During the process of growth and development, every individual undergoes distinct emotional experiences, specific to that particular stage of development. In every activity that we perform, we have an emotional experience which is reflected in our mood. Emotions which are said to be the springs of life time actions occupy a special field of study for a student of education and psychology and bear special significance for a teacher.
Nature of Emotion
In order to understand the nature of emotion, we shall do well to examine some aspects of emotions and see what is common to them. We may conclude on the basis of our daily experience that emotion is a complex mental process coloured by a well-marked feeling tone. In this sense emotions are a complex feeling. However, it will not be out of place to enlist a few expert definitions of emotion.
Emotion Defined
ADVERTISEMENTS:
1. Derivative Meaning
In its derivative meaning, emotion may be defined as the stirred up or the excited or the disturbed state of mind. The word ’emotion’ is itself derived from the Latin word ’emovere’ which means to ‘stir up’, to ‘excite’ or to ‘agitate’.
2. View of Gates
Gates defines emotions as ‘episodes in which the individual is moved or excited’.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
3. View of Woodworth
According to Woodworth, Emotion “is a moved or stirred up state of an organism. It is disturbed muscular and glandular activity”.
4. McDougall’s View
According to McDougall, emotion is then made up experience that accompanies the working of instinctive impulses. In this theory, every instinct is accompanied by a specific emotion. The fourteen emotions which accompany the fourteen instincts are known as prime emotions.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
5. Hoff ding’s View.
Hoffding speaks of emotion as a sudden boiling up of feeling which, for a time, overwhelms the mind.
6. Another View
According to another theory, an emotion may ill define as a state of special readiness for emergency action.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
From the above definitions, we conclude that emotion is a complex of feelings, a general stirring up of the individual, physically and mentally a state of intensified excitement. When a person is undergoing emotional outburst, he gets a sudden increase in the heart beat, charring in blood pressure, irregular respiration and marked change in his facial expression.
One becomes emotional in the face of a difficult situation or a crisis or when the organism fails to make complete adjustment t happy or unhappy. But when the individual makes an adjustment knows how to make an adjustment, emotion passes over and relief tie obtained through expression.