Johnmarshall Reeve is one of the authors who has contributed most in the last decades to the study and knowledge of motivation and emotions. More specifically, this professor considers that the main functions of emotions are the following: adaptive, social and motivational. Let's see in more detail what each of them consists of and how to inhibit an emotional reaction can sometimes be useful for us.

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Pride, fear, joy, anger or shame are types of emotions that have a triple effect on people. On the one hand, they have subjective consequences that manifest themselves in the form of feelings or emotional states. On the other hand, they have physiological effects; this term refers to the alterations that these experiences cause in our cells, tissues, organs or in our organism in general. Finally, we can talk about emotions as elements that motivate.

Adaptive function

Preparing the body for action is one of the most important emotional functions. Therefore, each emotion, regardless of its valence or hedonic tone, has its own usefulness.

Thanks to the adaptability that they offer us, we can execute actions in an effective way. This allows us to mobilize and use the energy that is sufficient and necessary to get closer or away from the goal we are pursuing. For example, the emotions of seeing someone crying next to us make us feel closer to that person and observe what is happening to them.

The importance of emotions as a mechanism of adaptation had already been pointed out by the great Charles Darwin, who considered emotions as elements that facilitated appropriate behaviors. More specifically, the adaptive functions of each of the primary emotions (P. Ekman) are:

Primary emotions Adaptive function (utility)

• Joy
• Membership
• Rejection
• Dislike
• The anger of self-defense
• Protection
• Fear
• Surprise exploration
• Reintegration
• Sadness

Social function

"I'm ashamed", "I feel happy" or "I feel apprehensive". Emotions communicate our emotional states and express our state of mind. On the other hand, they facilitate social interaction and help the rest of the people around us to predict our behavior, just as we can guess theirs. Therefore, its value in interpersonal relationships is unmistakable.

Emotions are sometimes difficult to express verbally. It must be borne in mind that expressing what we feel is not only oral. If we want to know how a person feels, it is often better to simply observe. The body posture we adopt or our facial expression often gives more information to others than a "I'm sad".

"Almost everyone thinks you know what an emotion is, until you have to define it." At this moment, almost no one claims to be able to understand it.
-Wenger, Jones and Jones-

However, lack of communication or inhibition of emotions can exercise, in a certain way or in specific situations, a social function. More specifically, in these situations where hiding and not showing certain reactions ensures that we maintain a friendly relationship with another person. That's when "the cure is worse than the disease."

In general terms, emotional inhibition produces misunderstandings and an additional physiological burden. This, in addition to being avoidable, can be extremely harmful. Being able to express your feelings and express your emotional experiences in a controlled way is very healthy and beneficial. It also strengthens the social support network.

Social contagion

The strong social contagion component of emotions may be one of the reasons why positive people seem to be more attractive than negative ones. We are all genetically predisposed to let ourselves be carried away by this emotional contagion. But some people have a greater capacity, either to transmit or to capture emotions.

Motivational function

Finally, the motivational function is one of the functions of the emotions considered most important. The relationship between motivation and emotion is bidirectional because both are constantly feeding back.

On the one hand, motivated behavior produces an emotional response. And, on the other hand, emotions are the essence of motivation. They determine the appearance of such behaviors, endow them with greater or lesser intensity and guide them in one direction or another.

For example, if we feel good when we have coffee with another person, we will be more motivated to see it again on another day. On the contrary, a bad experience with this same person will produce a negative sensation and we will think twice before contacting him again.

Emotions are the first motivational system for human behavior. They play a critical role in driving motivated behavior. As in the processes of perception, reasoning and motivating action.

Now we know what are the main functions of emotions. Therefore, we can be more aware of the physiological changes we experience throughout the day. How many emotions can we feel in twenty-four hours? Imagine the amount of cellular alterations that occur in response to these ...