Emotions — a reflection of reality or learned behavior?

We read in dictionaries: “Emotions are a subjective reflection of objective reality…”. Is it true that emotions are taken from objective reality, reflecting it?

When an emotion occurs as an unconscious reaction, it is a reflection (depends on) many factors: mood, state of health (both mental and physical), accepted rules of conduct, learned personal experience … As well as the weather on the street and magnetic storms on the Sun … Say, that emotions depend on everything is to say nothing.

The main mistake of traditional studies of the nature of emotions is that emotions were considered in the context of human interaction with the environment: with the natural environment. In such a consideration, adaptive, signaling and other functions of emotions were considered, which in fact are secondary and insignificant. In fact, the central function of emotions is a communicative function, through the expression of emotions, children communicate with parents and control their behavior, just as parents, first of all, through the expression of their own emotions, convey to their children their attitude towards them, to their actions and behavior.

Emotions, being born as a tool for communication and interaction between children and adults, are formed primarily as learned behavior. The main array of everyday emotions are learned emotions. These are all those emotions that a child (and later an adult) was taught according to existing cultural patterns. Or emotions that he learned on his own, but also according to the patterns of the culture around him.

For example, grief is a learned emotion.

Emotions are learned by people throughout their lives, but most actively in childhood, forming two very large groups: the emotions of children’s culture and the emotions of adult culture.

Emotions, feelings, and states of children’s culture are those that are invented, adopted from each other and mastered by children themselves, primarily in connection with the task of controlling parents and other adults. On the contrary, the emotions and states of adult culture are those that are created in the circle of adults and are passed on to children for pedagogical purposes. Sorrow, sublime love or a sense of patriotism are examples of the feelings of an adult circle.

At the age of 3 to 7 years, children successfully master the emotions and states of children’s culture, such as: shyness, fatigue, boredom, resentment, dullness and stupor, confusion, frustration, hysteria, childish tantrums, despair, horror … When it suits them, children learn to hurt. Children learn and master those emotions of the state that most effectively protect them from their parents or allow them to control their parents. It is interesting that, first of all, these are negative emotions — parents are led to them the easiest way.

A small child still does not know how to be offended and does not know what to be offended by correctly, does not know how to be shy and does not know when it is accepted, but, looking at adults, he learns what action to react to. A habit, a pattern of behavior is formed: a certain stimulus-a certain emotion.

‘Luck is an experience of joy, fell is an experience of being upset (or surprised?), Guilt is an experience of guilt (or anger?), Suffering is an experience (but that’s only for girls, because boys don’t cry!), and so on.’

An adult can revise established patterns, habitual emotions. Stomping your feet and wallowing on the floor screaming and crying is not appropriate for an adult, this is understandable, but is it right to be offended, indignant and upset (to upset yourself) — not everyone thinks about this.

Emotion is a learned, habitual response, but everything that a person has once learned, he can relearn.