The 3 components of emotions

Behind the emotions we experience there are three processes that define them: behavioral, neurovegetative and cognitive. Emotions are not limited to what we feel subjectively.but they have a clear correlation in our body and in our behavior.

The nature of emotions is changing, the same emotion does not remain for a long period of time. If this happened we would talk more about a feeling, like love, rather than an emotion.

For this reason, we can be angry and a few moments later laugh at a joke that has just been made to us. In fact, the very morphology of the word already informs us of the changing nature of its meaning: it comes from the word “motion”, or what is the same, movement. Let’s look at this in more detail.

Know the true nature of emotions

Emotion is generated as an organized response to an external event or an internal event (thought, image, behavior, etc.). First, the perceptual process of the event takes place, which is followed by an evaluation. The result is a neuropsychological, behavioral or cognitive reaction. If it leads to a behavior, it causes a predisposition to action, as indicated by Bisquerra in 2003.

Emotions have a gradient of intensity: Despite being brief and changing, they can store enough energy to produce a very large impact.. For example, if an event makes us feel angry, at the moment that emotion is triggered it is very difficult to control, since the three components have been unleashed and both our body and our mind are immersed in the emotion.

However, if we want to have a holistic vision of emotional processes, we cannot focus only on the psychological component or intensity and self-control. There are 3 main components that experts have described, so let’s look at them one by one.

Neurovegetative component of emotions

They are those physical reactions that are reflected in our body. These reactions are not controllable and appear whether we like it or not.. For example, if we feel fear, tachycardia, sweating, tremors, muscle tension, etc. may appear. Or, if we feel ashamed, we can blush.

Normally, the vegetative component is due to the reason why said emotion appears. It is the most basic and fastest component to activate, since it is the one that prepares us to respond to an external threat.

For example, if we feel fear, our body uses the energy of this emotion to prepare to save us. of danger, helps us to be more effective in the response and causes changes in neurotransmitters. Thus, in the event of an escape, adrenaline would come into play.

The changes that arise are managed by the sympathetic nervous system. Increases muscle tone, makes our heart beat faster and that we have faster and more efficient reactions than at rest. Once the threat passes, our body has to recover its homeostasis and regulate all bodily functions, this is taken care of by the parasympathetic system.

Behavioral component

In terms of behavior, when we experience an emotion, it translates into actions of greater or lesser intensity. These changes can be reflected in prosody, facial expressions or even in the decisions that are made. The objective of this component is to inform others of our state of mind. Therefore, it facilitates social relationships and promotes empathy.

Facial expressions of emotions have generated a lot of curiosity in the field of psychology, so much so that they have been the subject of a large number of studies. Research seems to indicate that these expressions are innate and universal, since everyone has the same expressions for each emotion, and we are also quite good at identifying them in others.

Besides, This component of emotion is strongly influenced by sociocultural and educational factors., which modulate emotional expression. That is, social rules facilitate or inhibit the manifestation of our emotions depending on the context in which the emotional response appears. For example, it is permissible to jump with excitement if we pass an exam, but we tend to inhibit our anger at our superiors at work.

Unlike the neurovegetative component, the behavioral component tends to change depending on the stage of development.. That is, the manifestation of our emotions varies throughout the person’s development, with adults exercising greater emotional control than children.

Cognitive component

It is the subjective experience of emotion, or what we call ‘feelings’ in everyday language. It’s about how we perceive the emotion and the impact it has on us. It allows us to put a name to what we feel. Sometimes, the limitations of language mean that there are restrictions on feelings and that we come to the conclusion that we do not know what is happening to us.

The difficulty of putting a name to what we feel can greatly limit our ability to communicate., so adequate emotional education is very important to help us identify our emotions and those of others and translate them into words. He thinks that good emotional management requires correct identification of emotions as a necessary condition.

Alexithymia is the inability to name feelings. It is something like an “emotional blindness” that makes it impossible to understand what one feels. The problem would be found in the cognitive component of the emotion, since although the sufferer is capable of feeling emotions, he is not able to understand and name them.

Final thoughts

Finally, we can say that Emotions refer to a multidimensional process responsible for:

The analysis of significant situations, The subjective interpretation of them, based on personal history, The emotional expression or communication of the entire process, The preparation for action or mobilization of behavior, The changes in physiological activity.

As we have seen in this article, Emotions have three ramifications that make them more complex than they may initially seem.. Thus, although they are related to the most primitive biology of our brain, we have the challenge of adapting each of its components to current demands. A task that, on the other hand, is not easy.

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