Post by mgm on Oct 31, 2017 23:34:27 GMT
Is Damasio open to the idea that learning plays a role in emotion? Explain your answer including an example.
From my understanding, according to Damasios model of emotion, the lower-level emotive processes (the lower components of the ‘tree’) - including immune responses/ basic reflexes/ metabolic regulation, pain and pleasure behaviours, and drives and motivations - operate, for the most part in a very automatic, mechanistic manner below the level of consciousness. An emotionally competent stimulus (ECS) is detected, either internal or external to the organism, and a neural chain is set into motion that manifests into emotions and ultimately feelings. The idea of learning comes into play when dealing with higher-level emotive processes (higher up in the tree model - ‘emotions-proper’) and involves two concepts related to the ECS. The first is that with some of these more complex emotions, the natural automatic emotion process is set in motion from an ECS, but at the same time, our conscious mind is also evaluating the ECS and has the ability in some situations to intervene and modulate the emotional response. In this way we can learn to control our emotions in ways which will be beneficial for us in modern life. The practice of mindfulness meditation is a good example of this; the idea of cultivating the ability to simply be aware of ones emotions/feelings, watching them as they come and go without affording them the power to automatically dictate behaviour. The second idea related to learning is that not all ECS’s are innate; some are built-in as a result of evolution but the majority are learned through experiences as we live our lives. For example, with someone who experiences social anxiety an ECS could be the thought of giving a presentation in class; this is an ECS that has been constructed/learned based on the meaning this person has assigned to the memory of a negative past experience; this person was not born with an innate fear of public speaking, it is something that was learned along the way and has now developed into an ECS with the power to initiate the process that gives rise to emotions and feelings.
From my understanding, according to Damasios model of emotion, the lower-level emotive processes (the lower components of the ‘tree’) - including immune responses/ basic reflexes/ metabolic regulation, pain and pleasure behaviours, and drives and motivations - operate, for the most part in a very automatic, mechanistic manner below the level of consciousness. An emotionally competent stimulus (ECS) is detected, either internal or external to the organism, and a neural chain is set into motion that manifests into emotions and ultimately feelings. The idea of learning comes into play when dealing with higher-level emotive processes (higher up in the tree model - ‘emotions-proper’) and involves two concepts related to the ECS. The first is that with some of these more complex emotions, the natural automatic emotion process is set in motion from an ECS, but at the same time, our conscious mind is also evaluating the ECS and has the ability in some situations to intervene and modulate the emotional response. In this way we can learn to control our emotions in ways which will be beneficial for us in modern life. The practice of mindfulness meditation is a good example of this; the idea of cultivating the ability to simply be aware of ones emotions/feelings, watching them as they come and go without affording them the power to automatically dictate behaviour. The second idea related to learning is that not all ECS’s are innate; some are built-in as a result of evolution but the majority are learned through experiences as we live our lives. For example, with someone who experiences social anxiety an ECS could be the thought of giving a presentation in class; this is an ECS that has been constructed/learned based on the meaning this person has assigned to the memory of a negative past experience; this person was not born with an innate fear of public speaking, it is something that was learned along the way and has now developed into an ECS with the power to initiate the process that gives rise to emotions and feelings.