Emotions Objectives: Students will identify primary emotions. Students will recognize learned emotions. Individuals will distinguish helpful from harmful coping strategies. Indian Hills Middle School

Expressing Your Emotions Question? Is it always healthy to “let your feelings out?” Fact: Some ways of expressing your emotions are positive and constructive. Other ways of expressing emotions are negative and destructive.

Emotion: Fear Sadness Anger Happiness Primary Emotions: Reactions to a situation that involves your mind, body, and behavior. An important fact of a healthy personality is being able to express emotions in appropriate ways. Primary Emotions: Happiness Emotions that are expressed by all people in all cultures. Fear Sadness Anger

Sadness Happiness Question: Normal response to disappointing events in ones life. Feelings of hollowness, tired, withdrawn from others…. A deep powerful sadness is called grief. Sadness creates negative feelings about one’s self. Happiness is a normal response to pleasant events in one’s life. Feeling happy helps you feel good about yourself. Question: What can you do to overcome feelings of deep sadness? Talk to someone Make a list of your accomplishments Do not withdraw from others; seek others help!

Anger Fear Anger is a normal response to feeling frustrated or helpless. Anger can be helpful or harmful. A double edged sword. People who express their emotions in a negative way tend to have risk for heart disease, high blood pressure & hurt others. The emotion you feel when you recognize a threat to your safety or security. When you are afraid your heart rate increases, breathing speeds up, & you may feel cold and sweaty. It may be a helpful emotion: fight or flight. It may also be dangerous when perceived danger stops us from living a normal life.

Guilt Learned Emotions: Love Shame Emotions that are learned in a social environment. Shame Love Guilt

Love: You can feel love for a place or a thing. Your home Sport Activity Music Love for Mankind Love is one of the most positive emotions people are capable of feeling. Love is expressed in families, between friends, & romantic love. These feelings can be expressed by kind words, thoughtful actions, loving touches, etc... Women are more comfortable expressing their love in words. Men are more comfortable expressing their love through actions, such as a shared activity.

Guilt & Shame Guilt is a helpful emotion. It can stop you from doing something you know is wrong. It can also cause you to take action and correct something you have done wrong. The best way to deal with guilt is to correct the wrong: Talk to someone and share your feelings. Sometimes your feelings of guilt are not your fault such as when parents divorce. Shame is different from guilt because it robs an individual of self-esteem. When you feel ashamed you tend to blame yourself, “I am a bad person” and take it personal.

Recognizing your Emotions: It is the important first step toward dealing with your emotions in healthful ways. Question? Ask yourself what am I feeling. Then determine what emotion you are feeling: anger, jealousy, guilt, love, hate, fear, joy… What triggered this emotion? Think of other times you dealt with this emotion. By reflecting on your emotions you begin to get a better understanding of your emotions and their triggers & how you can better control them.

Coping with Emotions: Coping Strategy: Is a way of dealing with an uncomfortable or unbearable feeling or situation. Coping Strategy: Coping strategies are helpful when they improve a situation or allow a person to handle a situation in a better way. Examples: telling the truth, accepting responsibility for your actions, recognizing your emotions, learning to say no… Coping strategies are harmful when they make a situation worse or a person is less able to handle a situation. Examples: lying, behaving immaturely, blaming others for your mistakes, refusing to recognize an emotion or problem…

Defense Mechanisms Denial: Refusing to recognize an emotion or problem. Situation: Your parents are getting divorced, but you act as though nothing is wrong. When friends express their concern, you laugh and tell them it does not bother you. Compensation: making up for weaknesses in one area by excelling in another area. Situation: You are failing two classes in school. You compensate by becoming the lead saxophone player in the school band. Rationalization: Making excuses for actions or feelings Situation: You work in a convenience store. When no one is watching, you take some magazines. You figure it is a large store and no one will miss the magazines.

Defense Mechanisms Continued: Reaction Formation: Behaving in a way opposite to the way you feel Situation: You feel guilty for bullying a kid at school. You cover up your feelings by bragging to friends about your actions. Projection: Putting your own faults onto another person Situation: At your after-school job you do not complete your tasks. When you get fired, you blame your boss, saying she did not take the time to explain the tasks to you. Regression: Returning to immature behaviors to express emotions Situation: You are angry at your brother for reading your diary. You scream at him and your parents, run into your room, and sulk.

Helpful ways of coping with emotions: People respond in many different positive ways to their strong feelings. Confront the situation head-on. If possible, take action to improve the situation. Release your built-up emotion by exercising, cleaning your room or being active in some other way. Read a book, write about your emotions, listen to music Harmful ways of Coping with your emotions: Using drugs or alcohol, and with drawing from friends or family are all negative coping strategies.

Healthy Review & Questions: Define the term emotion. What is the difference between primary emotions and learned emotions? List 2 primary emotions and 2 learned emotions. What is the first step in dealing with your emotions? Explain the importance of recognizing your emotions. Define the term defense mechanism. Name 3 defense mechanisms. When do defense mechanism stop being helpful?