Feelings in psychology. What is this, the definition of higher, intellectual, moral

What are moral feelings?

Moral feelings include feelings of sympathy and antipathy, affection and alienation, respect and contempt, gratitude and ingratitude, love and hatred. Among moral feelings, the sense of camaraderie and friendship, the sense of duty and conscience should be particularly highlighted.

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Concept and stages of formation

Feelings are often confused with emotions.
These phenomena of the human psyche are interrelated, but are not interchangeable. Feelings are a special form of a person’s relationship to the world around him, which arises as a response to compliance or non-compliance with current needs. They are distinguished by their stability and strength of manifestation. With their help, an individual expresses his attitude towards people, phenomena, objects, and denotes beliefs and character traits. A sensory reaction occurs in response to an event occurring in an individual's life. Correct formation of reactions is necessary for the development of a harmonious, healthy personality. This is an individual process that begins in early childhood. The formation is influenced by the family environment and local culture. In Spain it is customary to express feelings violently, but in Japan this is a sign of poor upbringing.

Feelings are usually divided into lower and higher. The lower ones include physiological manifestations: hunger, fatigue. The highest include manifestations associated with the spiritual world: admiration, empathy, emotional attachment. The presence of higher feelings distinguishes humans from animals.

Sensory experiences have an object reference. An individual cannot experience them for a situation or phenomenon, only for a specific character or object. Feelings may not have external manifestations: while living them inside, the individual remains calm outwardly. They are often nonverbal—unspoken.

Fleeting manifestations occur when interaction with an object has been brief. To form a stable connection, you need long-term contact. This is exactly how falling in love develops: if a person is deprived of the opportunity to see the object of adoration, falling in love quickly passes. If he can look at least at a portrait every day, then love will only be nourished and strengthened.

The meaning of past experience

Details and information about the past are used to make decisions because past experiences of feelings influence present decision making. It also determines how people will feel in the future. Gilbert and Wilson conducted a study to show how well a person would feel if they bought flowers for themselves for a specific reason (birthday, anniversary or promotion, etc.). People who had no experience of buying flowers for themselves and those who did buy flowers were interviewed. The results showed that those who had purchased flowers in the past for themselves felt happier, and that feeling lasted longer for them than those who had never purchased flowers for themselves.

Types of feelings, their manifestations and classification

Due to the fact that the very concept of feelings and their derivatives still remains open, there are different categories and types of them. The most frequently used classification today is the reflection of feelings as the social essence of a person, which divides all psycho-emotional experiences into 3 groups.

Feelings in psychology are divided into 3 groups: moral, intellectual and ethical.

They are:

• moral;
• intellectual;
• ethical.

There are also subcategories such as social, practical, legal and professional feelings, which overlap with the three above.

Moral or ethical feelings

Moral feelings are the basis of every society. They have historical and cultural roots, determined by norms of behavior that have been formed over centuries. Their existence is determined by the need for each person to feel involved in the team.

Moral feelings presuppose the optimal behavior of people in order to be understood, and they also form the basis of collective and individual consciousness.

By adhering to the principles of moral behavior, a person, as a social being, feels satisfaction and acceptance of himself by others. Moral feelings form a sense of attachment, community and collective idea with which all members of society are identified.

The basis for understanding moral feelings was first described by the English philosopher Adam Smith in the 18th century. He gave his own classification of their importance, but the peculiarity of moral feelings is their changeable nature, therefore, today, the importance and value of moral norms has changed significantly.

Also, not all moral sentiments have the same importance and may vary in a given society, depending on what cultural and social goals are considered to be a priority.

The most common and universal moral feelings today are:

Thus, moral feelings are fundamental to the formation of harmony in interpersonal existence, regardless of the presence of common interests with other people or not.

On the opposite side, there are antisocial feelings that have a destructive effect on relationships between people.

These include feelings:

• anger;

• anger;
• hatred;
• antipathies;
• contempt;
• enmity;
• envy;
• ill will.

Intellectual feelings

Unlike moral feelings, which give a person a sense of community, intellectual feelings are associated with cognitive activity.

Thus, intellectual feelings are not only the psychological component of each person, but also form his worldview and thought processes, contributing to mental education and the development of creative thinking.

The emergence of intellectual feelings in every person, according to psychologists, is based on the physiological premise of an orienting reflex associated with the need to explain all the processes around oneself, which everyone perceives with the help of the senses.

Unlike moral feelings, which are unconsciously copied from other members of society, intellectual feelings develop purposefully during the learning process. They are the basis for a person’s professional growth, and also form an important part of his self-confidence.

The most important examples of intellectual feelings include:

Thus, intellectual feelings are the main source of acquiring new knowledge and developing one’s own creative abilities.

All skills gained through the development of intellectual abilities related to problem solving and the formation of one's own independent thinking.

Aesthetic or higher feelings

Aesthetic feelings are the most ambiguous among all human experiences. Despite constant attempts to create an objective understanding of their criteria and properties, aesthetic feelings remain subjective.

If moral feelings are perceived by a person through unconscious living in society, and intellectual feelings are learned, then aesthetic feelings are the maximum manifestation of individuality and are developed intuitively by each person.

Therefore, the most important features of an aesthetic worldview are individualism and historical context.

The main goal of aesthetic feelings is not the feeling of unity or the search for truth, but the pursuit of perfection, beauty, harmony and understanding of all processes. A distinctive feature of aesthetic feelings is the search for quality.

The level of aesthetic pleasure is manifested not in functionality and practicality, but in an attempt to create and materialize in artistic images the reality that a person contemplates as a source of inspiration.

Therefore, aesthetic feelings describe a person’s attempt to find the beautiful, the sublime, to determine the essence of the comic and tragic.

It is assumed that the manifestation of these feelings is very diverse and can be found everywhere: from the contemplation of nature (the blueness of the sky or the shine of the stars), architecture, painting, poetry and music to the actions of people and the search for pleasure in daily work.

A special feature of aesthetics is that the longer a person searches for the beautiful and sublime, the more he finds and understands it in different manifestations.

This process is characterized by the identification of factors, characteristics, connections and awareness of the emotional experience of the individual towards the interested subject, which she has endowed with special interest.

Aesthetic feelings are always subjective and specific; they are formed by a person in order not only to realize the actual importance of an object or phenomenon for society, but also to endow it with a special meaning.

The main elements that form aesthetic feelings are:

Feelings in psychology, such as aesthetic, moral and intellectual, are the highest cognitive properties of every person.

By developing certain elements of higher feelings, a person not only realizes his place in society and feels part of the collective consciousness, he is also able to develop individual needs and the desire to implement his ideas.

Qualitative characteristics

Feelings have characteristics that distinguish them from other emotional manifestations:

1. Valence - division into positive, negative and ambivalent (dual). The occurrence of ambivalent manifestations speaks of rich life experience and lack of categoricalness. Ambivalence is characteristic of people with a high level of intelligence.
2. Intensity is the power of manifestation. By intensity, one can determine the main and secondary feelings, assess a person’s ability to self-control, and the development of willpower.
3. Content is the meaning for a person of an object in relation to which he shows feelings.
4. Sthenicity is an urge to action, a desire to express a feeling. If a person tries to restrain manifestations, this is called asthenicity.

The intensity of the manifestation of feelings determines the behavior of the individual and the attitude of other people towards him. Emotions are always sincere, and the demonstration of feelings can be planned in advance.

Features of managing emotions

There are 2 extreme states that cause emotions, namely creation and destruction. There is a key rule in psychology: in order to achieve harmony, you need to learn to manage emotions directly, and not just their expression.

All quarrels, misunderstandings and conflict situations are caused by a lack of control. The consequence of improper processing is illness, nervous exhaustion and other psychosomatic conditions. These symptoms are caused by attempts to express happiness instead of sadness or suppress feelings of anger.

The mechanism of emotions

To learn to understand yourself and deal with difficult cases in a timely manner, you need to study the psychology of emotions. A person receives his main reactions from people with whom he comes into contact in the first year of life. These include parents, immediate relatives, and guardians. The baby’s reactions to the world coincide with the perceptions of others.

The tendency to learn emotional reactions is laid down at the genetic level. It is then reinforced by interaction with others. At the same time, scientists cannot yet unambiguously answer the question of whether there are innate emotions.

There is an assumption that newborn babies can react only on an unconscious level. They scream in indignation or discomfort, widen their eyes when frightened, and keep an eye on toys that interest them.

At the same time, the moments of manifestation of emotions are influenced by the environment in which the baby is located. This is why some babies can wake up even from a slight rustle, while others cannot be awakened by the barking of a dog. This means that children do not experience special emotions about their usual environment.

Adult individuals have their own list of reactions to external events. Psychologists call this the emotional background. For some people it is stable, for others it is not. Some people seem calm and confident, others seem anxious, restless, and hysterical. The higher the parameters of a person’s emotional intelligence, the easier it is to communicate with him.

Nonverbal expression of emotions

To learn how to control your emotions and read other people, you need to become familiar with body language. Sometimes even almost imperceptible symptoms are enough to help determine a person’s condition and then use the knowledge gained.

Posture, head position, movements, glances, gestures can tell a lot about a person’s condition. Nonverbal manifestations of emotions include the following components:

• look - it can be running, burning or extinct;
• skin tone - it can be pale or red, often covered with sweat or wrinkles;
• heartbeat – slow or rapid;
• tremor – a person’s fingers, limbs, lips, eyelashes may tremble;
• breathing - can be measured, chaotic, fast, noisy;
• posture - a person can slouch, raise their shoulders high or straighten them;
• fingering some objects in the hands - it can be slow, chaotic, fast, orderly.

There are a large number of nonverbal expressions. Therefore, body language should be studied for quite a long time and consistently. It is on such symptoms that the mechanism of functioning of the lie detector is built. The sensitive device is able to read even minor changes in human reactions. They determine the veracity of the information received.

Verbal displays of emotions

This category includes verbal manifestations of human emotions. In this case, it is worth paying attention to specific wording that indicates a state of happiness or anger, and to words that are woven into the context.

The stronger the emotions a person experiences, the brighter the sound coloring of his words turns out. Joy can manifest itself in the form of an exclamation, anger in the form of a scream. Melancholy is reflected by whispers or muffled speech.

A person is able to detect changes in the tone and timbre of the voice from the first month of life - it is during this period that the brain begins to use the organs of perception. Already at 1.5-2 years old, a child can assess the emotional state of people close to him by voice. Teenagers already have their own set of speech colors. It is based on lifestyle. It is also influenced by the reactions of society.

Words used in context may not help understand the mood. Sometimes they do not have a pronounced emotional connotation. At the same time, the psychology of feelings allows you to read the emotions that a person is trying to convey. This technique is often used by liars. They convey their thoughts in such a way as to create the desired impression on the person who listens to them.

External expression of emotions

If all people said what they feel, it would be much easier. However, the older a person gets, it is easier for him to hide some experiences behind others. So, in a state of sadness, people can add joyful notes to their voices and smile. Thanks to this, from the outside they will seem cheerful and carefree.

For people who are not sensitive, such deception will be quite enough to avoid analyzing the emotional background of others. In such a situation, intimacy or heart-to-heart talk is simply impossible.

To learn how to communicate with people, it is worth analyzing their internal state. At the same time, it is important to be able to discern the seal behind the joy, and hidden experiences behind the external calm. It is also worth understanding how strong the hidden feeling is and whether the person needs help.

The psychology of emotions is a rather subtle area that has many facets. To learn to keep your emotions under control and determine the state of other people, you need to take into account many features.

IMPORTANT! Informational article! Before use, you should consult a specialist.

Functions and meaning

The task of the senses is to receive and classify information about objects. They also have separate functions:

• reflective - helps to assess the level of danger and usefulness of objects in order to respond to the threat in time;
• stimulating - encourages you to take active actions, make plans for the future, look for ways to solve complex problems, motivation;
• reinforcing - helps to assess the significance of an event for an individual, to remember important things;
• switching - tells you which category to classify objects, actions into, and set priorities;
• adaptive - forms a ready-made base of manifestations that a person has already experienced;
• communicative - affects relationships with others, the need for communication, helps to establish emotional contacts.

Only a positive social environment can ensure normal functioning of functions. If a function malfunctions, a person’s emotional intelligence does not develop. A low level of emotional intelligence is characteristic of children who were raised in a disadvantaged environment.

An extreme degree of manifestation of pedagogical neglect in Mowgli children who grew up away from people. They do not distinguish between the manifestations of other people and do not know how to express feelings. Their psychological development is at the level of a baby monkey.

How many feelings does a person have?

There is not a second that you and I do not experience certain feelings. Thanks to them, we can navigate through life and satisfy our needs, feel danger and have fun. Back in ancient times, the great Aristotle identified the main 5 feelings of a person and no one has yet refuted them:

• sense of smell;
• hearing;
• vision;
• touch;
• taste.

The only thing that some scientists have achieved is to increase their number to 30. That is, they have identified subtypes of all five human senses. For example, such a feeling as taste also has separate “ramifications”: the taste of sweet, salty, sour, bitter. There are also branches of vision according to the receptors - cones and rods. The former perceive light, the latter color.

But in addition to the five main senses, it was also added:

1. Thermoception is the sensation of heat or cold on the skin.
2. National perception is the sensation of pain.
3. Equibrioception – the sense of movement, speed and balance. In this sense, the vestibular apparatus located inside the human ear is involved.
4. Proprioception is the feeling of your body, its position and individual components.

There is also a conservative approach to determining the sense organs in humans. These include:

• light – vision;
• mechanical - hearing, human touch;
• chemical – smell, taste.

As we study the short list, we realize that there are many more feelings. Otherwise we would be boring and uninteresting creatures. Everyone is especially interested in the “sixth” sense, called intuition. Agree, it has repeatedly saved people from death and saved humanity. For example, in the 80s, the center for monitoring the skies over the Russian Federation received a signal that the United States had sent a missile with a nuclear warhead. According to the rules, the officer was obliged to inform management and, of course, press the answer button. But something held him back, and, thank God! As it turned out, the information was false. If not for his intuition. Nature has endowed us with everything that protects us, allows us to empathize, have fun and enjoy life.

Similarities and differences with emotions

Emotions and feelings in psychology have an inseparable connection: they form the emotional background. Often the individual does not see the difference between them. But they differ in duration, depth, and degree of manifestation.

Feeling is a person’s deep, stable attitude towards an event or phenomenon. It is often hidden, it can be consciously suppressed, masked. Containing emotions is more difficult. They appear as a short burst, a fleeting reaction. Emotions manifest themselves unconsciously. Feelings are conscious manifestations aimed at a specific goal. Emotions can be experienced without external stimulus. For example, an individual experiences strong emotional excitement when listening to music or watching a movie. He empathizes with fictional characters.

When experiencing emotions, a person gives a subjective assessment of what is happening. It depends on the characteristics of his nervous system: phlegmatic people are low-emotional, and choleric people find it difficult to restrain themselves. Sanguine people easily experience strong emotions, but they cause inconvenience to melancholic people. It is impossible to change the characteristics of the nervous system, but you can learn to control emotions. To do this, an individual must distinguish between emotions and feelings and not be afraid of the negative spectrum of emotions.

Uncertainty and uncertainty

Timothy D. Wilson, a professor of psychology, tested the insecurity theory with his colleague Yoav Bar-Anian, a social psychologist. Wilson and Bar-Ann found that the more uncertain or unclear an event is to an individual, the more invested they will be in it. Since a person does not know the background or ending of the story, he constantly replays the event in his mind, which gives him mixed feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, etc. If there is any difference between feelings and emotions, feeling insecure is less confident than the emotion of ambivalence: the former is unstable, the latter is not yet accepted or even suppressed. The world of human feelings is rich and varied, and suppressing them can lead to the most unpleasant consequences.

People in society want to know every detail about something in hopes of maximizing the feeling of that moment, but Wilson discovered that feeling uncertainty can lead to something more enjoyable because it has a sense of mystery. In fact, the feeling of not knowing may cause them to constantly think and feel anticipation of what could have been.

There are two main types of working with emotions: expression and suppression. The former is used to obtain or cultivate a certain feeling, while suppression is used to remove or hide some unwanted feelings.

Three more specific types of emotion work are cognitive, bodily, and expressive. Cognitive changes in images, physical changes in material aspects, and gestures of expressive changes. A person who is sad uses expressive emotions to lighten the mood by trying to smile. A person who is stressed uses physical activity to try to breathe more slowly to reduce stress levels. Emotional work allows people to change their feelings to suit the current situation.

Effect on mood

In psychology, mood is an emotional state at a specific moment in time. Mood is rarely accompanied by a strong emotional reaction, but affects all activities. It creates a background that determines the speed and efficiency of work. Normally, the mood is stable. In individuals with a strong nervous system, it changes less frequently; in sensitive people, the change occurs frequently.

The mood has a pointless character. Even if a person understands what specifically caused dissatisfaction, the bad mood spreads to activities and relationships. Mood affects feelings. In a bad mood, people experience irritation and injustice towards themselves. In a good situation, they are ready for selfless actions, a favorable attitude towards an unpleasant person.

Intellectual feelings

Based on knowledge of people, the desire to satisfy curiosity, the search for truth and solving specific mental problems. These include interest, curiosity, a sense of mystery, doubt, bewilderment.

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Basic human emotions carry certain functions

All basic emotions carry some function.

A lead has three main functions:

• Biological. Interest energizes.
• Motivational. Interest can motivate both the individual himself and the people around him.
• Social. Interest is necessary for the well-being of civilization.

Joy

Joy is visually characterized by a smile. Joy helps a person feel part of the world. A joyful person is light-hearted and energetic.

Social function. The emotion of joy is primarily needed for communication. People love to communicate more with those who help them feel joy.

Joy has a biological function. A joyful person's body and mind are relaxed. This is necessary in order to restore energy.

Sadness

Sadness is visually characterized by drooping corners of the mouth, wrinkles on the forehead, and knitted eyebrows. Sadness is associated with feelings of loss, unmet needs, and bad memories. Sadness helps people bond together.

Sadness inhibits physical and mental activity and gives time for reflection. External signs of sadness make it clear to others that not all is well with a person.

There are three ways to deal with sadness:

• Override one emotion with another.
• Shift your attention to something.
• Move more.

Anger

Anger can be caused by an obstacle to achieving a goal, an insult, or the unfair behavior of others. Visually, anger is manifested by lowered eyebrows and vertical folds on the forehead. An angry person blushes and tenses his muscles.

There is a need for physical activity. I want to rush into the attack. Anger is useful because it helps an individual feel stronger, braver, and more self-confident.

Disgust

External signs of disgust are frowning eyebrows, parted lips, slightly protruding tongue.

Biological function of disgust. People use such facial expressions to reject dangerous, tasteless substances.

Social function of disgust. One person, with the help of characteristic facial expressions, shows another that his appearance and behavior are unpleasant. If a person looks and behaves unpleasantly, he risks being rejected.

Contempt and fear

Contempt

Contempt is caused by a feeling of superiority. Disgust, contempt and anger are human emotions that indicate hostility, caused by similar situations.

Fear

Fear is one of the most negative emotions. Fear manifests itself when a person is not sure that he is safe. Fear can be caused by pain or loneliness. The more experienced a person is, the more reasons he has for fear.

Fear deprives a person of freedom of action and narrows perception. A frightened person wants one thing - to avoid danger. Fear constrains movement or, conversely, forces you to run. People need fear for self-preservation.

Fear Management Techniques

Fear can be managed in several ways:

• Desensitization. This is relaxation with the presentation of threatening symbols. Reduces sensitivity to frightening objects.
• Implosion therapy. The patient presents the most traumatic event in his life in the form of interviews.
• Modeling. Imitating someone else's way of expressing emotions.
• Mutual regulation of emotions. Training the ability to evoke emotions opposite to fear. (For example, anger).

Embarrassment

An embarrassed person does not look the other person in the face. Embarrassment can come from feelings of inadequacy.

The functions of the emotion of embarrassment are to protect the child from communicating with strangers and to prevent excitement of the nervous system. Embarrassment in its extreme is rather a harmful emotion. Shyness interferes with an individual's social adaptation.

Embarrassment can be a sign of depression. When a person is ashamed, he turns away, does not look him in the eye, and blushes.