Expressions of Feeling or Mood
In our daily lives, emotions play a significant role in shaping our experiences and decisions. From defining moments that leave lasting impressions to the small decisions we make every day, emotions are an integral part of our memory and our interactions with the world.
Recollecting a particularly important point in one's life often induces a similar emotional experience, highlighting the importance of emotions in our understanding of the world. But emotions serve a purpose beyond just colouring our memories; they are essential tools for goal attainment and self-preservation.
Negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, and sadness, are often viewed as detrimental to our well-being. However, these emotions play complex and functionally important roles in effective self-regulation and survival.
Negative emotions, such as anxiety or frustration, often arise after goal failure. Rather than leading to resignation, these emotions can fuel ambition and persistence. Studies show that after missing goals, some people experience anger or lower joy but subsequently raise their goals to try again harder, demonstrating that negative emotions can fuel ambition and persistence.
Negative emotions can also help individuals focus on controllable tasks to reduce anxiety. In uncertain or threatening situations, like a global pandemic, focusing on clear, actionable goals can help transform potentially overwhelming negative feelings into manageable psychological states, supporting better coping and eventual subjective well-being.
Moreover, negative emotions can signal the threat or loss of vital personal resources, leading individuals to strategically reduce involvement or recalibrate effort to prevent burnout and preserve vitality. This is based on the conservation of resources theory.
Negative emotions also play a crucial role in self-preservation by increasing alertness to risks and problems. This awareness encourages protective behaviours, promoting psychological healing and growth. The ability to tolerate and distance oneself from these emotions allows one to weather adversity without maladaptive rumination or self-criticism, promoting psychological healing and growth.
In their functional theory of emotion, researchers Keith Oatley and Philip Johnson-Laird suggest that emotions help us choose which goals to pursue. Emotions act as a barometer for determining the possibility of success when we take a particular approach to a problem.
Negative emotions may prevent us from continuing with the same line of attack in situations where it is detrimental to our physical and cognitive resources essential for self-preservation. For instance, anger might lead an individual to cease their activity and attempt an alternative approach to their problem, conserving physical and cognitive resources for other attempts at solving a problem.
On the other hand, positive emotions, like happiness, have the capacity to lower physical arousal following some negative event. Emotions, both positive and negative, have the potential to benefit us, providing the impetus to choose and pursue different goal paths, especially when an event or situation results in the continual prevention of goal attainment.
Emotions, particularly negative ones, are important for maintaining physical and mental well-being. They are a product of evolution that developed as a response to situations critical for our species' survival. So, while they may cause negative feelings that impede performance in tasks or daily life, they are essential for our survival in real-life threatening situations.
In summary, negative emotions are adaptive signals that help individuals detect challenges or inadequacies, trigger motivational adjustments in goal pursuit, and support self-protective strategies by regulating effort and conserving resources. Rather than being purely detrimental, they play a complex and functionally important role in effective self-regulation and survival.
UI design can incorporate elements that evoke specific emotions, such as calmness or focus, to aid users in their health-and-wellness journeys, including mental-health improvements. For instance, a meditation app might utilize soothing colors and minimalist designs to create a relaxing atmosphere, thereby enhancing the user's mental-health experience.
As science continues to unravel the intricacies of emotions and their roles in our lives, designers now appreciate the potential of UI design to aid in effective self-regulation and survival. This understanding fosters the creation of interfaces that not only present information but also invoke emotions that promote healthier choices and overall well-being.
