1. EMOTIONS
SUBJECT: Psychology
AUTHOR: Dr Shaini Suraj
DEPARTMENT: Mental Health
INSTITUTE: Datta Meghe College of Nursing
Wanadongri , Nagpur,
Maharashtra , India. Pin: 441110

2. BENEFICIARIES:
• Students of undergraduate and post graduate health sciences
courses such as B.Sc. Nursing, Post Basic B.Sc. Nursing, M.Sc.
Nursing, BPT, BAMS.
• Students of BA psychology, MA psychology, MSc psychology,
behavioural genetics, occupational health, education, forensic,
industrial-organizational, legal, media, sports.
• Counsellors and psychotherapists.
• Management personals, business administratives, HR
managers.
• School teachers, college professors, doctors, nurses and other
health care professionals and parents.

3. GENERAL OBJECTIVE:
At the end of the presentation the participants shall be better
equipped to understand emotions, their nature, dynamics and
control. Thus they can help themselves and others in
substituting negative emotions with positive emotions. They can
replace fear, depression and hatred with hope, courage and love,
thereby helping others in quick recovery from emotional issues
and moving on in their lives.

4. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this presentation the students shall be able to
• Define emotions.
• Explain the components of emotion.
• Describe the changes taking place during emotions.
• Explain the theories of emotion.
• Explain emotional adjustment.
• Explain the role of emotions in health and illness.
• Describe psychometric assessment of emotions.
• Explain alterations in emotion during illness
• Enumerate health care interventions for emotions.

5. Presented by Dr Shaini Suraj
DMCON

6. EMOTIONS
‘EMOTION’ derived from Latin word ‘emovere’
(to stir up or to excite)
In common usage emotion is referred to as a subjective feeling.
😊 Feelings are simple experiences of the 😔
affective type, pleasant or unpleasant.
•Emotions are more complex affective experiences.
•Characterized by some physiological changes due
to which an individual performs some or the other types of
behavioural acts.

7. Definitions
Emotion is a ‘moved’ or ‘stirred-up’ state of an organism. It is a
stirred-up state of feeling that is the way it appears to the individual
himself. It is a disturbed muscular and glandular activity that is the
way it appears to an external observer.
(Woodworth-1945)
Emotion is an affective experience that accompanies generalized
inner adjustment and mental and physiological stirred-up states in
the individual and that shows itself in his overt behaviour.
(Crow and Crow -1973)
Mangal, S. K. (2007). Essentials of educational psychology. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India.

8. COMPONENTS OF EMOTION
Dennis Coon described four components of emotion.
•Subjective Feeling
•Emotional Expression or Expressive Behaviour
•Physiological Changes
•Conscious Experience

9. COMPONENTS OF EMOTION
1. Subjective Feeling
It is conscious and an intellectual perception of a situation.
2. Emotional Expression or Expressive Behaviour
Facial: Some emotions liked guilt, joy, anger, etc. can be
perceived fairly accurately through facial expressions.
Vocal : A scream communicates fear, surprise or pain; a trembling
voice means sorrow or disappointment .
Gestures : Bodily movements and gestures also indicate the
emotional state of an individual.

10. COMPONENTS OF EMOTION
3. Physiological changes
Caused by -Autonomic nervous system and endocrine glands.
THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM HAS TWO
SUBDIVISIONS
SYMPATHETIC DIVISION PARASYMPATHETIC
DIVISION.
The sympathetic division prepares the body for emergency
action during aroused states.
It causes discharge of hormones-
•epinephrine (adrenaline)
•norepinephrine (noradrenaline).

11. • Adrenaline gets circulated to different parts of the body.
• Responsible for the following physical changes:
Increased blood pressure (BP) and heart rate
Changes in the rate of respiration
Dilation of pupils
Sweating and decreased secretion of saliva
Increase in blood sugar level
Decreased mobility of the gastrointestinal tract
Erect hair on the skin
Muscular tensions and tremors

12. COMPONENTS OF EMOTION
PARASYMPATHETIC BRANCH
Slows down the entire metabolism of the body to bring it
into balance once again. Produces following changes-
•Reduces heart rate and BP
•Diverts blood to the internal organs and digestive
tract
•Regulates the salt and water level of the body
•Helps to build up and conserve the body’s energy
Parasympathetic system acts much more slowly than the
sympathetic system.

13. COMPONENTS OF EMOTION
4. CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE
•Emotional experience is generally a conscious feeling.
•In order to assess an individual’s emotion, his feelings and
emotional experience is an important indicator.

14. CHANGES IN EMOTIONAL REACTIONS
1. External Changes
Facial expressions: Face is flushed in anger and pale in fear.
Mouth turns down in unpleasant emotions and turn up in pleasant
emotions.
Bodily movement and gestures: Unexpected fearful situation
might cause a startle pattern in which the eyes close, mouth
widens, head and neck are thrust forward.
Voice disturbances: A tremor or a break in the voice - deep
sorrow. A loud, sharp high-pitched voice - anger. Speech is low
and monotonous - dejection and sadness and rapid - tension and
excitement.

15. CHANGES IN EMOTIONAL REACTIONS
2. Internal Changes: During fear and anger, the pulse rate or
heart rate increases. Blood pressure increases during emotional
excitement. During excitement breathing is in short quick
gasps, but in depression it is slow.
3. Psychological Changes: During emotional experiences,
perception, learning, consciousness and memory are affected.

16. Four major explanations for the complex mental and physical
experiences that we call ‘feelings’ have been put forward in
the history of emotion theory.
1. The James-Lange theory in the 1920s
2. The Cannon-Bard theory in the 1930s
3. The Schachter-Singer theory in the 1960s
4. Most recently the Lazarus theory, developed in the
1980s and ‘90s.
THEORIES OF EMOTION
Sreevani, R. “Motivation and Emotional Processes.” Psychology for Nurses, 2013, pp. 92–92.,
doi:10.5005/jp/books/11868_4

17. THEORIES OF EMOTION
1. James-Lange Theory
An event or stimulus causes a physiological arousal without any
interpretation or conscious thought and you experience the
resulting emotion only after you interpret the physical response.
2. Cannon-Bard Theory
Stimulus evokes both a physiological and an emotional response
simultaneously and that neither one causes the other. The
emotional experience occurs as soon as the cortex receives the
message from the thalamus; it does not depend upon the
feedback from internal organs and skeletal responses.
Sreevani, R. “Motivation and Emotional Processes.” Psychology for Nurses, 2013, pp. 92–92.,
doi:10.5005/jp/books/11868_4

18. THEORIES OF EMOTION
3. Schachter-Singer Theory (1962): ‘Cognitive theory
of emotion’.
Emotional states are a function of the interaction of cognitive
factors and a state of physiological arousal.
Integration of information from three sources
•Feedback to the brain from the internal organs and other body
parts activated by the sympathetic nervous system.
•Subject interpretation of aroused state.
•Information stored in memory and the perception of what
is taking place in the environment.
Sreevani, R. “Motivation and Emotional Processes.” Psychology for Nurses, 2013, pp. 92–92.,
doi:10.5005/jp/books/11868_4

19. THEORIES OF EMOTION
4. Lazarus Theory
When an event occurs, a cognitive appraisal is made (either
consciously or subconsciously) and based on the result of that
appraisal an emotion and physiological response follow.
While each of these theories is based on research,
there is no absolute proof as yet how emotions
arise in our bodies and minds or what
determines our own individual experiences of
them.
Sreevani, R. “Motivation and Emotional Processes.” Psychology for Nurses, 2013, pp. 92–92.,
doi:10.5005/jp/books/11868_4

20. EMOTIONALADJUSTMENTS
Maintenance of emotional equilibrium in the face of internal
and external stressors is emotional adjustment.
• Facilitated by cognitive processes of acceptance and adaptation.
•Example: Maintaining emotional control and coping behaviour in
the face of an identity crisis.
•The physiological reactions during an emotion facilitate the
adjustment of the individual. They last for a little time and do not
have any harmful effects on our body.
•Recurring emotions for a long time can affect the physical health.

21. EMOTIONALADJUSTMENTS
Autonomic nervous system, brain structures and hormones play an
important role in emotional adjustment.
1. Autonomic Nervous system
.
•The parasympathetic nervous system makes us calm by inhibiting
the release of hormones.
Sympathetic division
Active in unpleasant
situations.
Parasympathetic division
More active with more
pleasant situations.

22. EMOTIONALADJUSTMENTS
2. Brain Structures
3. Hormones: Increase in hormonal level in the blood and urine.
Hypothalamus and limbic system - signal the pituitary
gland to release epinephrine.
•Amygdala -Receives information from the cortex and
thalamus, involves in processing emotions like patterns of
attack defence and flight.
Right hemisphere - regulates facial expressions
Left hemisphere- deciphers emotional tone from the
messages we fear.

23. EMOTIONS IN HEALTH AND ILLNESS
•By controlling our own emotions we can eliminate half of the
nagging illnesses that plague our daily lives.
•Our body functions well when we are happy. There is an old
saying, ‘Joy is the best medicine’.
•Intense and unpleasant emotions disturb the whole individual;
may cause illness or worsen the condition of one already ill.
•Negative emotions -weaken body’s immune system and cause
infections.
•When the person is stressed or anxious one may not take care of
his health as well as he should.

24. EMOTIONS IN HEALTH AND ILLNESS
Modern medicine shows that uncontrolled emotions plays a
vital role in the causation of many physical disorders which
include:
Peptic ulcer Insomnia
Heart disease chronic constipation
Epilepsy Functional colitis
Increased BP Skin disorders like pruritus, psoriasis
Bronchial asthma Susceptible to infections
Diabetes and tuberculosis (TB) are made worse

25. PSYCHOMETRIC ASSESSMENT OF EMOTIONS
Measurement of emotion is important in understanding the
physiological basis of emotion.
The following methods are used to measure emotions:
•Galvanic skin response (GSR)
•Electrocardiography or electrocardiogram (ECG)
•Electroencephalogram (EEG)
•Other tests: Recording changes in muscle
tension, breathing rate and BP during emotional
arousal.

26. ALTERATIONS IN EMOTIONS DURING ILLNESS
People react differently to illness. Individual’s emotional
reactions depend on –
• The nature of the illness, the patient’s attitude towards it, the
• reaction of others to it.
• Patient’s perceptions of illness, visibility of symptoms.
• Availability of support system, economic variables and patient’s
• coping skills.
The reactions shown can be -Anxiety Worry
Fear Shock
Denial Anger
Depression

27. HEALTH CARE INTERVENTION FOR EMOTIONAL
REACTIONS
Spend time with patients, facilitate verbalization of feelings.
Handling the emotions, orientation of patient to Health Care
facility.
Identification of learning needs of patients, provide diversional
activities.
Taking care of insomnia, food and fluid Intake, elimination
pattern.
Maintain cheerfulness and humor, seek help of mental health
professionals.

28. SUMMARY
We have just learnt about
• Definition of emotions.
• The components of emotion.
• The changes taking place during emotions.
• Theories of emotion.
• Emotional adjustment.
• Role of emotions in health and illness.
• Psychometric assessment of emotions.
• Alterations in emotion during illness
• Health care interventions for emotions.

29. QUESTIONS
• Define emotions.
• What are the components of emotions.
• Describe the changes taking place during emotions.
• Explain the theories of emotion.
• What do you understand by emotional adjustment.
• Explain the role of emotions in health and illness.
• What are the psychometric assessments of emotions.
• Short Note: Alterations in emotions during illness
Health care interventions for emotions.

30. References:
1. Clement, I. (2012). Manual of community health nursing.
New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers.
2. Mangal, S. K. (2007). Essentials of educational psychology.
New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India.
3. Sreevani, R. “Motivation and Emotional Processes.”
Psychology for Nurses, 2013, pp. 92–92.,
doi:10.5005/jp/books/11868_4

31. No matter the situation,
never let your emotions
overpower your
intelligence.
Turcois Ominek