Expressions of Feelings
Negative emotions, such as anxiety, anger, and sadness, are often perceived as disruptive and detrimental to our well-being. However, recent research suggests that these emotions play a crucial role in guiding us towards our goals and ensuring our survival.
Emotions, both positive and negative, have an enduring and positive effect on our psychophysiology. They are psychophysiological responses, patterns of autonomic changes, and distinct subjective feeling states. Negative emotions, in particular, are evolutionary responses that developed to aid in survival as a species.
Negative emotions offer specific advantages for goal attainment and self-preservation. One of the key benefits is increasing emotional clarity. Experiencing negative emotions can improve momentary emotional clarity, which reduces indecisiveness and promotes persistent goal pursuit. This clarity helps individuals understand their emotional states as information for decision-making, thus facilitating commitment to goals even under stress.
Another advantage is signaling threats and motivating self-preservation. Negative emotions such as anxiety or anger often indicate the presence of threats or obstacles. Anxiety, for example, reminds individuals of the importance of an upcoming event and can heighten alertness, while anger may mobilize effort to overcome difficulty, thus serving adaptive roles for survival and performance in stressful contexts.
Negative emotions can also prompt the use of more effective coping strategies. This enhances psychological resilience and self-preservation by helping individuals manage distress and maintain mental health during adversity.
Moreover, negative emotions drive motivation through dissatisfaction. Emotions like dejection signal unfulfilled goals, which can motivate behavioral adjustments and renewed efforts to overcome obstacles, acting as internal feedback for goal regulation.
Finally, negative emotions associated with setbacks encourage reflection and flexible adaptation of strategies, which supports long-term goal attainment and persistence by making people aware of when and how to change approaches effectively.
In sum, negative emotions are not just disruptive states but serve as functional signals and motivators that guide attention, decision-making, and coping to ultimately enhance goal achievement and self-preservation. Their value depends importantly on the individual’s capacity to interpret and regulate these emotions effectively rather than simply the presence of negative feelings alone.
References:
[1] Oatley, K., & Johnson-Laird, P. (1987). Psychology and the behavioural sciences: An integrated approach. Oxford University Press.
[2] L. Fredrickson, & Robert W. Levenson (2000). Positive emotions trigger the upward spiral toward positive emotions: Emotional consequences of cognitive reappraisal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(1), 159-175.
[3] LeDoux, J. E. (1996). The emotional brain. Simon and Schuster.
[4] Pekrun, R., Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2009). Achievement goals, achievement emotions, and achievement: Achievement goal theory and its relevance to education. Educational Psychologist, 44(1), 3-26.
[5] Pekrun, R., & Stephens, M. (2007). Achievement emotions and achievement: Achievement emotion theory and its relevance to education. Educational Psychologist, 42(4), 187-203.
In the context of UI design, negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, and sadness could potentially be used to enhance user experiences by increasing emotional clarity, promoting persistent goal pursuit, raising awareness of threats or obstacles, and encouraging reflection for flexible adaptation of strategies – all of which are key benefits of negative emotions.
In the realm of health-and-wellness and mental health, understanding and regulating negative emotions effectively is crucial for maintaining psychological resilience, enhancing coping strategies, and even driving motivation through dissatisfaction, which can ultimately lead to improved self-preservation and goal achievement.
