What aspects of human emotions appear to be innate? Why?
The innate aspects of human emotions are those that people have from the very beginning of their lives. They are primary for a person and include the following emotions: sadness, anger, fear, disgust, anticipation, surprise, joy and trust. These emotions develop early in humans, because they are necessary for survival. Facial expressions of emotions are also innate. The basic emotions have the following characteristics: 1) possess distinct and specific neural substrates; 2) they are manifested through the expressive and the specific configuration of facial muscle movements (facial expressions); 3) they imply a clear and specific experience, which is recognized by people; 4) they arose as a result of evolutionary and biological processes; 5) they provide an organizing and motivating effect on a person, serving his adaptation (Roberts, Matthews & Zeidner, 2010). Obviously, the basic emotions have deep phylogenetic roots, i.e., they are present not only in humans, but also in animals.
What aspects of human emotions appear to be learned? Why?
Secondary (learned) emotions represent more complex emotions and involve higher centers of the cerebral cortex. They can encompass basic emotions of anger or fear, or have a more complex structure, for example, these would be sorrow, grief or jealousy (Gross & Canteras, 2012). Secondary emotions are not automatic: they are produced by the brain, the individual is thinking about them and decides what to do with them - what action is best to be taken in a given situation. Conscious reflection and secondary emotions affect the way we react to situations that are generated by the primary emotions: we can step back, seeing an object hovering over our head, but as soon as we understand that this is just a shadow, we are not going to run away, feeling an attack of embarrassment, quickly recovering and pretending that nothing happened (Deckers, 2010). Secondary emotions include those emotions that are formed as a state of fear and anticipation "good - bad" associated with emotions. It can be described as the fear of fear and anticipation of anticipation. A big part of what we are dealing with in the emotional sphere are secondary emotions. Interpretation of emotions clearly associated with anticipation or fear of specific phenomena is usually easy and immediately displays the feasibility brought by the emotion in behavior. For learnt emotions it often happens that their usefulness is not so obvious. In complicated cases, the non-obviousness goes into utter mystery, which has prompted a review of the irrational nature of human emotions
Do you believe that innate factors have more of an effect on motivation than learned factors? Why or why not?
I believe that innate factors are more important for motivation, as the person has no real control over them. If the learned emotions are formed in the process of our upbringing, the innate are important for our survival and we have them independently of whether we want them or not. The learned emotions can be expressed in absolutely different ways, as they strongly depend on our childhood and environment. Innate emotions are common for all people and have similar manifestations. It is necessary to understand their role in people’s lives to motivate people properly. At the same time, I believe that secondary emotions should not be underestimated, as they can also be useful for motivation, although more difficult to use for motivation.
References
Deckers, L. (2010). Motivation: Biological, psychological, and environmental (3rd. ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Roberts, R. D., Matthews, G. & Zeidner, M. (2010). Emotional Intelligence: Muddling Through Theory and Measurement. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 3(2), 140–144.
Gross, C. T. & Canteras N. S. (2012). The many paths to fear. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13, 651-658.
