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Re: opinion survey

Posted by llrrrpp on May 18, 2006, at 11:36:45

In reply to opinion survey, posted by Estella on May 17, 2006, at 20:14:02

disclaimer: feeling kind of dumb right now. I should be able to cite references and studies, but my memory fails me.
> 1. do animals (dogs, cats, rats etc) have emotions? how about human infants?

Cats have emotions. When we get out the suitcase, cat knows we're going away. she misbehaves and bites our heels. while we're gone, she sleeps too much, and undereats. when we come back, her fur is greasy, and dandruffy, and it's obvious that she hasn't been cleaning herself. she meows a lot when we come back, and is very needy, always staying very close to us, and sleeping near our heads, which she never does otherwise. I think the cat has separation anxiety, and possibly depression. (don't worry, she has a very nice cat sitter. we don't neglect her)

dogs. I don't do dogs.

Human infants. I hang out a lot with human infants. They have distinct personalities. some are very easy-going. They smile at the slightest provocation. Others really take a long time to warm up to a strange situation. babies get bored. babies get frustrated. babies have rage. babies get anxious. babies get happy, babies get silly. Preverbal infants have fairly sophisticated cognitive abilities. They are able to categorize humans as different from other animals. They react to human facial expressions. They learn the sound patterns unique to their native language long before they start "speaking". They understand that an extended index finger is a cue to pay attention to the thing pointed to. (try to get your cat to understand what a point means! ha!). I think the most compelling evidence for infant emotion is infant's profound sensitivity to the tone o voice. happy high-pitched voice usually associated with relaxed, happy, playful baby. Serious voice, or sharp voice, with increased vigilance of baby. Angry voice with a crying baby. try it sometime.

In order to have an emotional reaction, there has to be some processing of an external stimulus, like a face, or a voice; and this processing is cognitive in nature (regardless of whether it's available to consciousness). I'm arguing that babies have quite a repertoire of cogntive processes available that allow them to interpret their world, albeit in some ways that seem quite unlike adult perception and cognition. My T would even argue that their emotions are even more "pure" than adult emotions, because they are untainted by, and uninfluenced by the ambiguities of language.

> 2. of the following factors:
> -body changes (racing heart etc)
> -cognition / judgment / belief / apppraisal (that is dangerous etc)
> -phenomenology / the felt quality / the experiential aspect / what it is like (how happiness feels)

> which seems to be most central to emotion?
>
> (what i am getting at here is whether one of those factors might be both necessary and sufficient so if you had one in the absence of the others then you would be in an emotional state. or whether some combination is needed).
>
Well, psychologists are still defining emotion, as you know. Every theory uses its own definition, in order to investigate a particular phenomenon. For empirical investigations, the physiological response is usually taken as best evidence. For introspective investigations, the phenomenological aspect is by far the most relevant. For studying the way emotions arise and are modulated, the cognitive aspect is cruicial (again, cognitive need not necessarily indicate a process that is available to consciousness). I think it's fascinating that in many cases, like feelings of fear and anxiety, that the physiology informs the conscious mind of the presence of a stimulus. We do not "see" the snake, and then feel the fear; rather, we feel our heart jump, and look around for the think in our environment that triggered it. So automatic, so effortless. Other emotions are very much under conscious control. How do I interpret the finding of a $100 bill on my desk? Before I allow myself to feel joy at my luck, I have to do some very conscious problem solving to figure out whether I deserve to keep it. Otherwise I might feel guilt, a very different emotion altogether.

> 3. are unconscious emotions possible?

yes, many illnesses may be emotions that are not being interpreted by the conscious mind. If I have a stomachache, I might think of it as a result of my taco salad. I might experience it as a result of a stressfull conversation. In one case, it's an emotion. In another case, it's a symptom of physical illness. Also, I think that many times our conscious mind is so distracted by other processes that we don't experience an emotional stimulus until much later. (but perhaps the unconscious mind is working on the emotion, even as the conscious mind ignores it).

Well, I think that was pretty jumbled and incoherent, but it's my small contribution to your interesting thread.


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