Cognition vs Emotions Debate Essay
Does thinking control your feelings? Or, do your feelings determine what you think? It is difficult to get a straight answer as cognitive and emotional processes are strongly related to each other. The relationships between feeling and thinking significantly affect how people interact with the world around them, how they manage their impulses, and how they interact with other individuals. Human emotions influence cognitive processes, such as attention, perception, memory; in its turn, cognition strongly affects human emotions, attitudes, moods changes, and even judgments. Cognitive processes usually influence human attention and help reflect new and unexpected information. Emotional processes are automatic reactions to attention. Some people believe that thinking processes control their feelings. Others state that human feelings determine what people think. Opinions vary as to how this cognition-emotions statement should be interpreted and analyzed.
Most researchers and contemporary theorists state that emotion is a post-cognitive process that occurs only after certain cognitive processes have been completed. Yet some scientists support the statement that emotional process can be independent impulse, “the sorts of perceptual and cognitive operations commonly assumed to be the basis of these affective judgments.” (Zajonc, 1980, p. 151) Study after study shows that emotional responses to stimuli are considered to be the original responses of organisms, and most researchers indicate that these emotional responses are the dominant impulses for lower organisms. As evidence shows, emotional responses may occur without direct perceptual or cognitive processes. Zajonc’s (1980) study deeply analyzes feeling and thinking processes, examines their nature and stages, and explores emotions flow from cognitive processes. Zajonc (1980) illustrates experimental evidence that shows that “reliable affective discriminations can be made in the total absence of recognition memory.” (p. 151). Through the study, the researcher examines a number of different opinions and ideas regarding emotional and cognitive processes where Zajonc (1980) points out the following: In fact, it is entirely possible that the very first stage of the organism’s reaction to stimuli and the very first elements in retrieval are affective. It is further possible that we can like something or be afraid of it before we know precisely what it is and perhaps even without knowing what it is. (p. 154). Further research is needed but on the whole Zajonc’s (1980) evidence really makes sense and provides good food for thought.
Cognitive processes also deserve attention. Many cognitive and social psychologists argue the proponents of affective judgments and believe that cognitive reactions to stimuli are the first responses of the organism. Lazarus (1981) is the one among cognitive researchers who provides a reply to Zajonc’s (1980) study stating that cognitive processes produce emotional flow. Lazarus (1981) in his study supports the position that “cognitive mediation is a necessary condition for emotion.” (p. 222) Cognitive researchers explain that in his study Zajonc (1980) and other proponents of affective judgments rely only on “the currently dominant approach to information processing, which is particularly compatible with the position that emotion cannot be viewed as post cognitive.” (p. 222) Lazarus (1980) does not support Zajonc’s statement that “emotions flow from cognitive processes” and illustrates the studies of other cognitive researchers who show alternative ways of thinking about cognition. In conclusion, in his study Lazarus (1981) provides a lot of critics about affective judgments and pays very little attention to personal statements and concrete facts regarding cognitive processes. Thus, I agree with Zajonc’s (1980) point of view where he writes that “the affective quality of the original input is the first element to emerge.” (p. 154). He provides reliable evidence regarding feeling-thinking processes and develops strong arguments concerning emotional phenomena.
References:
Zajonc, R.B. (1980) Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist, 35, 151-175.
Lazarus, R.S. (1981) A cognitivist’s reply to Zajonc on emotions and cognition. American Psychologist, 37, 1019-1024
