Emotions: Are We Responsible for Them?

The most basic feelings we experience include not only emotions, but motives such as hunger and sexual drive. The two phenomena (emotions and motives) are closely related. Emotions can activate and direct behavior much the same as do basic motives. Emotions may also accompany motivated behavior: Sex, for example, is not only a powerful motive, but also a potential source of joy.

Similar as they are, they need to be distinguished. The most common basis for distinguishng between them assumes that emotions are triggered from the outside, and motives from within. That is not to say that emotions are activated from without, but that emotions are usually aroused by external events and then are directed back toward those events. Motives, conversely, are often aroused by internal events, then directed toward objects in the environment. Another distinction between the two is that emotions invariably activate the autonomic nervous system, whereas motives typically do not. These distinctions, however, are not absolute. The sight of food, for instance, can trigger the motive of hunger, whereas severe hunger can arouse emotions. Nonetheless, for the reasons that they are so different and so similar, to discuss either intelligently, emotions and motives must be separated as issues.

Traditional arguments surrounding emotions should be irrelevant to any analysis of emotions; an emotion is neither a sensation nor a physiological occurrence. Nor is it an occurrence of any other kind; it does not simply “happen.” Emotions are rational and purposive. Emotions are actions. The individual chooses to emote, whether on a conscious or subconscious level, much as the individual chooses a course of action. It always makes sense to praise or blame a person for either contributing to a situation that incites an emotion or for having the emotion itself. A person can be blamed for unjustified anger, for instance, or praised for courage.

Human beings share a strong emotional commitment to the feeling of free will, and to feeling that they are free to act any way they choose. Choice or control, illusory or not, is crucial to human motivational systems and feelings of well-being.

(Taken from "Emotions by Choice" (2001) by Lora Morrow)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey, don't leave me in the dark! Leave a little comment here for me. Did you like it? Hate it? Do you have anything else in mind? Let me know, right here. It's very easy: just click on the "comments" link immediately below. I would love to hear from you. :)