PSYC14H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Simon Baron-Cohen, Paul Ekman, Meta-Analysis
Document Summary
There are within-species differences: a phenotype is tied to genotype. The environment favors some heritable variations over others. Just like any adaptive trait, emotional expressions are also adaptive. Emotions are functional, and are necessary for our existence. Emotions prepare us for action, and they signal something externally or internally within us that"s worth paying attention to. This is in contrast to traditional thinking about emotions if we go back to ancient philosophers. They called emotions passions , which brought humans down to a basic animal level. They said to appease god we needed to rise above the passions so we could be rational and reasonable human beings. Therefore, they thought we should get rid of emotions: however, without emotions there is no human life so they"re fundamental to our existence. Emotions are actions that helped our ancestors survive and coincided with emotions our ancestors felt. In the eea these emotions and emotional expressions evolved.
