How do a person's feelings differ from his emotions?

The question of how feelings differ from emotions has been addressed in psychology. We all lived through both for the first time in early childhood. However, their depth and versatility are amazing. There is always a little pain in the words “I’m doing great,” sympathy in the phrase “I don’t care,” sarcasm in every “I was joking.” Our heart ensures the movement of blood and dances with joy, bursts with pain, freezes with fear. We hide experiences and display them, we suffer and enjoy, we are captured by them and controlled by them.

Concept and examples of emotions

I'll start with a definition. These are spontaneous states, effects caused by external and internal momentary stimuli. They have important features:

• arise during significant events and situations;
• are a response to a specific phenomenon in a clear time period “here and now”;
• appear unconsciously;
• associated with the release of hormones and neurotransmitter activity;
• are expressed quickly and impulsively, and therefore are more noticeable.

It could be delight, resentment, anger, joy.

They make it possible to adapt to the situation and make an adequate decision. For example, stopping in front of a car rushing at high speed will be helped by fear, and the irritation from the fact that “you are not you when you are hungry” will go away if you eat something tasty. Emotions and feelings are not the same thing, although at the everyday level these concepts are sometimes interchangeable. The external reaction will follow immediately when you are scared by a dog or you get a promotion. It is almost impossible to hide it. It manifests itself:

• at the physiological level, changing hormonal levels;
• in behavior, bitter tears or uncontrollable enthusiastic squealing;
• in cognition, leaving the history of the experience in memory.

Feelings and emotions. What is the difference?

• What is the difference between feelings and emotions?
• Is it possible to manage your condition?

In order to learn to control and manage our emotional and sensory area of ​​life, we need to understand the difference between emotions and feelings. From the point of view of psychology, emotions are mental processes that exist in the form of experiences that reflect personal meaning and assessment of external and internal situations in human life.
They often arise unconsciously and spontaneously, which is directly related to the biological processes that occur in the human body. Therefore, most often, they are classified as unconscious or subconscious behavior. And feelings are a reflection in a person’s consciousness of his attitude to reality, which arises when his highest needs are satisfied or dissatisfied. Unlike emotions, feelings manifest themselves more consciously, and therefore are associated with conscious actions and conscious manifestations. This speaks of a substantive and more specific manifestation of feelings and their inextricable connection with the social sphere in human life.

Based on this, we can come to the conclusion that emotions are a person’s instant reaction to the subject of irritation, his satisfaction or dissatisfaction with external conditions, while feelings can be called a state that lasts longer in time. This is the first difference between these processes: emotions are instantaneous and short-term, and feelings are gradual (long-term) and long-term.

For example, the emotion of joy arises at the sight of a certain person, like a flash. This person has become the triggering mechanism for this emotional process, but this outbreak is short-lived, since we cannot maintain a state of joy for a long time without feeding it with the thought process. But if you dig deeper, you can come to the conclusion that emotions can turn into certain feelings, which indicates their close relationship. Let's look at the same emotion of joy that we just talked about. We have identified the stimulus - the person at the sight of whom this emotion arises. If at the same time we experienced joy, then this indicates that we experience positive feelings towards this subject. It could be love, gratitude, interest, respect, good nature, etc. Everything is purely individual. That is, these feelings originate from our emotions - instant reactions, and over time they are consolidated in the process of thinking. But sometimes you can trace the reverse process, when certain emotions arise from feelings. For example, when we come into contact with a person towards whom we feel resentment, the reaction to his behavior can manifest itself in emotions such as anger, irritation, aggression, disgust. Or, when in contact with the person we love, we will experience emotions of interest and joy. This all suggests that it is impossible to completely separate emotions from feelings and put boundaries between them. They manifest themselves in close interrelation: emotions turn into feelings or express them. This is the second difference.

The third difference between feelings and emotions is that the former manifest themselves internally, while the latter manifest themselves externally. For example, the emotion of fear, at the sight of an object of irritation, manifests itself at the physiological level in a facial expression frozen in horror, a cry, nervous physical movements of the body, etc., while a feeling of fear can be present in a person’s subconscious all the time (fear of heights , spiders), having no outward manifestations until the stimulus appears in physical space. But this feeling is there - it does not disappear anywhere, although it may not make itself felt for a certain period of time.

Thus, we smoothly approach the fourth difference between feelings and emotions - unconscious and conscious manifestation. Emotions tend to manifest themselves unconsciously or unconsciously, while feelings are a more conscious (conscious) manifestation. If, when we see a spider, we instantly and unconsciously experience the emotion of fear, then our feeling of fear for this stimulus is conscious and fixed in our consciousness over a long period of time.

All this suggests that the manifestation of our emotions and feelings is directly related to beliefs, ideas, beliefs and personal assessments of reality - a reflection of our attitude towards others, towards the world, towards ourselves. It turns out that if reality corresponds to our ideas, then we experience positive emotions; if it does not correspond, then we experience negative emotions.

The fifth difference between emotions and feelings is that evoked emotions lead to a change in mood, while feelings lead to a change in sensation. Let's take the emotion of thoughtfulness. The man showed this reaction to the subject of irritation - he froze with a thoughtful expression on his face. The stimulus, carrying a certain kind of information, led the person to the process of reflection. When this emotional outburst has passed, we can see the person’s reaction in his mood - it either became good, which manifested itself in a joyful emotional state, or disappeared - in a depressed state. This, in turn, caused feelings of either disappointment or understanding. It turns out this emotional-sensory chain:

The emotion of thoughtfulness is a process of thinking - a feeling of disappointment (rejection) or understanding (acceptance).

Changes in mood and sensations are very subjective and depend on personal assessments of situational reality. This is all individual, since everyone’s reactions to the stimulus are different.

Further, the sixth difference is the human behavioral reactions that cause emotions and feelings. When experiencing emotions, a person exhibits bodily (external) activity - facial expressions, gestures, and features are involved. And when experiencing feelings, internal activity dominates, which manifests itself in brain activity and mental state.

From this we can identify a seventh difference - emotions are a reaction, and feelings are a state.

Emotions originate in our physiological needs - the search for pleasure, hunger, thirst, sexual desire and satisfaction, avoidance of pain. Since a person, in addition to his instincts, has consciousness, his reaction will have both a physiological aspect, in satisfying his needs, and a psychological one, depending on his ideas about himself. This leads to the eighth difference - emotions are a physiological manifestation, and feelings are a psychological manifestation.

For example, when someone tells you that you are ugly, you react emotionally to these words. This happens because there is a personal assessment of you. Your reaction will be caused as a reaction to a physical attack, a real threat to your physical existence. And if they tell you the same thing about a stranger, then your reaction will not be emotional, because it does not hurt your feelings and personal ideas, since you do not identify yourself with the person in question.

Based on all of the above, we can come to the conclusion that an accurate distinction between feelings and emotions is not so easy to make. Very often, the same emotion can express different feelings and vice versa - the same feeling can be expressed in different emotions. But, nevertheless, it is possible to trace the intensity, duration, modality, strength, depth, space-time displacement, that is, the distinctive characteristics of the emotional and sensory sphere of human life.

Functions

Imagine that the secretary told you that there will be a meeting with the manager today. The topic of the planning meeting is unknown, but she knows for sure that it is very important. How will you react? Be upset or scared, excited or angry, show indifference - everything matters to get the result. You can rely on your emotions or choose tactics to control them.

When the stakes are high, it can be very difficult to overcome temperamental behavior; our reactions guide us and indicate the right actions and decisions. But sometimes we are stubborn and do not want to speak and behave under their influence.

The problem is that if we managed to find a button and turn off the emotional background for a while, things would go even worse for us. We will immediately be accused of heartlessness, indifference and isolation.

It can be very difficult to vividly feel the shades of life, empathize with what is happening around and at the same time behave with restraint and adequately. I have also come across people who express their inner state unexpectedly for others or keep it to themselves. As a result, they begin to be shunned, considered strange or too cold.

It is within our power to learn to keep our emotions in check, to restrain and soften their manifestation, so as not to regret our behavior and not to be ashamed of our actions and words. The main thing is not to overdo it and become too stiff and dry.

Emotionality performs the following functions:

• facilitate choice, prepare people for action;
• report how we feel at the moment;
• stimulate our actions and make them justified.

Main characteristics

One of the ways of transmitting and perceiving information is emotional coloring. We have taught our smartphones to convey facial expressions by sending the desired emoticon in a written message. It helps to express what we have experienced or experienced.

1. Surprise, which provokes curiosity, encourages exploration and learning new things.
2. Dislike helps protect against harmful and dangerous things and preserves health. It is associated with the instinct of self-preservation.
3. Positivity brings joy and goodness; at the level of consciousness, it improves memory and develops erudition.
4. Fear and cowardice, which protect against danger, make the reaction lightning fast.
5. Rage and irritation are our self-defense; they sweep away obstacles like a hurricane and lead to achieving our goals.
6. Melancholy and despondency bring not only dullness and apathy. When we are sad, we become closer to other people, stop the rush of events and pay attention to those aspects of life that were previously left outside.

To put it briefly, how emotions differ from feelings is that they are not private. For example, a family quarrel, the wife accused her husband of not having time to pick up the child from school. They speak in a raised voice and sound irritated and annoyed. But even if they were both silent, their faces, bodies and eyes would give them away. Most of our reactions have signals that clearly and easily communicate to others what we are feeling. While our thoughts remain inaccessible.

Psychologist Daria Milai

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Definition of feelings in psychology and examples

They are characterized by depth and stability. This is not an outbreak, but a process that manifests itself in attitudes towards people, values, and behavior. I distinguish between high and low sensory levels. The first is related to social life and is divided into:

• Moral. Formation of a value system that implies an attitude towards friendship, fidelity, love, decency, compassion. It is brought up over the years, developed under the influence of family and environment, personal life experience and principles.

• Intelligence. Manifests itself as a result of learning and cognitive activity.

• Perception of beauty. It is carried out through art, cinema and literature.

The need to understand a concept, to comprehend it, is how a person’s feelings differ from his emotions. They cannot be imagined without deep analysis and evaluation. For example, to love your Motherland, you need to know what this word means, who patriots are, what they experience and how they behave. It can be difficult for us to explain what we feel. A loving mother is boiling over the mess in the room, and a guy in love is angry when he reads a text message that the meeting will not take place.

How is an emotion different from a feeling?

The difference between emotion and feeling:

1. Emotions arise much earlier than feelings.
2. Both humans and animals can have emotions. Feelings are unique to humans.
3. Emotions are changeable and short-lived, but feelings are usually stable and stable.
4. Emotions are associated with various situations and circumstances, and people have feelings for objects.
5. Emotions are biological processes, while feelings are associated with the social sphere.
6. Emotions manifest themselves unconsciously, unlike feelings.
7. Emotions manifest themselves externally. Feelings are hidden in the soul.

People are not able to simultaneously feel such different emotions as delight and melancholy, but they can experience feelings of love and hatred for one object at the same time

Feelings in childhood

Carefree time, in fact, filled with hard work to form a personality, its emotional immunity, stability, resilience in difficult life situations. During this period, the foundations of empathy are laid, the lack of which in adult life is very difficult to cultivate and compensate for.

Factors of a child’s sensory development:

• formation of higher nervous activity;
• attitude of parents and other adults;
• communication with peers;
• features of the educational process;
• gradual expansion of the range of situations that evoke a response.

It is very important to teach your child not only to express, but also to distinguish between the experiences of other people. Relationships with parents are of particular importance in this. Being loved and loving, living in safety and affection, children open up, gain confidence and peace of mind for life.

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What is the difference between feelings and emotions

We are not very pleased that our experiences are open to others; even simple and sociable people are not always ready to let observers into their souls. But the emotional signaling system is constantly in the “on” position. It conveys our reaction, regardless of desire. A bus door slammed in your face, you stained your blouse with a drop of sauce during lunch break, your child entered a prestigious university - you react violently and instantly. It's hard to imagine what life would look like if we could force a switch to turn off.

The impulse arises synchronously with the mood. So, if we are upset or depressed, we speak more quietly; when we calm down, the normal timbre of our voice returns by itself.

Feelings are focused on the subject, are not associated with specific incidents and events, but are expressed through emotions, although they do not always completely coincide with them. You get mad when your friend is late for a meeting, but that doesn’t stop you from loving her and trusting her endlessly.

They are distinguished by stability and longevity; emotional outbursts are short-lived. They have the peculiarity of becoming attached to an object and strengthening or weakening depending on its location. A short psychosis caused by a phone battery dying at the wrong moment cannot be compared with hatred of a person who once betrayed or set you up and met you in a supermarket.

How to identify emotions or feelings?

Very often, people have difficulty separating these mental phenomena; this makes it difficult to clearly identify the sensation they are experiencing . In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to analyze your own feelings on the following aspects:

• Sustainability;
• Awareness;
• Presence of a reason.

For example, experiences of anger, joy and sadness are emotions, perhaps their unconscious manifestation, not associated with a specific reason, but associated with certain events.

A person, in the course of one day, succumbing to emotions can experience their entire spectrum: become sad for no reason in the morning, feel a joyful mood from meeting an interesting person, get angry at a neighbor because of a long-standing dispute.

Emotional states replace each other without affecting the personality characteristics.

Let's consider such a mental phenomenon as pride , which is a feeling. This manifestation is conscious because it is based on the analysis of information from the environment.

This feeling is stable , since a temporary situation has no influence; one cannot stop experiencing it because of a certain short-term situation. reasons for pride are achievements and successes.

Man is given a unique opportunity to express feelings and emotions. These mental phenomena, although they have specific differences, are also closely connected. It is especially important to understand your own emotions and feelings and find a way to express them.

Table: what are the differences between emotions and feelings in psychology

Features of emotions and feelings. Forms of feelings

Emotions have the following characteristics.

Subjective nature. The attitude that is expressed in emotions is always personal, subjective in nature and differs significantly from the awareness of those objective connections between things that are established in the process of learning about the world around us.

Extreme variety of quality features. The following, rather incomplete list of emotional states, since they are expressed in human speech, allows one to judge an extremely large number and variety of emotions: feelings of hunger, thirst, feelings of pain, lust, possession, sexual feelings; a feeling of determination, self-confidence, etc.

Plastic. An emotion of the same quality, for example, joy or fear, can be experienced by a person in many shades and degrees, depending on the reasons that caused it, the objects or activities with which it is associated. A person can experience joy when meeting a friend, in the process of work that interests him, admiring majestic pictures of nature, watching cheerful and relaxed games of children, reading a book, etc. - but all these manifestations of joy are very different in their quality and degree.

Connection with intraorganic processes. This connection is twofold: 1) intraorganic processes are the strongest causative agents of many emotions, 2) all emotions, without exception, in one form or another find their expression in bodily manifestations. The close connection between emotions and the vital processes of the body was noticed a long time ago. Emotions signal everything that is useful and harmful for the body, and directly motivate a person to activities aimed at preserving the integrity of his body and maintaining life. At the same time, emotions, being associated with increased and decreased blood circulation, have a great impact on the functioning of the brain.

Connection with the direct experience of one's own “I”. Even the weakest emotions capture the whole person as a whole, accompanied by acute sensations of one’s own personality in its organic integrity and in opposition to the external environment.

Distinctive features of feelings are:

1. Clearly expressed intensity . Feelings are stronger emotional experiences than moods. 2. Limited duration . Feelings don't last as long as moods. Their duration is limited by the time of direct action of the reasons that cause them, or the memory of the circumstances that caused this feeling. 3. Conscious character . A characteristic feature of feelings is that the reasons that caused them are always clear to the person who experiences these feelings. 4. Strictly differentiated connection of emotional experience with specific objects, actions, circumstances that cause it. Feelings do not have the diffuse nature characteristic of moods. We experience a feeling of pleasure when reading this particular book and not another; when doing our favorite sport, we experience satisfaction that does not extend to other types, etc.

Forms of feelings. Affect is a strong and relatively short-term emotional experience of a person, which occurs suddenly and is accompanied by sudden motor changes and changes in the state of internal organs. Examples of affect can be unexpected strong joy, an outburst of anger, an attack of fear, etc. Affect is characterized by its uncontrollable manifestation, which is indicated by the everyday use of expressions like “flashed with anger,” “frozen with fright,” etc. Stress is a state of mental tension that occurs in a person during activities both in everyday life and in particularly difficult situations. In the case of a heavy load, a person goes through three stages: at first it is very difficult, then he gets used to it and a “second wind” appears, and finally he loses strength and must complete the activity. This three-phase reaction is a general law. This is an adaptation syndrome, or biological stress. Mood is the general emotional state of a person, which characterizes her vitality over a certain time. It is derived from the emotions that a person experiences. Mood often arises as an echo of a strong emotion experienced by a person. Passion is a stable and long-lasting feeling associated with a person’s persistent desire for a certain object. A person’s love for other people, for science, art, sports, and other activities often manifests itself in the form of passion.

Correlation of concepts

Their differences and similarities are woven into a lace of amazing complexity. They are interconnected, but do not coincide and do not flow into one another. In life you will not meet one or the other separately, in a “pure” form. Through them a person expresses himself and his worldview.

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Both categories have similar properties:

• relate to experiences with and without cause;
• associated with a certain state of mind;
• have direction, strength, duration and stages of development and manifestation;
• expressed in psychosomatic form;

Among the differences, I will highlight those that are significant for emotional signals:

• have a simple structure, talk about one thing: fear, delight, anger, irritation;
• they are characterized by dynamics;
• they are identical in different people.

There are both differences and similarities in the psychology of emotions and feelings. But what we experience when experiencing them is significantly different. You have probably noticed that when a “wave” covers you, you stop feeling even the people closest to you, and a person who is capable of experiencing deep sensations rarely falls into a state of passion.

How to understand them

To never make a mistake when classifying two concepts, imagine a control panel with many buttons. Each initiates a process that is predictable, inevitable, and reversible. The mechanism is simple: they turn on the stimulus and get an emotional reaction. Even a baby who has barely learned to hold his head can understand it. Mom smiles at him, which means he’s doing well, and a reciprocal smile will appear on his face; she knitted her eyebrows and raised her voice - he would cry, he was scared and offended.

Awareness of your mood is often quite simple. We are able to explain why we are worried. Feelings are more difficult to explain. They are like a background onto which emotionality is projected. He is able to combine love and anger, joy and pain, melancholy and tenderness.

At any moment we can stop and understand what we feel, where this experience comes from, and what it is connected with. To do this, it is important to correctly express thoughts in words, to be able to describe the process of brain activity and the causes of your condition as accurately as possible. If you don’t listen to yourself, you can get a bunch of mental disorders ranging from psychosis to severe depression.

Patterns

When arising and fading, emotions and feelings have similarities and differences. They are subject to a non-random sequence. Sensory experiences are characterized by:

• Transfer and generalization. Sensations tend to move to objects with similar characteristics, to expand the range of objects to which they apply. Affection for a pet can smoothly flow into love for dogs or cats.

• Attenuation and dullness. Over time, the intensity of passions weakens and the sharpness disappears. Moreover, transformation occurs with both positive and negative experiences; both rage and ardent love become calmer. Habits develop for everything.

• Contrast. Situations experienced sequentially or jointly influence each other. When a light streak comes after a dark streak in life, in contrast it appears impeccably white.

• Generalizability. A property associated with the accumulation of life experience. With age, respect for parents grows and attachment to loved ones strengthens. Negative experiences also add up and, at the slightest irritation, lead to a strong reaction.

Emotional states are characterized by:

• Replacement. The mood changes depending on the situation. Probably, when they say, from love to hate there is one step, this is what they mean.

• Shifting attention. They use it in different ways, for example, switching to a pleasant activity.

Types of emotions and their general characteristics

There are different types of emotions. Emotions and feelings vary depending on their quality

(positive and negative),
depth, intensity and duration of influence on activities.
The qualitative uniqueness of emotions and feelings expresses how a person relates to the corresponding phenomenon. Depending on how significant and how reality is reflected in emotions and feelings, deep

and
shallow
emotions and feelings.
Depending on the influence on activity, emotions and feelings are divided into sthenic
(from the gr. sthenos - strength) and
asthenic
. Stenic feelings encourage active activity and mobilize a person’s strength. Thus, feelings of joy or inspiration stimulate a person to energetic activity. Asthenic emotions relax a person and paralyze his strength.

By content originality

emotions distinguish the following types of emotions (Fig. 2).

Emotional tone of sensation

– our attitude to the quality of sensation, a mental reflection of the need properties of an object. Various sensations (smells, colors, sounds, etc.) are pleasant, neutral or unpleasant for a person.

Rice. 2. Types of emotions

We like the smell of flowers, the sound of the sea surf, the color of the sky at sunset, but the smell of rot and the grinding of brakes are unpleasant. There is even a painful organic aversion to certain stimuli - idiosyncrasy (for example, to the sounds made by a metal object grinding on glass).

The emotional attitude towards vital influences is inherited. This allows the body to react to it already at the first meeting with a harmful object. The emotional tone of various influences, fixed in memory, is then included in various perceptions and ideas. Emotional memory and a person’s emotional experience play a significant role in cases where it is necessary to act in conditions of a deficit of conceptual information.

Emotional response

– this is an emotional operational reaction to current changes in the subject environment.
An emotional response is determined by a person’s emotional excitability, his emotional tone; one of the types of emotional response is syntony
- empathy for the emotional state of other people - the most important social quality of a person. The ability for emotional consonance depends on the conditions of upbringing. People brought up in conditions of insufficient emotional contact or satiety with emotional contacts become incapable of emotional empathy.

Mood

is a general emotional state that colors a person’s behavior over a significant period of time.

Mood depends on the general state of health, the functioning of the endocrine glands, and the vital tone of the body. It is an emotional reaction not to the immediate consequences of certain events, but to their significance in a person’s life in the context of his life plans, interests and expectations. Mood, like all other emotional states, can be positive and negative, have a certain intensity, severity, tension and stability.

Affect
(
from the Latin affectus - emotional excitement, passion) is an excessive neuropsychic overexcitation that suddenly arises in an acute conflict situation, manifested in temporary disorganization of consciousness (its narrowing) and extreme activation of impulsive reactions.

Affect is an emotional explosion in an acute conflict situation, the danger of personal defeat. Deep resentment from a grave insult to a person, the sudden emergence of danger, gross physical violence - all these circumstances, depending on the individual characteristics of the person, can cause affect.

The state of affect is characterized by a significant disruption of the conscious regulation of human actions. A person’s behavior when affected is regulated not by a premeditated goal, but by a feeling that completely captures the personality and causes impulsive, subconscious actions. In a state of passion, the most important mechanism of activity is disrupted - selectivity in the choice of a behavioral act, a person’s behavior changes sharply, his attitudes and life positions are deformed, the ability to establish relationships between phenomena is disrupted, one, often distorted, idea begins to dominate in consciousness. From a neurophysiological point of view, this “narrowing of consciousness” during affect is associated with a disruption of the normal interaction of excitation and inhibition. The state of affect is associated with disturbances in the clarity of consciousness, which can lead to the inability to subsequently remember episodes of the event that caused the affect, and in the case of exceptionally strong affect, it can result in loss of consciousness and complete amnesia.

Affects associated with negative emotions (anger, hatred, jealousy) often acquire a destructive, aggressive nature, since a person acts reflexively, the latent period from the perception of the stimulus to the response is reduced to a minimum (several milliseconds), so the subject does not have time to realize the meaning and the consequences of their actions.

Passion

- this is a strong, persistent, all-encompassing feeling that dominates other impulses and leads to the concentration of all aspirations and forces on the subject of passion.

In terms of the intensity of emotional arousal, passion approaches passion, and in terms of duration and stability it resembles mood. The main sign of passion is its effectiveness, the fusion of volitional and emotional moments. Passion, having great power, is one of the essential motivations for activity. The unity of the moral, rational principle and passion is often the driving force behind great deeds, exploits, and discoveries.

Fear

- an unconditional reflexive, emotional reaction to danger, manifested in a sharp change in the vital activity of the body.

Fear arose as a biological defense mechanism. In most cases, fear causes a strong sympathetic discharge: screaming, running, grimacing. A characteristic symptom of fear is trembling of the body muscles, dry mouth (hence the hoarseness and muffled voice), a sharp increase in heart rate, increased blood sugar, etc. In this case, the hypothalamus begins to secrete neurosecretion, which stimulates the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone.

Socially determined causes of fear are the threat of public censure, loss of labor results, humiliation, etc. – cause the same physiological symptoms as biological sources of fear.

The highest degree of fear, turning into affect, is horror.

Terror is accompanied by a sharp disorganization of consciousness (insane fear), numbness (it is assumed that it is caused by an excessively large amount of adrenaline) or erratic muscle overexcitation (“motor storm”).

In a state of horror, a person may exaggerate the danger of an attack; his defense may be excessive, incommensurate with the real danger. The emotion of fear caused by dangerous violence encourages unconditional reflexive response actions based on the instinct of self-preservation.

Fear is a passive defensive reaction to danger, often emanating from a stronger person. If the threat of danger comes from a weaker person, then the reaction may acquire an aggressive, offensive character - anger.

In a state of anger, a person is predisposed to instant, often impulsive action. Excessively increased muscle excitation with insufficient self-control easily turns into very strong action. Anger is accompanied by threatening facial expressions and an attack pose. In a state of anger, a person loses objectivity of judgment and carries out uncontrollable actions. Fear and anger can reach the level of affect, but sometimes they are expressed in a lesser degree of emotional stress.

Stress

(from the English stress - tension) is an emotional state that occurs in response to extreme influences.

Stress is a total mobilization of the body’s forces to find a way out of a very difficult, dangerous situation, to adapt to extremely difficult conditions. Extremely strong irritants - stressors cause vegetative changes (increased heart rate, increased blood sugar, etc.), the body prepares for intense actions. In response to an extremely difficult situation, a person reacts with a complex of defensive reactions.

Physiological stress

is a total mobilization of the body’s forces to find a way out of a very difficult, dangerous situation, to adapt to extremely difficult conditions. In response to an extreme situation, a person reacts with a complex of defensive reactions. Under physiological stress, the human body responds not only with a defensive reaction (change in adaptive activity), but also with a complex generalized reaction, often little dependent on the specifics of the influencing stimulus.

Psychological stress

Informational stress and emotional stress are subdivided.

Information stress occurs in situations of information overload, when the subject cannot cope with a task and does not have time to make the right decisions at the required pace.

Emotional stress appears in situations of threat, danger, resentment, etc. At the same time, its various forms (impulsive, inhibitory, generalized) lead to changes in the course of mental processes, emotional shifts, transformation of the motivational structure of activity, disorders of motor and speech behavior.

Sociogenic stress.

Social reality (political, economic, family life, etc.) can be a powerful stress factor for a person. Social stressors can include conflicts of a social and interpersonal nature, loss of a job, obstacles to achieving a goal, etc.

Environmental stress

associated with climatic and geographical conditions of human activity (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, etc.).

Technogenic stress

due to the danger posed by technology to the lives and activities of people.

Autogenic stress.

The cause of stress, stressors, are certain personality traits (touchiness, suspiciousness, feelings of inferiority, etc.).

Traumatic stress

– these are experiences of an atypical nature, the result of a special interaction between a person and the environment. With traumatic stress, intense negative experiences are possible when a person encounters something resembling a traumatic event.

Work stress

arises due to reasons related to work conditions, place of work.

Professional stress

associated with the conditions, means, technology, mode of implementation of a particular professional activity (pilots, sailors, doctors, journalists, etc.).

Organizational stress

arises due to the negative impact on the employee of the characteristics of the organization in which he works.

A person’s behavior in a stressful situation depends on many conditions, but primarily on his psychological preparation, including the ability to quickly assess the situation, skills of instant orientation in unexpected circumstances, strong-willed composure and determination, experience of behavior in similar situations. Stress can have both a mobilizing effect (austress) and a depressing effect (distress).

Frustration

- a specific emotional state of a person, expressed in the characteristic features of experiences and behavior, caused by objectively insurmountable (or subjectively understood) difficulties on the way to achieving a goal or solving a problem. Frustration is accompanied by a range of mostly negative emotions: anger, irritation, guilt, despair, etc. Frustration experiences have a “pressing” effect on the psyche, reducing the ability for reflection (introspection) and logical analysis of events. Frustration is experienced by a person who feels the hostility of a group (family, professional, educational, etc.); a teenager who does not find understanding, love and support for his plans in his family. A state of frustration can lead to significant changes in the subject’s behavior: either refusal of activity, replacement of real activity with imaginary ones (withdrawal into oneself, into dreams), or to the manifestation of rudeness, aggressiveness in relation to those circumstances that directly act as obstacles, barriers , and in relation to everyone around. The latter is typical for adolescents, who are driven by states of frustration to commit illegal acts. Sometimes frustration leads to self-destruction, a feeling of complete purposelessness and hopelessness of one’s existence, nervous depression and suicide. Therefore, a certain amount of willpower and intellectual activity are necessary so that a person can overcome frustration states and find for himself compensatory meaningful activities that would satisfy his living conditions and communication.