Emotional development

1

Psychology and Culture

Student’s Name

Professor’s Name

Course Name

Institution Name

Date

Psychology and Culture

According to psychologists, once we are born, emotions, grief, and panic are hardwired in the limbic section of the brain. The emotions are also present in all mammals making them innate and universal (Matsumoto & Juang, 2016). Evolutionary Psychology theorizes that emotions have a fundamental role in behavior which is necessary for environmental adaptation. Therefore, grief and panic are viewed as adaptive responses to changes in environment settings. In other words, it supports awareness of threats in order to improve prospects for survival. For example, people experience panic attack when stuck in tiny gap between rocks while hiking is due to changes in the environment invoking fear which in turn activates our fight or flight response.

Besides, an emotional expression is an action that communicates the current emotional state which could be influenced by various factors such as self-awareness, physical health or environment. In fact, the universal perception of emotions is based on the study of Charles Darwin. Based on his research, he identified that the facial expression of emotion is universal (Matsumoto & Juang, 2016). Furthermore, his research continued to identify that facial expressions do not vary based on culture. Therefore, they cannot be learned. Nevertheless, recognizing facial expressions of emotions have a key role in human cognition which support the notion of universal perception of emotions. Also, facial recognition studies find facial is cognition as universal as it is effortlessly achieved among humans. Thus, social conditioning has a significant impact on how people view faces. It is also tied to genetic encoding as it is influenced and intercorrelated by genes.

From my personal perspective, my family members demonstrate similar emotional expression under ideal conditions. Additionally, it is possible to be affected by the emotions of other family members that associate with the level of attachment and correlation with the distressing issue. Thus, the aligning of expression with family members is frequent but not always. For example, when my parents are happy, the emotion is shared among the other family members inducing the emotion of joy and happiness. However, if my adolescent sister is experiencing mood swings which alter their emotions, the other family members would barely align their emotions with her. Hence, the support for the notion of emotions are being associated most of the time.

While emotion antecedents are defined as events, situational triggers, or solicitation of emotions, emotional intelligence refers to the capability to control, be aware of, and express our emotions. They are related as emotion antecedents are used to determine emotional control. Of the four areas of emotional intelligence, I believe I am strong in social awareness as I always respect everyone’s perspective, as well as recognize others’ concerns and emotions. However, I everyday still practice being empathetic, and socially independent from external criticism. Previous experiences with depression contributed to the current emotional state as the notions and comments of others had a controlling role in my emotions. The skill that requires development is social skills as I am poor in communicating with others, bonds are difficult to develop and I do not like change. Hence, social skills are necessary for effective interaction with others thus the need to improve on it.

Universal emotions in different social, work and life situations have the core role of passing information concerning the individual. The notion of universal emotions was founded on the work of Darwin who viewed such emotions as evolved traits among all humans. Each universal emotion has a dissimilar signal and physiology which is affected by the situation at hand. Although they vary from their onset, duration, and waning, universal emotions do not last long. Moreover, if an emotion continues for an extended period, without intermission it is deemed either a disorder or mood. Nevertheless, they allow us to communicate varying emotional states influenced by the varying situations.

Reference

Matsumoto, D., & Juang, L. (2016). Culture and psychology (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.