Abstract
The theoretical basis of EmotFit theory comes from physiological studies of the antagonistic roles of the sympathetic and parasympathetic parts of the nervous system, and from the Opponent Process Theorem as proposed by R Solomon. From these the idea of a complex rhythmic structure of the emotions was developed, with the pendulum and emotion curves acting as useful models. Analysis of 17 researchers’ choices of the primary emotions and the number of pages devoted to different emotions in an introductory psychology text book were used to support the choice of the four primary emotions anger, love, happiness and sadness as used in the EmotFit programme. The concepts of processing and channelling were compared against current equivalents. Ideas about stored emotion in EmotFit theory currently only have anecdotal rather than experimental basis, and require further investigation. Apart from this the conclusion is that EmotFit theory is soundly based.
Key concepts of EmotFit Theory discussed: Complex rhythmic structure, incoherent/coherent emotions, sum of body rhythms, four primary emotions, emotion curves, pendulum, processing, channelling, stored emotion.
Stanley Jones (1970) considers the two primary emotions to be lust and rage, because both can be stimulated in decerebrate cats and dogs. (These convert into love and hate when a cognitive component is added, something which does not happen in animals bereft of a cerebral cortex!) Rage is accompanied by definite excitation of the sympathetic nervous system, the constriction of blood vessels, and acceleration of the heart. Lust is accompanied by activation of the parasympathetic system, dilation of blood vessels and slowing of the heart. There is a balanced antagonism between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems; and therefore between lust and rage. These two systems are operated from the hypothalamus, which has long been regarded as a see-saw. Part of its function is maintaining homeostasis within the body including balanced supply of insulin, adrenaline and temperature. It also provides homeostasis through the balanced antagonism of lust and rage, a mechanism which is linked to the other functions of the hypothalamus. The sympathetic system protects against overcooling, and the parasympathetic against overheating. As an example of the homeostatic properties of this mechanism, in seals, the parasympathetic system is used to enable the heart rate to drop from 60 to 15 beats a minute in order to remain under water for long periods. The dominance of the parasympathetic system in seals results in suppression of the sympathetic system and an absence of fear.
Testosterone (in males) accentuates parasympathetic lust while adrenaline is intimately connected with sympathetic rage and fear. Adrenaline exists in two forms, A, which is prevalent in timid animals such as rabbits and guinea pigs, and B which is prevalent in aggressive and carnivorous animals such as cats and dogs. Adrenaline A, which produces behaviour characteristic of the emotion fear, originates from the adrenal gland and is considered to be more ancient than adrenaline B which is characteristic of the emotion anger and is secreted at the neural endings of the sympathetic system. In the evolution of mammals, fear came first because of its usefulness in escaping danger. Rage followed as a means of motivation in pursuit of a meal. Both are closely linked to the decision made by the individual in life-threatening situations between whether to stay and fight or take flight.
Affective contrast as described by Solomon (1980): Following a strong primary stimulus, an intense response, process ‘a’, is followed by an equally strong opponent process, process ‘b’. With repeated application of the same strength stimulus, process ‘a’ diminishes in intensity while process ‘b’ remains the same. Opponent process theory can be applied to sky-diving and bungy jumping where an intense fright experience is followed by an ecstatic elation. With repeated jumps, the fear diminishes while the elation remains the same. It can also be applied to drug ingestion, where the high is followed by a low. With repeated doses the same amount of drug produces a smaller high, but the low remains the same: Opponent process theory supports the rhythmic structure of emotions by demonstrating evidence of the movement of emotion between opposing poles. Most of the time this structure is not evident because of the complexity of emotional experience. In the case of sky-diving and drug taking, emotional experience is intensified and extracted out so that its structure becomes more evident. (The habituation of process ‘a’ that results in a diminution of its affect can be interpreted as evidence of the complexity of the structure of emotions and not a failure in rhythmic theory.)
The relationship between happiness and sadness
Sky-diving involves excitation of the sympathetic (process ‘a’) and parasympathetic systems (process ‘b’), with their accompanying hormonal discharge. Many participants consider process ‘b’ to be better than sex, because their body is in the same condition as it would be during and after sex. Drug taking on the other hand involves a high (process ‘a’) followed by a low (process ‘b’) neither of which are linked to any hormones or detectable physiological reaction apart from facial expression (Ekman, Levenson & Friesen). This high and low can most effectively be labelled happiness and sadness, two emotions that are universally accepted, but for which there are no firm definitions. The sensations of happiness and sadness might be linked to bio-electrical activity within the nervous system including magnetic fields (aura), brain wave emissions and stored emotional energy (see later in this text), but that is yet to be scientifically determined. Happiness and sadness have long been considered opposites. Those who take drugs on a regular basis allow themselves to forget that the two tend to balance themselves out as part of the many homeostatic functions to which the nervous system is inseparably linked. "What goes up must come down".
In considering the structure of Cyclothymia, Stanley-Jones (1970) describes mania and depression as being two halves of the cyclothymic rhythm. He attempts to explain this in terms of the parasympathetic system but falls short. Attempts by other researchers to find physiological responses linked to depression have proved inconclusive (Beck, 1967). Ekman, Levenson & Friesen (1983), however have demonstrated that there is a link between physical expressions of the face and the simple emotions happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust. This suggests the possibility that some emotions have clear physiological characteristics and others don’t. The reason postulated by EmotFit theory is that those emotions that can be linked to distinct autonomic responses such as anger, love, sadness and happiness are coherent emotions and those that can’t, such as depression, mania, guilt, embarrassment and anxiety are incoherent. Along with the physiological reaction, the experienced emotion is similarly unclear in the incoherent emotional state. More study would need to be done on the distinction between coherent and incoherent emotion in order to confirm this part of the theory, but there is considerable experimental support for the link between emotions and facial expressions.
Opponent Process Theory and studies of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems support the idea that emotions have a rhythmic structure linked to other homeostatic processes in the body. There is no doubt that emotions are complex. This complexity could be derived from the great number of different homeostatic processes to which they might be linked such as heartbeat, breathing, sleep/wake, life and death of cells, molecular movement and even the rhythms inside atoms. Any impact on any of these affects how we feel: Radiation splits atoms, poisons block molecules, disease attacks cells, all of which can cause sickness and pain, which is an emotional experience. Amount of sleep, breathing, and heart rate all contribute to how we feel. From this global perspective emotions can be seen as the sum total of all those rhythms and many more. In this respect emotions are essentially knowable, because all the rhythms that make them up can each be intimately explored, however usually only one at a time. Because of this complexity only very inaccurate models of emotions can be made. The most useful of these are emotion curves and the pendulum. Both models are supported by the Opponent Process Theorem.
Of the 17 researchers summarised in the report from Kemper (1987), (see separate sheet) the following are frequencies of each emotion chosen:
Fear 17
Anger/rage 17
Joy/enjoyment/pleasure/satisfaction/happiness 16
Sadness/grief/distress/panic/unpleasure 14
Interest/anticipation/curiosity/expectancy 8
Love/appetite/pleasure 7
Astonishment/shock/surprise/amazement 7
Disgust/contempt 5
Guilt/shame 3
Acceptance/boredom 2
Anxiety 1
Loneliness 1
Tension 1
Shyness 1
The different terminologies reflect different disciplines. Where joy and pleasure appear in the same researchers’ choices, pleasure is taken to mean sexual pleasure and thus related to love. Where love and pleasure occur in the same set then pleasure is taken to mean happiness. The word pleasure describes emotions that are shared by both happiness and love. The choice of pleasure alone as in two researchers (Brenner and Sroufe) could be a means of covering both. The same goes for the word satisfaction. Fear, anger, happiness and sadness outstrip all other emotions in this tally. Love, however is less clearly defined, but could be incorporated into some researchers’ definitions of pleasure and satisfaction. The only other emotions to figure to any frequency are interest and surprise.
Determining primary emotions by amount of text devoted to each in an introductory psychology book.
In Kalat Introduction to Psychology (1990), the following number of pages are devoted to the following subjects:
Sadness
Depression 7
Suicide 2
Happiness
Happiness 2
Drug abuse 10
Anger
Aggression & Violence 3
Love
Sex 10
Love & Relationships 6
Fear
Anxiety 2
Phobia 8
Other
Stress 19
Note: the connection between drug abuse and happiness is that usually the initial motivation to take drugs comes from a desire to feel happy. Psychoactive drugs do something to the brain to simulate the feeling of happiness and well-being. Once a person is addicted then the original motivation gets lost, and it becomes a physiological/psychological need (see opponent process theorem). The assumption is that if people know how to effectively feel happy then they are not likely to resort to drugs.
In the Kalat text there is no reference to any of the other emotions suggested as primary ones by the researchers in the previous section, such as guilt, interest, surprise etc. The four emotions anger, love, sadness and happiness are associated with most of the problems in society, including violence, rape, unwanted pregnancies, depression/suicide and drug abuse. Stress, which features large in the introductory text is seldom described as an emotion in itself, but could be described as an indicator of emotional unfitness. The EmotFit programme deals with stress by focusing on strengthening the usage of the four chosen primary emotions in order to overcome it. An emotional fitness programme could be created based on any collection of emotions. In the four emotions chosen it is hoped that the EmotFit programme covers a wide enough range to serve a useful purpose.
The para-sympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, James-Lange, Cannon-Bard and Schacter-Singer theories and the Opponent Process Theorem are the main subjects in the chapter on emotions in Kalat. The three collaborative theories on emotions described are successive updates on the relationship between the cognitive and physiological in the experience of emotions (mind/body). The Opponent Process Theorem is defined as a ‘principle’ which means that between 1980 when Solomon wrote his treatise and 1994 when Kalat wrote his text the theory became "a basic truth or general rule used as a basis of reasoning or a guide to behaviour" (Oxford Dictionary).
Many psychotherapeutic methods have come unstuck because they are good at enabling patients to process emotions, but not good at enabling them to channel them. The patient ends up experiencing the emotions over and over again at each session, and at the end the energy returns to where it was stored. Some methods especially have emphasised the importance of expressed emotion, and clients have ended up going through the same stuff over and over again without achieving any results.
There is no precedent in conventional psychotherapy for channelling. Channelling involves focusing energy into some part of the physiology to improve its performance in the delivery of a particular skill of the individual’s choice. This is the key feature of the EmotFit programme making it different from other programmes. By learning to channel emotional energy, incoherent emotions (ones which the individual has difficult understanding) are gradually worked into coherent ones with the application of stored emotional energy into the acquisition of improved skill. That improvement then leads to greater advancement in life. Channelling usually happens unconsciously through informal experience. The EmotFit programme seeks to make that mechanism conscious and formal. Learning how to channel is the essence of the EmotFit programme and the bulk of the course is involved in educating people how to do it.
The only theory not backed by current research is the storage of emotional energy in the stomach. This is an hypothesis based on the physical nature of the intestines which have the structure of an ideal capacitor. Unlike any other part of the body they consist of long, wet, hollow cylinders in which potential difference can occur between the inner and outer surfaces. Extensive electrogastrogram (electrical measurements of the stomach) studies have been done concentrating on relationships with diseases, stomach ulcers and the like (Smallwood & Brown, 1983 and Holzl, Scroder & Kiefer 1979)... It is a science still in its infancy, which can only be conducted on live patients, usually while they are confined in a hospital bed. It is likely to be some time before equipment can be developed to enable studies to be done on people in everyday life to determine any correlation between electrogastrogram readings and stored emotion. In the absence of that the hypothesis can only be supported by anecdotal evidence such as:
Language: "He hasn’t got the guts to do it". "I don’t think I can stomach that right now". This language infers that the stomach has to be in a certain condition before a situation can be successfully dealt with.
Anyone processing emotions generally feels it in the stomach, by a churning sensation, butterflies, anxiety or similar.
People with emotional problems tend to stoop, suggesting that the activity in their stomach prevents them from being able to hold their head up high. In fact, when experiencing anxiety or butterflies it is physically hard to adopt a confident posture. The hypothesis is that emotional activity in the intestines causes the spine to be pulled over and the shoulders to hunch.
Where else could emotional energy be stored? It certainly couldn’t be stored in the brain. That is where its release might be triggered from, but unlike memories, stored emotions are accompanied by considerable release of energy and excitation of the nervous system. The only suitable repository for the "demons of the subconscious" is in the stomach and intestines.
The possibility of a link between stored emotions and the workings of the stomach and intestines are well worth investigating. It is quite likely that metabolic processes are intricately tied in with emotional processes. Everybody digests different amounts of food in different ways, and emotional disposition may play a part in it. Nervous, energetic people tend to be thin and wiry. Composed, sedentary people on the other hand tend to put on the pounds and often no amount of exercise will help. Many eating disorders such as obesity and anorexia have emotional sources. There is a whole field of emotion science here to be investigated. At this stage these ideas can be easily omitted from EmotFit theory without affecting the utility of the programme, but they suggest exciting developments for the future.
The four primary emotions chosen for the EmotFit programme adequately cover the spectrum of emotions available to human experience. They operate over two quite independent dimensions, one which is hormonal and linked to definite physiological responses, and the other which is less tangible, and can only be described as an overall feeling, but which sometimes can be linked to certain facial expressions. Amongst the four chosen emotions love tends to operate antagonistically with anger, and sadness with happiness, according to Opponent Process Theory. The link between emotions and other rhythms in the body is established through the relationship between emotional experience and homeostatic functions in all organs of the body but especially the hypothalamus. Emotion Curves and the Pendulum act as useful models of emotional activity. There is some support for the concept of coherent and incoherent emotion and the link between some emotions and facial expressions. Processing of emotion is a new term for a familiar aspect of psychotherapy, but Channelling is a new concept, which may require considerable familiarisation in order to achieve acceptance. Experimental investigation will have to be done on the idea of emotional energy being stored in the stomach and intestine in order to give it some scientific basis, and so long as this is omitted, initially at least, then EmotFit theory can be considered to be soundly based.
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