Posted by littleone on May 17, 2006, at 21:06:35
In reply to opinion survey, posted by Estella on May 17, 2006, at 20:14:02
these are just my opinions:
> 1. do animals (dogs, cats, rats etc) have emotions?
Yes. I don't think their behaviour is *just* behaviour. I think it is driven by emotion. Fear is an obvious one that I think we've all seen animals experience. And from living with my cat I can see her get in certain moods. Moods driven by emotion.
how about human infants?
I would guess yes, but I've never really spent any time around babies. So that is not an educated guess.
> 2. of the following factors:
> -body changes (racing heart etc)
> -cognition / judgment / belief / apppraisal (that is dangerous etc)
> -phenomenology / the felt quality / the experiential aspect / what it is like (how happiness feels)
>
> which seems to be most central to emotion?I think your body changes are a result of the emotions you are experiencing (although I don't think my T thinks the same as me re that).
I think your emotions can affect your thoughts and your thoughts can affect your emotions.
I think beliefs are a different kettle of fish to thoughts. I think deeply held beliefs would trigger or drive emotions. Simply feeling an emotion won't change a deeply held belief.
To me the felt quality you mention *is* emotion. But once again, I think my T believes something different to that.
> 3. are unconscious emotions possible?I would definately say yes to this, but I'm not sure if we are talking about the same thing.
I know you can *feel* sad, but it is really anger that's driving you. And in fact you can be totally unaware of that anger. You are only conscious of feeling sad.
Also, often I will *know* that I am very angry about something, but I will feel nothing. Psychological numbing.
And I also definately think you can be mad at something/someone and know you're mad but have no idea what it is you're mad at. Same with mis-directed anger. Mad at my boss/T/husband instead of at my mum or dad.
Hope this was what you were talking about.
poster:littleone
thread:645293
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060513/msgs/645312.html