A Study On Emotions

A study on emotions

Introduction

The report presented below covers the results of a study conducted to 100 students of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Cuenca to determine the predominant emotion that students experience within the race, taking into account the variable: gender.

The applied method was based on four -question surveys, with content that goes from basic emotions to the way in which each student manifests this emotion. According to the results of the research, it was established that the most frequent emotion is joy mainly in women.

Theoretical framework

What are emotions?

Emotion is a process that is triggered when the body is in a state of alert, excitation and/or instability, and as a result it generates an answer that can be specific depending on the situation that each person experiences. They are divided into positive if they contribute to the well -being and integrity of the human being, and negative if they generate discomfort or disagreement.

Emotions are accompanied by internal changes in the organism (physiological and endocrine), and can also be expressed externally through the motor activity that generates behaviors. These can be both innate and acquired through experience.

What are the basic emotions?

Basic or primary emotions are those that do not manifest through experience, but they accompany the human being from his birth even when he is not aware of it.These basic emotions are universal therefore no culture is exempt from experiencing them, even manifesting the same facial features.

Some authors such as Paul Ekman (1992), include surprise as part of basic emotions, however, 5 emotions are taken into consideration: anger, sadness, joy, fear and disgusting .

• IRA: It is a complex basic emotion in which our body is activated for defense or attack. It presents physiological activity such as: Increase in heart rate, hyperventilation, muscle tension and raising blood pressure.
• Sadness: it is a basic emotion considered negative by some authors, but traditionally it is known as a displaced emotion. It can occur in situations such as: loss or failure, material separation or associated with psychological behavior, disappointment and pain.According to Beck, he states that: "sadness can induce a characteristic cognitive process of depression"
• Joy: It is considered an emotion that favors the reception and positive interpretation of various environmental stimuli. It favors altruism and empathy and also the solution of problems and creativity.
• Fear: it generally manifests as a negative emotion. It consists of a signal that warns that a danger or challenge is approaching, which can involve physical or psychological damage. It is characterized by nerves, anxiety and concern for self-security.
• Disgust: it is a very deep emotion that generates a reaction of bad taste towards an object or a person. It is produced by an unpleasant incite.

Emotions can fulfill three main functions:

a) Adaptive: prepare the body to generate an adequate response in the face of the different situations that an individual can go through.

b) Social: allows to predict the behavior that others will develop to improve the conditions of interaction with society.

c) Motivational: According to the intensity and characteristics of each emotion, the appearance of a motivated behavior to go towards a certain objective can be determined.

Predominant emotion when and how does that emotion express?

The emotion that prevailed as a result of our study was joy.Joy is an emotion that is generated from a perception from external and internal senses, which come aware and memory generating a structuring where a certain response can be appreciated.This emotion is expressed when there is an achievement or there is a favorable and successful result in the objectives that are intended to be met. It is usually paired to a subjective internal condition of satisfaction.

Joy is manifested through physiological changes such as: increase in hypothalamus activity stimulating functions such as intake, sexuality, body temperature and hormonal secretion. Also increase in heart and respiratory rate, increases energy, decreases negative feelings, elevation of voice tone, release of the positive endorphins and serotonins that produce happiness.On the other hand, joy is expressed bodily by lifting the eyelids and their narrowing, the opening of the lips that varies depending on the intensity of emotion (smile), elevation of the cheekbones, among others.

Physiological, cognitive, subjective and engines of joy:

• Physiology: norepinephrine and dopamine secretion.
• Cognition: try to preserve an objective that has just been achieved or can be achieved immediately.
• Subjective experience: satisfactory. Connotations represented or immediately passed from something positive.
• Motor behavior: approach and acceptance.

Results

Sample: This survey was conducted 100 students from the Faculty of Psychology taking into account the gender variable. Of the total of respondents 62 were women, 37 men and a person within the classification of others. From this the following results were obtained:

Question 1: What is the predominant emotion you experience in the race?

The respondents announced the following results:

• Of the male gender: of the 37 men surveyed; 26 people express joy, 9 fear, 2 anger, and no values ​​are recorded that indicate the presence of basic emotions such as sadness and disgusting.
• Result: Given the values ​​previously presented in the table we can conclude that the predominant emotion in the male gender students of the Psychology career of the University of Cuenca is the joy.
• Female gender: of the 62 women surveyed; 42 people express joy as a predominant emotion, 8 fear, 7 anger, 4 sadness, and 1 disgusting.
• Result: We determine that the predominant emotion in the gender variable (female) of the Psychology career of the University of Cuenca is the emotion of joy.
• Others: only one person expressed sadness as a predominant emotion.
• Consequently, it can be determined that, in the Psychology career of the University of Cuenca, in the genre others, the predominant basic emotion is the sadness manifested in 1%.

Question 2: How often does this emotion manifest?

• Of 100 respondents 62 are of the female gender, where the frequency with which the emotions occurred was given as follows:

• Joy: 10 people always express it, while 32 people marked their frequency as almost always and nobody ever marked.
• Anger: 2 people always express it, 4 almost always, and 1 person never.
• Fear: 3 people expressed this emotion with a frequency of almost always, while 5 people ever marked, and nobody pointed out the option always.
• Sadness: 1 person always presents her, just as 1 single person never marked, 2 people marked this emotion manifesting her with a frequency of almost always.
• Disgust: a single person presented this option with a frequency of almost always.
• In conclusion, taking into account the predominant emotion (joy) it was determined that the female students of the Psychology career of the University of Cuenca, present this emotion with an interval of “almost always” being marked by 32 surveyed.

• Of the 37 men surveyed, the frequency of emotions is presented as follows:

• Joy: 4 people express it with a frequency of always, 20 almost always, and 2 never express it.
• IRA: 1 person with a frequency of always, there are no records of almost always, and 1 person ever selected.
• Fear: Niga person always stated, 6 people almost always manifest, only 3 pointed out as never.
• Sadness: does not present frequency in this genre.
• Disgust: It does not present frequency in this genre.
• Taking as reference the predominant emotion (joy), it was concluded that students belonging to the male gender of the Psychology career of the University of Cuenca present this emotion with a frequency of “almost always” being marked by 20 people.

Question 3: How is that emotion expressed? (What actions do).

• Joy: participation, socialization, laughter, sports, help others, socialize, participate, sing, smile.
• Anger: insult the people around them, they fight with the people around.
• Fear: cry, anxiety attacks, sleep and escape, and vitan the situation since they generate stress and begin to tremble.
• Sadness: cry, they have no courage to do any activity, avoid socializing with others.
• Disgust: rejection and insult.

• According to the female gender, we deduce that the emotion with more enhancement (joy) is expressed through the following actions: participation, socialization, laughing, sports, helping others.
• According to the male gender it was identified that the predominant emotion (joy) is expressed through the following actions: socialize, participate, sing, smile.

Question 4: What situations does this emotion arise?

JOY

• When I study and my results are favorable.
• When I understand classes.
• When I feel support from my friends or social circle.
• When I understand classes.

GONNA

• When I study and my results I am not favorable.
• When I study and my results are not favorable.

FEAR

• When I study and my results are not favorable.
• Lose the cycle.

SADNESS

• When I study and my results are not favorable.
• Risk to lose the cycle.
• When I study and my results are not favorable.
• Risk to lose the cycle.

DISGUST

• When I have to do a job and the subject is not my liking.
• When in class they constantly attract my attention.

• The survey has allowed us to determine the situations in which emotions arise. Joy as the main emotion in the female gender is manifested when: students present support from their friends and social circle, as well as in situations when classes are understood, and when favorable results are obtained in academic performance.
• In the male gender, joy is presented only when they can understand classes.
• In the genre identified as others the predominant emotion sadness arises from the following situations such as: study and not obtain favorable results, and for risk to lose the cycle.

Conclusions

From the application of surveys carried out to the students of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Cuenca and considering the gender variable it can be concluded that: in this race the emotion that is at a high level of predominance in the female gender is the Joy presenting almost always during his university period. They usually express this emotion having a participatory attitude, interacting with others, laughing, exercising and being solidarity.

The reason for having this emotional state is because they receive support from people close to them, they can clearly understand each of their classes and therefore obtain qualifications with which they feel satisfied.

On the other hand, in students belonging to the male gender it is concluded that the emotion with greater rank is joy, almost always manifest in respondents. They carry out this emotion socializing in their place of study, having fun, smiling, and doing recreational activities such as singing.

The reason for being happy is triggered by understanding the classes and in this way they will develop efficiently throughout their university career.

Finally, with respect to gender others, the most influential emotion is sadness, since the student who qualified within this variable always keeps present this emotion, so it normally expresses it crying and avoiding relating to others. The situations that generate sadness is that although he studies he fails to meet his expectations and the consequence as a result of this is the possible loss of the cycle.

With the realization of this study, certain knowledge that covers the different emotions previously studied and making us know what the students of careers other than ours could be able to live in their daily lives.