Emotions are Cognitive, Not Innate

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Summary: This article states that emotions are not innate but rather cognitive. We experience emotions by observing the environment we are in. Current research propose that emotions and feelings are innate and intrinsic to who we are. However, LeDoux and Brown refute that claim. They argue that emotions has the same processes as consciousness. The brain structures required to process a conscious experience are the same structures that are engaged when processing an emotional producing stimulus after receiving cues from the environment. They believe an emotion is the "conscious experience that occurs when you are aware that you are in a particular situation."  Therefore a visual stimulus elicits a physiological and behavioral response and not the other way around.


Reflection: I found this article very interesting because it reminded me of what we have been discussing in class about emotions. This view reminded me of the "Cognitive theory" in connection to emotions. The cognitive theory states that even after an emotional producing stimulus there is still an environmental and social influences that affects the physiological response which in turn affects how we feel.

http://www.pnas.org/content/114/10/E2016.full
http://neurosciencenews.com/cognitive-emotions-psychology-6117/

Comments

  1. LaShanah HolmesNovember 17, 2017 at 4:54 AM

    This article is definitely controversial. I believe that like you said, emotion is related to conscious experiences, for example the fight or flight system, or sympathetic nervous system, where the body automatically reacts to harmful stimulus. Humans and animals survival method is partly based upon this, so I do not agree with the article, stating that emotions are not innate at all, but are cognitive because we need it to survive, it is almost like a reflex in a way that it is an 'automatic' reaction.

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  2. UnknownNovember 17, 2017 at 7:02 AM

    This article made me think of my Cognitive Psychology class and how it related emotions to memory. In this class emotions is defined as a reaction to a specific stimulus and mood is defined as a long lasting experience. Memory plays a big part in emotion and how a stimuli can effect you and cause you to feel an emotion or put you in a mood. The Pollyanna principle states that pleasant items are processed more efficiently and accurately than unpleasant items. Over time unpleasant items become much less unpleasant than pleasant items. I think this best fits with the Cognitive Theory of emotion.

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