Chapter 3: The Mind – Emotions

Like Chapter 2, Chapter 3 also considers the human mind, but instead of focusing on cognition, as we did in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 will look at emotions. Having said that, we will spend some time in this chapter considering the interplay of emotions and cognition. Our goal is to better understand how emotions may create and/or contribute to conflict, and what we can learn from emotion research to support people with their emotions in conflict resolution processes. We will “unpack” emotions and consider some definitions and theories of emotions, as well as the question of “how emotions are made” and expressed. We will especially consider the experience of stress and “stress response” as being closely intertwined with (negative) emotions. In this context, we will also look at how stress and other components of emotions may affect the cognitive processes that you were introduced to in the previous chapter.  Finally, we will pay attention to aggression as being closely linked to the experience of negative emotions such as fear and anger.