William Wong : Emotions

I believe that emotions are both innate, already exists at birth, and natured, developed by the surrounding environment. One way to prove that emotions are innate, is the observation of a new born baby. At birth, a baby can show several different emotions, one could be sadness suggested by crying which shows hunger. During this time, the baby has not been able to develop his/her emotion unless you regard the development of the body in the womb as development of the emotions. Paul Ekman who created a theory on emotions found that even members of an isolated, Stone Age culture could reliably identify the expressions of emotion in photographs of people from cultures with which they were not yet familiar with.

However emotions are also developed, as one grows older and encounters different situations, their body will adapt to it so next time when a similar situation is being experienced, the body will be able to achieve a better outcome by doing whatever is necessary. If we take an identical twin, having minimal variation in genetics, and place them into different environments then we will find that there will be a large difference in their emotions or reactions to events.

Emotions are a function of the sensory and motor areas of the neo-cortex. Emotional reactions also require the use of the limbic system including the hypothalamus, anterior thalamus, cingulate gyrus, and hippocampus. These areas of the body have been proven different in all humans because of variation in the genetic makeup. If what controls our emotions are different, then we can assume the outcome which is the emotion will also be different if they are not developed by the environment into the same.