- Discuss Cognition and Emotion. Can We Experience Emotion Apart from Thinking? Can you remember feeling emotion without knowing why?
There is a strong and direct relationship between cognition and emotion, although they are two different things and cannot be interchangeable. Cognition mainly refers to mental processes such as language, attention, problem solving, planning, memory, etc. Emotion on the other hand refers to any kind of subjective and conscious experience. Cases wherein cognition and emotion occurs at the same time are not uncommon. In the same manner, there can also be cases wherein an individual experiences emotion without cognition. I have had experiences like this in the past wherein I suddenly felt sad without any rational explanation why or where that emotion came from.
- Discuss nonverbal communication from a cultural viewpoint. Are nonverbal expressions of emotion universally understood? What has your experience been?
Nonverbal communications are not always universal. For a certain group of people, it may be, but it definitely cannot be understood by all people living in this planet. This is because nonverbal forms of communication are typically dependent on an individual’s visual senses and the human eye can only see so far. This is actually the reason behind why we have lots of nonverbal forms of communication throughout the world. In my experience, I find nonverbal communication harder to use and understand because of the fact that it can be used and interpreted in a lot of ways.
- Discuss one of the emotions from the reading—fear, anger, happiness. What are the causes and the consequences? Can you include any personal examples?
Fear is a very common emotion. However, despite its ubiquity, fear may be the most unwanted or even hated emotion an individual may experience. Fear is usually caused by past experiences, visual thoughts, imaginations, and even reality that stimulates horror and terror. Phobias are conditions wherein an individual suffers from an irrational fear of a certain object like fear of water or hydrophobia for example. I have feared ghosts ever since I was I child and I guess most, if not all, children did.
- What are the stresses of your own life? How do you respond to them? Are there changes you could make to avoid these stressors in your life?
My number one life stressor as of the moment is my education. Living the life of a student will always be characterized by a day full of mini stressors like course papers and other academic tasks and responsibilities. I usually respond or deal with them by making sure that everything is properly managed and organized. Of course there are a lot of changes I want to make. I want to make myself more organized, especially with regards to the way how I use my time.
- How would you describe your personality? What characteristics make up your typical patterns of thinking, feeling and acting?
The word that would perfectly describe my personality would be simplicity. I find myself simple. I usually do the things that a normal person of my age do and that’s why I find it easy to go out and socialize with other people, which for me, is one of the best assets that an individual could have.
- Discuss the humanistic approach to personality. How valid do you feel it is? Have you ever been accepted unconditionally?
The humanistic approach to personality is the approach that values ethical perspectives which in turn focuses on the agency and value of human beings as a person and as a group. I think it is a valid school of thought because if it is not, there would be no supporters of the thought like me living in this planet. For me, there is no such thing as unconditional because at one point or another, there will always be conditions. You have to be a good child for your parents to love you. You have to be a good student for your teacher to praise you.
- Discuss the person-situation controversy
The person-situation controversy refers to the issue that revolves around the question whether it is the situation or the person that influences a certain behavior. One side believes that situations are more influential while the other side claims that any behavior depends entirely on the person.
- Would you say you are a pessimist or an optimist? In what ways are you one? How has either tendency influenced your life choices, etc.?
I am a pessimist. I always think of things that could go wrong in the future. I make contingency plans and I am a restless thinker. In my life, being a pessimist helped me in a lot of ways. For example, whenever I go to school, I always take extra money with me so that whenever an emergency scenario pops out, I can do something for myself or even for other people. I think I would be able to realize the advantages of being a pessimist more in the future.
- What possible selves do you dream of or fear becoming? To what extent do these imagined selves motivate you now?
I have always dreamed of becoming a successful professional—regardless of the type of profession, someday. Of course, I have to do a lot of sacrifices and invest a lot of time, effort, and resources to make that happen. But at the end of the day, despite these pessimist-driven thoughts, I always look up to my dream self and I think doing so serves as one of my main sources of motivation.
Part II: Sleep Apnea
There are many kinds of sleep disorders. Some can be chronic and some can be acute. Notice that there are people who, during their sleep, snore. Some experts say that snoring could be a sign of an underlying disorder, in one, or even more body organs, and in worse cases, systems. Sleep Apnea is among the most common sleeping disorders that medical professionals encounter. It is a sleeping disorder characterized by having one or more breathing pauses, and in less severe cases, no pauses no pauses but rather shallow breaths when a person is sleeping. In laymen’s terms, it looks as if the person is catching his breath or simply exhibits difficulty in breathing during his sleep. This can be alarming because breathing, during our sleep, is largely involuntary—meaning, the person does not have conscious control of his breathing. The person cannot even control the way he breaths like the rhythm, the interval, and the depth of his breathing. The breathing pauses in sleep apnea can have a span of a few seconds up to a couple of minutes. In terms of the frequency, the breathing pauses can occur at least 30 times in one hour. The duration of pauses and the frequency will generally be higher in more severe cases. After the episode of sleep apnea subsides, the person usually returns to his normal pattern of breathing while sleeping. Most of the time, this return to normal breathing phase is characterized by a choking sound or a loud snort. Because of these perturbations, the quality of sleep of people with this disorder is often poor, leading to poor work productivity and abnormal feeling of tiredness and sluggishness throughout the day. In fact, according to studies, sleep apnea ranks among the top causes of excessive daytime sleepiness.
Signs and symptoms of sleep apnea occur only when a person is asleep. This is the main reason why physicians of in-patient patients usually cannot detect the presence of the disease. However, the good thing is that sleep apnea is generally not asymptomatic. The only problem is that it is hard to notice. Some people, especially those who live alone, do not usually know they already have the disorder. Family members and bed partners are usually the ones who first notice the signs and symptoms of the disorder.
Obstructive sleep apnea is the most prevalent type of apnea. A person with this condition usually suffers from the abnormal collapse or blockage of airways while sleeping. This airway blockage or collapse then leads to shallow breathing and breathing pauses. There is another type of sleep apnea called Central Sleep Apnea which is less common compared to the Obstructive one. In this condition, the part of the brain responsible for controlling the parameters of breathing during sleep, which is most likely the autonomic nervous system, does not send the right signals to the effector organs or mainly the diaphragm since it is the main muscle for inspiration. Such phenomena lead to abnormal breathing patters.
Individuals who have a long history of sleep apnea of any kind usually suffer from increased risks of hypertension, cardiovascular conditions such as myocardial infarction, stroke, Diabetes Mellitus, and arrhythmias. In terms of activities of daily living or ADLs, individuals who leave sleep apnea untreated may have increased risks of having driving and other work-related accidents.
There is not one-time cure for this condition. Treatment for sleep apnea involves a long term management focusing on lifestyle changes, and surgery—if there are organs in the body affected, and use of accessory devices such as mouthpieces and breathing devices.
References
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2012). What is Sleep Apnea? NIH.
