Emotions: Definitions, Locations and Discussions

Emotions: Definitions, Locations and Discussions.

In this section we'll look at the role emotions play in this Course. To do so, we will consider:

• how and what emotions are aroused in us when we watch films
• what we, and others, mean when we talk about emotion and emotions
• the role of emotions in learning and, in particular, in learning on this course
• how and what emotions are portrayed and evoked in sci-fi, horror and fantasy

How and what emotions are aroused in us when we watch films?

Think of the language you use and the things you describe after watching a film. It seems likely you would talk about liking or not liking a film. I might say , 'I really enjoyed that' or 'I hated that' or 'That was great' or 'That was dreadful'. Are any of these expressions indicating emotion? Do any of them suggest an emotional reaction underlying the feelings expressed?

Please look briefly now at some of the film reviews for The Stepford Wives that you will find here.

In these reviews you may have seen the following expressions and words: * 'hated this' * 'there wasn't a point where it got interesting' * 'it wasn't scary' * 'I feel bad for … ' * 'I feel angered for … ' * 'tense' * 'poignant' * 'freaky' * 'disturbing' * 'tragic'

The question remains, to what extent do such views express emotion - either as it was portrayed in the film or in the reactions of those who had watched the film?

Please go now to Emotions in Reviews and then return here.

Some of the expressions and words in film reviews seem to be focussed on reviewer's emotions towards the film, ('I feel angered for … ' whilst others seem to describe the film ('poignant'). Regardless of this focus, trying to decide what is and what is not an emotion is still far from straightforward.

What we, and others, mean when we talk about emotion and emotions.

Emotion is defined in the Course Glossary as 1. a mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling: the emotions of joy, sorrow, reverence, hate, and love. 1. A state of mental agitation or disturbance: spoke unsteadily in a voice that betrayed his emotion. See synonyms at feeling. 1. The part of the consciousness that involves feeling; sensibility …

At AlleyDog's psychology glossary we read:

Emotion: Most people have little problem recognizing and identifying when we are having an emotion. However, emotion is one of the most difficult concepts in Psychology to define. In fact, emotion is such a difficult concept to define adequately that there are at least 90 different definitions of emotions in the scientific literature. A simple definition of emotion is that it is a response by a whole organism, involving (1) physical arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience. (from, http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.cfm?term=Emotion)

Noting similar difficulties of definition,the opening webpage of New York University's Centre for Neural Science's LeDoux laboratory suggests that:

One of the main problems in the field of emotion is to come up with a clear and comprehensive definition of what emotions are.

From the same site you may like to read more entries on defining emotions here and at The Changing Minds site is a useful summary table of emotions.

Scherer (a member of the Geneva Emotion Research Group - click hyperlink if you're interested) suggests that emotions comprise but one of five affective states

• Emotions (e.g., angry, sad, joyful, fearful, ashamed, proud, elated, desperate)
• Moods (e.g., cheerful, gloomy, irritable, listless, depressed, buoyant)
• Interpersonal stances (e.g., distant, cold, warm, supportive, contemptuous)
• Preferences/Attitudes (e.g., liking, loving, hating, valuing, desiring)
• Affect dispositions (e.g., nervous, anxious, reckless, morose, hostile)

If you think about Scherer's categorisation above, you'll possibly start to appreciate that an emotion is less durable, lasts a longer time than, say, a preference or a mood. Consider the following:

I'm not in the mood to watch a horror film - I feel too jumpy already.

Watching that [film] has put me in a bad mood - it was so dreadful.

I really like his films - well I do normally - but that one wasn't as good as most - I didn't feel remotely scared.

The music made me feel more creepy, more up tight than what was going on on-screen.

I was in a gloomy mood when I started watching [the film] but I soon cheered up although it was, overall, a pretty depressing movie.

All of the comments above are of interest for us if we want to understand the role of emotions or, more generally, affective reactions to watching films. Moreover, the portrayal and representation of emotions and affective states in films is a further key focus for consideration. Interestingly an internet marketing dictionary notes, in its entry for emotion, that,'Emotion is what makes visitors want to buy your product or service. Logic alone will not sell anything. Important for Internet marketers to realize, and to use when writing copy for their sales sites … Well written sales copy will trigger the reader's emotions, and take away all resistance to buying'. We might ask, following this, how films trigger emotions, how film publicists suggest emotional reactions to us before we watch, and/or in order to encourage us to watch, films.

The role of emotions in learning and, in particular, in learning on this Course.

Daniel Goleman, a leading exponent of 'emotional intelligence' and the so-called 'multiple intelligences' approach to learning and teaching see here if you are interested, suggests that:

The extent to which emotional upsets can interfere with mental life is no news to teachers. Students who are anxious, angry, or depressed don't learn; people who are caught in these states do not take in information efficiently or deal with it well. Goleman, D., (1995). Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books: New York.

A site describing itself as a world leader in emotional intelligence links and resources can be found here and at http://eqi.org/ is Steve Hein's personal site on emotional intelligence from which he criticises many current emotional intelligence tests and definitions. Ben Goertzel's paper on 'A General Theory of Emotion in Humans and Other Intelligences' here provides a short introduction to some of the key issues in artificial intelligence and emotions if you are interested in further reading.

At http://vismod.media.mit.edu/pub/tech-reports/TR-547.pdf is a short paper on 'An Affective Model of Interplay Between Emotions and Learning: Reengineering Educational Pedagogy - Building a Learning Companion' by Barry Kort, Rob Reilly and Rosalind W. Picard of M.I.T. This paper is ultimately motivated by the desire to buikd a computerized 'Learning Companion that will track the affective state of a learner through their learning journey' (Kort et al. undated, p.1). Thus we see that, even if no clear definition is possible, emotions as one element of affective states are important in learning and teaching. So, too, as the affective domain continues to challenge neuroscientists and computer scientists then the status of emotions as a topic worthy of study continues to increase in the educational field.

In Denmark, the Learning Lab, established by the Danish Government in 2001, describes itself as:

… a centre for research on learning, affiliated to the Danish University of Education. We aim to solve urgent societal problems related to learning, through experimental and practice-oriented research and development activities.

From the Learning Lab site you can navigate to the Neuroscience, Learning and Cognition group and, from there, to an article on 'The Emotional Brain', but it is in Danish only and thus I will rely on you to evaluate this and tell me what it is about!

From the Learning Lab site you can also read about The Emotional Resource Lab, that describes itself as

• a new center at the consortium Neuroscience, Cognition and Learning. The new center, which is partially funded by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities, will combine a range of projects that each illuminate the connection between emotions and feelings on one hand, and cognition, problem-solving and intelligent decision-making on the other. The main purpose is to determine, and contribute new knowledge about, the influence of emotions on learning processes'.

You will also find a press release here headlined 'Emotions help the brain learn' in which Christian Gerlach, research manager at the Neuroscience Consortium at Learning Lab Denmark, was interviewed by Berlingske Tidende at a conference in which cognitive scientists presented the latest findings in the field of emotion and learning from which Tidende notes that, 'It turns out that if you are not emotionally involved in the subject matter, learning that subject is very difficult, if not downright impossible'.

Thus although the HyperDictionary site defines an emotion simply as 'any strong feeling', it should be clear that we are in complex territory here. You might like to consider what, if any, emotions you've felt since starting to work through this section. Almost certainly someone, somewhere might argue that any list you produce contains words/feelings that are not, in their view, emotions. The critical point, for this Course, is to engage with emotions as an affective reaction to both films and your study in the Course. As a learner you might ask yourself what sort of 'emotional state' characterises [or is felt when] 'good learning' is occurring. Does that state alter according to the type of learning or stage of cognitive engagement being undertaken? For example, when reading a text that goes against your deeply held beliefs do you experience an emotion that acts against or for comprehension and learning or does any emotional reaction have little or no effect? Do you, as a learner, fight against or accept your own emotional reactions to texts, lectures, conversations and, particularly relevant in this Course, films? Will you, indeed, watch a film for this Course in the same way as you might watch a film purely for entertainment? Is there a difference?

How and what emotions are portrayed and evoked in sci-fi, horror and fantasy.

There is significant argument with regard to the universality, or otherwise, of emotions. In an excellent wikipedia entry that you can access from here it notes:

There is considerable debate as to whether emotions and emotional experiences are universal or culturally determined.

In order to share views on the meanings of emotions and, thus far, to reflect on how you think emotions might be evoked in sci-fi, horror and fantsay, please go now to the Introducing Emotions and the Genres quiz and then return here.

I will summarise the results of this quiz and use that summary for further debate later and/or when I see you in Denmark but, for now, it should be becoming clear that we will need to explain our discourses around emotion and the affective domain in order to understand each other. Issues around universality, predispositions, and cultural and experiential elements of emotions and affect will feature as we work together through this Course and I shall rely on you to share, with me, your views on the appropriacy of English language words for emotions that may, or may well not, be particular to English and/or Danish (or another language).

Searching for information on emotions relevant to the Danish context, we encountered an article entitled 'Comfort Zone: In a country best known for its stark, modern design, what the people of Copenhagen really want to do is get cozy' by Debra Weiner here in which the word 'hygge' is discussed. Summarizing her conversation with an interior designer called Fjeldsted, Weiner notes:

When it comes to hygge, however, he said, there is no magic formula. It's a matter of colour, emotion, psychology and the way Danes combine things, mixing old with new to give a place history and make it personal. 'Even in cutting-edge design, underneath is a desire for hygge,' Fjeldsted said, sipping his cappuccino. 'It's part of us, part of what we do.'

Do you agree with Fjeldsted? How important, if at all, is 'hygge' is in your everyday lives, in learning, in film making and in your reactions to films?

At the Royal Danish Consulate General in New York website here is a brief article on Lise Malinovsky, the Danish artist who, we are told ' … was part of the 'Young and Wild' movement, characterized by its violent and expressive pictorial language'. You may like to read that article focussing on its denotation of emotional, affective descrptions and ideas in her painting and, then, to consider if and how, such descriptors might be transferred from the two-dimensional world of painting to the three-dimensional world of film.

In conclusion to this introduction to the field of emotions and affective states the diagram below attempts to map emotions as they pertain to this Course. As ever please feel free to suggest amendments to the diagram.