Emotion 12/25/2022 1

UNIT- 8
EMOTION

Prepared by:
Poonam Rana
Department of Psychiatric Nursing
10Th Batch ,NMC

Emotion 12/25/2022 3
General objective:

 At the end of the class, BNS 2nd year and [Link]. Nursing
2nd year students will be able to explain about the
emotion .

Emotion 12/25/2022 4
Introduction
 Emotion plays a major role in influencing our behavior. An
emotion is a strong feeling. Life will be dull, boring without
feelings like joy and sorrow, excitement and
disappointment, love and fear, hope and dismays etc. thus
emotion add colors and spice to the life.
 The word emotion is derived from the Latin word
‘emovere’ meaning ‘to stir up’ or ‘to excite’.

Emotion 12/25/2022 5
Definition
 Emotion can be defined as a complex pattern of
changes, including physiological arousal, feelings,
cognitive processes, and behavioral reactions, made in
response to a situation perceived to be personally
significant.

 Emotion is an affective experience that accompanies

generalized inner adjustment and mental and
physiological stirred-up states in the individual an that
shows itself in his overt behavior.
Emotion
-Crow and Crow, 1973
12/25/2022 6
 Definition
 Emotion is a ‘Moved’ or stirred-up’ state of an organism. It is a
stirred-up state of feeling that is the way it appears to the
individual himself. It is a disturbed muscular and glandular
activity that is the way it appears to an external observer.
-Woodworth-1945

Emotion 12/25/2022 7
Definition
 An emotion is a feeling comprising physiological and
behavioral (and possibly cognitive) reactions to internal and
external events.
Hartcourt,Brace, 1998

Emotion 12/25/2022 8
 Types of emotion
1. Positive Emotions
 Positive emotions are emotions that we typically find
pleasurable to experience. In positive emotion an individual is
more motivated and dedicated in particular behavior.

 For example, if a student is passed with highest marks then

he/she student is more motivated for hard work and study
more seriously than previous.

 The individual's mood is slightly elevated during positive

emotion which provides energy to do challenging tasks for
him/her.
Emotion 12/25/2022 9
 During positive emotion an individual is excited and
seems cheerful and motivated for work. It opens us up to
new possibilities, we are more able to learn and build on
our skills. That leads to doing better on tasks and tests.

 People with ample of positive emotions in their everyday

lives tend to be happier, health learn better, and get along
well with others.

 Positive emotions are, for example: interest, enthusiasm

laughter, empathy, action, curiosity.
Emotion 12/25/2022 10
2. Negative Emotions
 On the other hand, negative emotions are those that we typically
do not find pleasurable to experience. Negative emotions can be
defined as "as an unpleasant or unhappy emotion which is
evoked in individuals to express a negative effect towards an
event or person" (Pam, 2013).
 If an emotion discourages and drags you down, then it's most
likely a negative emotion.
A few of the most commonly felt negative emotions are: Fear,
Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Loneliness

Emotion 12/25/2022 11
Characteristics of Emotion

 Emotion is a strong feeling of conscious motivated state.

 Emotions acts as energizing and motivating for the person.
 Emotions are present from the beginning of life till death
and are found in every living creature.
 Emotions can be positive and negative and its effect also in
positive and negative .
 Emotional experience is unique among all individuals and
also the way of expression of emotion is different from
person to person.

Emotion 12/25/2022 12
 Characteristics of Emotion

 Emotion is impact of cognitive functions and emotion also

effect cognitive functions.
 Emotions are specific and numerous in natures.
 Emotion rise suddenly but dies slowly.
 Emotion serves as a means of communication.
 Emotions are source of social and self evaluation.

Emotion 12/25/2022 13
Characteristics of Emotion
 Individual's emotion is affected by environmental
factors.
 Emotions in general are the product of perception.
 Emotional experience elicits and action tendency i.e. the
motivation to behave in certain ways.
 Emotion is usually transitory.
 Emotions are caused by specific event.

Emotion 12/25/2022 14
Physiological and behavioral changes in emotion
As the normal person get emotional he go through his
physiological and behavioral changes

I. External changes (Behavioral)

1. Facial expression:
- They differ in different emotional reactions.
- The face is flushed in anger and pale in fear.
- Mouth turns down in unpleasant emotion and turns up in
pleasant emotions.
2. The forehead and eye brow:
- The eye brow can be raised in excitement, produced in arched
eye brow
- Horizontal wrinkles on the forehead in sadness.
3. Eyes: Eyes slant up in funny and drop down in sadness.
4. Vocal expression:
- Screams denotes fear or surprise
- Tremor or break in voice denotes a deep sorrow
- A loud sharp high pitch voice denotes anger
- Slow and spontaneous in dejection (sad)
- Rapid in excitement and tension
5. Posture:
- Closed posture revealed fearful, anxious and depressed
- Open posture in excitement and euphoria

6. Bodily movement:
- Unexpected fearful situation might cause a scare in which
the eyes close, mouth widens, head and neck are thrust
forward.
- In anger one may clench ones fists and move to attack.
II. Internal changes
1. Changes in heart beat: In fear and anxiety tachycardia is
felt.
2. Changes in blood pressure: As the heart beat changes it
affects the blood pressure.
3. Changes in breathing: In emotional state, every
individual feels changes in breathing pattern usually, deep
and fast breathing during fear and stress.
 Changes in blood chemistry: The changes in emotion
also can affect the blood chemistry. As the emotion rises
the adrenaline hormone increase the level of sugar in
blood and provide person to face the situation.

Emotion 12/25/2022 19
6. Metabolic changes: Stomach action and the activity of the
gastric gland are retarded and digestion is inhibited. GI
changes may lead to nausea and diarrhea, where the flow
of saliva is reduced, so the person might suffer from dry
mouth.
7. Muscular tensions and tremor: Muscular tension is one
of the symptoms of emotions.
- tremors are usually produced when opposing muscles are
contracted simultaneously.
8. Changes in exocrine glandular secretions:
- Salivation and sweating are the two most common responses,
when one come across certain emotional states.

III. Psychological changes:

 During emotional experiences, perception, learning,
consciousness and memory are affected.
Theories of Emotion
 Emotions have cognitive, physiological and behavioral
components. It can be experienced and the changes (internal
and external can be observed). Different author has given
different view about how emotion arises. They are:
1. Somatic theories
a. James-Lange Theory of Emotion
b. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
2. Cognitive theory
 Schachter-Singer's theory
 Cognitive Appraisal Theory

Emotion 12/25/2022 22
Theory of emotion

a. James-Lange Theory of Emotion:

 This theory was independently proposed by psychologist
William James and physiologist Carl Lange. One of the
earliest theories of emotion was started by the American
Psychologist William James and the Spanish psychologist
Carl Lange. According to theory it suggests that emotions
occur as a result of physiological reactions to events.

Emotion 12/25/2022 23
 When individual see an external stimulus that leads to a
physiological reaction. One's emotional reaction is dependent
upon how she/he interprets those physical reactions. The James-
Lange Theory proposes that activity precedes the emotional
experience.

Emotion 12/25/2022 24
Emotion 12/25/2022 25
 According to this theory of emotion, you are not
trembling because you are frightened. Instead, you feel
frightened because you are trembling. (shaking
uncontrollably as a result of fear)
 For example: if someone see barking dog (external
stimulus) the -physiological activity occur as increased
heartbeat, then he feels emotional experience. Thus felt
emotion is the perception of bodily changes.

Emotion 12/25/2022 26
b. Cannon - Bard theory of emotion
 Walter Cannon and Phillip Bard questioned the James-
Lange Theory and proposed that an emotion-triggering
stimulus and the body's arousal take place simultaneously.
During this time of Cannon, the James-Lange theory was
one of the most prominent theories of emotion. He then to
test this theory, experimented on cats. The results of his
experiments in 1915 challenged the James-Lange theory
by proposing that arousal and emotions emerge at the
same time after the perception of stimuli.

Emotion 12/25/2022 27
Emotion 12/25/2022 28
Emotion 12/25/2022 29
 Bard advanced Cannon's research further and concludes
about the brain activity in and for generation of emotion.
Theory suggests that we feel emotions and experience
physiological reactions such as sweating, trembling, and
muscle tension simultaneously and since the physical and
psychological experience of emotion happen at the same
time; one does not cause the other.

Emotion 12/25/2022 30
 Emotion originates in the thalamus, at the same time;
brain also receives signals triggering the emotional
experience. "Body" (physiological systems) and "Mind"
(emotional experience) are independently activated at the
same time.
 For example if someone see the car is coming towards
(perceived event) both physiological response
(propounding heart beat) and emotional experience (fear)
occur simultaneously.

Emotion 12/25/2022 31
 c. Schachter-Singer's Theory
The two-factor theory of emotion was developed by Stanley
Schachter and Jerome Singer in 1960's. This theory suggests our
physiology and cognitions create emotions. Thus, emotions have
two factors-physical arousal and cognitive label.
It is also known as two- factor theory.
It suggests that the physiological arousal occurs first, and then
the individual must identify the reason for this arousal to
experience and label it as an emotion.

Emotion 12/25/2022 32
A stimulus leads to a physiological response that is then
cognitively interpreted and labeled which results in an
emotion. According to this theory, when we are exposed to a
stimulating event, we find a way to understand what we've
just experienced.

Emotion 12/25/2022 33
Emotion 12/25/2022 34
Emotion 12/25/2022 35
 Only after these thoughts and symptoms occur we
experience a specific emotion. Thus according to this
theory, to experience emotion one must: be physically
aroused and cognitively label the arousal.

Emotion 12/25/2022 36
 For example, we look for cues in our environment and
our past experiences to help us cognitively label the
physiological arousal. Inevitably, the stimulating event
leads to some type of physical symptoms, such as
sweating, increased pulse, respiration, trembling,
flushed face and other related symptoms

Emotion 12/25/2022 37
Emotion 12/25/2022 38
Cognitive-appraisal theory of emotion
 Cognitive appraisal is an assessment of an emotional situation
wherein a person evaluates how the event will affect them,
interprets the various aspects of the event, and arrives at a response
based on that interpretation.
 In the absence of physiological arousal, we decide what to feel
after interpreting or explaining what has just happened. Two things
are important in this: whether we interpret the event as good or
bad, and what we believe is the cause of the event.
 The sequence thus is as follows:
 Event ==> thinking ==> Simultaneous arousal and emotion
Emotion 12/25/2022 39
 In these cases, our brain goes through a two-step
process of evaluation in order to figure out what's
happened and how we should react.
 The first step is referred to as primary appraisal, which
is the evaluation of how the event or interaction will
affect us. In primary appraisal, we consider how the
situation affects our personal well-being.

Emotion 12/25/2022 40
 The conclusions drawn from the primary appraisal will
determine the next step in the process, the secondary
appraisal, in which we evaluate the factors and decide how
we are going to respond.
 In secondary appraisal we consider how we might cope with
the situation.

Emotion 12/25/2022 41
Emotional development throughout the life span

Emotional development is a process that a child develops

from dependence to a fully functioning adult and applies to
most life forms. Emotional learning begins at a very young
age, as children discover a wide range of emotions, and
developed as they grow.

 Thefollowing are the changes throughout the life

span;
1. Infancy
 Emotional element is present in the child from birth (evident from
crying).

 Smiles in response to person or object and anger when they

experience physical discomfort at the age of 3months

 Laughs a loud and shows pleasure in making sounds.

 Begins to differentiate between strangers and familiar faces and

shows stranger anxiety.
 1. Infancy

 At 6 months stranger anxiety emerges.

 At 9 months separation anxiety emerges.

 Infants are more aware of situations and their as jealousy,

affection, anger and fear are related to their environment.
2. Toddler
 Toddlers begin to respond to others emotions and can show
love by giving hugs and kisses.

 Early emotional expressions such as crying are automatic. In

other words, the baby is not really in self- control.

 Begin to have temper tantrums.

 As the baby grows and his or her brain develops, and as bonds
are formed with others, babies begin to have the ability to
regulate, or control their own emotions.
3. Pre-school age
 Early childhood or the pre-school period ranges from 2 to 6
years.
 He experiences emotions of love and hate, jealousy and
anxiety, especially about his own hostile feelings towards his
parents and siblings.
 As babies grow into children, they start to feel a strong sense
of self awareness .
 Development of socially acceptable behavior.
4. School-Age
 The children may have best friends with whom they share
secrets, private jokes and adventures. They come to one
another’s aid in time of trouble.
 In course of their friendships, children also fight, threaten each
other, breakup and reunite.
 The child expresses love and closeness for a peer.
 They also begin to develop empathy, or an understanding the
feelings and emotions of others. The emergence of empathy
increases emotional regulation.
 Feeling of inferiority due to unsuccessful adaptation.
5. Adolescence
 It ranges from 13 to 18 years and may extend up to 20
years. It is a period of transition from childhood to maturity.
 The adolescent has a need for independence.
 He craves to achieve personal independence and to wean
himself away from parental attachments and restrictions.
 He wants to take on responsibility that is in line with his
increased abilities and maturity level.
 They are prone with feeling of hopelessness and depression.
 Adolescents are very sensitive and less tolerance towards
injustice and strict authority.
6. Adulthood :
 This period consists of young adulthood 18 to 35 years and
middle age 35 to 60 years.

 If the period of infancy, childhood and adolescence has been

those of satisfactions and adequate adjustments, the young
adult will enter his life well-equipped.

 His behavior is governed more by intelligence than by

emotion, he adapts easily to social situations, he faces reality
objectively, has a normal drive to work or to play and act his
age.
6. Adulthood

 He is vocationally adjusted, and able to think and decide

things on his own.

 The capacity to love and be loved by each other, happy

sex relationships, a dignified respect for each other's
personality are some of the means to a happy married life
which ensures mental health.
8. Older Adulthood
 The age of 60 years and above is commonly considered old
age. In general, there is a slowing down of motor functions,
besides a gradual impairment in muscular coordination.

 Old people also show a gradual decline in mental ability.

Memory, attention, thinking and ability to learn new things
are affected. Perhaps, this is due to the weakness of the
motivation.
 The loss of employment which reduces economic security, and
the loss of a certain status in society given by the job have many
psychological reactions.

 Due to much leisure time, feeling of loneliness, isolation.

 Participation in community life is naturally restricted. All these

feelings are aggravated if they lose their partner this causes an
intense feeling of loneliness
Emotion and its effect on health
 Emotion and physical health are together linked, whether
we’re happy or sad, bodies respond physically to the way we
think, feel and act.
 Emotion is the condition, which leads to physiological and
psychological changes in our body.
 Every people have emotions and they react in their own way.
 Emotion whether positive or negative plays an important role
in our daily lives.
 Hence, positive and negative effect of emotion on health is
discussed below;
Effect of positive emotion on health
 Happy, cheerful, love, joy, enthusiasm, and excitement gives
positive vibration to the person.

 It provide positive thought, acceptance which gives an

effective outcome and helps in personal development.

 It helps individual to move towards his/her goals.

 Ithelps to reduce the cholesterol levels and increase the

healing power by expressing the affection towards love
ones.
 It helps to reduce anxiety leading to better work
performance and rapid development.

 Itcan reduce the levels of stress hormones (cortisol and

adrenaline).

 It also helps to contribute to social, cultural and religious

relationship.
Effect of negative emotion on health
 Stress, anxiety, sadness, jealousy, anger, fear leads to
negative thoughts, self-harm and poor health.

 Intense and unpleasant emotions if persists for long time,

may causes illness or worsen the person condition who is
already ill.

 Persistent emotional disturbances caused by fear, anger and

worries have been found to be one of the causative factors
in peptic ulcers, heart disease and epilepsy, tuberculosis and
diabetes and made worse.
Effect of negative emotion on health

 Itsuppresses immunity and results in late recovery of

operative wound, other disease (stomach ulcers, chronic
constipation) and frequently get cold.

 It is less likely to involve in healthy behavior like

exercise, healthy eating, adequate sleep. Taking health
services; similarly more likely involve in drinking,
smoking, using drugs.
 Itgives rises to mental illness (depression, schizophrenia,
psychosomatic disorder, conversion disorder etc).

Hence, the people charged with more positive emotion

enjoy better physical and mental health, than the person
with negative emotion.
 Purposes of emotion
 Emotions play a vital role in our lives because they have
significant functions. Emotions can play an important role in how
we think and behave.
1. Emotion motivates the individual
Due to emotion we are motivated to do certain task or behavior.
Positive emotions provide interest and create motivation for
particular behavior.

Emotion 12/25/2022 60
 For example, a student is more motivated for study if he/she is
happy after scoring good marks in exam and in another aspect; a
student is more motivates for serious study if he/she is unhappy
after scoring low marks in exam.

 Mild form of both positive and negative emotion motivates the

individual for good and positive work but extreme form of both
positive and negative emotion may harm the individual due to
low self esteem (caused by negative emotion) and
overconfidence (caused by extreme positive emotion).

Emotion 12/25/2022 61
2. Emotions help us survive, thrive, and avoid danger.
 Naturalist Charles Darwin believed that emotions are adaptations
that allow both humans and animals to survive and reproduce.
 When we experience fear, we are more likely to flee the threat.
 When we feel love, we might seek out a mate and reproduce.
 Emotions serve an adaptive role in our lives by motivating us to
act quickly and take actions that will maximize our chances for
survival and success.

Emotion 12/25/2022 62
3. Emotions can help us make decision.
 Emotional intelligence, or our ability to understand and
manage motions, has been shown to play an important role
in decision-making.

Emotion 12/25/2022 63
4. Emotions allow us to understand others :
Just as our own emotions provide valuable information to
others, the emotional expressions of those around us gives us a
wealth of social information .
Social communication is an important part of our daily lives
and relationships, and being able to interpret and react to the
emotions of others is essential.
It allows us to respond appropriately and build deeper , more
meaningful relationships with our friends, family, and loved
ones.

Emotion 12/25/2022 64
 Purposes of emotion
 Emotion renovate / transform life
 Emotion helps to modify behavior.
 Emotion helps to create new things
 To identify the cause behind any behavior
 To explore/ ventilate feeling through bodily responses.
 To solve the problems as it provides opportunity to be
prepared for action or to response to any situation.

Emotion 12/25/2022 65
Measures to control emotions
Ways to control emotion in nurses
1. Understanding oneself (emotional intelligence):
 The nurse should know own powers, limitation, perceive, and
evaluate emotion which further helps in controlling one’s
emotion.
 Examine one conflict and emotions objectively and face fact
realistically.
2. Develop knowledge regarding emotion
 The greater knowledge regarding the emotion helps to
control negative emotion as evidence by learning in detail
about emotion through book or journals.
3. Avoid emergency situation
 As emergency situation, causes excessive emotional
reaction, develop a habit of planning daily life and future
activities so that one may have as few emergencies as
possible.
4. Control stress
 Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension.
 It is a body reaction to a challenge or demand.
 Nurses may develop stress due to many challenges so she
should learn measures to overcome stress such as deep
breathing, muscle relaxation technique, taking break down from
work, talking about problems.
Emotion 12/25/2022 69
Emotion 12/25/2022 70
5. Balance work with recreations, exercise and social activities
 As working continuously could be frustrating so nurse should
make proper balance between work and other extra activities.
 She should:
- Develop a habit of reading and wholesome friendship,
- Participate in useful activities (social clubs), dramatics, music or
games,
- Practicing relaxation by meditation,
- Involving oneself into hobbies.
Developing these activities will direct one attention from emotion
provoking experiences.
6. Control unreasonable and excessive external expression of
emotion
 Since nursing is a art and science, where she will be expose to
the real life situation, so she need to control these external
expression because these tend to increase the intensity of
emotional experiences of the individual, where they excite
other people and cause further emotionality.
7. A well-develop sense of humor
 “Laughter is the best medicine unless you’re laughing for
no reason then you need medicine”.
A good sense of humor helps to forget anger and irritation,
and helps to avoid unpleasant emotional experiences.
 So, find humorous elements in situations not in person,
which make life enjoyable and happy.
8. Positive philosophy
 Develop a positive attitude in life regarding every difficult
situation which helps to avoid mental conflicts and
emotional tension.
 Ways to control emotions in others (patient or
clients)
 Patients, caregivers and family members can often become
emotional when confronted with the realities of medical
[Link] a nurse, one must help patient to overcome with
such situation.
 The measures control emotion in patients are as described
below:
1. Help the patient feel welcome and at ease
 When first meeting with patient remember the importance
of tone of the voice and body languages because he/she
will respond to whatever message given by nurse via tone
of voice and body languages as it leaves a mark on the
client or patient.
 Give a warm welcome to the patient.
 Let him feel that he is an important guest.
 Provide a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere to the patient.
 Let not patient know nurses feelings (frustrations,
dissatisfaction towards work due to work load or any
negative feelings towards the patient).
2. Orientation of patient to health care facility
 Provide detailed explanation of the patients care services
and of rationale behind various medical and nursing
procedures that the has to undergo, with constant
reassurances all along.
 Providing orientation regarding such fields helps to
alleviate the fear of unknown in patients.
3. Identification of learning needs of patients
 Learning needs of the patients have to be identified.
 It helps to satisfy need to know about his condition
treatment and reduce the anxiety regarding the
treatment protocols.
 For example: a patient before surgery may worry
about prognosis, pain ambulation, dependency etc.
explaining these areas may reduce anxiety and satisfy
require learning needs.
4. Be calm and use active listening technique
 Nurses never should be in hurried while patient express
their feelings.
 Nurses should listen each and every words of the patient
without distracting oneself (doing other paper works).
 Don’t interrupt while patient is expressing their feelings.
5. Understand his negative emotions
 The patient is less self-controlled than the nurses; they
are tense, irritable and unbalanced.
 Therefore, she has to be very patience, mature and
balanced in her behaviors towards the patient.
 Help the patient to replace negative feelings by feeling
of hope, courage and willing cooperation by developing
healthy personal relationship with patient.
6. Promote positive feelings
 Substitute the negative emotions of the patient by positive
thoughts.
 Nurses should try to eliminate fear, anger, worry, anxiety
and resentment from her patients.
7. Develop empathy
 Nurse should establish empathetic behavior to patient,
which means understanding patient’s situation feelings and
motives.
 Develop through understanding and accepting the patient as
individual.

8. Patience towards patient with psychosomatic illness

 Nurse need to spend more time with the patient with
patience and attention.
 Such patient need help to relax and the nurse must arrange
professional counseling for such patient when required.
9. Provide diversional activities
 Encourage diversional activities within the allowed limits of
patient’s condition that are pleasurable and tension reducing.
 Many chronically ill patients do not recognize there need for
recreation.
 Offerpraise in sincere and appropriate manner as the patient
makes progress towards independence.
Emotion 12/25/2022 83