Alee's Reading Response

The Evolution of Emotions

ALee Russell
The Feeling Brain
1/24/07

For years scientists have been trying to find the appropriate way to dissect the complex science of human and animal emotions. It has been approached from both psychological and biological vantage points, trying to piece together the framework of our feelings. In this weeks readings we start with Darwin’s evolutionary approach to emotions as he attempts to explain the importance of expression as a source of communication in our early ancestors. Within the next reading, the authors take Darwin’s work a step further and search for a common link within the facial expressions of other cultures across the globe. The final reading by LeDoux focused on his study of the process that leads to an emotional as well as physical response. The study of emotions is an ongoing one, a field in which much has yet to be discovered, but each of these readings provides pivotal building blocks to further the understanding of emotions.
Charles Darwin, writer of The Origin of Species and evolutionary theorist, has become known as one of the most influential men in the world of science. He has set much of the groundwork for many fields including the study of emotions. In his book The Expression of Emotions In Man and Animals he introduces us to his three general principles of expression. First, the idea that certain habits form to produce a desired effect, secondly, the idea of antithesis, that there are universal habits, which serve as a form of communication between one another, and thirdly, the idea of a direct action upon the nervous system that produces an involuntary reaction that we recognize as an expression. Darwin believed that both animals and humans are inherently linked in regards to emotion and expression. In his book he introduced the idea that emotions and expressions evolved from the need to communicate to survive. Darwin stressed the link between the physical aspects of emotion to the mental feeling involved with emotion. He also discussed the idea of conscious and unconscious impulses, which set a good deal of the foundation for further studies within the internal process of emotion.
Darwin also set the example for scientists Paul Ekman, Richard Sorenson and Wallace V. Friesen who set out to test pan-cultural boundaries in emotion. They conducted an experiment in which they showed photographs of the face in different states of emotion to both literate and preliterate cultures and told them to choose which emotion was being portrayed. Generally the results were an affirmative for the facial cues expressed in the photographs. This experiment, however, chose only Caucasian faces as the stimuli, which may have affected their results. Their experiment, despite its flaws, confirms the idea that in both literate and preliterate cultures emotions, specifically facial expressions can be recognized across cultures. These results further confirm Darwin’s theories that across species, facial expressions are used as a form of communication and can be recognized universally.
Joseph LeDoux, as a cognitive scientist, takes a more brain-centralized approach to the study of emotions. In the first three chapters of his book, The Emotional Brain, he discusses questions that scientists have been trying to answer for years such as ‘What is an emotion?’ and ‘what comes first? The emotion or the bodily reaction/response?’ The second and third chapters examine the progression of cognitive scientists and their struggles with combining functional reasoning and logical mind with the emotional, feeling brain. In chapters two and three he traces the progression of cognitive scientists and his own theories on the processes that lead emotional responses to emotional experiences. He stresses the fact that unconscious mind as an important component in the study and understanding of emotions, saying that much of our responses to stimuli occur subconsciously.
The mysterious field of emotions has been approached from psychological and biological ways both never fully understanding the complete package of our emotions. Darwin, LeDoux and other scientists have spent their lives attempting to answer the complex question of what an emotion is. Scientists have worked tirelessly to bridge the gap between the psychological and biological aspects of emotion. There is still much that we don’t know about our own internal processes, but through research in both fields we are getting closer to our goal of understanding our emotions.

Readings:

Darwin, C. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. http://www.darwin-literature.com/The_Expression_Of_The_Emotions_In_Man_And_Animals/0.html.

Ekman, P., et al. (1969). Pan-cultural elements in facial displays of emotion. In Science Magazine, iss. 164, pp.86-88.

LeDoux, J. (1996). The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. New York: Simon & Schuster.