Unconscious Emotions, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Emotions are a part of the human way of life. These emotions have been expressed in different ways over the years. Psychology has proven that emotions affect our lives in every way. Emotions are the reason for every action taken by man. Some actions however, are not attributed to the man’s conscious self. Basic emotions result from the oldest parts of the brain; the “limbic system,” which consists of “amygdala,” “hypothalamus,” and “thalamus.” However, some emotions result from “cognitive appraisal,” which allows human beings to experience secondary emotions like guilt and shame. Secondary emotions have a vital cognitive component; they can be pleasant and unpleasant and vary from mild to intense. The difference between primary and secondary emotions relies on the fast and slow pathways. These emotions are mostly conscious. Emotions are basically what allows us as human to relate with each other. It allows us to understand each other as a species.

Feelings are expressed emotionally. The psychosomatic state of the individual in question is influenced. Unmistakable facial expressions appear. These facial expressions are what the people around you perceive to be emotions. It is accompanied by organic amendments and physiological proceedings (Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990). Emotion play a huge role in our daily lives. Every action is always instigated by a certain emotion. When the question of unconscious emotions arises, it is harder to explain how they affect our daily life since most of them manifest unconsciously.

Unconscious emotions

The affective neuroscience field stood firmly believed that emotions are only conscious. Despite many proofs for this theory, I believe that emotions are also unconscious. Philosophers argue that emotions are what define a person. A person who is able to deal with their emotions in a manner that does not affect the other people’s emotions is considered to be rational. Emotions are the most influential factors in the world. Emotions drive people to do big things (Beridge 2004). The question of whether emotions are, to a good extent, unconscious, experiments have to be carried out to understand this theory.

The personal unconscious is in the form of a storehouse for material that was once essential but soon lost value and was forgotten. The unconscious mind is the deepest psyche level that contains all the inherited experience from past events and activities (Jung, 2000). The unconscious emotions are easily triggered when we do something that triggers a past experience within the unconscious mind. The emotions from the past events may be expressed on our faces. For instance, something said by the lecturer may trigger a funny episode from yesterday’s class and you may feel happy all of a sudden.

An individual may fail to notice the unconscious emotions within them due to the ambivalence of the experience which they are unable to explain. The unconscious emotions are very powerful influencers of behavioral change. The individual does not realize that their behavior is out of the ordinary. Despite the fact that they “communicate” to their existence, or appear in dreams or jokes, unconscious emotions are hardly taken into consideration. Luria clearly explains how vastly the nature of the relationship between unconscious emotions and significant changes in the reactions of a person affect their interpretation of the emotions (Morsella, 2008).

Unconscious emotions may trigger conscious feelings (Sylwester, 2000). The unconscious emotions are responsible for the affective reaction develop by humans. This reaction however, may cause conscious feelings to the receiving party. This may be harmful or dangerous in some way. It is important to note how emotions can affect our relations with others. Understanding emotions is a process. It is important to understand how people express their emotions. Learning how to express emotions makes us human (Le Doux 2017).

As earlier stated, the best way to prove that emotions can be unconscious is through experimental observations. Hereunder are several experiments carried out to show that emotions are unconscious:

Experiment 1

Emotions may be unconscious. This can be demonstrated through experiments. Consider a person being at a party. A person being at a party may be used to explain how a person may experience pleasure without realizing that they are actually doing so. This issue brings about the question on unconscious emotions. A person may express feelings of pleasure and happiness to an extent that they do not realize exceeds they normal happiness. For this case, consider two situations, a person may can have an experience that you would rate quite well, possibly a “9” out of “10” if only you stopped to consider it, or another experience that you can rate quite decently, “7” but that you are actually able to relax and experience every bit of it as it occurs. Feeling the thrill at the exact moment it occurs allows you to feel the full extent of pleasure as it flows. The latter however chooses to enjoy every moment of the pleasurable time (Schooler 2010).

These situations give rise to some very fundamental questions in understanding the unconscious emotions. Despite the fact that an experience is of sheer hedonic quality, does the fact that you were consciously in attendance give it more value? What makes the experience more memorable and exciting? Despite not acknowledging the moment of intense pleasure as it happens, does the intense memory give it more importance? In addition, do the bursts of pleasure you get from remembering the experience’s thrill?

To answer these questions, random people were picked. A very high percentage of the subjects define the intense memories to be way more fun. The intense feeling you get when you remember the experience makes it even more enjoyable. Unconscious emotions are therefore present and they do affect our daily lives. For this reason, it is easy for someone to react to these emotions in a happy way. Different people react differently to intense emotional outbursts. Some choose to experience every moment of it. They hope to remember every bit. Other however choose to feel the emotion as it comes. Some choose to experience the emotional outbursts at the moment they happen. For this reason, remembering the feeling at a later time will give you more pleasure since you experienced it all as it happened.  Unconscious emotions therefore exist and may be expressed in many forms depending on their extent.

Experiment 2

To fully understand unconscious emotions, let us consider a child that is less than a year old. A child may not understand emotions in the same way as a grown up, they however react to the stimuli they are subjected to. A child who does not understand how to interpret visible and conscious emotional signals is still able to react when certain feelings are directed towards them. Unconscious emotions are defined as the emotions you experience without your knowledge. A child whose father has been away does not understand the pain of not seeing the father. When he returns, however, the child will smile and laugh due to happiness. They are however not able to understand their happiness. This shows that emotions can be experienced without the individual’s awareness.

Children are able to show emotions even when they do not understand what the mean.  When a grown up holds a child, the child tends to copy the adult’s emotions. A jovial adult will make the baby smile quite easily. The does not understand what the adult is doing but they feel contented with it. They therefore exhibit feelings of pleasure (Steiner, 1973). Observing how a child reacts to emotional stimuli indicates that unconscious emotions are in existence. They dictate many of the decision we make. A child’s brain despite not fully developed, allows the child to identify its mother smiling. Due to the affective reaction, the child may smile back, without any idea about why their feel what they feel.

Experiment 3

Individual at a water harvesting plant are shown a picture of clean water in a glass. Another picture of a child dying of thirst is shown for a very short time. To drink water, one has to get a glass and walk to the tap for water. Due to the picture the child dying of thirst, every person who walked to the tap fetched their water and made sure that no water got wasted as they performed their task. The people do not realize that emotional stimuli has been induced in them. They suddenly feel the urge to preserve the water. This evidently shows that people are capable of having unconscious emotions. The picture showed for very little time instilled a feeling of how precious clean water is. They no longer want to use the water irresponsibly. This experiment clearly shows how effective the unconscious emotions are.

In all the experiments, emotional stimulus is induced in the participants without their knowledge. They however react in the way that suggests their emotions have been altered. It is therefore very crucial to understand the impact that unconscious emotions can have on a person.

Proofs that Emotion can be Unconscious

From the scientific evidence, evolution and neuroscience, it is easy to understand how some emotions exist without the individual’s knowledge. Some emotional reactions exist independently without subjective correlates. From an evolutionary point of view, development of conscious emotions came a long time after the behavioral affective reactions of the early man to his peers and surrounding. Species with underdeveloped states of consciousness depend on affective reactions to relate with each other. Despite not understanding the other party’s emotions, they understand the affective behaviors displayed by the latter. Emotions were probably designed to help us react to the events of life accordingly. A conscious however, plays a big part in the expression of emotions.

Evolution has it that the neurocircuitry required for the basic affective responses like the contentment brought by a certain scent or the reaction of fear of a threatening stimulus, is mainly contained in emotional brain structures that lie below the cortex. These structures include: the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hypothalamus, and even lower brain stem (Berridge, 2003)

The evolution of these subcortical structures happened very early. They were most probably unable to perform certain functions since they were mostly preconscious. Development of the elaborate human cortex at the top of the brain, allowed humans to make more definitive and conscious decisions. Science has shown that even the limited subcortical structures can perform basic affective reactions on their own.

Human infants are the most appropriate subject for this experiment. The infant brain is malformed in a congenital way. The only grown part in the brain is the stem. They lack nearly all the structures necessary for cognitive awareness. These parts include those found on the top or front of the brain, including the entire cortex. For some reason however, the sweet tastes of sucrose still bring out positive facial expression. These children do not understand emotions, they however exhibit emotions of happiness and pleasure (Steiner, 1973). Even in the normal brain, the prats essentially designed to increase liking are attributed to parts deep within the brain structure.

Science suggests that the mediation of basic affective reactions takes place in parts of the brain that are deep below the cortex. They are therefore subconscious. When these facts are keenly understood, the possibility of these reactions being completely inaccessible to the conscious self is very high.

Contemporary Perspective of Emotion as an Unconscious Experience

Recent studies challenge the conventional perspective of emotion by providing empirical evidence that shows “unconscious emotion.” Some studies show that stimuli can evoke a reaction that an individual can feel. In a study conducted, researchers exposed some participants to random visual designs; participants reported being in a better mood than participants exposed to neutral stimuli not frequently displayed. Moreover, others showed mood changes after subliminal representation of different images such as snakes to phobic participants. The studies ascertain the traditional view that when emotion occurs, it is a conscious experience. Moreover, the studies depend on introspection of conscious feelings to show emotion after being unconsciously generated.

Impacts of the Unconscious Emotions

Unconscious emotions have been responsible for many actions by man. Actions that are driven by rage, happiness or boredom are mostly subconscious. With the understanding about how the brain develops, it is easy to realize how many thoughts cross our minds and change how we feel and react. Unconscious emotions greatly improve how people relate with each other. Some basic affective reactions that happen unconsciously allow us to relate better with people.

Human relations have existed throughout evolution. People have been able to understand each other through the basic affective reactions. In simpler terms, feelings of happiness and contentment are reciprocated by the other party. Affective reactions are the most basic form of interactions among humans. They allow people to relate with each other even though they do not speak the same language.

Affective reactions are the most fundamental form of communication. They have been present even before the rise of modern man. Perceiving unconscious emotion is therefore a very good way of understanding each other and the environment at large. Taking time to understand the emotions that one displays is very important. Their behaviors show exactly how they feel about the subject in question. They therefore play a huge role in promoting good relations among people.

Conclusion

The sub-cortical brain systems and their connections are responsible for the unconscious emotions experienced by humans. Having discussed how the unconscious mind works, it is important to note that the affective reactions due to these emotions also define us. We should strive to understand ourselves and learn to show our emotions in a good way. Emotions are a very crucial part of existence. It is therefore important to understand that apart from the conscious mind, there is the other part.

The experiment discussed above also help us to understand more about unconscious emotions. The affective reactions discussed also go a long way in understanding how the human emotions work. Most importantly, in the unconscious state.  With scientific evidence and reference from reliable sources, it is true to say that unconscious emotions exist within us. Moreover, they are responsible for most of our actions.

Understanding the brain is not an easy process, the secrets behind the working of the brain are not yet fully uncovered. Enough information based on research and experimentation has however been put forward to show that the unconscious emotions within our unconscious mind exist. They may pp in our dreams or during speech.

The unconscious mind can therefore be termed as a reservoir where the strongest emotions, feelings and thoughts are stored. Feelings that are too hard to bear are mostly found in the unconscious mind. This the reason why dreams contain deep emotions. On a deeper analysis, dreams may be found to show the feeling that we try to conceal deep within.

References

Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2008). The unconscious mind. Perspectives on psychological science, 3(1), 73-79.

Berridge, K.C. (2003). Pleasures of the brain. Brain and Cognition, 52, 106–128.

Berridge, K.C., & Winkielman, P. (2003). What is an unconscious emotion: The case for unconscious ‘liking.’ Cognition and Emotion, 17, 181–211.

Jung, C. (2000). Arhetipite na kolektivnoto nesaznavano [The archetypes of the collective unconscious]. Pleven, Bulgaria: Eurasia – Abagar

Steiner, J.E. (1973). The gustofacial response: Observation on normal and anencephalic newborn infants.

Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2008). The unconscious mind. Perspectives on psychological science, 3(1), 73-79.

LeDoux, J. E., & Brown, R. primit(2017). A higher-order theory of emotional consciousness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(10), E2016-E2025.

Michael, M. T. (2020). Unconscious Emotion and Free-Energy: A Philosophical and Neuroscientific Exploration. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 984.

Schooler, J. W., & Mauss, I. B. (2010). To be happy and to know it: The experience and meta-awareness of pleasure. Pleasures of the brain, 244-254.

Sylwester, R. (2000). Unconscious Emotions, Conscious Feelings. Educational Leadership, 58(3), 20-24.