What is your typical reaction when you are served with bad news? Or good news? Many of you may try to imagine how you would react in case of the latter or former. These feelings are described as emotions. They are chemically stimulated responses associated with thoughts, feelings or behavioural changes. The way a person responds to various circumstances explains how they are processing their feelings. Decision making is an everyday thing that can be affected by emotions which is reflected in the actions of a person. To make sound decisions, it requires a mind that is calm, focused and unbiased of the surrounding. With that said, most people make decisions based on emotions and this can have a negative or positive impact.
In his psychic evaluation, Robert Plutchik’s concluded that there are eight primary emotions: fear, anger, disgust, sadness, joy, surprise, trust and anticipation. i Psychologists have further classified these feelings into two categories; basic and combining emotions. Apart from the above emotions, more were listed later on ii like embarrassment, relief among others. However they are not easily detectable as one cannot express them.
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For instance, fear is a response emotion to danger that causes a person’s mind to be more alert and act by either facing the danger or fleeing. In this state of mind, a person is able to make sound judgement even though they are uncertain. The hormone epinephrine is released that activates the adrenaline gland almost immediately. Take for example a lion breaks out of its cage during a visit to the national park. The first instinct is to run. I don’t think anyone will be standing by to deal with it. This is what fear does, it triggers the mind to make fast decisions.
Unlike fear, anger narrows down attention. It inflicts confidence. As this emotion lasts longer, the attention decreases to none and the mind is triggered to a defensive state. Usually, anger brings about frustration, agitation and hostility towards others. Psychologists argue that it is caused by trying to lock-in emotions instead of expressing them out. An ex-soldier will act in confidence when faced with a robbery situation unlike a common citizen. This is because he has been through similar situations, probably worse that he has overcome fear and replaced it with confidence. Anger is very basic just like feeling hungry or affection and when it is internalized, it becomes harmful to a person causing hypertension, headaches and sometimes harbours suicidal thoughts. Research shows that angry people are eager to act towards situations, this emotion is a like an action trigger.
When a person is angry they exhibit aggressive behaviour like hitting or kicking, and yelling. It is just like when a person snatches a bottle of water as you are drinking it, keeping in mind that you bought it. The first reaction is to run after them. While it can be good in expressing oneself, if unchecked it can turn to irrational behaviour and poor decisions.
Happiness (joy) and sadness are two opposite emotions. The former is characterised by gratification and satisfaction. iii Relaxation contributes to a healthy body and mind. However it doesn’t quite contribute to good decision making. Most happy people concentrate more on the quantity rather than quality. If a happy person walks into a shop, she is most likely to be drawn to the attractiveness; packaging and appearance of a product.
Sadness is brought about by grief, disappointment or hopelessness and it causes people to withdraw, become silent and develop a dampened mood. For some people it fades away early but can be prolonged in others depending on the depth of the cause. This emotion can be good as it allows self-analysis thus better decision making. It allows one to compare options at hand. However too much of this can lead to stagnation. You will be stuck on one option, and that option only. A research by Lerner showed that sad people were the most giving, contributing to welfares and accepting less pay as opposed to angry people. iv
There is no right or wrong way in how a person chooses to express themselves. Apparently even happiness isn’t much of a good choice according to studies under the American Psychological Association. You cannot set your mind to always be correct but you can train your emotions not to get in the way of your thinking. Accepting that emotions are always going to exist is a step closer to becoming a better decision maker.
Some of the best ways to assist in better decision making is allowing your emotions to pass before reacting, when your mind is calm. We have learnt that anger comes out and causes a person to react in defence of their actions instead of taking accountability. An angry person always blames people for this and that because they do not want to accept they are the cause of the problem. If you are a very expressive person, psychologists recommend that you enrol in active sports like martial arts as they allow safe outlet for anger.
While it’s hard to control your emotions, it is also good to learn how they impact your day to day life. Before you sign that job contract in your happy mood, take a moment to go through it and actually understand it. Don’t allow fear to control how you will approaching a problem. Our emotions not only influence how we relate with others but our decisions as well and you know, decisions are permanent. Most importantly do not forget that you are the boss of your emotions, don’t let them control you.
References
Plutchik’s, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In Theories of emotion (pp. 3-33). Academic press.
Meyer, D. K., & Turner, J. C. (2006). Re-conceptualizing emotion and motivation to learn in classroom contexts. Educational Psychology Review , 18 (4), 377-390.
Cherry, K. (April, 2019). The 6 Types of Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior. https://www.verywellmind.com/
Lerner, Jennifer and Li, Ye and Valdesolo, Piercarlo and Kassam, Karim S., Emotion and Decision Making (January 2015). Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 66, pp. 799-823, 2015. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2547444 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115043
i Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In Theories of emotion (pp. 3-33). Academic press.
ii Meyer, D. K., & Turner, J. C. (2006). Re-conceptualizing emotion and motivation to learn in classroom contexts. Educational Psychology Review , 18 (4), 377-390.
iii Cherry, K. (April, 2019). The 6 Types of Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior. https://www.verywellmind.com/
iv Lerner, Jennifer and Li, Ye and Valdesolo, Piercarlo and Kassam, Karim S., Emotion and Decision Making (January 2015). Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 66, pp. 799-823, 2015. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2547444 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115043
