When researching expressed emotion, scientists came to the conclusion that there are certain facial expressions that are universal throughout all languages and they are used as a form of nonverbal communication. These core emotions were deduced to be inborn, and included: joy, surprise, anger, fear, sadness, contempt, and disgust. Later on, Carol Izard, Robins, and Shaver added the emotions interest/excitement, shame, guilt, pride, and love. Others believed that emotion was not just constricted to those few, but that there are all different degrees of the core emotions, and each can be placed somewhere on the Arousal vs. Valence Continuum, which looks something like:
Another theory that incorporates emotion is the facial feedback phenomenon. It simply means that when you shape your face to match a certain emotion, neurotransmitters will be released that cause you to feel that emotion. For instance, when smiling, you send messages to your brain which then releases neurotransmitters that cause you to feel better.
After learning about emotion as a whole, we started to learn the basics of some of the core emotions. The one that interested me the most was fear. To some, fear is evolutionary, and some fears, like being afraid of the dark and bugs, stem from certain things our ancestors learned to be afraid of. Others believe that fear is learned through observational learning. And still others believe that perhaps some fear comes from a genetic predisposition for an overactive amygdala, which could cause you to feel more afraid of something than someone else.
Fear travels along two paths. When the stimulus sends a message to the thalamus, it relays that message to the amygdala to produce an immediate, reflexive reaction and also, at the same time, to the sensory cortex in the brain, which then processes and interprets the situation for cognitive appraisal and future actions.
While learning about fear, I couldn't help but wonder how phobias could be included in the different theories of how fear is formed or learned. According to psychology.about.com, and inadvertently the American Psychiatric Association, a phobia is "an irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation." Apparently, there are three types of phobias- social phobias, agoraphobia (fear of being trapped in a situation with no escape), and specific phobias. Breaking it down even more, there are four major types of specific phobias- fear of nature (lightening, water, storms), animal(s), medical stuff (blood, shots), and situations (bridges, leaving home, driving).
While researching around some more, I found on serendip.brynmawr.edu that there is evidence that damage to the amygdala and hypothalamus could be the cause of phobias. Some children who are born with phobias usually have a decrease in activation of neurons in their amygdala and hyptothalamus. Abnormalities in the hippocampus and the frontal lobes could also be a factor. There is also evidence that phobias might be caused by a mutation in chromosome 15, so phobias could be linked to genetics. Either way, phobias are difficult to figure out, much like all emotions.
I never thought that phobias and emotions were linked together. I guess it does make sense though. I still wonder if people have a stronger sense to one emotion over another if they to have damage to an area of the brain. Like with phobias you said damage to the hypothalamus can cause someone to have a phobia. People who are always excited or always sad ar always afraid must also have damage done to their brain in those areas.
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