Lastly, primates and animals exhibit precursors of muscle actions of the facial expressions of humans.
[20] These psychologists, through cross-cultural empirical tests found that there were a number of basic emotions that were universally recognized.
Emotions go beyond simple judgments of stimuli in our environment and are forms of motivation that drive action.
According to appraisal theory, the reason for your action is your motivated state to stop the unfair treatment, which, we call, emotion.
[24] Existing studies also demonstrated that whether a behaviour is through autonomous or controlled motivation, depends on the intensity and context of underlying emotion.
[26] One appraisal model has developed the law of situational meaning, which states that emotions tend to be evoked by certain kinds of events.
In a psychological construction model, basic psychological processes like affect (positive or negative feeling combined with some degree of physiological activation), previous experiences, language, and executive functioning combine to form a discrete emotion experience.
[7] While some discrete emotions tend to have typical responses (e.g. crying when sad, laughing when happy), a psychological construction model can account for the wide variability in emotional expression (e.g. crying when extremely happy; laughing when uncomfortable).
Psychological construction models call into question the assumption that there are basic, discrete emotion expressions that are universally recognized.
[26] Emotional expressions serve a social function and are essentially a way of reaching out to the world.
[33] Ways of doing this include cognitive reappraisal (interpreting a situation in positive terms) and expressive suppression (masking signs of inner emotional states).
[33] While cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression can be effective, complications in any stage can contribute to emotional dysregulation, which is associated with various mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression.
[36] Trauma-informed approaches have been shown to help address these issues by targeting both emotional dysregulation and the underlying trauma triggers.
[34] According to him, it can be cultivated through three means: learning more about it, drawing attention to it for oneself and others, and reading the works of authors he considers to be emotionally intelligent, such as Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy.
[34] Through engaging in emotional expressions and regulation, it is contemplated more than before and brings forth considerable changes in life and attitude.
[39] In the context of the extended process model of emotion regulation, difficulties in any of the stages (i.e. identification, selection, implementation and monitoring) can significantly contribute to the development of various disorders, as mentioned earlier.
[33] Failures here may lead to issues such as substance abuse and can occur when individuals value maladaptive strategies or avoidance over healthier techniques.
[33] Difficulties in adjusting or terminating regulatory efforts in the monitoring stage can contribute to disorders like depression or mania, where individuals may switch strategies prematurely.
[42][43] For patients diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, the sensitivity towards expression of anger is significantly higher than those in the control groups.
[43] For patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, loss of emotional facial expressions is one of the main negative symptoms.
[44] This often stems from the idea that negative emotions must be avoided while striving for only positive feelings which is widely believed in Western cultures.
[44] In Eastern cultures, it is recognized that emotions are temporary and that feelings of good and bad can occur at the same time.
[45] Studies conducted with Thai and American mothers revealed that children learn how to express emotions in a way that is appropriate for their cultures from their primary caregivers.
In the case of distress, expression can help people take control of their emotions and facilitate “mean-making” to help them reappraise their situation.
[48] In research by James W. Pennebaker, people who observed a traumatic death showed more improvements in physical health and subjective well-being after writing about their emotions over several days.
This research also shows that these benefits only appear when individuals undergo a cognitive change, such as in gaining insight about their experience.
[48] Additionally, emotional expression to someone else can be viewed as a form of disclosure and sign of trust with that person, thus promoting intimacy.
[47][50] There is evidence that when individuals experience crises and trauma, emotional expression is the coping mechanism that leads to better mental health following the event.
This process requires accepting and engaging with the emotional experience in order to reflect on and make sense of them.
This can then lead to increases in emotional tolerance, altruism, resilience, psychological flexibility, and community engagement.