarus, R.S. (1982) ‘Thoughts on the relations between emotion and cognition’, American Psychologist, vol.37, pp.1019–24.
LeDoux, J.E. (1989) ‘Cognitive-emotional interactions in the brain’, Cognition and Emotion, vol.3, pp.267–89.
LeDoux, J.E. (1996) The Emotional Brain, New York, Simon and Schuster.
Mathews, A. and MacLeod, C. (2002) ‘Induced processing biases have causal effects on anxiety’, Cognition and Emotion, vol.16, no.2, pp.331–54.
Richards, A. and French, C.C. (1992) ‘An anxiety-related bias in semantic activation when processing threat/neutral homographs’, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol.45, pp.503–25.
Schachter, S. and Singer, J. (1962) ‘Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of emotional state’, Psychological Review, vol.69, pp.379–99.
Williams, J.M.G., Watts, F.N., MacLeod, C. and Mathews, A. (1997) Cognitive Psychology and Emotional Disorders (2nd edn), Chichester, Wiley.
Zajonc, R.B. (1980) ‘Feeling and thinking: preferences need no inferences’, American Psychologist, vol.35, pp.151–75.
Zajonc, R.B. (1984) ‘On the primacy of affect’, American Psychologist, vol.39, pp.117–23.