are we born with just emotion; fear? I contend we are not born with the emotion of love; we just have the ability to learn it. Fear is what we are born with, and all other emotions stem from it, either by adding to or subtracting of the fear. A baby does not automatically love the mother; the mother is a place of comfort that eases the fear, which gives the baby a feeling of comfort which in return leads eventually to love as the child realizes that the closer he bonds with the mother the safer he is and the less fear he has. what do you think?
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Emotions are chemical reactions that take place within the body. We are born with those chemicals in place. Fear and love are not learned, it's how we react to these emotions that is learnt.
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  Entity Sentiment Detection: chemical reactions    Fear   Emotions   love  
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@WinstonC
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It certainly seems to explain a lot of the mother-child relationship. Of course, no single neurotransmitter or hormone is responsible for love entirely. As with all emotions it's a mixture of several neurotransmitters and hormones. What do you think causes you to have feelings?
"you and I both know that love is something that is created and built over time."
This is true, but it's based ultimately on neurochemicals and hormones. I'll put it this way: you are a clump of cells that produces another clump of cells. Why would you care about that other clump of cells?
"we are not born with any emotions, however we do have the ability to learn them."
Where are you getting this idea from? A very brief overview of hormones and neurochemicals and their effects on our emotional states is available here (1) or a more in depth view here (2). We certainly learn emotional responses to stimuli based on experience but ultimately the emotions themselves are modulated by neurochemicals and hormones.
"...knowing how to hate or to be jealous and so on."
Hatred is related to predator detection, interpersonal conflict and tribal conflict. Sexual jealousy is related to ensuring reproductive success.
"interacting and cuddling with the mother is due to a chemical process for it allays the babies fears and produces a feeling of safety for the child."
It also causes the mother to care about the child and makes bonding occur. Further, it appears to play a role in romantic love (3).
Sources:
(1) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201211/the-neurochemicals-happiness
(2) http://www.neuroanatomy.wisc.edu/coursebook/neuro5(2).pdf
(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3936960/
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Psychology is my field. I gave those links because the idea that neurochemicals and hormones are the ultimate cause of emotional reactions (triggered by stimuli, of course) is well founded. It's the basis for medications such as antidepressants, for example. This is not to say that one has no ability to control one's own emotions.
"http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread816737/pg1"
Which post are you referring to specifically?
"I have yet to see a baby hate or be jealous or be envious."
How would you know that a baby was experiencing envy or jealousy? Surely we would need to do brain-scan studies?
"emotions are a learned behavior and can even produce the chemicals that produces them"
We can certainly learn to have emotional responses to certain stimuli and we do have some ability to control them if that's what you mean?
"https://www.amazon.com/How-Emotions-Are-Made-Secret/dp/0544133315/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1495668125&sr=8-1&keywords=how+emotions+are+made&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregooscicen-20&linkId=4107517badca1573b6aa4bc538519da3"
I've now read several of Dr Barrett's studies and I thank you for recommending her. I think you're misunderstanding what she means, though.
I quote (1): "Psychological constructionist approach. A theoretical framework for understanding the ontology of emotions. The psychological constructionist approach assumes that emotion categories such as anger, sadness, fear, and so forth, are common sense categories whose instances emerge from the combination of more basic psychological operations that are the common ingredients of all mental states."
In other words she's attempting to capture the nuance that is lost with a purely "locationalist" approach. One of many purely locationalist approaches that Barret criticizes is the idea that the amygdala is specifically associated with fear. Instead, she cites research that suggests it is instead associated with recognizing salient stimuli (which is closely related to fear, and necessary for most types of fear). Dr Barrett is also saying that while it makes sense to categorize emotions in the way that we have, it is important to note, for example, that not all fear is the same.
Sources:
(1) https://www.affective-science.org/pubs/2012/lindquist-et-al-bbs-2012.pdf
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I'd agree that there is certainly an amount of social learning that is necessary in order to have a close enough relationship to feel love. This doesn't mean that you couldn't hormonally and neurochemically alter them with drugs in order to force them to feel love, though. I'd also be interested to see what would happen if such a person had a child, as I would expect hormones and neurotransmitters to be released regardless.
"if we are born with emotions as you say then they are an instinctive behavior"
I'm not necessarily saying that we were born with emotions, I'm saying that the emotional states we feel are ultimately caused by hormones and neurochemicals. We are born with the ability to produce and secrete these chemicals in response to our environment (and our perception of our environment).
"if that is the case, then children (say at age of 2 or so) would show feelings of sadness at a loss of something, say a pet, instead they cry which is mistaken as sadness, however this crying is a learned behavior from birth. The baby learns that crying will get him what he wants; picked up, fed, cuddled and so on."
I'm sure that this could be the case, but is there any evidence for it?
"Emotions are not handed-down like traits through a family line."
If having emotions serves to guide our action in a way that increases our chances of survival and reproduction (which they do) then it makes sense to think that they are evolved.
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