Assignment 7!

1. When are emotions pathological?

Emotions are pathological when they are unreasonable in their intensity.  For example when someone lashes out over something very minimal.  At the other end of the spectrum it can be when people react with an intensity less than normal.  This would be the group that these articles would put psychopaths into.  These articles explain that psychopaths feel fear and anxiety at a lesser intensity if at all compared to non-psychopaths.

2. When are they disruptive to social and personal functions?

The article by Pham relates our emotional states to reasoning processes and self-control.  I believe that our emotions are disruptive when they affect our reasoning or self-control in detrimental ways.  For example if they interfere with our reasoning and cause us to make poor decisions that we would not have made in our normal mind set.  One of the articles discusses how many of their psychopath participants were in prison even though there are some "successful" psychopaths.  I think that by successful they mean that they are able to control their reasoning and their self-control enough that they can keep themselves from making poor decisions that would lead them to prison.

3. Some people claim that particular emotions are in and of themselves dysfunctional (e.g. anger). What do you think?

I don't agree that emotions are dysfunctional.  We experience emotions for a reason.  I think that what makes us think they are dysfunctional is when people react to them in ways that seem unreasonable.  I think that the emotions still have a purpose but when people experience them with too high or low of intensity that purpose may not be as clear.

Discussion Questions

1) If a person has never encountered traumatic experiences, do you still feel it would be beneficial to their health if they kept an emotional diary?

2) Patrick mentions in his article that not all psychopaths are criminals and that there can be "successful".  What do you think is different between psychopaths who are "successful" and those who are not?  What do you think it means for a psychopath to be "successful"?

3) Can you think of a time when you misattributed your feelings or affective state to the object of your focus rather than its actual cause?

Emotion Blog 10/05

This morning I woke up to read an email saying that my first class of the day was cancelled.  This triggered a sense of relief in me.  I have multiple exams coming up and a lot of other things to do so this was wonderful.  It gave me the time to run some needed errands and get a little homework done before I had to get to class.  This was definitely a positive feeling on a bipolar scale.  Also, my last class got out early which once again gave me a calming feeling.  Every little bit of extra time is helpful.  I have a couple meetings still tonight so now I have time to eat dinner and get some studying in.  These two changes in my schedule along with the extremely beautiful weather has kept me in a good mood all day.  Hopefully I can stay in this mood through this week and during my different exams!

Assignment 10/05

Write a 200-500 word statement addressing the way in which emotions structure social relationships. Use evidence from this weeks readings

Our emotions structure social relationships because they act as communication between individuals and they affect organizational decision making.  The first point is explained in the article by Lopes.  As this article puts it, emotions play this role by “conveying information about people’s thoughts and intentions”.  The article by Keltner and Haidt explains this point as well.  It says that emotions are used for informing the individual as well as prepare the individual and similar to the other article it says that emotions are for understanding other people’s emotions and intentions.  Understanding the emotions and intentions of a person you are interacting with helps you know how to react to them.  This relates back to the article on Emotional Intelligence that we read for last week.  Being able to understand and manage emotions interactions between people can be more efficient and effective. 

This same article also explains the second point.  This article explains that emotions help to define the roles and statuses of members.  This helps groups know how to function and use their abilities most efficiently and make decisions more efficiently.  The article by Howard also discusses this point.  It says that emotions work to help decision-making groups in a similar way to how it works in individuals.  It affects priorities and where attention is focused.  Emotions can cause changes in priorities and changing priorities can change where an organization focuses attention or how they make a decision.

Emotion Blog 10/01/11

Your CampusFrance application is now complete.

Congratulations!

This is what was waiting for me in my inbox earlier!  This means that I am one step closer to getting my visa for studying abroad. It has been a stressful process so this email triggered an intense emotion of excitement.  It made the idea of living in France feel much more real.  The positive feeling lasted for a little while and contributed to the good mood I was in for the rest of the day.

After the feeling of excitement, I had a little bit of nervousness.  This was because the next step in the process is to go to the France Consulate in Chicago.  Attaining a visa for France is complicated but I just need to focus on the fact that I will soon be living on the Mediterranean!  Thinking about this always puts a smile on my face!! 

Discussion Questions Week 6

1) The article by Lopes et al. says " our findings raise the possibility that training in emotion regulation abilities might help people to interact with others effectively".  Since the beginning of our seminar, do you feel that your interactions with the people around you have changed at all?

2) In the article by Howard, it is said that it has been argued that decision-making can not be an entirely rational process.  Can you think of any examples when you or an organization you are involved in has made a decision that was purely rational and void of emotion?

3) Relating back to the papers from last week, do you think that we develop our personal emotional abilities and emotional abilities for group interactions at the same time?  Or do you think that our emotions at the group level are developed after our individual emotions?

Emotion Blog 10/1

Last night I went with some friends to the movie that was being played on the top level of the MU parking ramp. The movie was Fast 5.  This is not a movie I would normal choose to watch but because I love outdoor movies and being with friends I decided it could be fun.  Throughout the movie, I had a combination of two main emotions.  I found myself feeling almost scared when the lives of the main characters were in danger.  Even though I obviously am not connected with these characters I was emotionally involved in their story.  At the same time however, there were moments when the plot seemed to ridiculous and I found myself laughing.  It is interesting to me that I can find something so unrealistic that I can laugh at it yet at the same time I get emotionally involved as if it were real.  These emotions were neither truly negative or positive.  The overall experience was positive though because I enjoyed the movie.  Even though it was super cold, I had a great evening.