In order to understand social emotional development, it may be helpful to understand what emotions are and why healthy emotional development is important. Although we all have emotions and generally understand what they are, they can be hard to define. In fact, even researchers struggle to agree on a single definition. Let’s explore it together.
What are emotions?
I define them as reactions to circumstances in our life that we experience in a biological, psychological, and social way. The general definition* used by many researchers includes three important terms for understanding emotions: transient, biopsychosocial, and reactions. Let me break down what those words mean.
Transient
Transient simply means impermanent or temporary. The emotions we feel change on a pretty regular basis. You may notice that you feel happy and can have a shift in a few hours or even a few minutes later. Similarly, they sometimes change so fast we aren’t aware of them right away.
Biopsychosocial
There are three parts to biopsychosocial. First, bio refers to the fact that emotions are biological. They involve a physiological response in our body through our central and autonomic nervous systems. I explain this below under “physiological responses.” Psycho refers to the psychological or mental processes involved in processing and regulating our emotions. Social indicates that social situations often bring out or elicit emotions.
Reactions
Reactions refer to the fact that emotions are reactions to circumstances we experience in our life. We respond emotionally in some way or another to every experience we have in order to adapt to or cope with that experience. This reaction affects our future well-being.
Emotions are the language of the soul.
Basic emotions
There are six basic, or primary, emotions including anger, disgust, fear, enjoyment (or happiness), sadness, and surprise. They are called basic because they are found across ages, cultures, and historical periods. They also share several other characteristics, such as the same reliable, nonverbal signals used to express them.
One example is facial expressions. Dr. Paul Ekman, leading researcher on facial expressions, discovered strong evidence that facial expressions are universal. His research also suggests a seventh basic emotion: contempt. Although they are considered basic, they’re still rather complex. I’d like to stress that the word basic definitely doesn’t mean simple.
Why are emotions important?
Emotions help us adapt and respond to the world around us. Without them, we wouldn’t know how to escape from danger, care for a loved one, reject food or a dangerous object, approach something helpful to us, or similar reactions that ensure our safety and well-being.
You can recognize how basic emotions do this within your own body. There are four categories of responses within our body. They are physiological reactions, cognitions, expressions, and subjective experience. Let’s go over each category.
1. Physiological reactions
Physiological reactions are responses that our bodies have when we experience a certain emotion. One example is when we are afraid we may experience bulging eyes, dilated pupils, racing heart rate, and sweaty palms. These reactions help to prepare our body to run away from danger when we’re afraid.
2. Cognitive processes
Cognitive processes also help to prepare us to respond to our environment. Our minds are amazing at keeping us safe. Our cognitive processes can help us strengthen our ability to focus on what has caused our emotional response while also reducing attention to distractions. So if we happen to cross something dangerous on a hike, like a snake, we will then focus hard on the snake and become less aware of everything else around us. Or if a person is screaming in our face, they become our focal point.
3. Expression
Expression is about the way we express our emotions on the outside. Many of these expressions are universal. When we are angry, we furrow our brow, tighten our lips, and grit or show our teeth. When we’re disgusted, we wrinkle our nose and often open our mouth. What’s interesting is these expressions are found in other primates, too! These expressions gives cues to others about how we may be feeling.
4. Subjective experience
Subjective experience refers to our individual experiences of emotions. Two people may experience the same life event and yet have two very different emotional responses to it. What makes me angry might make you afraid or sad. Also, we sometimes feel mixed or multiple emotions at the same time. This makes our individual emotional responses even more complicated and multi-dimensional. For example, we can feel happy and anxious at the very same time.
Emotions vs. feelings vs. moods
Although we often use the terms emotions and feelings interchangeably, they refer to two different types of reactions in the body. As I previously mentioned, emotions refer to physiological states. They are a response in the body that usually occur automatically and subconsciously.
Feelings, on the other hand, occur due to conscious thoughts. Much like emotions, feelings can vary from low- to high-intensity. While we can have emotions without feelings, we cannot have feelings without emotions. Moods are usually low in intensity but they last longer periods of time.
It’s generally not important to worry about which word you use or if it’s the right one. Most people know what you mean when you say emotions or feelings. But the distinction may be important sometimes so it’s helpful to understand the difference.
*A general definition used by many researchers states emotions are “transient, bio-psychosocial reactions designed to aid individuals in adapting to and coping with events that have implications for survival and well-being.”
