Functions of emotions

The richness of the human world of emotions far exceeds the simplest emotional reactions in animals. The great role of emotion and feelings in the development and survival of mankind, they are also an additional resource in solving problems. Consider the main types and functions of emotions and feelings.

The main types and functions of emotions:

1. Regulatory function of emotions is expressed in the fact that emotions help to understand the difference between the current motivation and internal perceptions of the situation and are the main elements of regulating the behavior and mental activity of a person.
2. Evaluation function of emotions. Emotion allows you to instantly analyze the meaning of a situation or an isolated stimulus for a person. Assessment at the level of emotion outstrips the conscious processing of information and "addresses" it in a certain direction.
3. Mobilizing function. It initially manifests itself at the level of physiology: the release of adrenaline into the blood during fear improves the running ability (excessive adrenaline can have the opposite effect - a stupor), and with anxiety, lowering the threshold of sensations will help to distinguish threatening stimuli. At the same time, with strong emotional loads, the phenomenon of "narrowing of consciousness" is observed, which forces the body to direct all forces to overcome the unfavorable situation.
4. Adaptive function of emotions and feelings. The resulting associative thread between the negative emotion and the type of situation prevents repetition of similar errors in the future. Positive emotions, on the contrary, fix an acceptable pattern of behavior. This function is very important when the adaptive behavior model is delayed. It plays an autonomous role in stimulating the behavior of a living individual.
5. Communicative function of emotions. Expressive expression of emotions makes their social environment understandable. Some emotions cause a manifestation of altruism in others. For example, mothers feel when a child cries for pain and sooner comes to the rescue. Emotions are very "contagious", the emotional state can be transmitted to others, just because the person is aware of the experience of another person, and he can try them on himself. This can be seen when a person from the company begins to laugh at something, the rest just pick up the fun. The communicative function of emotions also plays an important role in the development of young children who are not yet talking, for them this is often the only possible way to maintain communication with the surrounding world.
6. The signal function of emotions is that, in a sequence of simple situations, they automatically, simply, quickly signal about what is happening inside or around us.
7. Function of disorganization. Strong emotions can disrupt the effective course of action. Affect is sometimes useful when it is necessary to mobilize all physical forces. But the prolonged impact of intense emotion provokes a state of distress, which subsequently leads to a violation of health and behavior.
8. Function of compensation of deficiency of the information. It happens that a person can not make a prediction about anything because of a lack of information, while he can focus on feelings - take an "emotional advance". If the necessary information is not enough - negative emotions arise, which reduces the importance of the need. A sufficient amount of information causes positive reactions and increases the desired values.
9. Traceability function. This emotion appears when the event has already occurred, and it is too late to take action. Affects arising in such circumstances, as it were, mark the situation, create cautiousness about it. Thus, emotions perform the function of "warning" while protecting the person from the following similar errors.