TOK-Reflection

Emotions are feelings that are expressed by different physical actions. However, they can also be felt without being expressed. Emtions can lead a person to become astray, therefore they must be kept under control. They are influenced by many external and internal factors, such as hormones (internally) and circumstances (externally). For example: a vine snake when angry tyrns its green scales to black. Because, the snake feels angry, a certain hormone is released, which inturn makes the snakes body black, thus, the prey/victim can recognise that the snake is angry (or has changed its emotion). Another example as to how hormones affect emotions and lead to physical symptoms: when an individual is embarrased his face turns red. Emotions are inborn and can also be cultivated. Even if an individual is not happy, if he/she mechanically smiles and makes a conscious effort to retain the smile then due to habbit the person will start smiling naturally and sooner or later will start feeling happy. Even though the James Lange Theory is absurd the two main apects prove to be true.
The first being, to remove the physical symtoms to make emotions dissapear. For example: After failing in an exam if an individual is sad- the physical symtoms will be:
i) He/She will want to cry
ii)He/She will worry about the consequences
iii) He/She will loose hope of doing well
So, if we remove all these physical symptoms then there will be no element of sadness.
The second being, if one can mimic the physical symptoms, one can generate the corresponding emotions. For example, if a person will continuosly have a scowl on his/her face, then after a while, at the drop of a hat, he/she will get irritated and angry, even if they do not feel angry.