WoK3: Emotion

In our first lesson, we operationalised a working definition of emotion -- i.e "reactions or responses related to sense perceptions, internal states, thoughts, or beliefs about things or people, real or imagined" (Dombrowski et al., 2007: 50) -- by

• responding to the viewing of Aerosmith ('Sweet Emotion') and MadTV (Tickle me Elmo/Emo); and
• exploring the physical sensations we experienced in response to 'core' or 'basic' emotions identified by behavioural psychologists Paul Ekman and Robert Plutchik: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, curiosity, acceptance and joy.

Alchin (2006: 102) notes that emotions can be:

• either instinctive (e.g. anger, love)
• or social (e.g. guilt, shame); and

• either inward-looking (e.g. fear) -- i.e. 'drawn into ourselves'
• or outward-looking (e.g. wonder) -- i.e. drawn 'out of ourselves'.

Problematising our initial responses and explorations, we then used a BBC article (Generosity 'may be in the genes') to consider the 'nurture-nature' guiding question: Are emotions learned (i.e. acquired through interactions with the environment and others) or innate (i.e. genetic and pre-programmed into us at/from birth)?

Building on this first lesson's classwork, you are now to blog a one-paragraph:

• post that responds to the 'nurture-nature' guiding question -- Do you believe that emotions are learned or in us from birth? What evidence can you offer to support your claims? Be sure to craft your paragraph so that it includes a connected series of statements intended to establish your position... convince us through evidence and inductive/deductive reasoning; and
• comment to someone else's post that either supports or challenges their claims/conclusions (and, of course, explains why or why not).

Please post your response by Monday, 17 December; your comment to someone else's post by Wednesday, 19 December; and use your first name in your post's title.

If you so feel inspired and want to learn more about your own 'emotional intelligence', then consider completing the on-line EQ test and reflecting on the results. It's free to do and receive the abridged results.

References

Alchin, N. (2006). Theory of knowledge (2nd ed.). London: Hodder Murray.

Dombrowski, E., Rotenberg, L. & M. Bick (2007). Theory of knowledge: Course companion. Oxford: OUP.