Why Do We Have Emotions?
Since dogs are so receptive and responsive to human emotion and expression it is interesting to try to understand this connection we have. To do this we need to look at our emotions and feelings and dog emotion and feelings and consider what we share and what we don’t.
Why exactly do we have emotions? What causes them? Researchers, philosophers, and psychologists have proposed various theories of emotion to explain the how and why behind our feelings.
Emotion is a complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behavior. Such feelings include
- physiological arousal,
- conscious experiences, and
- behavioral expressions.
Emotionality is associated with a range of psychological phenomena, including
- temperament,
- personality,
- mood, and
- motivation.
There are many different theories of emotion that seek to explain the purpose, causes, and effects of the emotional reactions people experience. Emotions exert an incredibly powerful force on human behavior. Strong emotions can cause you to take actions you might not normally perform or to avoid situations you enjoy.
Theories of Emotion
The major theories of emotion can be grouped into three main categories:
- Physiological Theories: These theories suggest that bodily responses are responsible for emotions. They propose that emotions arise from physiological changes within the body.
- Neurological Theories: This category of theories proposes that activity within the brain leads to emotional responses. It focuses on the role of the brain in generating emotions.
- Cognitive Theories: These theories argue that thoughts and mental activities play a significant role in shaping emotions. They emphasize the cognitive interpretation of stimuli as a key factor in emotional experiences.
Six Major Theories of Emotion
Additionally, there are six major theories of emotion proposed by psychologists:
- Evolutionary Theory: Charles Darwin’s theory suggests that emotions evolved to help humans and animals survive and reproduce by motivating appropriate responses to stimuli.
- James-Lange Theory: This theory, proposed by William James and Carl Lange, posits that emotions result from physiological reactions, and our interpretation of these reactions leads to emotional experiences.
- Cannon-Bard Theory: Walter Cannon disagreed with the James-Lange theory, suggesting that emotional responses occur simultaneously with physiological reactions, rather than one causing the other.
- Schachter-Singer Theory: Also known as the two-factor theory, it combines elements of the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories, emphasizing the role of cognitive interpretation in experiencing emotions.
- Cognitive Appraisal Theory: According to this theory, emotions arise from cognitive appraisal of a situation, which triggers physiological responses and emotional experiences.
- Facial-Feedback Theory: This theory suggests that facial expressions are linked to experiencing emotions and that changing facial expressions can influence emotional experiences.
Here we will look at the first category above, how emotions may have been shaped by Evolutionary pressures for survival. It is interesting to think that our everyday facial expressions are somehow motivated by survival pressures.
A. Emotions as Solutions to Adaptive Problems
Adaptive problems related to survival and reproduction
According to evolutionary theory, our emotions evolved as survival mechanisms – but how did they help our ancestors stay alive?
Adaptive problems refer to the challenges faced by organisms that impact survival and reproduction. Just imagine early humans having to secure nutrition, avoid predators, resist infections, find mates, raise children – quite a daunting list! Specific adaptations gradually developed to tackle each problem.
For instance, fear and disgust promoted escaping threats and avoiding pathogens. Hunger and sex drive motivated seeking food and partners. Emotions coordinated these adaptive solutions.
Table 1. Domains of Adaptive Problems
| Domain | Examples |
|---|---|
| Survival | Avoiding predators, acquiring nutritious food, resisting infections |
| Reproduction | Attracting and retaining mates, conception, birthing, parental care |
Emotions coordinate programs to solve these problems
Here’s the fascinating bit – emotions evolved as “control programs” that turn on different biological and mental mechanisms to solve each adaptive problem.
Consider anger – doesn’t it seamlessly focus attention on the offense, reduce fear, activate aggression, motivate confrontation, and communicate resolve?
Similarly, each emotion orchestrates cognition, physiology, motivation and behavior to tackle a specific ancestral challenge. They are like specialized managers that mobilize resources to deal with recurrent situations. What an incredibly efficient evolutionary invention!
B. Broadening Scope Beyond Basic Emotions
Human and Dog Emotions solve diverse adaptive problems
While emotions help with survival, their evolutionary functions actually go far beyond!
Anger may deter enemies, but what about guilt encouraging cooperation, jealousy guarding a mate, joy bonding groups, or awe inspiring exploration?
Every emotion emerged to address a key challenge related to survival or reproduction.
Even those serving indirect functions like status, group bonds, or information sampling aided ancestral fitness in some way. With such intricate effects, the classic basic emotions just scratch the surface of our emotional diversity!
Not all emotions require distinct signals or presence in other species
Here’s another revelation from evolutionary psychology – emotions need not have visible expressions or analogues in animals to be adaptive in humans. Take sexual jealousy and regret which lack clear facial signals.
Moreover, uniquely human capacities for culture, alliance building, and creativity posed new emotional demands. So just like innovations such as language and throwing, couldn’t novel emotions develop to tackle the social problems our species confronted?
It is their specialized functions, not expressions or cross-species presence, that indicate adaptations.
C. Information Processing Approach
Focus on computational procedures underlying emotions
The key insight above is that emotions are executive programs overseeing other mental processes.
How does this computational coordination actually work?
Well instead of surface outputs, this model examines the underlying decision rules. So even universal emotions implement species-specific strategies – humans avoid contaminated food, but rats eat feces!
Similarly, while manifestations vary across cultures, the deep processing logic remains constant. Just as all languages share an innate universal grammar despite different surface structures.
Allows variability in manifest outputs
Now here’s the payoff from this computational focus – it accounts for variability in emotional displays.
- Anger motivates aggression in men due to greater risks of physical violence.
- Fear triggers risk avoidance in women owing to greater parental investment.
- Yet the underlying monitor-and-respond procedure is likely identical.
In essence, adaptive coordination logic directs context-sensitive outputs, rather than rigid reactions. So the same emotional system manifests variably to match the demands of each situation with optimal responses. And that’s the behavioral diversity we observe despite the assumed universal emotion programs.