Table of contents:

Title: Page
number:
Introduction 2

Emotional intelligence 3

Six components of emotions process 3-4

The broaden and build theory of positive emotion: 4

The role of positive emotions in positive 4-5

psychology:

Emotion, gender, and culture: 5

How gender impacts emotion: 5-6

Reasons why emotion processes vary by gender: 6

Bodily changes and emotion: 7 and 8

References 9 and 10

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Introduction:
As we move through our daily lives, we experience a variety of emotions, but the source of our
emotions remains elusive. No one knows exactly where emotions come from, what makes us
feel the way we do, or whether we can fully control the way we feel. Emotion is a mental and
physiological feeling state that directs our attention and guides our behavior and it may also be
destructive, such as when a frustrating experience leads us to lash out at others who do not
deserve it. It caused by a complex mixture of hormones and the unconscious mind. In many
ways, our emotions define our existence and without them, most of us would not feel truly alive.
People can experience very different emotions even when they have the same pattern of
physiological arousal. For example, a person may have a racing heart and rapid breathing both
when he is angry and when he is afraid. Of course, emotion is not only displayed through facial
expression. We also use the tone of our voices, various behaviors, and body language to
communicate information about our emotional states. Emotion is complex, and the term has no
single universally accepted definition. Emotions create a response in the mind that arises
spontaneously, rather than through conscious effort. It is unclear whether animals or
all human beings experience emotion. Emotions are physical expressions, often involuntary,
related to feelings, perceptions or beliefs about elements, objects or relations between them, in
reality or in the imagination. The study of emotions is part of psychology, neuroscience, and,
more recently, artificial intelligence. Although a widespread word, it is not so easy to come up
with a generally acceptable definition of emotion. Growing consensus does agree that the
distinction between emotion and feeling is important. Feeling can be seen as emotion that is
filtered through the cognitive brain centers, specifically the frontal lobe, producing a physiological
change in addition to the psycho-physiological change. Daniel Goleman, in his landmark
book Emotional Intelligence, discusses this differentiation at length. However emotions might
seem to you to be more frivolous or less important in comparison to our more rational cognitive
processes, both emotions and cognitions can help us make effective decisions. In some cases
we take action after rationally processing the costs and benefits of different choices, but in other
cases we rely on our emotions. Emotions become particularly important in guiding decisions
when the alternatives between many complex and conflicting alternatives present us with a high
degree of uncertainty and ambiguity, making a complete cognitive analysis difficult. In these
cases we often rely on our emotions to make decisions, and these decisions may in many cases
be more accurate than those produced by cognitive processing.

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Emotional Intelligence:
Emotional intelligence means the ability to recognize your
emotions, get knowledge what people are telling you, and realize
how your emotions affect people around you. There are
five types that define emotional intelligence such as, self-
awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social
skills. Self-awareness means a person has a healthy sense of
emotional intelligence self-awareness if they understand their own
strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and
emotions, as well as how their actions affect others. Self-
regulation means a person with a high emotional
intelligence and has the ability monitor and control when
expressing their emotions. In addition, people with emotional
intelligence are motivated; they are productive, and effective in
whatever they do. While the empathy means an empathetic
person has compassion and able to connect with other people
on an emotional level, and helping them respond sincerely to other
people's concerns. Furthermore, a social skill means people who
are able to build trust with other people, and are able to quickly
gain respect from the people they meet. (Michael Akers & Grover
Porter. (2016). What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)? Psych Central. Retrieved
on October 23, 2017, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-emotional-
intelligence-eq/)

Six components of emotions process:

You see the glass full when in other hand your friend sees it half
empty, one of your friends recover immediately after a trauma
while your other friend has been depressed for weeks, a child that
gets happy and excited on first day of school while the other child
gets angry and aggressive, why are people so different?

The answer is emotions every person on this earth has a different

emotion and our actions and responds lies on our unique
emotional styles, Emotion refers to positive or negative feelings-
generally arousal and characteristic behavior. Motivation and
emotion are closely linked. An emotion is a complex, multi-
component episode that creates readiness to act. There are types
of emotions that may be negative or positive that includes: Fear,
Anger, Anxiety, Fright, Guilt, Shame, Sadness, Jealousy, Disgust,
Happiness, Pride, Relief, Hope, Love, Compassion and others,
when we appraise our current circumstances as somehow bad for

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us, a negative emotion arises and when we register good prospect
a positive emotion arises. (Richard Davidson - the emotional life of your
brain 2012)

An intense emotion can involve at least six components.

1. Cognitive appraisal: a person’s assessment of the personal

meaning of his or her current circumstances.

2. Subjective experience: the affective state or feeling tone that

colors private experiences.

3. Thought-action tendencies: urges to think or act in a

particular way.
4. Internal bodily changes: physiological responses, particularly
those involving the autonomic nervous system such as changes
in heart rate and sweat gland activity.

5. Facial muscle movements: muscle contractions that move

facial land marks like cheeks, lips, noses, and brows into
particular configuration.

6. Responses to emotions: how people react or cope with their

own emotion or the situation that triggered it

The broaden and build theory of positive emotion:

Is theory could be defined as a model for explaining the techniques
behind positive emotions in our minds and bodies and why
studying them are so essential for our health and well-being. The
broaden and build theory also describes the form and function of a
subset of positive emotions, Including joy, interest and love. (Dave
B,2014,” Motivation and emotion book”). The broadened mindsets
arising or growing from these positive emotions are contrasted to
the closed mindsets sparked by many negative emotions. This
theory states that good emotional states are psychological
adaptations that evolves because they assist the survival of our
human ancestors. Positive emotions are a key component in
happiness or individual well-being and finally studying emotions
has always been a challenge.

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The role of positive emotions in positive
psychology:
People have two choices in life either to be weak in life and feel
stuck in everything or become mature with possibilities and
flourish their life. Positive psychology concentrates mainly on
the psychological phenomena, at levels ranging from the study
of positive emotions and optimism to the study of positive
personality and traits, in addition to the study of positive
institutions. There is a theory called “The Broaden-and-Build
Theory” that has been studied by the psychologist Barbara
Fredrickson (Fredrickson, 1998, 2013). This theory states that
pleasurable emotional states are psychological adaptations.
Positive emotions have a matching effect; they broaden our
mindsets by expanding our thought-action repertoires. The main
four emotions that have been studied in this theory are joy,
interest, contentment, and love. Joy endorse playing, interest
endorses exploring, contentment endorses happiness and
satisfaction, and lastly love is a repeated cycle of all the other
endorsements.

Emotion, gender, and culture:

In our culture and society, everyone is wondering that who is the
most emotional gender, and how the men and women are dealing
with their emotions. Maybe there is differences between them, and
if so, how it can affect our emotional health. Actually, strong
evidence has been found that there are differences between men
and women in the way they detect or process and express
emotion. But other studies showed that the emotional similarities
are more than differences.
The stereotypes of reserved men and emotional women are widely
spread and affect the way young boys and girls are raised. Some
researchers argue that we may put differences that do not naturally
exist by accepting and passing it to our children. Other researchers
believe these differences due to the evolutionary roles placed on
men and women to survive and thrive.
 Recent research has shown the ways in which men and
women react emotionally and perceive emotion in others:

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1. Women read the other people emotional reaction better than
the men. Also, they reported experiencing love and anger more
than men.
2. Both of the gender responds to stress in different ways. The
women show more anxiety or sadness than men, while men show
an increase in blood pressure and alcohol craving.

How gender impacts emotion:

Emotions differ by gender as everyone knows that women may
be more emotional where they show what they feel and how
they feel. Satisfaction and aggressiveness are more expressed
from men. Psychologists have come up with a study that shows
men and women differ on expressing emotions both facially and
verbally more than expressing subjective emotions (Fischer.
“Introduction to psychology”. 2000). Usually, men do not express
feelings or show emotions due to the common stereotype states
that “real men” are strong and don’t cry or get upset, this is also
how women view and judge men if they are “real men” or no.
On the other hand, women show femininity by expressing her
emotions exactly the opposite to men, women also have so
many hormonal imbalances which also affects their emotions
and how they express it, for example during pregnancy she
faces a huge hormonal imbalance that is needed for the fetus to
grow. To sum up there is emotional difference between men.
Reasons why emotion processes vary by gender:

Previous Research has shown that women undergo higher levels

of emotional stimulation than men. After a large-scale study by a
research team at the University of Basal it was found that there are
no gender-related differences in the emotional process. The
University of Basal focused on determining the gender-dependent
relationship between emotions, memory performance and brain
activities.

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Bodily changes and emotion:

Emotion is linked with a variety of bodily changes, it can be overt

or covert. Overt bodily manifestations of emotions are clear and
observable. But the covert changes are difficult to observe and
detected by special procedures and modern recording devices
such as computers. Following overt and covert changes that
happen at the time of emotion:

- The face becomes red with excitement and anger.

- Eyes are protruded.
- The blood clots faster at the time of injury.
- Blood sugar level increase.
- Gastrointestinal activities decrease or stop totally.
- Respiration become more rapid.

All these bodily changes are result of the complex underlying

processes originate in autonomic nervous system, the endocrine
glands and the cerebrospinal system. (Activities of the Autonomic
Nervous System have been described in detail later in this chapter). These
internal reactions are quite complex and difficult to measure.

The outward bodily changes include changes in facial expression,

vocal expression, sweating on the surface of the body, and
accelerated motor activities. The internal physiological changes
include changes in the electrical activities of the skin, respiratory
activities, blood pressure, pulse -ate, sweat glands, reactions of
the endocrine glands, and the chemical activities of blood.

 The following organic or physiological changes occur during

emotion:

Electrical Phenomena of the Skin

One of the common measures of autonomic activities

associated/affective and emotional state is the "galvanic skin
response" (GSR). And it’s associated with blood pressure and
respiration.

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Blood Pressure

Darrow (1936) used blood pressure and galvanic skin reflex as

indicators of emotional states. The level of blood pressure and
GSR are considered be the best indications of facilitative,
preparatory, and emergency functions during emotion activated by
the sympathetic system.

Heart Rate

The electrocardiogram (ECG) records the heart rate by means of

attachment of electrodes to the two arms or to either of the arms
and the left leg. The pattern recorded enables the cardiologist to
analyze the performance of the heart during the emotional state.
The "Cardiotachometer" is a useful device for counting the number
of heartbeats. "Cardiochronograph" is also another such device to
study the heartbeats during emotion.

Respiration

The respiration pattern is very often disturbed by emotional

conditions. The respiratory features, i.e., the rate, depth, pattern,
and inspiration and expiration ratio are measured in order to gauge
the intensity of the emotional state. Respiration is mainly regulated
reflexively through the respiratory center in the medulla. The
medulla responds to changes in blood chemistry. Even if the
respiration is interrupted by other reflexes, such as, coughing,
sneezing, sighing, and yawning, it is a sensitive indicator of
emotional responses such as the startle response, the conscious
attempts at deception, and conflicts.

Skin Temperature

The common method to measure skin temperature in emotion is to

apply thermocouple to the skin area concerned. Emotional stress
produces a fall the skin temperatures. Conflict and altercations are
associated with vasoconstriction and a fall in the skin temperature.
On the other hand, uninhibited action and emotional security are
said to result in vasodilation and crease in skin temperature.
(Krishna. 28 April 2011.)

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References:
1. Becky Lynn Omdahl – COGNITIVE APPRAISAL, EMOTION,
AND EMPATHY

2. Dave B ,2014. (Motivation and emotion book).

3. David R Hamilton. The 4 components of emotion. Retrieved

21 May 2015 from http://www.drdavidhamilton.com.

4. Dennis Thompson, Jr. - Medically Reviewed by Lindsey

Marcellin, MD, MPH Retrieved 14 July 2010
from https://www.everydayhealth.com

5. Ernest Hilgard’s, Richard C. Atkinson (2014) –

INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY From http://www.beinghuman.org/article/six
-emotional-styles.

6. Fischer. (2000) Retrieved from “Introduction to psychology”.

7. Fredrickson, 1998, 2013. The role of positive emotions in

positive psychology

8. Gerlad L. Clore , Jeffry R. Huntsinger – TRENDS IN

COGNITIVE
SCIENCES. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
S1364661307001908#!

9. Handel, Steven. "Classification of Emotions". Retrieved 30

April 2012.

10. Kendra C. What is the James –Lange theory of

emotion. Retrieved 19 June 2017
from http://www.verywell.com

11. Krishna. 28 April 2011. Retrieved

from http://www.preservearticles.com/201104185520/organic
-physiological-changes-during-emotion.html

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12. Mark, D (2015). Happiness Dissected. Retrieved
from http://www.theoriginofemotions.com
13. Michael Akers & Grover Porter. (2016). What is
Emotional Intelligence (EQ)? Psych Central. Retrieved on
October 23, 2017, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-
emotional-intelligence-eq/

14. Richard Davidson Ponders – WHAT MAKES US WHO

WE ARE.

15. The Atlantic – THE BEST HEADSPACE FOR MAKING

DECESIONS

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Group member: ID
1- Amel Faisal Alminhali A00043870
2- Atiya Muhammad A00045570
3- Sara Hamed salmeen A00048610
4- Morom Mahfodh A00043871

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