COM 112- Chapter 9

What are emotions?: Physiological

- Bodily changes
- Ex. hot, shakey, stomach drop, blushing

What are emotions?: Nonverbal

- Behavior that can be noticed by others
- Can cause an emotion or be a reaction to one
- Ex. facial expressions, posture change, vocal tone

What are emotions?: Cognitive Labeling

- Label how you're feeling and why you're feeling it
- Reappraisal- rethinking the meaning behind an emotionally-charged event

What are emotions?: Verbal Expression

- Putting emotions into words
- Makes emotions more clear and manageable

Influences on Emotion: Culture Differences

- Some cultures are more inclined to or encourage expressing emotions

Influences on Emotion: Gender

- Same emotions are shown in different ways
- Women are faster at recognizing and judging emotions
- Women are expected to hide anger, men are expected to hide sadness or fear

Influences on Emotion: Social Conventions and Roles

- Direct verbal expressions of emotion are rare
- Emotional labor- situations where managing and suppressing emotions is necessary and appropriate
- Jobs- some professions are expected to have no feelings (medical, law, soldier)

Influences on Emotion: Mediated Communication

- Emotion is often more expressed online than in person
- Digital messages can twist the real emotion

Influences on Emotion: Emotional Contagion

- Emotions can spread from one person to another

Expressing Emotions: Recognize Your Feelings

- Being aware of your feelings and identifying them is important

Expressing Emotions: Share Multiple Feelings

- Express ALL emotions that are being felt

Expressing Emotions: Difference Between Feeling and Acting

- Just because you feel something, doesn't mean you should act on it

Expressing Emotions: Accepting Responsibility

- Your emotional expressions shouldn't put blame on others
- Use "I" language

Expressing Emotion: Time and Place

- Wait for an appropriate time to express your emotions that fits both the sender and receiver

Managing Emotions: Facilitative vs. Debilitative

- Facilitative: emotions that contribute to effective functioning
- Debilitative: emotions that hinder or prevent effective performance
- Difference between the two is determined by intensity and duration

Managing Emotions: Thoughts cause Feelings

- The way you interpret a situation can affect the emotion you feel from it

Fallacy of Perfection

- Desire to be perfect, confident, and skillful in any situation
- No mistakes
- Sometimes people with this will give up because its too much work and perfection can't be reached

Fallacy of Approval

- Mistaken belief that it's vital for everyone to approve of you

Fallacy of Should

- When you get hung up on how things ought to be instead of how they truly are
- Ex. "I should've gotten into that school" "They shouldn't have broken up with me"

Fallacy of Overgeneralization

- When a belief is based on a limited amount of evidence
- Focus on one shortcoming as if it represents everything

Fallacy of Causation

- Belief that one shouldn't do anything that hurts or inconveniences another because it will cause undesirable feelings
- Reluctance to speak out

Fallacy of Helplessness

- When you believe that forces beyond your control can control your life
- Ex. "I can't" when you actually can

Fallacy of Catastrophic Expectations

- Assumption that IF something bad can happen, it probably will
- Ex. " If I invite them, they probably won't come"