Understanding Emotions

Course overview

This health update, ?Understanding Emotions? examines the issue of what, exactly, is an emotion. It reviews the relation between emotions and the brain, tracing the history of the area of the brain we think of today as most associated with emotion: the limbic system. It examines the roots of psychology?s current thinking about the relation between cognition and emotion. It then looks at specific emotions, starting with the three that are often most powerful and most likely to cause disturbances in important interpersonal relationships: anger, envy, and jealousy. Conditions that arouse anger are evaluated. Specific approaches to dealing constructively with anger are presented including handling anger assertively and asking oneself a series of questions to clarify feelings of anger and plan for constructive action. The emotion of envy is also discussed using the same approach, with an ?action plan?: a set of questions to ask oneself in connection to feelings of envy that can constructively guide action, are presented. Jealousy, a powerful emotion that typically involves a three-way interpersonal interaction that makes it inherently more complicated is also presented utilizing this format.