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The integration of emotions in the field of cognition: can we talk about emotions without cognition or rather emotions with unconscious cognition ?

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Question added by Hanen El Mastouri , Cognitive Psychologist , Association "PETITAPETIT"
Date Posted: 2015/01/25
Anna Izabela Nagnajewicz
by Anna Izabela Nagnajewicz , Customer Success Manager , Micro Focus

The integration of emotions in the field of cognition: can we talk about emotions without cognition or rather emotions with unconscious cognition?

 

I am not sure if understood Your question correctly. Anyhow it touches many subjects actually.

And the answer depends on the concept of emotions.

Making the very long story short:

 

Cognition (noun)The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.

Synonims: perception, discernment, awareness, apprehension, learning, understanding, comprehension, enlightenment, insight, intelligence, reason, reasoning, thinking, (conscious) though, "a theory of human cognition" (a perception, sensation, idea, or intuition resulting from the process of cognition.plural noun: cognitions. Synonims: as above)

 

Emotion, in everyday speech, is instinctive conscious experience when characterized by intense mental activity and a high degree of pleasure or displeasure. 

Scientific discourse has drifted to other meanings and there is no consensus on a definition. Emotion is often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation.

In some theories, cognition is an important aspect of emotion. Those acting primarily on emotion may seem as if they are not thinking, but mental processes are still essential, particularly in the interpretation of events.

For example, the realization of danger and subsequent arousal of the nervous system (e.g. rapid heartbeat and breathing, sweating, muscle tension) is integral to the experience of fear. Other theories, however, claim that emotion is separate from and can precede cognition.

 

In Scherer's components processing model of emotion, five crucial elements of emotion are said to exist. From the component processing perspective, emotion experience is said to require that all of these processes become coordinated and synchronized for a short period of time, driven by appraisal processes. Although the inclusion of cognitive appraisal as one of the elements is slightly controversial, since some theorists make the assumption that emotion and cognition are separate but interacting systems, the component processing model provides a sequence of events that effectively describes the coordination involved during an emotional episode.

·  Cognitive appraisal: provides an evaluation of events and objects.

·  Bodily symptoms: the physiological component of emotional experience.

· Action tendencies: a motivational component for the preparation and direction of motor responses.

·  Expression: facial and vocal expression almost always accompanies an emotional state to communicate reaction and intention of actions.

·   Feelings: the subjective experience of emotional state once it has occurred.

 

 

So on..

If emotions are considered as conscious, cognition would be an important aspect of emotion.

 

Thank You :)

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