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Myths about emotions are common, seemingly logical, habitual beliefs about emotions that, when examined, turn out to be untenable.
Often, not very well-founded assumptions are formed around emotions, which, due to convenience or seeming logic, then become generally accepted provisions. These assumptions we call myths. So far, three such myths have been found:
- about good (positive) and bad (negative) emotions,
- about the innateness of emotion and
- about the dependence of emotions on the emotional state
Myth 1. Good and bad emotions.
According to this view, there are good and positive emotions, and there are bad and negative ones. Usually, positive emotions include joy, pleasure, delight, interest, etc., and these emotions are good and allowed, and negative emotions include anger, anger, rage, and others. These negative emotions are bad and should be hidden or destroyed. Everything seems to be clear? Not all. The only question remains: what is the basis for distinguishing a negative emotion from a positive one? And is there such a sign?
No matter how much we searched, we did not find such a sign: there is no single and invariable boundary where positive emotions begin and negative ones end. Emotion in and of itself is neither good nor bad. Whether it will be “bad” (negative) or “good” (positive) depends on the situation.
Emotions are a tool, just like a knife. A knife in the hand of a cook or a housewife in the kitchen is a convenient and useful thing, but in the hands of a bandit or a terrorist, the knife is dangerous.
In this case, it is wiser to divide emotions into appropriate and inappropriate rather than positive or negative.
If the emotion works for your goals and does not hurt others, then it is a “good”, appropriate emotion.
If an emotion does not solve the situation, but aggravates it, moves away from goals and harms others, then this emotion is “bad”, inappropriate.
Myth 2. Innate emotions.
Yes, there are innate emotions: fear, pleasure .. — see the article. But their list is very limited, and all other emotions learn in the process of life. That emotions are always an innate and natural reaction is an unfair assertion. A child is not able to inherit the entire set of emotions of an adult. Apparently, the tendency to show emotions is inherited, and whether emotions are learned or not depends on, if, for example, a child has a genetic tendency to show resentment, then, all other things being equal, the child will rather learn the emotion of resentment, and not some other emotion. .
Myth 3. Emotions and external circumstances.
There is a version that emotions are born under the influence of the external environment. It’s true. But the fact that the external environment always determines emotion is a myth.
There is a physiological rationale for this: receptors are the first to meet the environment — sensitive cells that perceive sounds, images, temperature, and so on. Can receptors sense moods? No, they cannot: the task of the receptor is simply to transmit what it has perceived to the human brain. That is, objective reality reaches the brain without evaluation, and even more so without any emotion. Emotion occurs when information passes through the cerebral cortex. What does it say? The cerebral cortex is our thinking center. If the path of any reaction or action passes through the cerebral cortex, we can control this reaction. Although we don’t always use it. Breathing, for example, we can control, but normally we do not think about it.
We can easily switch emotions, but more often we don’t think about it, like about breathing. There is a reaction that is familiar to us, which after a while we begin to consider natural and inseparable from the external environment.
In life, it is easy to trace the path of emotion without even going into physiology. See the article — Theory of social psychoanalysis of emotions