Difference in Emotion

Gender

One study asked men and women to say few sentences such as “My dog died today”. Women read this sentence making droopy and gloomy faces and many of their faces were expressionless to indicate pain. However, men showed more resentment and anguish than sadness or pain when they read the sentence. So, it was concluded that men are either poor emotion encoders or have difficulty displaying emotions. Also, from this experiment, it demonstrated that women are more expressive than men.


Researchers at Wake Forest University reported that although men show qualities of being strong and powerful than women, they do face ups and downs in their emotions. Though women share their problems with friends and others, men don’t easily express their emotions with others and keep their emotions to themselves. One researcher, Professor Robin Simon further stated that both men and women express their emotion in different ways.

Culture

Study conducted by psychologist David Matsumoto of San Francisco State University concluded that Russians control their expression of emotion such as smiling, much more than Americans do. They study show the nature of collectivist societies: where people are more group-oriented, they tend to neutralize these expressions, especially in public. However, people of individualist societies like America, they smile, promoting more openness in general.

EMOTION

Emotion is a powerful force on human behavior. Emotions are complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behavior. Emotions signal change in environment, change within a person or both. Emotions are different from moods and personalities. Emotion gets attention and demands a response.

In the course of evolution, human developed rich emotional system. From evolutionary point, emotions are agents of change and reaction. It also serves to maintain social bonds.

Psychologists think that humans are equipped with set of predictable responses to certain situations. These are called basic emotions: anger, fear, surprise, disgust, joy and sadness.

James-Lange theory of emotion suggest that emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events. When one sees external stimulus that leads to physiological reaction, emotion reaction is dependent upon hos one interpret those physical reactions. So, this theory states that one will interpret one’s physical reactions and conclude their emotion.
Canon-Bard theory of emotion suggest that one feel emotions and experience physiological reactions simultaneously. Emotions result when thalamus sends a message to the brain in response to stimulus, resulting in physiological reaction.
Schachter-Singer theory is also known as two-factor theory of emotion which is an example of cognitive theory of emotion. It suggests that physiological arousal occurs first and one must identify the reason behind this arousal in order to experience and label it as an emotion.

Emotions helped humans to survive. It is necessary in order to react quickly to stimuli. Humans developed emotions because it could create quick response to danger. Being self-conscious, it makes human increasingly invested and crafty in needs for survival. Human also developed more complex rational system where they imagine past and future selves to reason about old and future.

Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s disease attacks the brain with gradual memory loss and difficulties with language and emotions. About 5-6% of US population has AD or related dementia (4 million people). AD ranks fourth in the cause of death among adults as about 100,000 people die per year as a result. It is a progressive disease of the brain which cause thinking and memory to malfunction. It is the most common form of dementia which symptoms are loss of memory, judgment and reasoning and changes in mood, behavior and communication. The basic symptom of AD is memory loss, especially of recent and new information. Alzheimer’s disease was identified by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1906 who described the two hallmarks of the disease : “plaques” and “tangles”. He also found out that when brain cell degenerate and die, the some regions of the brain shrink. AD affects different areas of the brain causing various abilities to shut down. Plaques are composed of protein called beta-amyloid. Proteins are vital in body but as one age, there are too much formation of these molecules that accumulate in the brain. Plaques cause nerve deaths. Hippocampus and medial temporal lobe in the brain are first to be affected by Alzheimer’s disease. 

The video, “The Forgetting”, explained the realistic social affects of the Alzheimer’s Disease. There were few clips of different people who had Alzheimer’s Disease. I could see the suffering of the patient and the loved ones who had to watch their friend or family slowly die. It’s very depressing because the loved ones not only have to watch the patient die but gradually lose their everyday life abilities. They also have to watch them forget and lose themselves. I was sad after watching the video because memory loss didn’t only affect the person with AD but friends and families around them. The person can also not be able to recognize friends or families. Personality change as one lose their identity. This was the saddest part because losing what you are is tragic.