What is the purpose
of emotions? What do they do for us? They certainly have a significant
effect on us, but what is it all for?
Motivation
First of all, motivation
are 'e-motions'. They act to motivate us. Without emotions we would
probably not do very much and hence would not survive - at least in the evolved form we are in
now.
Motivations are
felt in the body. Our muscles tense or relax. Our blood vessels dilate or
contract. When we feel emotionally, we also feel physically. Our emotions can thus make us
feel uncomfortable or comfortable, sending us signals to do something urgently or to stay in our
comfortable state.
Internal signals
Internally, for
example when we are trying to make understand something or make a decision,
we use our emotions to deduce whether what we have concluded is a good idea. Self-
Perception Theory and the Cognitive Appraisal Theories of Emotion explain how we deduce
our emotions by watching ourselves.
When we think about
something that contradicts our values, our emotions will tell us that it is
bad. When we think about something that could hurt us, our emotions will tell us that this is not
a good idea. Just by imagining what might happen, our emotions are still triggered and hence let
us make better decisions.
Social signals
We generally wear
our hearts on our sleeves as our inner emotions are displayed on our outer
bodies. Our faces, in particular, have around 90 muscles, 30 of which have the sole purpose of
signalling emotion to other people.
Signals are generally
very useful, as they help others decide how to behave towards us. If
someone is looking angry, then attacking them is probably not a good idea. If they are looking
afraid then you could attack them or you could help them and thus earn their gratitude.
So what?
You can use emotions
to motivate people. Connect good emotions with what you want them to
do, and bad emotions with what is not wanted.
Respond to the
signals you see in other people. Also notice how what you do affects those
emotions, thus connecting what you do with a real inner effect on them.
Also watch your
own emotions. They are signals that tell you something about what is
happening in the inner you. This can be very useful as we often do not realise what is going on
in that deep, dark subconscious inside of us.
See also
Lazarus, R. and
Lazarus, B. (1994), Passion and Reason, Oxford University Press, New
York
R. Plutchik &
H. Kellerman (Eds.) (1980), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1.
Theories of emotion (pp. 3-33). New York: Academic
