Evolutionary Theory and Emotions. The research question that will be discussed is: How has evolution brought the factor of emotion into human lifestyle? For example, fear evolved because it helped people to act in ways that enhanced their chances of survival. “This diverse range includes sexual consummation, intrasexual mate competition, mate retention, mate poaching, hierarchy negotiation, losses of status, gains of status, punishment of coalitional free-riders, retribution for social cost infliction, strategic interference, kin protection, kin investment, food acquisition, and others”. middle-level theory of the emotions as superordinate mecha-nisms. He pointed out that facial expressions allow people to quickly judge someones hostility or friendliness and to communicate intentions to others. The theory provides a convincing explanation of the “point” of positive emotions: to open our minds, broaden and expand our awareness, and facilitate the building and development of resources, including knowledge, skills, abilities, and relationships. The first is that beneficial habits strengthen over time such as the emotion disgust. Modern evolutionary psychology. James and Lange suggested that a stimulus can activate a physical response in your body, which then causes you to feel certain emotions. Sexual selection pressures push the ability to be able to reproduce. We are dedicated to ensuring that humans live happier, healthier, and more fulfilled lives by plugging in the gaps that conventional education failed to teach us. This theory is widely accepted among psychologists worldwide, as it covers the main components of every emotion that we feel. They suggest that emotions are physiological reactions to events. example, the emotion of gratitude should up-regulate the value placed on a benefactor’s welfare only after determining that the helpful act was intentional. According to Chapter 6, it is assumed that emotional processes have been part of our evolutionary history just as motor and cognitive processes (p. 209). In our stray dog example, you’d start trembling because you saw a dog growling at you, and this would cause you to feel fear. The main ideas needed to summarize the evolution of emotions are all here: the original theories, why emotion came along, how emotion programs function in our brains, and how they have changed to help human society flourish. For example, let’s say a stray dog growls at you. Perspectives on emotions from evolutionary theory were initiated during the mid-late 19th century with Charles Darwin's 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Natural selection pressures decide how likely an organism is to survive and reproduce. It will help to begin by clarifying some terminology. Darwin believed that facial expressions of emotion are innate (hard-wired). Attention! His theory focuses on the role of what he called “appraisal.” Appraisal is defined in this theory as the tendency of the human mind to create an automatic assessment of any given situation. Darwin supported his theory of evolutionary emotion through two main examples. If evolution has created a multitude Based on evolutionary principles, our reasoning adds to the definition and understanding of emotion, justifying its origin, explaining its mission and dynamics, and linking it to higher cognitive processes, mainly with attention, cognition, decision-making, and consciousness. Primal emotions, such as fear, are associated with ancient parts of the brain and presumably evolved among our premammal ancestors. Five properties that Gruber speaks about are: the vulnerability of offspring, monogamous bonds, emergency of caring and compassion, flattening of social hierarchies, and need of collective action. Negative emotions like fear trigger the “fight or flight” response necessary for dealing with danger. The theory is widely accepted based on fossil records, DNA sequencing, embryology, comparative anatomy and molecular biology. If you’d like this or any other sample, we’ll happily email it to you. Emotions are part of us from the day that we are born and, including to some, even when we are still in our mother’s wombs. Later mammals added highly novel, laminated cortical regions (neocortex) that made possible enhanced non-olfactory sensory processing and cognitive functions (including learning and memory, reasoning, and planning capacities, and, in humans, language).” An example used many times to explain how emotions work is fear, and an explanation for how fear occurs in the brain is provided by LeDoux. We’ve got you covered. Disgust aids in the avoidance of things that may be poisonous or harmful to one’s body. Evolutionary psychologists study what people look for in a partner, and how these preferences may have been shaped by evolutionary pressures. The first dive into the idea of evolutionary emotion was from Charles Darwin himself. These are the questions experts have been trying to answer for centuries. Students who find writing to be a difficult task. 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