Page 30 - Class Portfolio2019

UNIT I
PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION

What is Emotion?

A strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. Emotions
are responses to significant internal and external events. Emotions can be defined as a positive
or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity."
Emotions produce different physiological, behavioral and cognitive changes. The original role of
emotions was to motivate adaptive behaviors that in the past would have contributed to the
passing on of genes through survival, reproduction, and kin selection.

Importance of Emotions

Emotion is important because:

 Generally, emotion shapes up the personality of a person.

 Emotion either makes us strong to do action or prevents us from doing any action during
emergencies.

 Emotion enables us to cope with conflicts and emergencies.
 Emotion dominates our lives.

Theories of Emotion

The James-Lange Theory - proposes that an event or stimulus causes a physiological arousal
without any interpretation or conscious thought, and you experience the resulting emotion only
after you interpret the physical response.

Example:

You're late leaving work, and as you head across the parking lot to your car, you hear
footsteps behind you in the dark. Your heart pounds and your hands start to shake. You interpret
these physical responses as fear.

The Cannon-Bard Theory - on the other hand, suggests that the given stimulus evokes both a
physiological and an emotional response simultaneously, and that neither one causes the other.

Example:

You're home alone and hear creaking in the hallway outside your room. You begin to
tremble and sweat, and you feel afraid.

The Schacter-Singer Theory - theory takes a more cognitive approach to the issue. Schacter
and Singer believe that an event causes physiological arousal, but that you must then identify a
reason for the arousal before you label the emotion.

21 | P a g e