Reflective-evaluation role of emotions. Emotions give a subjective coloring to what is happening around us and in ourselves. This means that different people can react emotionally to the same event in completely different ways. For example, the fans will be disappointed and upset if their favorite team is lost, while the fans of the opponent's team will be happy. And a certain work of art can cause different people to have exactly opposite emotions. Not without reason, people say: "There is no taste and color of a friend.
Emotions help to evaluate not only past or current actions and events, but also future ones, including in the process of probabilistic prediction (anticipation of pleasure when a person goes to the theater, or anticipation of unpleasant experiences after the exam, when the student has not had time to prepare for it properly).
The controlling role of emotions. In addition to reflecting the reality surrounding a person and his or her attitude to this or that object or event, emotions are also important for the management of a person's behavior, being one of the psychophysiological mechanisms of this management. After all, the appearance of this or that attitude to the object influences the motivation, the process of making a decision about an action or a deed, and physiological changes accompanying emotions affect the quality of the activity, efficiency of a person. Playing a controlling role in human behavior and activity, emotions perform various positive functions: protective, mobilizing, authorizing (switching), compensatory, signaling, supporting (stabilizing), which are often combined with each other.
The protective function of emotions is associated with the emergence of fear. It alerts the individual to the real or perceived danger, thus helping to better reflect on the situation, more carefully determine the likelihood of success or failure. Thus the fear protects the person from unpleasant consequences for it, and probably, and from destruction.
The mobilizing function of emotions is shown, for example, in that fear can promote mobilization of reserves of the person at the expense of throwing in the blood of an additional quantity of adrenaline, for example at its active-defensive form (rescue by flight). Contributes to the mobilization of the body's strength and enthusiasm, joy.
The compensatory function of emotions is to compensate for information that is missing for making a decision or making a judgment about something. Emotion arising in the case of a collision with an unfamiliar object will give this object a proper coloring (a bad person or a good person has met) due to its similarity with previously encountered objects. Although with the help of emotion a person makes a generalized and not always justified the assessment of the object and situation, it still helps him to get out of the impasse when he does not know what to do in this situation.
The availability of reflective-evaluation and compensatory functions in emotions makes possible the manifestation and sanctioning function of emotions (to go into contact with the object or not).
The signal function of emotions is connected with the influence of the person or animal on other alive objects. Emotion, as a rule, has an external expression (expression), with the help of which a person or animal informs another about his condition. This helps mutual understanding in communication, prevention of aggression from another person or animal, recognition of needs and conditions that are currently available to the other subject. The signal function of emotions is often combined with its protective function: a frightening appearance in a minute of danger contributes to the intimidation of another person or animal.
Academician P.K. Anokhin emphasized that emotions are important for the consolidation and stabilization of the rational behavior of animals and people. Positive emotions arising at the achievement of the purpose, are remembered and in a corresponding situation can be taken from memory for the reception of the same useful result. Negative emotions, extracted from memory, on the contrary, warn against repeated mistakes. From the point of view of Anokhin, emotional experiences have fixed in evolution as the mechanism which keeps vital processes in optimum borders and prevents destructive character of a lack or surplus of vital factors.
Disorganizing the role of emotions. Fear can disrupt the behavior of a person associated with the achievement of any goal, causing him to react passively and defensively (stupor with strong fear, refusal to perform the task). Disorganizing the role of emotions is visible also at anger when the person aspires to reach the goal at all costs, bluntly repeating the same actions which do not lead to success.
Positive role of emotions is not associated directly with positive emotions and negative - with negative emotions. The latter can serve as an incentive for self-improvement of a person, and the first - to be a reason for complacency, complacency, complacency. Much depends on the purposefulness of the person, on the conditions of his upbringing.