This week we explored the interaction between our emotions and the body. Emotions are our reactions to the environment, communicated to others by our behaviors. Emotions are important organizational reactions, memory enhancers, function regulators and attention directors. There are three rules of thought on the development of emotion: genetic-maturational, learning and functionalist. Genetic-maturational refers to emotions as products of biological factors. The idea that emotion varies with the environment in which the child is raised comes from the learning perspective of emotion. The functionalist perspective views emotions as a tool to help us adapt and achieve out goals. Emotions, which vary greatly, are categorized into two large groups:
