Classification of negative emotions. What are the emotions of a person. Positive and negative emotions
In life, concepts such as emotions and feelings are often confused, but these phenomena are different and reflect different meanings.
Emotions are not always recognized
Sometimes a person cannot clearly articulate what emotions he is experiencing, for example, people say “everything boils in me”, what does this mean? What emotions? Anger? Fear? Despair? Anxiety? Annoyance? It is not always possible for a person to determine a momentary emotion, but a person is almost always aware of a feeling: friendship, love, envy, hostility, happiness, pride.
Experts make a distinction between emotion"and concepts" feeling», « affect», « mood" and " experience».
Unlike feelings, emotions do not have an object attachment: they arise not in relation to someone or something, but in relation to the situation as a whole. " I'm scared" is an emotion, and " I'm afraid of this person" - this feeling.
The feelings and emotions listed here do not exhaust the whole palette, the whole variety of human emotional states. A comparison with the colors of the solar spectrum is appropriate here. There are 7 main tones, but how many more intermediate colors do we know and how many shades can be obtained by mixing them!
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Positive
1. Pleasure Neutral 25. Curiosity. |
Negative
30. Displeasure. |
It is difficult to say how many different emotional states there can be - but, in any case, there are immeasurably more than 70. Emotional states are highly specific, even if they have the same name with modern rough methods of evaluation. There are apparently many shades of anger, joy, sadness, and other feelings.
Love for an older brother and love for a younger sister are similar, but far from the same feelings. The first is colored with admiration, pride, sometimes envy; the second is a sense of superiority, a desire to provide patronage, sometimes pity and tenderness. A completely different feeling is love for parents, love for children. But for the designation of all these feelings, we use one name.
The division of feelings into positive and negative is by no means done on ethical grounds, but solely on the basis of the pleasure or displeasure delivered. Therefore, gloating turned out to be in the column of positive feelings, and sympathy - negative feelings. The negatives seem to outnumber the positives. Why? Several explanations can be offered.
Sometimes it is suggested that there are simply many more words expressing unpleasant feelings in the language, because in a good mood a person is generally less inclined to introspection. We find this explanation unsatisfactory.
Initial biological role emotions - signal, according to the type "pleasant - unpleasant", "safe - dangerous". Apparently, the “dangerous” and “unpleasant” signaling is more essential for an animal, it is vitally important, more relevant, because it directs its behavior in critical situations.
It is clear that such information in the process of evolution should receive priority over information that signals "comfort".
But what has historically developed can change historically. When a person masters the laws of social development, this will also change his emotional life, shifting the center of gravity towards positive, pleasant feelings.
Let's go back to the list of feelings. If you carefully read all 70 items, you will notice that some of the listed feelings coincide in content and differ only in intensity. For example, surprise and amazement differ only in strength, that is, in degree of expression. The same anger and rage, pleasure and bliss, etc. Therefore, some clarifications need to be made to the list.
Feelings usually come in five main forms:
The definition of feeling is given by us above.
Affect- this is a very strong short-term feeling associated with a motor reaction (or with complete immobility - numbness. But numbness is also a motor reaction).
Passion called a strong and lasting feeling.
Mood- the resultant of many feelings. This state is distinguished by a certain duration, stability and serves as a background against which all other elements of mental activity proceed.
Under experiences they usually understand the exclusively subjective-psychic side of emotional processes, not including physiological components.
Thus, if we consider surprise to be a feeling, then amazement is the same feeling in content, but brought to the degree of affect (recall the final silent scene of The Inspector General).
Likewise, we call anger when it has become an affect, bliss is the affect of pleasure, rapture is the affect of joy, despair is the affect of grief, horror is the affect of fear, adoration is love, which in duration and strength has become passion, etc.
Manifestations of emotions
Emotional reactions are associated with nervous processes, they are also manifested in external movements, called `` expressive movements. Expressive movements are an important component of emotions, external form their existence. Expressions of emotions are universal, similar for all people, sets of expressive signs that reflect certain emotional states.
To expressive forms of emotions include the following:
Gestures (hand movements),
Facial expressions (movements of facial muscles),
Pantomime (movements of the whole body) - see,
Emotional components of speech (strength and timbre, voice intonation),
Vegetative changes (redness, blanching, sweating).
Read more about how emotions are expressed.
The face of a person has the greatest ability to express various emotional shades (see). And, of course, the eyes are often the mirror of emotions (see)
Emotions and feelings are peculiar states of the psyche that leave an imprint on the life, activities, actions and behavior of a person. If emotional states mainly determine the external side of behavior and mental activity, then feelings affect the content and inner essence of experiences due to the spiritual needs of a person.
Sourced from openemo.com
Feelings and Emotions Every day a person experiences different types of emotions and feelings. Feeling - a person's attitude to various phenomena and objects of reality. Emotions are a person's reactions to various stimuli, roughly speaking, this is a private version of feelings.
The art of understanding facial expressions, the ability to "read" the faces of other people is very important for any person living in our time. This skill is necessary for everyone - especially for those who plan to link their future work with professions that require working with people. FOR LAWYERS FOR DOCTORS FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS FOR OFFICIALS OF LAW AND ORDER AND FOR TEACHERS
Classification of types of emotions in relation to various spheres of life 1. Higher. They meet the highest social needs - love for the Motherland, their people, other people. 2. Moral. Feelings experienced for society, oneself - friendship, conscience, love and other emotions that are responsible for interpersonal relationships. 3. Practical. They arise in the process of labor activity, are associated with its success and failure. 4. Intelligent. Stable and stable feelings appearing during mental activity. Such as curiosity, surprise, the joy of knowing the truth.
The main functions of emotions Motivation-regulating. This function is expressed in the fact that emotions are often a motivating factor, modeling human behavior. 2. Communicative - the external expression of emotions helps a person to communicate with other people. 3. Signal. Emotion, a reaction to stimuli, gives a person the opportunity to understand which of the needs must be satisfied in the first place. 4. The protective function allows you to react to danger and save a person from trouble.
Features of non-verbal communication: Congenital, genetic signals (the ability to smile in children blind from birth appears without any copying) Culturally determined signals (universal gestures - nods in agreement, shrugging shoulders) Expressions that in different cultures denote different emotions.
Types of signals that the face transmits (types) Static Slow Fast Reflect many rather permanent characteristics of the face: skin color, facial outline, shape of facial bones and cartilage, body fat and size, shape and location of the main elements of the face (eyebrows, nose, eyes, lips) . Reflect changes in the appearance of the face that occur continuously over time (the appearance of permanent wrinkles, changes in skin tone, texture and color). They occur when the muscles of the face move, which leads to short-term changes in the appearance of the face and the appearance of temporary wrinkles.
Are there universal (basic) emotions? An example of the spontaneous facial expressions of a Japanese (left) and an American (right) when watching a stressful movie. Research has shown that the expressions on the faces of these six emotions are certainly universal, although some cultural differences can be seen when looking at them.
Evidence for the Existence of Basic Emotions The Papuans, who do not know such abstract concepts as "joy", "sadness", "anger" or "disgust", were read mini-legends and asked them to accept such an expression as if it really happened to them. People far from the media, from a completely different culture, showed identical facial expressions to ours.
Lies and feelings Lies can be accompanied by completely different emotions, but most often they are intertwined with deceit 3 of them: Fear of being exposed Feeling of guilt about one’s own lie Feeling of delight, sometimes experienced in case of success Thus, emotions are necessary for a person, their deficit (as positive , and negative ones) are usually replenished with the help of films, books, sports. Therefore, trying to control your own emotions, you should strive not for insensitivity, but for the ability to think soberly in any life situations.
It's hard for me to sort out my feelings - a phrase that each of us has come across: in books, in movies, in life (someone's or our own). But it is very important to be able to understand your feelings.
Wheel of Emotions by Robert Plutchik
Some believe - and perhaps they are right - that the meaning of life is in feelings. Indeed, at the end of life, only our feelings, real or in memories, remain with us. Yes, and the measure of what is happening can also be our experiences: the richer, more diverse, brighter they are, the more fully we feel life.
What are feelings? The simplest definition: feelings are what we feel. This is our attitude to certain things (objects). There is also a more scientific definition: feelings (higher emotions) are special mental states that are manifested by socially conditioned experiences that express a person’s long-term and stable emotional relationship to things.
How are feelings different from emotions?
Sensations are our experiences that we experience through the senses, and we have five of them. Sensations are visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and odor sensations (our sense of smell). With sensations, everything is simple: stimulus - receptor - sensation.
Our consciousness interferes with emotions and feelings - our thoughts, attitudes, our thinking. Emotions are influenced by our thoughts. And vice versa - emotions affect our thoughts. We will discuss these relationships in more detail a little later. But now let's recall once again one of the criteria for psychological health, namely point 10: we are responsible for our feelings, it depends on us what they will be. It is important.
Fundamental emotions
All human emotions can be distinguished by the quality of experience. This aspect of a person's emotional life is most clearly presented in the theory of differential emotions by the American psychologist K. Izard. He identified ten qualitatively different "fundamental" emotions: interest-excitation, joy, surprise, grief-suffering, anger-rage, disgust-disgust, contempt-neglect, fear-horror, shame-shyness, guilt-repentance. K. Izard classifies the first three emotions as positive, the remaining seven as negative. Each of the fundamental emotions underlies a whole range of states that differ in severity. For example, within the framework of such a single-modal emotion as joy, one can single out joy-satisfaction, joy-delight, joy-jubilation, joy-ecstasy, and others. From the combination of fundamental emotions, all other, more complex, complex emotional states arise. For example, anxiety can combine fear, anger, guilt, and interest.
1. Interest - a positive emotional state that contributes to the development of skills and abilities, the acquisition of knowledge. Interest-excitation is a feeling of capture, curiosity.
2. Joy is a positive emotion associated with the ability to sufficiently fully satisfy an urgent need, the probability of which before that was small or uncertain. Joy is accompanied by self-satisfaction and satisfaction with the surrounding world. Obstacles to self-realization are also obstacles to the emergence of joy.
3. Surprise - not having a clearly expressed positive or negative sign emotional reaction to sudden circumstances. Surprise inhibits all previous emotions, directing attention to a new object and can turn into interest.
4. Suffering (grief) - the most common negative emotional state associated with the receipt of reliable (or seeming such) information about the impossibility of satisfying the most important needs, the achievement of which before that seemed more or less likely. Suffering has the character of asthenic emotion and more often occurs in the form of emotional stress. The most severe form of suffering is grief associated with irretrievable loss.
5. Anger - a strong negative emotional state, occurring more often in the form of affect; arises in response to an obstacle in achieving passionately desired goals. Anger has the character of a sthenic emotion.
6. Disgust - a negative emotional state caused by objects (objects, people, circumstances), contact with which (physical or communicative) comes into sharp conflict with the aesthetic, moral or ideological principles and attitudes of the subject. Disgust, if combined with anger, may interpersonal relationships motivate aggressive behavior. Disgust, like anger, can be directed at oneself, lowering self-esteem and causing self-judgment.
7. Contempt - a negative emotional state that occurs in interpersonal relationships and is generated by a mismatch of life positions, views and behavior of the subject with those of the object of feeling. The latter are presented to the subject as base, not corresponding to accepted moral standards and ethical criteria. A person is hostile to those whom he despises.
8. Fear - a negative emotional state that appears when the subject receives information about the possible damage to his life well-being, about real or imagined danger. Unlike the suffering caused by direct blocking of the most important needs, a person, experiencing the emotion of fear, has only a probabilistic forecast of possible trouble and acts on the basis of this forecast (often insufficiently reliable or exaggerated). The emotion of fear can be both sthenic and asthenic in nature and proceed either in the form of stressful conditions, or in the form of a stable mood of depression and anxiety, or in the form of affect (horror).
9. Shame - a negative emotional state, expressed in the awareness of the inconsistency of one's own thoughts, actions and appearance not only with the expectations of others, but also with one's own ideas about proper behavior and appearance.
10. Guilt - a negative emotional state, expressed in the realization of the unseemliness of one's own act, thought or feelings and expressed in regret and repentance.
Table of human feelings and emotions
And I also want to show you a collection of feelings, emotions, states that a person experiences during his life - a generalized table that does not pretend to be scientific, but will help you better understand yourself. The table is taken from the site "Communities of dependent and co-dependent", the author is Mikhail.
All human feelings and emotions can be divided into four types. It is fear, anger, sadness and joy. To what type this or that feeling belongs can be found from the table.
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And for those who read the article to the end. The purpose of this article is to help you understand your feelings, what they are. Our feelings largely depend on our thoughts. Irrational thinking often underlies negative emotions. By correcting these mistakes (by working on our thinking), we can be happier and achieve more in life. There is an interesting, but persistent and painstaking work on oneself. You are ready?
This will be of interest to you:
P.S. And remember, just by changing your consumption, we are changing the world together! © econet
As it has certainly become clear from our first lessons on the presented topic, acting is a very interesting and exciting creative activity. But at the same time, it is also a very complex activity, because requires from any person who is involved in it, the maximum disclosure of their creative potential, which, in turn, implies the activation and mobilization of all mental resources, and in particular the ability to express and convey experienced emotions. Thus, we can conclude that the craft of the actor, to a large extent, is the ability to control their emotions.
According to Stanislavsky, the craft is the use by the actor of ready-made acting clichés, perceiving which the viewer can clearly determine what emotions the character is experiencing at a given moment in time. Moreover, the emphasis should be placed precisely on the external manifestations of internal experiences. The ability of an actor to reproduce emotions will be discussed in the lesson presented to your attention.
After studying this lesson, you will learn about what emotions are and how they are characterized, what basic emotions exist and how they manifest themselves outwardly. But the main thing is that you will get acquainted with various ways and methods of managing emotions, which are so rich in acting. The lesson will describe in detail the main emotions and feelings, provide exercises and recommendations to help train their recreation and manifestation (facial expressions, gestures, postures, etc.), and will also consider several effective emotion management techniques, using which you will learn how to quickly reproduce any emotional state at any moment. Actors' emotions are people's emotions, and this lesson will make you a real master of emotion management, which will allow you to use this unique skill not only on stage, but also in your Everyday life.
emotional process
The emotional process is a psychophysical process that motivates and regulates human activity (thinking, perception, behavior) and reflects the subjective meaning of various situations and objects for a person, expressed in his mind in the form of experiences. Despite this definition, in scientific circles there are a huge number of different views on the very nature of emotional processes, and there is no one specific definition for this phenomenon, and emotional processes should always be understood from the context in which they are considered.
The classification of emotional processes by different scientists also occurs in different ways. There are even theories that take as a basis the existence of only one emotion in general, which simply depends on certain factors and causes various experiences. Most of the researchers among the emotional processes are distinguished by several basic ones - these are affects, emotions, feelings and moods. Let's consider each of them in a little more detail.
- affects- are short-term intense emotional processes that are accompanied by changes at the physiological level. For example, sudden fear.
- Emotions- are longer, but less intense than the first ones, and reflect the subjective meaning of situations (but not specific objects) for a person. For example, a feeling of anxiety.
- The senses- are longer, but less intense than affects, and reflect the subjective meaning for a person of specific objects. For example, love.
- Moods- are long-term emotional processes of low intensity. For example, boredom.
The reasons for the emergence of various emotional processes, as you can easily see, can be anything: events, situations, phenomena, objects, people, animals, thoughts, etc. If we talk about acting, then we can say that emotional processes serve as the basis for all the emotions that arise in an actor, and only the ability to control these processes makes it possible for a truly plausible experience, interpretation and representation of any images and roles by the master of reincarnations.
Considering that our lesson is devoted specifically to managing emotions, we should talk a little about what emotions are and list the basic emotions of a person.
Emotions and basic emotions
Emotion is an emotional process characterized by an average duration and reflecting a person's subjective assessment of existing or possible situations. Like most other mental phenomena, they are little studied and are understood differently by different specialists. Hence it follows that this definition is not comprehensive and generally accepted.
Emotions are characterized by a number of features:
- Valence- positive or negative coloration. By the way, it has been scientifically confirmed that negative emotions prevail over positive ones in a person, and their number is several times greater.
- Intensity- the strength with which emotions are experienced.
- Stenichnost- emotions can be inciting to activity (sthenic), for example, joy, or relaxing, paralyzing (asthenic), for example, longing.
- Content Emotions can reflect different aspects of the meanings of the situations that evoke them.
- Physiology- a factor that reflects the impact of emotions on a person at the physiological level and causes a certain reaction of the body.
- Mimic feedback- Emotions can cause involuntary manifestations at the level of facial expressions. However, facial expressions can also cause certain emotions, i.e. communication is two-way.
It should also be noted here that scientists have found the strongest connection between emotions and stress, which means that the strongest emotions, regardless of valence, have a tiring effect on the human body and lead to a state of stress, which, with prolonged exposure, can even cause problems for mental, physiological and other levels.
What are basic emotions?
Basic emotions are the basic set of emotions present in every person. To date, there is no generally accepted classification of emotions, and some scientists are inclined to believe that basic emotions exist, while others deny the fact of their existence. But most experts still tend to believe that they are, and in order to determine whether an emotion is basic, there are several defining parameters:
- Basic emotions have a foundation at the neural level
- Basic emotions are manifested at the level of facial expressions
- Basic emotions are perceived by a person and are clearly experienced by him.
- Basic emotions are the result of evolutionary biological processes
- Basic emotions have an organizing and motivating effect on a person.
There are other characteristics to consider when defining basic emotions, but they are secondary.
Many researchers have tried and are trying to determine the basic emotions, but no single list of them has yet been created. But, despite this, there are several basic classifications, the most popular of which can be called the classification of Carroll Izard. That is what we will consider.
Classification of basic emotions according to Izard
According to Carroll Izard, there are eleven basic emotions, and any others are combinations and modifications of them, and arise from them. Below is a list of basic emotions. Basic emotions according to Izard:
- Joy
- Astonishment
- sadness
- Disgust
- Contempt
- Woe-suffering
- Interest-excitement
- Embarrassment
Joy
Joy is one of the main positive human emotions. It is characterized by a feeling of satisfaction, happiness and pleasure, and is also considered a positive intrinsic motivation.
Smiling, desire to be active, pronounced gestures, rapid heartbeat, desire to communicate, good mood.
How to bring joy: in order to invoke joy in yourself, you can think of something pleasant (about some kind of joyful event), recall pleasant memories in your memory, chat with a person who is in a good mood, buy something that you have long dreamed of, in in general, to do something that caused, causes or can cause pleasant emotions in you.
Astonishment
Surprise is an emotion that appears in the event of an unexpected situation. In more scientific terms, surprise can be called an adequate response to a deviation from the norm. Depending on the specifics of the situation, surprise can turn into fear, interest or joy.
Physiological and external manifestations: raised eyebrows, rounded eyes, parted lips, in another case - arched eyebrows, head tilted forward, with strong surprise - wrinkles crossing the forehead.
How to surprise: the main way to surprise yourself is to reproduce physiological manifestations. To simplify your task, you can mentally imagine something that could surprise you: some object, person, situation. Simply put, to be surprised, you need to pretend that you are surprised.
sadness
Sadness is an emotion that occupies an intermediate position between melancholy, sadness and despondency, and is able to incline to one, then to the other, then to the third. Occurs in the event of any distressing circumstances.
Physiological and external manifestations: drawn together eyebrows and raised their inner part, stretched corners of the upper eyelids, lowered corners of the lips, vertical wrinkles between the eyebrows, horizontal wrinkles in the center of the forehead, sometimes tears, passive behavior, desire to be alone with yourself.
How to induce sadness: You can cry out sadness in yourself quite simply: for this you need to think about some sad, sad, tragic event in your life, try to feel what you felt when this event happened, and try to linger in this state, feel it as as deeply as possible, so that the emotion of sadness manifests its outward signs.
Anger
Anger is an emotion with a strong negative valence. Most often, anger is caused by injustice towards a person and the desire to eliminate this injustice immediately.
Physiological and external manifestations: drawn and lowered eyebrows, if anger reaches the limit, then the outer side of the eyebrows soars up, narrowed or, conversely, bulging eyes, tense eyelids, tense and closed lips, in other cases, a grin is possible, tense muscles of the neck and chin, a huge motivation for active actions, sometimes inadequate, the desire to influence the object of anger physically.
How to induce anger: you can evoke an emotion of anger in yourself very simply: you need to think about something that causes you a frank feeling of protest and injustice, remember conflict situation or a person (if there is one, of course), whose actions cause you to negative emotions. In the case of anger, the reproduction of physiological manifestations helps very well.
Disgust
Disgust is a strong form of rejection, a negatively colored feeling. It occurs in cases when a person is faced with something that is very unpleasant for him from a moral, physical, aesthetic point of view.
Physiological and external manifestations: a strongly raised upper lip, raised or lowered, but bulging lower lip, raised cheeks, narrowed eyes and slightly lowered eyebrows, wrinkles at the bridge of the nose, a desire to turn away, brush away, move away.
How to induce disgust: it is very easy to arouse disgust in yourself if you try to imagine something very unpleasant in your imagination in all details: any objects, situations, manifestations and behavior of people, smells, tastes, pictures, etc. It is easy to express the emotion of disgust, simply by reproducing its external manifestations. Most likely, the necessary inner experiences will arise in you by themselves.
Contempt
Contempt is a negatively colored feeling that arises in relation to any object that exhibits behavior or qualities that the disgusted person himself does not allow himself to demonstrate and which seems to him extremely unacceptable. Often, disgust is associated with a sense of superiority of one person over another and can turn into anger and even hatred.
Physiological and external manifestations: signs are similar to signs of disgust, but they most often lack symmetry, tense corners of the lips, closed lips, pushed forward and / or raised chin, a desire to express one's negative attitude, to point out the wrong.
How to arouse contempt: causing contempt is a little more difficult than the above emotions, but, of course, you can. To do this, it is best, as before, to recreate in your imagination the image of a person whose behavior or qualities cause you negative emotions, and which you do not allow yourself to show. Images of people doing low, deceitful deeds are perfect for this.
Woe-suffering
Grief is a negative emotion associated with a sense of loss. Sorrow and sadness are often synonymous with grief. Suffering, in turn, is a collection of very unpleasant and painful physical or emotional sensations.
Raised inner side of the eyebrows, drawn together eyebrows, lowered corners of the lips, wrinkles on the forehead, in other cases - closed jaws, grin, tilted or lowered head, clenched fists, tense body, tears.
How to cause grief-suffering: because this emotion is very strong, it is quite simple to evoke it: firstly, you can reproduce external manifestations, secondly, imagine some kind of physical pain, thirdly, you can recreate in your imagination a very tragic situation from your life (the life of another person ) and immerse yourself in the experiences experienced in connection with this.
Shame
Shame is an emotion with a negative connotation associated with some unacceptable hidden or obvious act or quality of the person who is ashamed, or with another person for whom he becomes ashamed.
Physiological and external signs: numbness, desire to be alone, stiff movements, passivity or desire to run away, guilt, strained breathing, lowered eyes, wrinkles on the forehead, compressed lips, redness of the face as a result of an abundant flow of blood to it.
How to induce shame: to evoke an emotion of shame in yourself, it is enough to imagine that you have done something very bad or obscene and everyone who is nearby knows about it. It is very good to feel shame when you imagine yourself naked in front of a large number of people who laugh at you. It is also easy to reproduce this emotion if you reflect its physiological signs.
Interest-excitement
Interest is an emotion with a positive connotation. Interest is associated mainly with the need to learn something new about any object, and increased attention to it. Excitement in this context can be called a set of internal experiences associated with something.
Physiological and external signs: slightly wrinkled forehead and slightly shifted eyebrows, often rapid heartbeat and breathing, closed or, conversely, slightly parted lips, desire to possess, desire for physical contact, a gaze, increased concentration on the object of interest, in case of strong excitement - increased sweating, trembling in limbs, stuttering, erratic breathing.
How to generate interest-excitement: it is quite simple to invoke the emotion of interest in yourself: you can imagine that you really want to know more about the person you are next to, or about some object, situation, event, phenomenon, reproduce physiological signs of interest, think about what is interesting , talk about it, collect the necessary information, etc. If you need to cause excitement, then you can think about some important upcoming event, or about one that has already happened, but imagine in the state in which you were even before that.
Guilt
Guilt is an emotion with a negative connotation, arising from the commission of a certain act, which is presented to a person as having negative consequences for himself or for others. Most often it appears in a person in relation to something done specifically by him, which distinguishes the emotion of guilt from the emotion of shame.
Physiological and external signs: lowered or shifting eyes, lowered head, deep breathing, desire to be alone with oneself, the appearance of a blush on the face, a trembling voice, sometimes a raised chin and a contemptuous look, but unwillingness to meet the eyes of others.
How to induce guilt: a person can make himself feel guilty, firstly, if he imagines that he has committed some act that will cause other people or himself to suffer. Secondly, if it accurately reproduces the physiological signs of the emotion of guilt. You can also remember something from the past, for which you felt guilty: some actions, spoken words, committed deeds. The emotion of guilt is closely related to the emotion of shame, therefore, you can resort to methods that allow you to evoke this particular emotion.
As you can easily see, emotions are closely interconnected with each other and, in the vast majority of cases, allow one person to understand what another person is feeling at the moment. But if an actor shows on stage only those emotions that he actually feels at a given moment in time, this can have an extremely negative effect on the quality of his game. In order to avoid unpleasant situations (associated with the expression of emotions) during rehearsals, performances, filming, and in general in life, it is useful to learn some emotion management techniques. But first you need to know about these techniques. This is what we dedicate the final section of our lesson.
15 Emotion Management Techniques
1. Anchoring
The "" technique has its origins in Neuro Linguistic Programming and therefore is one of the most effective when it comes to managing emotions. She has an amazing power to influence a person, both on others and on himself. For this reason, we will consider it in somewhat more detail than all of the following.
The meaning of this technique lies in the fact that in the process of simple, but regularly performed actions, a person causes a certain emotional state and fixes (anchores) it through the so-called ritual action. In simpler terms, a conditioned reflex is created that allows one to enter the desired state through the performance of a certain action. With the help of anchoring, you can evoke any emotion.
First of all, you need to create reinforcements, i.e. cause the desired emotional state, remembering any past experience corresponding to it from life. Then, at the moment of the highest intensity of this state, you need to perform a certain action, invented in advance. This may be crossing fingers, biting the lips, pinching the skin, etc. It is important that only you know about this action. By doing this procedure several times, you create an anchor that will instantly evoke the desired emotion in the future. This process is very simple, but requires regular and systematic consolidation.
So the anchoring technique is:
- Invoke the desired state by accessing your memory. Imagine it in detail, visualize it, feel it, feel it completely, trying to reach the peak point.
- At the moment of reaching the peak point, you perform a pre-invented action. Try to come up with something that you will never confuse with anything and probably will not do spontaneously. Repeat this sequence several times, taking small pauses between each "set" until you are "at your peak".
- After that, distract yourself to enter a normal emotional state. Take a break for a while (half an hour / hour) and let the state subside. Then repeat the first two points and again get distracted.
- Repeat the procedure regularly (10, 20, 30 ... 100 times) so that the anchor is stably fixed. The result will be the ability to invoke any emotion you need with a certain action.
2. Technique of the opposite action
This method is used to control emotions of high intensity. It is based on the replacement of experienced emotions with actions that are opposite in meaning to them. Moreover, the actions performed should not suppress or slow down the experienced state, but should simply express something else.
As an example, we can use a state of increased emotional arousal, when a person, for whatever reason, experiences an emotional outburst, which is expressed in excessive mental activity. To suppress this surge, using the technique of the opposite action, you need to sit comfortably on an armchair or sofa, relax, slow down your breathing, think about something calm and pleasant. After some time, you will notice that your state has changed from emotional excitement to calmness and peace.
3. Muscle Release Technique
This technique helps to get rid of tension and the emotions associated with it. It is very convenient to use it when there is a surge of any negatively charged emotions, such as anger, anger, etc.
It is very simple to apply it: as soon as you feel that negative (or positive) emotions begin to take possession of you, you need to sharply and quickly tighten all the muscles of the body (or some specific muscle group) and stay in this state until you feel that there is no more strength to be in tension. After that, the muscles will begin to relax spontaneously, and the outgoing tension will take with it the energy potential of the emotions that have begun to develop.
4. Technique for identifying and labeling an emotional reaction
The proposed technique is the main method of managing emotions, namely, recognizing and identifying current emotional states. But this method is complicated in its own way, because. requires a person to maximize the activation of the ability to self-observation and description of their mental manifestations.
The technique for applying this method consists of several steps:
- Definition and description of the event that generated the emotion
- Definition and description of the meaning given to the event
- Definition and description of emotion-related sensations
- Definition and description of movements caused by emotion
- Defining and describing the effect an emotion has on you
The step-by-step implementation of these instructions, firstly, will in itself relieve most of the emotional stress, and secondly, it will allow you to adequately and rationally assess your behavior and take the necessary actions to eliminate the emotion. By the way, the same method can be used to evoke any emotion in yourself. But for this you need to have a clear understanding of the basic emotions of a person in order to be able to reproduce the necessary elements.
5. Technique for applying the suffering tolerance method
There is an opinion that sometimes a person, in order to cope with a negative emotion, needs to be allowed to manifest the actions that it causes. This method is based on the fact that those experiences that accompany negative emotions can and should be simply endured.
For example, you feel angry or angry and want to scream, break something, hit someone. Under no circumstances should you do this. You just need to accept this emotion for what it is, to allow it to be. After a while, you will notice that this emotion will begin to fade, and later disappear altogether. And knowing how much mental suffering a negative emotional charge can cause, you can intentionally reproduce this or that emotion if necessary, for example, when you need to reproduce the behavior of an angry person.
6. Technique for identifying barriers to change emotions
In many cases, certain barriers prevent a person from changing emotions. They may be related to habitual behavior, self-indulgence, protecting one's ego, maintaining status in society, and so on. The technique of identifying barriers makes it possible to identify these barriers, evaluate them, come to an understanding of what drives you and draw appropriate conclusions based on all this, which will allow you to influence your emotional state through volitional efforts.
As soon as you feel that somewhere in the depths of your being a negative emotion begins to arise, and you cannot overcome it, try to switch your attention to determining its true causes: why does it arise in you, what prevents you from changing it, what factors it influence. Such an analysis will allow you not only to learn to identify barriers, but also to better know yourself and your personality. Subsequently, this will be useful to you in the practice of acting, because. help, for example, to get rid of stage clamps, any complexes, etc. obstacles that prevent you from revealing your acting talent.
7. Simple Emotion Detection Technique
Another technique related to the main ones. Its goal is to master the skill of facing your emotions, and not seek salvation from them. When a person is aware of his emotional states, he always has a choice of how to react to a particular situation and what to feel.
You need to master this technique by simply writing down the events that cause you various experiences, the manifestations of these experiences, the features of their impact on you and your behavior. By doing this, you will learn to identify your typical responses to certain emotions. Knowing such information about yourself, you will be able at any suitable moment not only to neutralize the states that you would not like to experience, but also to produce those that you need at the present time. Just imagine what an impact the ability to reproduce or extinguish emotional states will have on your acting data!
8. Technique of desensitization to the level of "emotional intelligence"
In cases where a person is exposed to stressful situations and negative emotions, his emotional reactivity also increases, i.e. a person begins to react to everything very quickly, sometimes without realizing what he is doing. The fundamental factor here is the ability to maintain emotional balance in any life situation. This is "emotional intelligence" that prevents overexertion of any kind.
To make it possible to control your emotional balance always and everywhere, you need to not only try to constantly be in a state of awareness, but also take into account such factors as proper nutrition, healthy sleep, morning exercises, abstinence from alcohol and drugs, etc. Together, this will have an amazing effect on you. Make up for yourself the optimal "mode of life". If you adhere to special rules that help improve your lifestyle, this will certainly affect both your emotional state in general and the ability to control it, which, in turn, will be an advantage for you in acting and in life.
9. Technique to increase the number of events that cause positive emotions
The ability to manage emotions is based, among other things, on the fact that negative emotions contribute to a person’s poor health and vice versa. Of course, you can change the perception of emotions, but emotions will remain anyway. This technique involves mastering the skill of controlling what causes negative emotions.
The main and main method of this technique is to increase the positive events that occur in a person's life. This can be done by purposefully performing any actions or organizing events that bring joyful experiences. The systematic practice of this can even lead to the fact that your lifestyle will change radically. But the initial result will be that you will begin to notice more good things happening in your life. And this means that your general attitude to any activity will be positive, and all undertakings will be crowned with success, because. in everything you will be accompanied by enthusiasm and the disclosure of creativity.
10. Technique of non-judgmental perception of emotions
This technique is designed to reduce the intensity of emotions through their nonjudgmental perception. The fundamental principle here is that when a person does not make any judgments about his emotions, he, thereby, does not allow their psychic energy to take over his consciousness.
This technique is applied quite simply: at the moment of a strong emotion, do not succumb to its influence, do not give it a good or bad rating, concentrate on breathing, look at your emotions from the outside. Just note all the changes, thoughts, judgments about these emotions, remember that you are watching yourself. You can even try to predict the possible changes that could be if you succumbed to experiences. This skill can be successfully applied both in real everyday life, and in the one that you lead, being in character, playing, for example, in a play or in a movie, because. allows you to enter any emotional state by reproducing their details.
11. Technique for reducing psychological involvement in the current emotional state
The presented technique is based on the assertion that an even greater experience of a negative emotion that has arisen only exacerbates the situation, because starting to empathize with oneself, a person induces the appearance of secondary emotions associated with the basic one, which increase the potential of the first, bringing even greater suffering. From this it follows that any negative emotion must and can be inhibited, reducing one's psychological involvement in it.
Just like in many previous techniques, the first task here is the ability to notice the emergence of emotion in time. As soon as you feel that an emotion has appeared, do not let yourself build a habitual chain of subsequent reactions. For example, if you feel guilty, then it will certainly be followed by sadness, disappointment, self-flagellation, etc. To prevent this from happening, "slow down" your emotion, do not indulge in further reflection, do not make judgments, do not evaluate. Just accept the state as it is. Think about something abstract, pleasant, bringing opposite - positive emotions, etc. If you do not get involved in a negative state, its intensity will eventually begin to fade and come to naught. This skill will be useful to you, both in life and on stage.
12. Physical Desensitization Technique as a Way to Deal with Emotions
This technique is similar to the desensitization technique discussed above. The most important thing here is the ability to recognize physical conditions that make a person more or less prone to the effects of emotional states.
In order to determine how physical states affect your emotions, you need to ask yourself a few important questions:
- How does the way I eat affect how I feel?
- What are the short and long term effects of overeating and undereating?
- What are the short and long term effects of my alcohol, medication, etc.?
- How does my sleep affect my well-being?
The answers to these questions should show you the real state of things, namely: how the above factors generally affect your emotional state, and how these states change, depending on the change in the indicators of these factors. Based on this, you will be able to determine the most suitable lifestyle for you, including sleep, diet, drinking or not drinking, etc. A well-designed regimen is bound to contribute to predominantly positive emotions and a better life, and will also have an impact on your productivity, both in everyday life and in acting.
13. Technique "Second pair of eyes"
Using this technique, you can, so to speak, split in two and master the skill of looking at yourself from the outside, which will allow you to more critically evaluate yourself, your actions and emotional experiences, see their essence and change them at your discretion.
Applying this technique means that you allow everything that happens to take its course. At the same time, the main part of your attention should be directed to yourself. You need to watch your reactions, manifestations, actions, etc. Cultivate an inner observer in yourself, which should be as critical and impartial as possible. Self-observation will allow you, if necessary, to make adjustments to your mental manifestations, which means that in any situation you will keep yourself and your emotions under control, which is a huge advantage not only in being in a stage image, but in life in general.
14. Deep breathing technique
The technique under consideration is based on breathing. it is closely related to the human nervous system. Breathing is the basis of life, and the way a person breathes has a direct impact on any states and emotions he experiences.
The practice of this technique is the practice of breathing exercises, which are the regulators of states. Today, there are many breathing exercises in which people mainly take deep breaths in and out. Here is one such exercise:
- You need to sit up straight and take a deep breath through your nose for a count of four, then exhale through your mouth for a count of four.
- On inhalation, the left leg first rises, on exhalation it lowers. After that, the right leg. And so on in turn.
- You need to do four sets for each leg.
Using this technique will allow you to reduce the intensity of any emotion and enter a state of balance and peace. It is very effective because it can be used almost anywhere and anytime.
15. Technique of conscious control of emotions
This is the last technique we will look at. Its main principle is the conscious and intentional management of their emotional states, which allows a person to control all emerging emotions and their subsequent manifestations.
In any situation where you feel any strong emotion coming up, take a little breather. This means that you need to say to yourself: “I need to think”, “I want to reschedule this conversation”, “It's time to pause” or something similar, which will allow you to abstract from the experienced state for a while and “decompose into head all on the shelves. " Set a time limit for yourself during which you can realize your condition and evaluate it. This will be an incentive to enter into states of heightened awareness, during which you can calm down and draw the necessary conclusions. It is very convenient to use this method to study emotions, which in the future will allow you to neutralize them or, conversely, intentionally cause them.
Based on the techniques we have presented in this lesson, we can conclude that there are many ways to influence our emotions. Of all the techniques considered, you can choose the one that is most suitable for you, develop it, study its features and apply it in everyday life. It is important to remember one important rule: a person chooses whether to be a slave to his emotions or their master.
As for the management of emotions in general, it should be noted that this skill is necessary for a person not only in cases where he is an actor, but also in general in everyday life. The ability to manage emotions can be useful for public speaking and for negotiating, and for influencing people, and for successfully running a business, and for building friendships or love relationships, and even for things like sound recording, photo shoots, interviews, etc. .
Train, learn to manage your emotions and know yourself! We wish you success in life and in acting!
Test your knowledge
If you want to test your knowledge on the topic of this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. Only 1 option can be correct for each question. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on passing. Please note that the questions are different each time, and the options are shuffled.
Emotions are an important part human life. People are subject to both positive and negative emotions. Which of them predominate to a greater extent depends on the lifestyle of a person, his environment and attitude to life.
Many of us have heard that negative emotions can undermine health, positive emotions can “cure” ailments. If we talk about the mental state of a person, then emotions leave a certain imprint. But how they affect health, not many people know.
People say: "All diseases are from nerves." Yes, and doctors often use this phrase, trying to explain the cause of another illness. Numerous studies show that individual emotions affect human health in different ways. But before you figure out how this happens, you need to figure out which emotions are positive and which are negative.
Positive and negative emotions
By definition, emotions cannot be positive or negative. Just depending on what we feel at a given time, our well-being and health may improve or worsen. However, the stereotyped classification of feelings is firmly entrenched in society: positive and negative.
- positive emotions considered to be:
- laughter and joy;
- sympathy and interest;
- curiosity and inspiration;
- delight and admiration.
- To negative emotions refer to completely opposite feelings:
- sadness and sadness;
- insecurity and shame;
- irritation and envy;
- anxiety and hatred;
- feelings of guilt and indifference;
- anger and excitement.
This is the main list of human emotions, which, if desired, can be supplemented and diversified. But one thing is clear: when we experience positive emotions, our mood rises, our well-being improves, there is an interest in life and a desire to act. When negative emotions take over us, we fall into despondency, apathy, become embittered at the world, we cease to be interested in life itself and the people around us.
How do negative emotions affect human health?
Ancient healers claimed that every disease is associated with a certain experience. Aggression can disrupt the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, provoke headaches, hypertension and dental problems. Jealousy causes digestive disorders, insomnia and headaches. Fear is associated with heart disease, respiratory disorders, hearing impairment, visual acuity and kidney disease. Anxiety causes circulatory problems and diseases of the central nervous system. Hatred contributes to the development of cancer, liver disease and stomach ulcers.
How do positive emotions affect human health?
Any positive emotion increases the efficiency of the nervous system, improves sleep, stabilizes the emotional state, promotes the production of hormones of joy (endorphins) and has a positive effect on the hormonal background of the body. The more positive emotions a person feels, the less he is prone to stress and various diseases.
How to manage emotions?
The best way to get rid of negative emotions is to "release" them. Such emotions cannot be kept in oneself, but the surrounding people should not suffer from them. Physical activity helps to cope with neuroses. A favorite hobby or hobby helps to distract from resentment and worries. Art therapy (rewriting problems on paper) allows you to block negative emotions with positive ones. Medicinal therapy - sedative phytopreparations, which contain soothing herbs.
