Okay, so, I was digging into this whole “emotion” thing in AP Psychology. It’s a trip, let me tell you. I started by just reading the textbook, you know, the usual. But it was all kinda dry and boring, so I was like, “Nah, there’s gotta be a better way.”
I figured, emotions are something we all deal with, right? So, I decided to track my own emotions for a week. I grabbed a notebook and started jotting down what I was feeling and when. It was kinda weird at first, like, “Why am I even doing this?” But I kept at it.
I used this basic list to categorize my feelings:
- Joy
- Sadness
- Anger
- Fear
- Surprise
- Disgust
Every time I felt something strong, I’d write it down. Like, “Stomachache from laughing too hard at a meme – Joy.” Or, “Freaked out about that AP Psych test – Fear.” It was kinda funny seeing it all laid out like that. I started noticing patterns, like how I get cranky when I’m hungry. Who knew, right?
Then, The Research
Then I went online, looking for some real info on these emotions. I found these articles and videos talking about the different theories of emotion. Like, there’s this James-Lange theory that says we feel emotions because of our physical reactions. So, like, you see a bear, your heart races, and then you feel scared. Makes sense, kinda.
Then there’s this other one, Cannon-Bard, that says we feel the emotion and the physical reaction at the same time. And Schachter-Singer’s two-factor theory, which says we interpret our physical reactions based on the situation to determine our emotion. My head was spinning with all this stuff!
After that, I tried to connect my little experiment with these theories. Like, when I felt anxious before a test, was it my heart racing that made me anxious (James-Lange), or was it both at the same time (Cannon-Bard)? Or was I interpreting my racing heart as anxiety because I was about to take a test (Schachter-Singer)? It was a real brain workout, I swear.
By the end of the week, I had pages of notes on my emotions and all these theories. I even made this chart thingy to compare them all. It wasn’t exactly pretty, but it helped me see the connections.
Honestly, this whole thing made me realize how complex emotions are. It’s not just about feeling happy or sad. There’s so much going on in our bodies and brains. And it actually helped me understand the AP Psych stuff way better. It was way more interesting than just reading the textbook, that’s for sure. So yeah, that’s how I tackled the whole emotion thing in AP Psych. Not bad for a week’s work, huh?
