General concept of emotions. The psychological structure of emotions

Classification of emotions. Forms of emotional response.

Emotions(from lat. emovere- excite, excite) this is a special group of mental processes and states in which a person's subjective attitude to external and internal events of his life is expressed.

A person not only cognizes the surrounding reality, but also actively reacts to it and has an appropriate impact. Knowing reality, a person, one way or another, relates to it. Some events, phenomena, objects please him, others upset, annoy, others outrage, cause indignation, and even fits of rage.

Emotions (from the Latin emoveo - shock, excite) - the reaction of the human psyche to the impact of internal and external stimuli, which has a pronounced subjective coloring.

Emotions, as a rule, are a relatively simple direct form of mental reflection, proceeding in the form of experiences of personal significance and assessment of external and internal situations of a person's life. This reflection has a pronounced subjective character, each of us cries and laughs in his own way. Emotions can be a reaction not only to immediate events, but also to probable and remembered ones, they reflect events in the form of a generalized subjective assessment and can anticipate the result and action.

At present, the following components are called the main ones in the structure of emotions: 1) impressive (internal experience); 2) expressive (behavior, facial expressions, motor and speech activity); 3) physiological (vegetative changes). This view of the structure of emotions is held by E.P. Ilyin, K. Izard, G.M. Breslav, A.N. Luk, R. Lazarus et al.

Functions of emotions

Signal function emotions is expressed in the transfer to the interlocutor of information about his mental state, his attitude to the current situation, readiness to act in a certain way.

Regulating function emotions is to stimulate the activity of the individual. Emotions associated with negative experiences, as a rule, reduce performance. It is known that one minute of interpersonal conflict in a team generates 20 minutes of post-conflict experiences and a decrease in the performance of employees by 25%. Conversely, high spirits increase productivity.

Protective - mobilization function emotions associated with a sense of impending danger to the individual. She helps him prepare in time for a difficult situation. At the same time, preparation takes place not only at the level of analytical reflections on the search for protection options, but also at the level of psychophysiological changes in the body (release of an additional amount of adrenaline into the blood, bringing the corresponding muscle groups into a tense state, etc.).

Evaluation function emotions allows a person to form a subjective generalized assessment of current events, to recognize for them one or another level of usefulness or unacceptability, to assess their compliance with his current needs.

indicator of an artist's talent.

Types of emotions

Characteristics of emotions	Types of emotions
1 sign	positive, negative, ambivalent
2 Modality	Joy, fear, anger, etc.
3 Impact on behavior and performance	Stenic (increasing activity), asthenic (decreasing activity)
4 Degree of awareness	Conscious, unconscious
5 Objectivity	Objective, non-objective
6 Degree of randomness	Arbitrary, involuntary
7 Origin	Congenital acquired Primary, secondary
8 Development level	lower, higher
9 Duration	short term, long term
10 Intensity	Weak, strong

Forms of emotional response:

affects, emotions, feelings and moods.

affects- these are strong and relatively short-term emotional states, accompanied by pronounced behavioral and physiological manifestations. Actions in the heat of passion, as a rule, implement "emergency behavior". Self-control is drastically reduced.

Emotions- a relatively longer and weaker experience manifested in external behavior. Expresses the evaluative attitude of the individual to the perceived information.

Fundamental emotions (according to K. Izard)

Interest - intellectual emotion, a sense of involvement that increases a person's ability to perceive and process information coming from the outside world, stimulating and ordering his activity.

Joy - an emotion characterized by an experience of psychological comfort and well-being, a positive attitude towards the world and oneself.

Astonishment - an emotion evoked by abrupt changes in stimulation that prepares a person to deal effectively with new or sudden events.

Sadness - experiencing the loss (temporary/permanent, real/imaginary, physical/psychological) of the object of satisfaction of the need, causing a slowdown in mental and physical activity, the general pace of human life.

Anger - an emotion evoked by a state of discomfort, restriction, or frustration, characterized by energy mobilization, high levels of muscle tension, self-confidence, and a willingness to attack or other forms of activity.

Disgust - emotional reaction of rejection, removal from physically or psychologically harmful objects.

Contempt- a sense of superiority, value and significance of one's own personality in comparison with the personality of another person (depreciation and depersonalization of the object of contempt), which increases the likelihood of committing "cold-blooded" aggression.

Fear - an emotion characterized by a feeling of insecurity, lack of confidence in one's own safety in a situation of threat to the physical and (or) mental "I" with a pronounced tendency to escape.

Shame - experience of one’s own inadequacy, incompetence and uncertainty in a situation of social interaction, one’s inconsistency with the requirements of the situation or the expectations of others, both contributing to the observance of group norms and having a devastating effect on the very possibility of communication, giving rise to alienation, the desire to be alone, to avoid others.

Guilt- an experience that arises in a situation of violation of the internal moral and ethical standard of behavior, accompanied by self-condemnation and repentance.

Feelings- long-term, stable components of the human mental structure, are of a pronounced objective nature, arise as a result of the generalization of emotions.

1. aesthetic feelings arise during the perception of the beautiful world, whether it be a natural phenomenon, a work of art or human actions (a sense of beauty, grandeur, baseness, comic and tragic).

2. Intellectual feelings accompany the process of cognition, imagination and creativity (amazement, doubt, bewilderment, neglect, curiosity).

3. Moral feelings characterize the activity of the subject in relation to another person, to people and to society as a whole (sense of duty, conscience, envy, patriotism, superiority).

4. Praxic Feelings arise in practical activity and reflect an emotional attitude both to the results and to the labor process itself.

Moods- relatively weakly expressed, diffuse experiences that are not related to a specific subject, can be held for a sufficiently long time, determine the general emotional tone.

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Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus

EE "Vitebsk State Technological Institute"

Department of History and Law

Test

Subject: "Fundamentals of psychology and pedagogy"

Theme 6

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group ZS-24

Vitebsk 2010

Plan

Introduction

1. General concept of emotions. The psychological structure of emotions, their external expression

2. Classification and functions of emotions. Sthenic and asthenic emotions. Mood. Feelings. affects

3. Needs, their classification. Motive and behavior.

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The presented work is devoted to the topic "Emotional and motivational processes".

Thinking about emotions, a question may come up that seems strange and unexpected at first glance: why are they needed? Thanks to cognitive processes, the reflection of the surrounding reality is carried out. At the same time, each of the studied processes makes its contribution: sensations provide information about individual properties and features of objects and phenomena, perceptions provide their integral images, memory stores what is perceived, thinking and fantasy process this material into thoughts and new images. Thanks to the will and vigorous activity, a person realizes his plans, etc. Maybe it would be easy to do without joy and suffering, pleasure and annoyance, and finally, without love and hatred?

At the same time, we know from our own experience that all our cognitive and objective activity, in general, our whole life, is unthinkable without emotions, without feelings.

Nowadays, many scientists and entire scientific teams are engaged in the problem of emotions and feelings. And one of the main questions remains - why do we need emotions? In other words, what is their structure, functions, needs, what role do they play in the mental life of a person?

In this work, we will try to understand this.

General concept of emotions. Psychological structurera of emotions, their outward expression

Emotions are one of the few factors in a person's inner life that are easily detected and quite subtly understood by other people. Even a small child, who has not yet learned to speak, is very sensitive to the emotional state of those around him, especially his mother.

Very often, emotions are the cause of failures or mistakes in any human activity. Examples can be given when, on the contrary, this or that feeling, this or that emotional state helps a person to cope with the tasks facing him. The feelings of a person's private life are of the utmost importance. They are the main components of intimate family communication.

Emotions are the mental and / or physiological reactions of humans and animals to the effects of internal and external stimuli associated with the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of needs.

Emotion is a specific form of the mental process of experiencing feelings. For example, the feeling of patriotism, responsibility for the assigned task, or the feeling of a mother's love for children manifests itself in the mental life of people as a stream of emotional experiences that vary in strength, duration, complexity, and even in their content.

The most common emotions: joy, surprise, suffering, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame and others. Some of them are positive, others are negative, depending on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the individual.

The concept of "attitude" is used in psychology in two meanings: firstly, as an objective relationship between the subject and the object (objective relations - mental processes), and secondly, as a reflection, or experience, of these connections (subjective relations - emotions and feelings).

Emotions are distinguished by a complex structure, no matter how elementary they may seem to us at first glance.

Wundt's three-dimensional theory of feelings. For a long time, psychology was dominated by the opinion that emotional experiences are characterized by the presence of only two polar and mutually exclusive subjective states - pleasure or displeasure. The outstanding German psychologist of the 19th century, W. Wundt, found that such a division does not reflect the complexity of the psychological structure of emotions. He put forward a theory according to which emotions are characterized by three qualities or "dimensions" - pleasure or displeasure, excitement or calmness, and tension or resolution (release from tension).

Each of these three "dimensions" is present in emotion not only as a subjective state defined by quality, but also in various degrees of intensity - from emotional zero (a state of indifference) to the highest degrees of intensity of this quality. Due to the fact that emotions in their psychological structure are a variety of three "dimensions", each of which can continuously and widely vary in its degree of intensity, an infinite variety of emotional states and their shades is obtained.

Merit of Wundt Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (08/16/1832 - 08/31/1920) - German physiologist and psychologist. Mainly known as the founder of experimental psychology and cognitive psychology, it should be recognized that he moved away from the traditional view of the structure of emotions as consisting only of variations of one “dimension”, raised the question of the complexity of the psychological structure of emotions and pointed to the presence in emotional processes and states features important for human life and activity, except for pleasure and displeasure.

Pleasure and displeasure. These subjective experiences directly known to every person form the psychological basis of emotional processes: without pleasure or displeasure there can be no emotion. They can be of varying degrees - from very great joy to a weak feeling of pleasure and from slight displeasure to severe grief, but they must be present, otherwise the emotion will cease to be itself.

Pleasure and displeasure are experienced by a person in connection with the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of his needs and interests. They express a person's positive or negative attitude to the phenomena of the surrounding reality, as well as to his own actions and activities.

It is thanks to the elements of pleasure or displeasure that emotions act as the strongest motives for action. For example, the pleasure from the activity performed is accompanied by confidence in one's own strengths and abilities and encourages a person to work even more energetically and successfully. Displeasure causes the desire to avoid what is associated with this feeling, it often causes an increased surge of energy and encourages a person to fight the circumstances that gave him displeasure.

Not always, however, pleasure and displeasure play a positive role. Often a feeling of pleasure causes complacency and a weakening of energy, and displeasure prompts to avoid difficulties, to stop the struggle.

Excitement and calm. Many emotions are characterized by a greater or lesser degree of nervous excitement. In some emotions, for example, in a state of anger, this excitement is intense and vivid; in others, for example, when listening to melodic music, to a weak degree, sometimes decreasing to a state of calm.

The states of excitement and calm not only give a characteristic imprint of the activity performed by a person, but are also necessary for its better performance. These qualitative features of emotions are of great importance in physical culture and sports.

All physical exercises are associated with emotions, characterized by varying degrees of excitement and calm. For example, fast running is accompanied by strong emotional arousal.

During a physical education lesson, a teacher can offer students a game and thus not only give them a certain pleasure, but also cause them the required degree of emotional arousal. During the game, students become excited, behave noisily, lively, their eyes shine, their faces blush, their movements become faster and more energetic. When the physical education lesson comes to an end, after which other subjects should begin, the teacher offers students calm, measured movements in order to remove an excessive degree of emotional excitement and bring their body to a calm state.

Voltage and Resolution. These states are characteristic of emotions experienced in complex activities associated with the expectation of important events or circumstances for a person, in which he will have to act quickly, energetically, overcoming significant difficulties, sometimes realizing the danger of upcoming actions.

Emotions of tension and resolution often manifest themselves in sports activities, showing up most clearly in sports competitions. They are experienced as a tense expectation of certain events and actions. For example, at the start, waiting for the signal to run, the athlete experiences a strong emotional state of tension. Outwardly, this state is expressed in composure, as if in the stiffness of the whole body, in the absence of sudden movements, in slow breathing, etc., although internally the athlete is in a state of very high activity. The emotion of tension in this respect is opposite to the state of excitement, during which a person outwardly manifests himself very violently, makes sharp, jerky movements, speaks loudly, etc.

The reverse features characterize the emotion of resolution from tension. When the tensely awaited signal to run is given, the tension is replaced by an emotional state of release from the tension that was just there. The emotion of resolution is outwardly expressed in increased activity: at the moment of the signal, the athlete makes a sharp energetic jerk forward, the stiffness of movements that was just observed is instantly replaced by fast movements of maximum intensity, the muscle energy held back until this moment is released and manifests itself in movements of great intensity.

Emotions are internal mental subjective states, characterized by a bright bodily expression specific to them, which manifests itself in vascular reactions, in changes in respiration and blood circulation (in connection with this, in blanching or reddening of the face), in a kind of facial expressions and gestures, in the intonation features of speech and etc.

Changes in breathing with emotions. Many emotions are associated with increased muscle activity and a raised voice. This explains the great role that respiratory movements play in emotions, which, as you know, perform a dual function: 1) enhancing gas exchange and providing the oxygen necessary for increased muscular work, and 2) passing air through the glottis and providing the required vibration of the vocal cords.

Respiratory movements during emotions undergo changes in their speed and amplitude characteristic of various emotional states. According to R. Woodworth Robert Sessions Woodworths(17.10.1869 - 07/04/1962 [New York] US BUT) -- American psychologist, representative of functional psychology. these changes are as follows: with pleasure, there is an increase in both the frequency and amplitude of breathing; with displeasure, a decrease in both; when excited, the respiratory movements become frequent and deep; under tension - slow and weak; in a state of anxiety - accelerated and weak; with unexpected surprise - instantly become frequent while maintaining normal amplitude; with fear - a sharp slowdown in breathing, etc.

Indicative of emotions is also the ratio between the duration of inhalation and exhalation. G. Sterring Gustav Sterring (1860 - 1946) -- German psychologist and psychopathologist. determined this ratio by dividing the time of inhalation by the time of the entire cycle (consisting of inhalation and exhalation) and received the following data showing a significant increase in the duration of inspiration in emotional states compared to the duration of exhalation:

at rest 0.43

when excited 0.60

when surprised 0.71

with a sudden fright 0.75

The significance of these data for characterizing emotional processes is emphasized by the fact that during concentrated mental work devoid of emotional excitation, the corresponding coefficient is only 0.30 and tends to decrease even more as concentration increases, i.e. indicates a sharp predominance of the duration of exhalation.

Changes in the frequency of the amplitude of respiratory movements, typical for the corresponding emotions, acquire a stable character in the course of practical activity, being a factor that ensures the required efficiency of this activity. They come not only with the direct performance of the activity, but also with the emotional memory of it. Experiments with athletes show that when they remember difficult and important physical exercises, their breathing acquires the same features that it differed from during direct exercise. This indicates that changes in breathing, as well as vasomotor reactions, are organically included in emotional memory.

Circulatory changes with emotions. These changes are characterized by the frequency and strength of the pulse, the magnitude of blood pressure, the expansion and contraction of blood vessels. As a result of these changes, the blood flow speeds up or slows down and, accordingly, blood flow to one and its outflow from other organs and parts of the body is observed. As mentioned above, the heart rate is regulated by vegetative impulses, and also changes under the influence of adrenaline. At rest, the pulse rate is 60-70 beats per minute. When frightened, there is an instant acceleration to 80-90 strokes. With excitement and intense expectation (at the start), the pulse rate rises by 15-16 beats per minute. In general, excitement accelerates blood circulation.

Corresponding changes are observed in the magnitude of blood pressure. When frightened, systolic blood pressure rises. This increase is also observed at the thought of possible pain: in some persons it is detected as soon as the dentist enters the room and approaches the patient. The increase in blood pressure before the first examination day is sometimes 15-30 mm above the norm.

All these changes are connected with the needs of the body in the better performance of the corresponding activity: with a sudden, fright, they lead to a faster and better blood supply to the muscles that have to work (this is reflected in an increase in the volume of the hands due to the flow of blood to them); in anticipation of the exam - to improve the blood supply to the brain, etc.

Mimic expressive movements. A person has a complex facial musculature, which in its significant part performs only the function of facial movements in accordance with the nature of the emotional states experienced by a person. With the help of facial expressions, e. coordinated movements of the eyes, eyebrows, lips, nose, etc., a person expresses the most complex and diverse emotional states: a slightly open mouth with lowering of its corners expresses sadness; lips extended to the sides with raising the corners of the mouth up - pleasure; raised eyebrows - surprise; a strong and sudden raising of the eyebrows, astonishment; grin of teeth - irritation and anger; lifting of the upper lip with a characteristic expansion of the nostrils of the nose - disgust; half-closed eyes - indifference; tightly compressed lips - determination, etc. Facial expressions are capable of expressing very subtle shades of embarrassment, anger, insult, love, neglect, respect, etc. The expression of the eyes is of great importance.

C. Darwin believed that in the animal ancestors of man, these expressive movements were of practical importance, helping in the struggle for existence: the grin of teeth and the accompanying growl frightened the enemy; posture and facial expressions of humility reduced his aggressiveness; facial expressions of surprise facilitated the orienting reflex, and so on. In humans, however, these mimic movements lost their direct vital practical significance and remained only in the form of simple survivals.

However, a significant number of mimic expressive movements appeared and improved in a person already in the process of his historical development, for example, mimic movements associated with intellectual, aesthetic and moral emotions. They are not innate, but are acquired by a person by imitation in the process of communication with other people and education. To understand these expressive movements in other people, it is necessary to have both the corresponding personal emotional experience and familiarity with universal human experience, which has found its expression in the relationships of people in everyday life or reflected in works of art. So the mime of contempt is completely not perceived and not understood by children aged 3-5 years; the facial expressions of internal, spiritual suffering become understandable at 5-6 years old, the facial expressions of intellectual surprise - at 10 years old, etc. All this speaks of the great role played by mimic expressive movements in the education of emotions.

Expression of emotions in speech intonation. Since speech plays a huge role in human life, the expression of emotions by raising or lowering or weakening the voice has become of great importance in human relationships. At the same time, the methodology and dynamics of speech can have an expressive meaning regardless and even in contradiction with the meaning and content of the spoken words.

The timbre of the voice, the tempo of speech and its rhythmic (accent) articulation with the help of pauses and logical stress are also of expressive importance. Words spoken at the same pitch make speech monotonous and devoid of expressiveness. On the contrary, a significant pitch modulation of the voice (in some artists it exceeds two octaves) makes a person's speech very expressive emotionally.

Emotional expressiveness of speech plays a huge role in human communication. By the cumulative action of all these means, a person, only with the help of his voice alone, can express the most complex and subtle emotions - irony, affection, sarcasm, fear, determination, request, suffering, delight, etc.

Classification and functions of emotions. Sthenicand asthenic emotions. Mood. Feelings. affects

Classification of emotions

Usually, emotion is defined as a special kind of mental processes that express a person's experience of his relationship to the world around him and himself. The peculiarity of emotions is that, depending on the needs of the subject, they directly assess the significance of objects and situations acting on the individual. Emotions serve as a link between reality and needs.

According to the classification of emotional phenomena A.N. Leontief Alexey Nikolaevich Leontiev (1903-1979) -- outstanding Soviet psychologist, full member of the RSFSR APS, doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor. There are three types of emotional processes: affects, emotions proper and feelings.

Affects are strong and relatively short-term emotional experiences, accompanied by pronounced motor and visceral manifestations. In a person, affects are caused both by biologically significant factors affecting his physical existence, and by social factors, for example, the opinion of the leader, his negative assessment, and the sanctions adopted. A distinctive feature of affects is that they arise in response to a situation that has actually occurred. The affect has pronounced external signs: increased motor activity or, conversely, atrophy of movements (“stupefied” with joy). The affect covers a person due to the weakening of the control of consciousness over the flow of emotions (anger, rage, fear, etc.).

Actually, emotions, in contrast to affects, are a more long-term current state, sometimes they are only weakly manifested in external behavior.

The third type of emotional processes - feelings - in contrast to ordinary emotions (immediate, temporary experiences) - these are more complex, established relationships. Feeling includes a whole range of emotions. These are the longest and most stable emotional experiences that have a clearly expressed objective character. A person cannot experience a feeling at all unless it is related to someone or something in particular.

Feelings are a special form of mental reflection, characteristic only of a person, in which the subjective attitude of a person to objects and phenomena of reality is reflected.

The structure of feelings is made up of emotions and concepts. For example, in order for a person to have a feeling of love for the motherland, he must own the concept of the motherland. If he does not have this concept, he does not own it, then there is no point in talking about feeling. Animals have no concepts, so talking about the feelings of animals is complete nonsense, they have only emotions.

Our senses perform two main functions: signaling and regulating.

Signal function feelings is expressed in the fact that experiences arise and change in connection with ongoing changes in the environment or in the human body.

Regulating function feelings is connected with the fact that experiences determine a person's behavior, becoming long-term or short-term motives for his activity. Due to the presence of a regulatory mechanism in a person, there is a decrease in emotional arousal or its increase. In the first case, the strongest emotional experiences of a person are transformed into muscle movements, laughter, exclamations, crying. In this case, a rarefaction of excess voltage occurs, the long-term preservation of which is extremely dangerous.

Emotions are expressed in movements and numerous bodily changes. It is customary to allocate facial expressions(movements of facial muscles) and pantomime(body movements, gestures). These movements and changes serve as objective signs of experiencing feelings. The performance of involuntary and conscious movements, voice changes, facial expressions, gestures, restructuring of the processes occurring in the body are called in psychology the expressive side of emotional states.

Mood- a general emotional state that colors mental processes and human behavior for a long period of time. Mood primarily depends on a person’s worldview, his social activities and focus in general, but it can also be related to health, season, weather, environmental conditions, etc. The basis of a particular mood is an emotional tone, positive or negative. Mood is characterized by a cyclical change (ups and downs in mood), but too pronounced jumps may indicate mental ill-being, in particular, manic-depressive psychosis.

It is believed that the mood is an integral characteristic of the system of activities of the individual, which signals the processes of implementation of activities and their consistency with each other. The main mental states are cheerfulness, euphoria, fatigue, apathy, depression, alienation, loss of a sense of reality.

Diagnostics. The study of mental states is carried out, as a rule, by methods of observation, surveys, testing, as well as experimental methods based on the reproduction of various situations.

Asthenic feelings(Greek asthenes - weak) - a form of emotions in which such experiences as depression, despondency, sadness, non-localized fear act as leaders. They indicate a refusal to deal with difficulties in a situation of increased emotional stress.

Diagnostics. The experience of asthenic feelings by a person can be judged by external signs, for example, he stoops, his breathing slows down, his eyes grow dim.

Stenic feelings(Greek sthenos - strength) - positive emotional states that are associated with an increase in the level of vital activity and are characterized by the appearance of sensations of excitement, joyful excitement, uplift, vivacity. At the same time, breathing becomes more frequent, deep and light, the work of the heart is activated, in general, the body is physiologically prepared for large expenditures of energy.

There are many different classifications of types of feelings. One of the most common is the following.

Higher feelings are feelings that express the spiritual world of a person and determine his personality.

Moral and political feelings - feelings associated with attitudes towards other people, towards society, towards the Motherland.

Intellectual feelings are the highest social feelings that arise in a person as an emotional attitude to his own thoughts or to the thoughts expressed by other people. This, for example, is the pleasure from the speaker's speech (logicality, persuasiveness), positive emotions with the correct solution of a complex, long-standing problem, etc.

Aesthetic feelings arise on the basis of aesthetic perception. The latter differs from ordinary perception not in content, since it also reflects objects and phenomena of the real world. Aesthetic feelings are inextricably linked with the experiences of a person, these feelings (perception of pictures of nature, works of culture and art, modern technology, a person and many others).

Feelings are closely connected not only with the mind, but also with other mental processes - sensations, perception, memory, imagination, will. They belong to the core properties of the personality, create a certain coloring of the character.

In the triad "mind - feelings - will" the main role belongs to the mind. Unreasonable will loses its content (by definition), feelings without proper control by the mind cease to be human.

However, the true wealth of the individual is her feelings, primarily associated with the mind, thinking, creativity. In any case, the happiness of people stems from a wealth of feelings, no matter how highly people value intelligence and professional activity. Education of feelings is an integral element of personality education. Feelings are of great importance for awareness and knowledge of oneself. It enriches us, helps us treat other people differently.

Also, a special place among emotional phenomena is occupied by the so-called general sensations. So, P. Milner believes that, although it is customary to distinguish emotions (anger, fear, joy, etc.) from the so-called general sensations (hunger, thirst, etc.), nevertheless, they reveal a lot in common and their division is rather conditional. One of the reasons why they are distinguished is the different degree of connection between subjective experiences and excitation of receptors. So, the experience of heat, pain is subjectively associated with the excitation of certain receptors (temperature, pain). On this basis, such states are usually referred to as sensations. The state of fear, anger is difficult to associate with the excitation of any receptor surfaces, therefore they are referred to as emotions. Another reason why emotions are opposed to general sensations is because they appear irregularly. Emotions often arise spontaneously and depend on random external Factors, while hunger, thirst, sexual desire follow at certain intervals.

Functions of emotions

Researchers, answering the question of what role emotions play in the life of living beings, identify several regulatory functions of emotions: reflective (evaluative), motivating, reinforcing, switching, communicative.

The reflective function of emotions is expressed in a generalized assessment of events. Emotions cover the entire organism and represent an almost instantaneous and integral assessment of behavior as a whole, which makes it possible to determine the usefulness and harmfulness of the factors affecting a person even before the localization of the harmful effect is determined. An example is the behavior of a person who has received a limb injury. Focusing on pain, he immediately finds a position that reduces pain.

Emotion as a special internal state and subjective experience performs the function of assessing the circumstances of the situation. Based on the need that has arisen and an intuitive idea of the possibilities of satisfying it. Emotional evaluation is different from the conscious cognitive evaluation operations of the mind, it is performed on a sensory level.

Anticipatory emotions were successfully studied as part of mental activity in solving creative problems (chess). The emotions of anticipation are associated with the emergence of the experience of conjecture, the idea of a solution, which has not yet been verbalized.

P.V. Simonov Pavel Vasilyevich Simonov (20.04.1926 - 6.06.2002) -- Russian psychophysiologist, biophysicist and psychologist. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1991; Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1987), Doctor of Medical Sciences (1961), Professor (1969). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1987, in a team) for the creation and development of methods for diagnosing and predicting the state of the human brain. highlights the reinforcing function of emotions. It is known that emotions are directly involved in the processes of learning and memory. Significant events that cause emotional reactions are quickly and permanently imprinted in memory. Thus, a well-fed cat cannot develop conditioned food reflexes. Successful learning requires the presence of motivational arousal, in this case reflected in the feeling of hunger. However, the combination of an indifferent stimulus with hunger excitation is still insufficient for the development of conditioned food reflexes. A third component is required - the impact of a factor that can satisfy an existing need, i.e. food.

The switching function of emotions is that they often induce a person to change his behavior.

The switching function of emotions is most clearly revealed in extreme situations, when a struggle arises between the instinct of self-preservation, natural for a person, and the social need to follow a certain ethical norm. The conflict of needs is experienced in the form of a struggle between fear and a sense of duty, fear and shame. The outcome depends on the strength of motives, on the personal attitudes of the subject.

An important function of emotions is the communicative function. Facial expressions, gestures, postures, expressive sighs, changes in intonation are the "language of human feelings" and allow a person to convey his experiences to other people, to inform them about his attitude to phenomena, objects, etc.

Needs, them tolassification. Motive and Behavior

Man, like other living beings, also needs for his existence and activity in certain conditions and funds drawn from the external environment.

Needs are called internal states experienced by a person when he is in urgent need of something.

The characteristic features of needs as mental states are:

1. The specific content nature of the need, usually associated either with the object that they seek to possess, or with any activity that should give a person satisfaction (for example, a certain job, game, etc.); in this regard, there are substantive and functional needs (for example, the need for movement);

2. More or less clear awareness of this need, accompanied by a characteristic emotional state (the attractiveness of the object associated with this need, displeasure and even suffering from dissatisfaction of the need, etc.);

3. Emotional-volitional state of motivation to satisfy needs, to find and implement the paths necessary for this; thanks to this, needs are one of the strongest motives for volitional actions;

4. weakening, sometimes complete disappearance of these states, and in some cases even their transformation into opposite states (for example, a feeling of disgust from the type of food in a state of satiety) when the need is satisfied;

5. re-emergence, when the need underlying the need makes itself felt again; the repetition of needs is their important feature: a single, episodic and no longer repeated need for something does not turn into a need.

Human needs are varied. They are usually divided into material, associated with bodily needs (needs for food, clothing, housing, warmth, etc.), and spiritual, associated with the social existence of a person: the needs for social activities, for work, for communicating with each other, for acquiring knowledge, in the study of sciences and arts, the need for creativity, etc.

The needs for work, learning, aesthetic needs, the need for communication with other people are of the greatest importance in human life and activity.

The need for labor. Man satisfies his material needs with the help of labor. He satisfies these needs in the process of life, assimilating a certain system of actions necessary for this.

Modern man, in order to satiate and clothe himself, does not prepare the food he needs and does not make fabric for the clothes he needs, but receives all this from society, himself participating in the work to satisfy other needs of society. Social labor has become a condition for the existence of man and, at the same time, his most important need.

In different social formations, among representatives of different classes of society, the need for labor in connection with the peculiarities of people's social life acquires a different character and is expressed to different degrees.

Need for learning. Together with labor, in the very process of labor activity, the need for learning, for acquiring knowledge, develops. To characterize the personality, it is important to take into account both the degree of development of this need and its features. For example, some people seek to satisfy this need through independent scientific work, others through the assimilation of ready-made knowledge.

aesthetic needs. An important personality trait is the need for aesthetic pleasure and for appropriate creative activity in the field of this or that art. This need appeared already at the dawn of the historical development of man, who had just separated from the animal world. As soon as a person began to work, he began to give aesthetically pleasing forms to the objects, tools, utensils made by him, decorated them at first with a simple, and then more and more artistic ornament, thus satisfying not the natural, directly necessary needs for life, but the aesthetic need. in the enjoyment of beauty.

Along with the development of society, the aesthetic needs of man also developed, which led to the emergence of numerous and complex types of art: painting, sculpture, architecture, music, literature, theater, cinema, etc.

To characterize a person, both the content and degree of development of aesthetic needs, and the way they are satisfied, are important. Some people have the most pronounced aesthetic needs in music, others in painting, in dance; some are well versed in perfect works of art, others are satisfied with mediocre and primitive ones. According to the way in which aesthetic needs are met, some people can be classified as a passive or contemplative type, others as an active or creative type.

Needs are formed in a person throughout life. Concerns about the correct organization of needs are one of the important issues in the education of a person's personality.

Motivation is the process of actualizing the needs of the individual, which leads to tension in the psyche and the emergence motives- internal incentives for vigorous activity or behavior.

Potrebovo - the motivational sphere of the personality is a complex integral psychological formation. Actively interacting with others, a person seeks to achieve mutual understanding, to find out both his own reasons for behavior and partners in communication. In all these processes there is a motive, i.e. something that belongs to the subject of behavior. A motive is a stable personal property that incorporates needs, intentions to do something, as well as back to it.

Important in their motivational value are the needs that act as a source of human activity. Thanks to them, the behavior of the individual in society is regulated, the direction of thinking, emotions, feelings and will of a person is determined. Satisfaction of needs by a person is a process of appropriation by him of a certain form of activity, due to social development and social relations. Among the basic needs of the individual, the following are distinguished: biological (needs for food, air, etc.); material (needs for clothing, housing, etc.); social (needs for objective social activity, for the individual to realize his place in society); spiritual (the need for cognitive, moral and other information). In general, motivation is a set of psychological causes that explain the behavior and actions of a person, their beginning, direction and activity.

Conclusion

So, we found out that it is impossible to answer many of the questions posed in monosyllables. The fact is that emotions do not have one specific function, but several. First of all, emotions and feelings, like all other mental processes, are a reflection of reality, but only in the form of experience. At the same time, the concepts of “emotions” and “feelings”, which are often used as equivalent “in everyday life”, actually denote various mental phenomena, which, of course, are most closely related to each other. Both emotions and feelings reflect the needs of a person, or rather, how these needs are satisfied.

Emotional experiences reflect the vital significance of phenomena and situations affecting a person. In other words, emotions are a reflection in the form of a biased experience of the vital meaning of phenomena and situations. In general, we can say that everything that promotes or facilitates the satisfaction of needs causes positive emotional experiences, and, conversely, everything that prevents this is negative.

One of the main functions of emotions is that they help to navigate the surrounding reality, evaluate objects and phenomena in terms of their desirability or undesirability, usefulness or harmfulness.

According to the Soviet psychophysiologist P.V. Simonov, emotion arises when there is a discrepancy between what needs to be known and in order to satisfy the need (necessary information), and what is actually known.

Bibliography

1. Berezovin N. A., Chepikov V. T., Chekhovisky M. I. "Fundamentals of Psychology": Textbook. - Minsk: New knowledge, 2002;

2. Borozdina GV "Fundamentals of psychology and pedagogy" Textbook. - Minsk, "BSEU". 2004;

3. Bondarchuk E. I., Bondarchuk L. I. Fundamentals of psychology and pedagogy: a course of lectures. -- 3rd ed., stereotype. - K.: MAUP, 2002. - 168 p.;

4. Materials of the INTERNET network:

1) http://psi.webzone.ru;

2) http://www.psyznaiyka.net;

3) http://azps.ru;

The concept of "emotional states"

Emotional states are mental states that arise in the process of the subject's life and determine not only the level of information and energy exchange, but also the direction of behavior.

Emotions control a person much more than it seems at first glance. Even the absence of emotion is an emotion, or rather a whole emotional state, which is characterized by a large number of features in human behavior.

His life, his health, his family, work, his entire environment depend on the emotional state of a person, and a change in the emotional state of a person leads to fundamental changes in his life.

The main emotional states distinguished in psychology:

1. Joy (satisfaction, fun);
2. Sadness (sadness, depression);
3. Anger (aggression, anger);
4. Fear (anxiety, fear);
5. Surprise (curiosity);
6. Disgust (contempt, disgust).

Usually a person is well aware of his emotional state and carries out a transfer to other people and for life. The higher the emotional state of a person, the easier it is for him to achieve his goals in life. Such a person is rational, reasonable, therefore he is happier, more alive, more confident. The lower his emotional state, the more a person's behavior is under the control of his momentary reactions, despite his education or intelligence.

Emotional states include: mood, affect, stress, frustration and passion.

Mood is the longest emotional state. This is the background against which all other mental processes proceed. It is very diverse and can be joyful or sad, cheerful or depressed, cheerful or depressed, calm or irritated, etc. The mood can arise slowly, gradually, or it can take over a person quickly and suddenly.

Mood is an emotional reaction not to the direct consequences of certain events, but to their significance for a person's life in the context of his general life plans, interests and expectations.

A positive mood makes a person energetic, cheerful and active. Any business goes well with a good mood, everything turns out, the products of activity are of high quality. In a bad mood, everything falls out of hand, work is sluggish, mistakes and defects are made, products are of poor quality.

Mood is personal. In some subjects, the mood is most often good, in others - bad. Temperament has a great influence on mood.

In sanguine people, the mood is always cheerful, major. In choleric people, the mood often changes, a good mood suddenly changes to a bad one. In phlegmatic people, the mood is always even, they are cold-blooded, self-confident, calm. Melancholic people are often characterized by a negative discord, they are always afraid and afraid. Any change in life unsettles them and causes depressive experiences.

Any mood has its own reason, although sometimes it seems that it arises by itself. The reason for the mood can be the position of a person in society, the results of activities, events in his personal life, health status, etc.

The mood experienced by one person can be transmitted to other people (A.I. Kravchenko "Psychology and Pedagogy" textbook).

Affect - is a rapidly and violently flowing emotional process of an explosive nature, which can give a relaxation in actions that is not subject to conscious volitional control. It is affects that are predominantly associated with shocks - shocks associated with the disorganization of activity, which is expressed in the disorganization of motor reactions and inhibition of conscious activity (E.V. Ostrovsky, L.I. Chernyshova "Psychology and Pedagogy" textbook).

In a state of passion, a person cannot reasonably control his behavior.

Overwhelmed by affect, he sometimes commits such actions, which he later bitterly regrets.

It is impossible to eliminate or slow down the affect.

However, the state of passion does not release a person from responsibility for his actions, since each person must learn to control his behavior in a given situation. To do this, it is necessary at the initial stage of affect to switch attention from the object that caused it to something else, neutral.

Since in most cases the affect manifests itself in speech reactions directed at its source, instead of external speech actions, one should perform internal ones, for example, count slowly to 20. Since the affect manifests itself for a short time, by the end of this action its intensity decreases and the person will come to a calmer condition.

The affect is predominantly manifested in people of the choleric type of temperament, as well as in ill-mannered, hysterical subjects who do not know how to control their feelings and actions.

Stress is an emotional state that suddenly arises in a person under the influence of an extreme situation associated with a danger to life or an activity that requires great stress.

Stress, like affect, is the same strong and short-term emotional experience. Therefore, some psychologists consider stress as one of the types of affect. But this is far from the case, since they have their own distinctive features. Stress, first of all, occurs only in the presence of an extreme situation, while affect can arise for any reason.

The second difference is that affect disorganizes the psyche and behavior, while stress not only disorganizes, but also mobilizes the organization's defenses to get out of an extreme situation.

Stress can have both positive and negative effects on personality.

Stress plays a positive role by performing a mobilization function, while a negative role is played by a harmful effect on the nervous system, causing mental disorders and various diseases of the body.

Stress conditions affect people's behavior in different ways. Some, under the influence of stress, show complete helplessness and are unable to withstand stressful influences, while others, on the contrary, are stress-resistant individuals and show themselves best in moments of danger and in activities that require the exertion of all forces.

Frustration is a deeply experienced emotional state that arose under the influence of failures that took place with an overestimated level of personality claims. It can manifest itself in the form of negative experiences, such as: anger, annoyance, apathy, etc.

There are two ways to get out of frustration. Either a person develops vigorous activity and achieves success, or reduces the level of claims and is content with the results that he can achieve to the maximum.

Passion is a deep, intense and very stable emotional state that captures a person completely and completely and determines all his thoughts, aspirations and actions. Passion can be associated with the satisfaction of material and spiritual needs. The object of passion can be various kinds of things, objects, phenomena, people that a person seeks to possess at all costs (RS Nemov "General Foundations of Psychology" textbook).

Depending on the need that caused passion, and on the object through which it is satisfied, it can be characterized either as positive or negative.

A positive or sublime passion is associated with highly moral motives and has not only a personal but also a social character. Passion for science, art, social activities, protection of nature, etc., makes a person's life meaningful and intense. All great things were done under the influence of great passion.

Negative or base passion has an egoistic orientation and when it is satisfied, a person does not consider anything and often commits antisocial immoral acts.

Emotional states can manifest themselves in a person in any kind of his activity and become his character trait. Emotional processes cause changes in the human body: in the nervous system, cardiovascular activity, respiratory organs, and digestion. Emotional states cause changes in pulse, pressure, dilated pupils, increased sweating, discoloration of the skin, increased blood flow to human organs.

Conducting electrophysiological studies has shown the importance of special formations of the nervous system for emotional states, which are determined by the functions of the thalamus, hypothalamus and limbic system.

There are found centers of positive and negative emotions. From the state of the reticular formation, this set of nerve structures located in the central parts of the brain stem (medulla oblongata and midbrain, visual tubercles) depends on the emotional tone of a person, his reactions to stimuli.

One of the forms of violation of the normal life of a person is the tension caused by the emotional state of a person. Often, increased tension is accompanied by fears, anxiety, fears and develops into a stable state of anxiety.

Emotions are positive and negative. This is known to those who have experienced emotions at least once, i.e. all. But the concepts of positivity and negativity of emotions require some clarification in terms of their gradation. For example, the emotions of anger, fear, shame cannot be unconditionally categorized as negative, negative, but may arise in a state of so-called mixed feelings.

simple emotions allow you to establish the significance of the conditions for meeting actual needs, caused by both real and imaginary situations.

Joy- a positive state associated with the ability to fully satisfy the current need.

Astonishment - a state caused by a strong impression, striking surprise, unusualness, strangeness.

Fear arises as a result of a real or imaginary danger that threatens the life of the organism, the person, the values \u200b\u200bprotected by it (ideals, goals, principles, etc.).

Anger - dissatisfaction, indignation, irritation that occurs when needs or expectations are not satisfied.

Pleasure - satisfaction from pleasant sensations, from satisfying experiences.

Shame arises in a person when he commits acts that are contrary to the requirements of morality, degrading the dignity of the individual.

Disgust - sharp hostility, combined with disgust.

Contempt - the attitude caused by the recognition of someone or something unworthy, not deserving of respect, vile, morally low, insignificant.

Suffering - negative emotional state, the cause of which is the possession of true or apparent information that the ability to meet the most important needs of life is absent or difficult.

Feelings - complex, well-established attitudes of the individual to what she learns and does are associated with the work of consciousness, can be arbitrarily regulated, and play a motivating role in human life and activity.

No less popular is the classification by content.

Moral - one of the ways of normative regulation of human actions in society. These include: approval and condemnation.

Moral - duty, humanity, benevolence, love, friendship, patriotism, sympathy, etc.

Immoral - greed, selfishness, cruelty, etc.

intellectual are manifested in the process of cognitive activity, in solving new, difficult problems. These include: curiosity, curiosity, surprise, bewilderment, satisfaction with the solution found, doubt.

aesthetic human experiences arise when perceiving works of art, beautiful objects, natural phenomena, etc., stimulate the social activity of a person, have a regulatory influence on his behavior and influence the formation of personality ideals.

These include: beautiful, sublime, delight, pleasure, etc.

Passion - having a strong and sustained positive feeling for something or someone.

Mood - stable states of medium or very low strength, which act for a long time.

affects- rapidly flowing, short-term emotional states, accompanied by pronounced organic and motor reactions.

Frustration - a state that occurs when faced with unexpected obstacles and obstacles on the way to achieving a goal, which interferes with the satisfaction of needs.

Stress- a state of psychological overstrain that occurs when the nervous system is emotionally overloaded.

Inspiration occurs when the purpose of the activity is clear, and the results are accurately presented, moreover, as necessary and valuable.

From duration and intensity flowing emotional states are divided into weak and strong (rapidly flowing).

Weak - mood - a long emotional state that does not reach significant intensity, captivating a person for some time and affecting the activity and behavior of a person.

Strong - affect. An important specific feature of affects is their occurrence in response to an accomplished event.

S.L. Rubinstein identified two main features that distinguish the mood.

1. They are not subject, but personal.
2. This is not a specific and concrete experience, but a general state that is related to one specific situation or fact.

Classifications according to the effect on the body are also known:

sthenic - raising the activity, vigor and activity of a person;

asthenic- Decreasing activity, weakening energy.

By duration:

short-term; long.

Flow form:

sentiments;

affects;

passions;

Classification according to V.I. Slobodchikov, E.I. Isaev:

? affects;
? passions;
? stress;
? feelings;
? specific emotions;
? moods.

Important to remember!

The processes of emotional perception, awareness and the development of behavioral reactions are performed by many parts of the brain.

limbic system. J.-W. Parets proposed that the singular cortex, entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and thalamus form a circle that is involved in the mechanisms of motivation and emotions. And the psychologist P.-D. McLean (MacLean, 1949), including the amygdala in this system, called it limbic.

Hypothalamus. Scientists Aldous and Fobes (Olds, Fobs, 1981) discovered the pleasure center. When stimulated, a person experiences pleasure. In the lateral hypothalamus, two types of neurons have been identified that respond differently to emotional situations. The first type is motivational (maximum activity in motivational behavior was found). The second type is reinforcing, since these cells are activated upon reaching the desired (on reaching the goal).

Tonsil (amygdala) plays a role in several types of emotional behavior: aggression, fear, disgust, maternal behavior. This structure is responsible for the behavioral, autonomic and hormonal components of the conditioned emotional response by activating the neural circuits located in the hypothalamus and brain stem.

Sensory association cortex analyzes complex complex stimuli and transmits information to the amygdala.

Orbitofrontal cortex included in the assessment of action sequences. It is not directly involved in the decision-making process, but translates these decisions into practice, in relation to a specific situation. Her central connections to diencephanol and the temporal region provide her with information about the emotional significance of the signal. Dorsal connections with the singular cortex allow it to influence both behavior and autonomic changes.

Singular bark provides a link between the decision-making structures in the frontal cortex, the emotional structures of the limbic system, and the brain mechanisms that control movement. It is the focus of sensory and efficient systems.

Stolyarenko LD. Fundamentals of psychology. 3rd ed., revised. and additional Rostov-na/D.: Phoenix, 2000.
Slobodchikov V.I., Isaev E.I. Fundamentals of psychological anthropology. Human Psychology: An Introduction to the Psychology of Subjectivity. M.: School-Press, 1995.

Parameter name	Meaning
Article subject:	Structure of emotions
Rubric (thematic category)	Psychology

General concept of emotions. The psychological structure of emotions

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The concept of "emotional states"