A Case for Basic Emotions Theory. Psychology Essay

A Case for Basic Emotions Theory
Student’s Name
Institution
A Case for Basic Emotions Theory
Emotions play a fundamental role in how human beings interact and relate to each other. Different theories of emotions have been developed to explain the nature of emotions. The focus of this paper is the theory of basic emotions. The basic emotions theory is based on the premise that there are limited basic emotions that are universal regardless of culture and environmental differences (Saarimaki, et al., 2015). The expression of these limited basic emotions is also universal. The limited basic emotions include fear, happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, and disgust. This paper aims to provide evidence in support of the theory of basic emotions.
In their study, Sauter, Eisner, Ekman, and Scott, (2010) conducted a comparison study to examine whether there is a universality in recognizing and communicating emotions across cultures. Two different groups with different languages and cultural practices were exposed to two vocalization sounds after listening to an emotional story. One of the vocalizations sounds matched the emotion elicited by the story. Participants were then asked to identify which vocalization sound matched the emotional story. The results of the study revealed that there was a universal recognition of the vocalized signals across cultures. Participants from both cultures were able to match the sound with the emotion, signifying that cultural differences were insignificant in recognition of emotions. This study supports the theory of basic emotions because participants from the two cultural groups were able to identify the same emotions despite their cultural differences. This is an indication that such emotions are universal and basic. Also, not all emotions were equally recognized by both groups. Sauter, Eisner, Ekman, and Scott, (2010) indicate that vocalization sounds that signaled relief or triumph were not recognized equally by the two groups. This supports the theory of basic emotions by revealing that there is a limited set of basic emotions. These basic emotions can be identified universally, but other sets of emotions cannot.
In their study, Saarimaki, et al. (2015) explored the activation of the basic emotions. Their study adopted an experimental approach where participants were exposed to short movies and mental imageries to activate the basic emotions. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was used to observe brain activity during the experiments. The results of the study revealed that different regions of the brain showed different emotions. These results indicated that there is a general consistency in the neural signature of the basic emotions. All individuals in the study had the same neural signatures when exposed to the imageries. The study first acknowledges that indeed, there are limited basic emotions experienced by human beings. The participants used different words to express their emotions, but they were all synonymous with basic emotions. Thus, it supports the theory of basic emotions. Second, the study revealed that each basic emotion has a discrete neural signature. This explains why various emotions feel different but the feeling is the same across the subjects.
Oatley and Johno...