Discuss the three elements of emotions, describe the role of the amygdala in emotion, and explain how a person can experience two opposite emotions simultaneously

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer will include that the three elements of emotions are physiological changes, emotional expressions, and emotional feelings. Typical physiological changes that occur with an emotion include changes in heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration, and other bodily stirrings. Most are caused by the sympathetic nervous system and by the hormone adrenaline. Emotional expressions, or outward signs of what a person is feeling, are another ingredient of emotion. For example, when you are intensely afraid, your hands tremble, your face contorts, your posture becomes tense and defensive, and your voice changes. In general, these expressions serve to tell others what emotions we are experiencing. Emotional feelings involve a person's private emotional experience and are the part of emotion with which we are usually most familiar. In the brain, positive emotions are processed mainly in the left hemisphere, while negative emotions are processed in the right hemisphere. The fact that positive and negative emotions are based in different brain areas helps explain why we can feel happy and sad at the same time. LeDoux and other researchers have found that an area of the brain called the amygdala specializes in producing fear. The amygdala receives sensory information very directly and quickly, bypassing the cortex. As a result, it allows us to respond to potential danger before we really know what's happening. This primitive fear response is not under the control of higher brain centers. The role of the amygdala in emotion may explain why people who suffer from phobias and disabling anxiety often feel afraid without knowing why. People who suffer damage to the amygdala become "blind" to emotion. An armed robber could hold a gun to a person's head and the person wouldn't feel fear. Such people are also unable to "read" or understand other people's emotional expressions, especially as conveyed by their eyes. Many lose their ability to relate normally to friends, family, and coworkers.