Constructed Emotion

THEORY OF CONSTRUCTED EMOTION
Think about a police officer who has been on the job for 12 hours and is about to clock out. After two cups of coffee, the officer returns to the cruiser and receives a call about a possible prowler. The cop is driving to the crime scene with a red face, a knotted stomach, and sweaty palms. When the police officer returns to the same area a few minutes later, he finds a loitering teen talking on the phone. The teen looks downcast as they catch sight of the cop and runs away. The officer orders the child to hang up, face them, and respond to a series of questions. The officer’s perception of the current situation as dangerous may factor in the officer’s physiological responses, such as a racing heart, sweating, tense stomach, and flushed face. The officer will likely interpret the situation with the loitering teenager as tense and the teenager as hostile because they do not know the possible causes for these emotions. As a result, the police officer might react violently.

The significance of internal sensations from various sources can influence our experiences and actions. This article emphasises the theory of constructed emotions and their importance in decision-making.

The nature of emotional responses

A feeling is how one’s brain interprets the sensory changes that occur in the body due to interaction with the external environment. What matters is not how you feel about the world but rather how we see the world and how your body functions in it.

To begin, let’s define the theory of constructed emotion.

Theory of Constructed Emotion

The idea is that emotions are not innate. There is no hardwired circuit in your brain that, when triggered, will cause you to behave predictably. Instead, when we need an emotion, our brain conjures one up from a stockpile of versatile ingredients; the neural circuits responsible for this process are identical to those responsible for generating thoughts, memories, and perceptions.

Constructed emotions in law enforcement

Officers in the law enforcement community are frequently put in situations where they must make split-second judgements under intense stress. The stakes are incredibly high, so they can only afford to make no mistakes. Decisions in emotionally charged situations can be better understood with the help of the theory of constructed emotion (TCE).

Going back to our original example, the TCE notes that the officer’s subconscious experiences of higher levels of peripheral physiological arousal will predictably affect the officer’s perception and behaviour.

Constructed emotion in medical diagnosis

Medical practitioners are often tasked with determining not only the patient’s physical but also their mental health. What matters now is not the diagnosis itself but how the practitioner’s diagnosis is affected by the inference of another person’s emotional state.

Conclusion

It’s essential to recognise the impact of background knowledge and circumstances on emotional expression. There is more at play here, and we should remember that feelings are not easily assessed in advance. We will have accepted social diversity if we can do the same for differences in how people feel. It’s common knowledge that we all feel emotions and communicate them uniquely. The question is whether or not to recognise variations in how we express them.