Monday, January 21, 2008

How do Emotions cloud ones Judgment?

Emotions are any strong feelings that not only people but most living things experience. Emotions are the positive or negative reactions to internal or external stimuli. They are evolutionary adaptations that help an organism survive and reproduce. Emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust and surprise all are associated with and have relatively distinct patterns of subjective experience.
Emotions play a major part in persuasion, social influence and attitude change. They work hand in hand with the way we think about an issue or situation. Predicting emotions is an important part of decision making. How we feel about an outcome may overrule purely cognitive rationality. Emotions are therefore considered to be irrational occurrences that cloud judgment and distort reasoning. For example in school, presentations are due and a peer in your class whom you have been hoping to beat for the last year in your presentation score have not yet been successful, you therefore experience envy or jealousy. His or her presentation as outstanding as it may have been this time as well you may still be convinced that you have done a better job as experiencing what you are u criticize the presentation more than you would have if it was another student presenting it. You may have criticized the presentation in areas where they maybe non existent. This may be a matter of your perception however in the end what is causing you to perceive the presentation in a more negative than positive manner is your emotion of jealousy. Discrete emotions of jealousy anger and hate overpower our initial rationale cognitive.
When we are experiencing a strong emotion whatever we think or do at that time is what appeals to our overall emotional state at that period of time. For example when we are happy or excited we do things on impulse only to regret them later which is the case most of the times. Such as spending all the money your parents gave you (for maybe a job well done in your exams) treating your friends only to realize later you have no money left to spend on what you might have wanted to purchase with the money.)
Emotions such as sadness and depression are also extremely influential and cloud the reasoning of many people. Cases of suicide are examples of clouded irrational thinking evoked by feelings of extreme sadness or depression. People who have fallen in depression due to changes in their external stimuli (subjective from person to person). Suicide is never a planned event, people who have had their cognitive rationale overruled by their stronger dominating emotions are the ones who go forward and harm their lives. In the heat of the sadness which is overwhelming they jump out a balcony or slit their wrists causing damage to their own being. However if they were spoken to or calmed by a pleasant turn in their lives they would realize how unintelligent their decision of ending their life was. They would be thanking their starts that they hadn’t made the wrong decision even though at the time when their overall emotional state saw it best to end their life.
In conclusion emotions are a strong component of our being and are a major influencing factor in most of the decisions we make. These decisions maybe extremely beneficial as emotions are a perfect example of evolutionary adaptation however sometimes they may be a cause for unreasonable thinking and judgment of situations. Certain emotions can make clear paths for us however they some discrete ones may cloud our thoughts and confuse us all together about what is right from wrong therefore altering our cognitive and eventually are judgment..

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