The psychological state of a person is expressed through emotions.
It is an emotion - the main link for connecting people with reality and his communication with other people.
The complex process of communication includes not only the expression of feelings, but also the complex of psychological defenses of the individual associated with this process.
Adaptive theory
Clinical psychiatrist, psychologist Robert Plutchik (USA) became the author of the adaptation theory of emotions.
Scientific work saw the light in the form of a monograph, published in 1962 and received worldwide recognition.
Plutchik managed to recreate clear picture of intrapersonal processes and related psihzaschit person.
The main theses of the theory of emotions:
- AT basis of occurrence emotions lies genetics, evolutionary adaptation of man.
- Exactly evolutionary selection ensured the formation of the most effective mechanisms - behavioral reactions (there are 8 of them), which allow people to survive and communicate with the outside world.
- Emotion is transformed into a behavioral response.instantly connecting the complex chain of human perception from a stimulus to a specific action.
For example, when recognizing a threat and danger, a person immediately feels fear and horror, which causes him to step back, run away, obeying the instinct of self-preservation.
- The relationship between emotions Plutchik presented in the form of "wheels" - a scheme in the structure of which chains of definitions are connected by common notions. For example, the vertical wheel vector demonstrates the intensity of feeling growth: sadness - sadness - grief, acceptance - trust - admiration.
- Emotions relate with the character traits of a person: fear is peculiar to timidity, joy to friendliness, and anticipation to curiosity in character. Extreme feelings determine further the clinical picture of mental disorders: The subject’s sadness condition is extremely transformed into depression, anger into aggression, and aversion into a paranoid state.
Basic human reactions correspond to 8 basic emotions.:
- Adoption - in physiology, this is the process of eating, in a broader sense - the acceptance of what a person defines as necessary and good for himself (favorable);
- rejection - so the individual gets rid of the unpleasant, unfit for survival;
- avoidance as a reaction to danger, threat;
- destruction obstacles to the desired;
- approximation; courtship for the purpose of reproduction;
- sorrow from the loss of a significant person along with the search for a new object of guardianship (reintegration);
- recognition, orientation on contact with new and unknown;
- study of, the study of events and facts of the environment in which a person lives.
In the future, the theory of Plutchik was developed by him in collaboration with other scientists. Together with Henry Kellerman Plutchik has developed a working model of psychic defense mechanisms, a structural theory of personality.
The defense mechanism completely invisible to the individual distorts the traumatic, unpleasant and dangerous knowledge about the environment, interaction with society, right on the path to consciousness.
As a result psychic defense in a person's head, reality is distorted in a way that is convenient for him: ignored, forgotten, or interpreted into something seemingly safe and “digestible.”
The main types of emotions
The main types of emotions in the scientific study of Plutchik - Kellerman form the basis dispositions - the tendency of the individual to specific actions, reactions to events, phenomena and objects of the environment.
To cope with the storm of feelings are formed protective mechanismstherefore, 8 basic human emotions are also accompanied by 8 basic mental defenses.
Joy - the disposition of mania
Normally, a person of this type literally gushes energy with the predominance of emotions of joy. The character expressed a positive attitude, love for people, a high need for communication.
Mental health manifests itself in the form of behavior management. Inherent high motivation to comply with social canons, traditions and norms.
Acceptance is hysteria
Emotion of adoption is accompanied by a protective mechanism in the form denials. In the nature of hysterics, hypervincibility, a tendency to idealize nice, pleasant people (amorousness) are manifested.
Those moments that don't like consciousnessare denied. In society, people with the main emotion of acceptance tend to everyone's attention, are prone to affectation and pathos, they are arrogant, optimistic and crave recognition.
Anger - Aggression
The body’s defensive reaction to the predominant emotion of anger is substitution.
An angry person is irritable and quick-tempered, hyper-demanding, critical to the environment. Any criticism is his violent protest.
Replacement, as a defense mechanism, is necessary for communication with stronger and more powerful members of societyotherwise the person would be in a state of constant dangerous conflicts for him.
Replacement redirects anger to a safer object or inside the aggressor itself.
Surprise - Psychopathy
A man with a leading emotion of wonder is inspired and impulsive. His character is weak, he does not know how to complete what he has begun, is easily influenced by others, he is not self-confident, he is constantly looking for support and help from those around him.
The protective mechanism that regulates the emotion of surprise according to Plutch is regression, which is expressed in transitions from more mature behaviors to child insecurity and back.
Sadness - depression
This type of person constantly suffers from loss something (someone), as well as the loss of self-esteem.
Protective reaction acts compensation, which is expressed in the elimination of their own shortcomings, work on themselves.
Such people are able to achieve significant results in activities, they are prone to originality, serious sports.
Disgust - paranoia
Rejection (or disgust) as the main emotion becomes consequence of rejection trauma important for a person people in the early childhood period.
The defensive reaction is the projection, which throws a sense of its own inferiority to others.
Such people are critical, not suggestible, proud, vindictive, jealous. Often they are closed and intractable, but tend to achieve high performance in any business.
Fear - passivity
The emotion of fear is blocked, supplanted by suppression.
Protective behavior makes a fearful person passive, inert.
is he goes into itself, does not take the initiative, tries to avoid possible problems.
In society, such people are timid, afraid of new acquaintances, obedient, often everyone forgets. Easily fall into dependence on someone.
Waiting - obsessive disposition
Emotion of expectation of negative events is blocked. excessive rationalization, rethinking events and facts.
This type of personality is formed in adolescence because of the fear of not expressing himself "at the height" in the competition with his peers.
Arising hypercontrol and a tendency to self-analysis make a person responsible and disciplined maverick.
Plutchik wheel - what is it?
Flower of emotions of Robert Plutchik in Russian:
Visualization of the emotional spectrum man, proposed by Robert Plutchik, received the name of the wheel of emotions.
The spectrum is depicted in the form of an 8-petal flower of regular shape, further divided into three sectors.
In the center are the emotions in the extreme manifestation (affects), the middle circle - the basic feelings, the external - more complex.
The farther from the center, the lower the intensity of the feeling (transfer from the center to the external sector):
- Delight - joy - serenity.
- Delight - trust - acceptance.
- Horror - fear - anxiety.
- Astonishment - surprise - excitement.
- Grief - sadness - sadness.
- Disgust - displeasure - boredom.
- Anger - anger - annoyance.
- Alertness - waiting - interest.
Thus, all emotions are derived from the base spectrum (possible combinations), and each basic feeling has its opposite - the opposite.
How to use it?
The wheel of emotions Plutchik used to study the subtleties of emotions, as well as for learning emotional impact.
Trainings created on the basis of the wheel of emotions, hold, for example, for people working in the field of management.
Approximate scheme of group classes:
- Offered consider a list of "mixing emotions". For example: delight comes from mixing joy and surprise, a symbiosis of sadness and disgust gives rise to contempt, joy together with trust causes love, and surprise with sadness - annoyance.
- Group members are offered make adjustments to the listthat they seem to be correct, and even add the missing options. You also need to understand what is the difference between the interpretation of the author (and what value was invested in certain definitions of feelings) and his own interpretation.
- An exercise, previously performed individually, is repeated in a pair or a group of several people. It is important to realize how different will the understanding of the same words be to different people, analyze the differences.
- Offered add Plutchik's list of emotions that are not there, and describe in detail the added feelings - their shades, intensity.
Exercises help to better understand the intricacies of the emotional world, and therefore, more effectively interact with people.
Exactly emotional impulse underlies any actioncommitted by man. Therefore, maximum awareness of the diversity of the spectrum of emotions helps to better understand not only another person, but also himself.
On how to work with the rug of emotions created on the basis of the wheel of Plutchik, you can learn from this video:
