Emotional actions and reactions

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​​​​​​​The most important division of emotions (in a broad sense, which includes both feelings and emotional states), is their division into emotional actions (proactive emotions) and emotional reactions. Most people, speaking of emotions, have in mind precisely emotional reactions, namely, processes that have arisen in the body involuntarily, as a template response to external influences.

You are happy — you are happy. You are scared — you are afraid …

An emotional action is emotions and feelings that a person has launched arbitrarily, himself, to some extent intentionally. Children, starting at least from the age of one, start crying or joyful laughter quite freely, having fun with these emotions of theirs, as well as with other toys. Later, around the age of three, children learn voluntary triggering and many other emotions, feelings and states, including resentment and despair, boredom and attentiveness, fatigue and enthusiasm. Growing up, we paradoxically lose this mastery of managing emotions, feelings and states in many ways, however, in many cases this ability remains with us.

You are sitting busy. Suddenly a child comes running and gives you candy. You may not need a candy at all, but if you love children, then for pedagogical reasons you will most likely smile at him and thank him from the bottom of your heart. Here joy and gratitude are your emotional action. When a group of employees goes to congratulate a birthday person, especially their boss, the emotions expressed are not reactions, but emotional actions.

To what extent are these expressed emotions real emotions, and not just window dressing? It seems that there cannot be a single answer here, we are all different, and the emotional actions of different people in different situations are accompanied by experiences to a very different extent. Sometimes experiences can interfere, and the less emotional actions are accompanied by experience, the easier it is to manage them. On the other hand, much depends on people’s attitudes, attitudes and values. Someone will simply show joy without turning on the soul at this time in any way. And for someone, having met close and dear people, internally it is necessary to meet them with real warmth, give them attention, joy and care. The more emotional actions are accompanied by experience, the more they are considered sincere. In other cases, they are considered either manipulation (including cute manipulations) or simply expressive movements.

Is it possible to distinguish sincere proactive emotions from fake sincerity? Sometimes — perhaps, although not always there is a real need for this, and the transitions between only demonstrating an emotion and actually experiencing it can be fluid, unclear even for the person who expresses emotions. Starting an emotional action, a person can (immediately or gradually) enter this state, get high and begin to react quite naturally.

Well, let’s say, they started congratulating the boss, the boss also got emotional, began to smile … And everyone smiles, jokes … The report that was not submitted on time fades into the background (and the boss will not be atrocious about this now). Lepota! And everything is sincere!

Specialists have professional tools for distinguishing between experienced and only demonstrated emotions, and these tools give fairly reliable results, at least in relation to ordinary people without special acting training. In any case, it is not difficult to notice unprofessional work; for an attentive eye, the incongruence of expressive means and human behavior will be obvious. Also, if you are a “third person”, it is easier to notice a fake for sincerity: you can often see how a person is reorganized for the next emotional task. If you are a protagonist and an emotional performance suits you, especially a professional next to you, you have practically no chance.

An important and unexpectedly difficult question is the question of the criteria for distinguishing between reactive and proactive emotions. In our opinion, the following signs and circumstances can serve as hints here.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Firstly, it is the relevance of emotions. Namely, the inappropriateness of the emotions of a reasonable person often speaks of their reactive nature. In a reasonable person, his arbitrary emotions and feelings are also usually appropriate and meaningful. However, if something inappropriate and unnecessary happens, including to the person himself, then there are more likely emotional reactions.

Secondly, an important feature is the number of alternatives. If in some situation your answer is only rage, this is only a template reaction. If you have a choice only to be offended or angry, the choice is small. You can choose from this plus forgive — the choice is already richer. You may not forgive, because you may not be offended, but simply ignore or treat with understanding and pity — you have a fairly rich choice, and this is already typical for emotional actions.

The third sign is the possibility of postponing the emotion. If the emotion is completely impulsive and cannot be delayed, it is a reaction. You can delay at least at the expense of «one, two, three» — it’s already better. You can wait until the morning — great. You can leave and forget if it seems reasonable — it’s just reasonable.

Well, the fourth sign is the possibility of starting and stopping emotions. If an emotion cannot be stopped by you until it is completely poured out, this is a reaction. If you are angry, but you can already stop yourself, you are more in control of yourself. If you can take offense from scratch and just as quickly remove this emotion — this is an emotional action, self-control.

However, the best theory is the one that has been tested in practice. Watch a video clip from the movie Avatar Aang and try to figure out for yourself where the heroes are emotional actions, and where are the reactions. The correct answers can be found here…

Roughly, the ratio of emotional actions and reactions in the mass personality is 20/80, in developed people the ratio is rather equal, 50/50. Let us note that in creative children, emotions are predominantly proactive, so that even for developed adults there is always a development perspective.