Emotions perform a regulatory function without changing the functional state of the body for certain life circumstances, see →. The adaptive theory of emotion also focuses on the adaptive role that emotions play in the survival process of an organism at all levels of evolution.
“The adaptive theory of emotion focuses on the adaptive role that emotions play in the survival of the organism at all levels of evolution. One or another basic emotion is triggered by an external stimulus and quickly passes, but on the basis of several basic emotions, secondary emotions are formed that contain one or another combination of basic emotions — just like a complex color is formed by a combination of basic colors. — quote by Yu.I. Aleksandrovsky «Psychophysiology», St. Petersburg, 2006.
In principle, everything is reasonable, the only question is that specific variants of the adaptive role of emotions in this theory raise questions.
It is described as follows: Adaptive Process — Emotion
- Assimilation: acceptance, connection with the environment, absorption of food, water, oxygen, growth — Pleasure, acceptance, trust
- Dissimilation: rejection, environmental rejection, excretion processes, vomiting, coughing — Disgust
- Destruction: removing obstacles to satisfying needs — Annoyance, anger, anger, rage
- Orientation reaction — response to an unfamiliar impact — Alertness, fear, surprise
- Defensive reaction: response to unfamiliar, potentially dangerous influences — Fear, horror
- Reproduction and reproduction, sexual processes, care of offspring — Joy, pleasure, euphoria, love
- Loss, deprivation, parting, separation — Sorrow, grief
- Orienting activity — the process of finding new stimuli with the environment — Curiosity, surprise, interest.
In my opinion, these are scientific fantasies. At the very least, fear and terror are not an effective defensive response.
Adaptive and social emotions
The adaptive approach does not consider the emergence of social and anchored emotions.
The emergence of the child’s social emotions — emotions that serve the interaction of the child with adults and other children, is described by the theory of social psychoanalysis of emotions.