Emotion

Define the term Emotion. What are the four common features of all emotions' Dental anxiety is evident in clinical practice, what method could you employ to overcome this' “An emotion is a positive or negative feeling (or affective state) consisting of a pattern of cognitive, physiological and behavioural reactions to events that have relevance to important goals or motives”. Categorization of emotion is based on duration. Some emotions occur over a period of seconds, for example ‘surprise’ where others can last years like ‘love’. A related distinction is between the emotion and the results of the emotion, principally behaviors and emotional expressions. People often behave in certain ways as a direct result of their emotional state, such as crying, fighting or fleeing. There are many common features of emotions. Responses to Eliciting Stimuli be it external or internal. “An eliciting stimulus is a change in the environment that is highly correlated with the occurrence of a later response. An eliciting stimulus is an essential component of Pavlovian conditioning.” For example, if a piece of chocolate, unconditioned stimulus, is placed into your mouth, then you will probably salivate copiously, unconditioned response. Placing the piece of chocolate into the mouth is said to elicit salivation.Then we have, Cognitive appraisal of the Stimuli. In the absence of physiological arousal, we decide what to feel after interpreting or explaining what has just happened. Two things are important in this: whether we interpret the event as good or bad for us, and what we believe is the cause of the event. This challenges the two-factor separation of arousal and emotion, supporting the Cannon and Bard theory albeit with the addition of the thinking step. In primary appraisal, we consider how the situation affects our personal well-being. In secondary appraisal we consider how we might cope with the situation. This is sometimes also called Lazarus Theory. For example, when a colleague gets promoted, I might feel resentful if I think I deserve the promotion more than they do. (Human Motivation & Emotion” by Ross Buck, www.changingminds.org) Emotions are psychological-physiological phenomena that represent adaptation to a changing environment. Physiologically, emotions organize the responses of disparate biological systems for example facial, muscular tone and voice tone. It has always been assumed that the first thing that happens is that we have the experience of an emotion, and then and only then do we start reacting to the situation physiologically.  But over a hundred years ago, William James, the father of American psychology, and Carl Lange, a Danish psychologist, separately introduced the idea that we have it all backwards:  First, they said, we have physiological responses to a situation, and only then do we use those responses to formulate an experience of emotion.  This is called the James-Lange theory. Most common of all is avoidance. When we see a problem coming, we give in to our anxiety and run away, physically or psychologically. With avoidance, we are really trying to get out of an emotional situation and back into a peaceful state on our comfort zone. Unfortunately, if you avoid problems and their distress, you also avoid the delight of solutions. Think of some of the common "psychological" ways we avoid life's problems like alcohol and drugs for example. The goal of avoidance is to be unconscious, or at least unconscious of problems. (“Human Emotions”by Carroll Ellis Izard, “Psychology: Themes & Variations” by Wayne Weiten) Those with dental anxiety will have a sense of uneasiness when it's time for their appointments. They'll have exaggerated or unfounded worries or fears. People develop dental anxieties and phobias for many different reasons. For some it may be a fear of pain, it's also common for people to feel helplessness and a loss of control, similar to a fear of flying where not being able to see what is going on and not being in control triggers anxiety. Or for others negative past experiences in the dental chair cause the patient to be anxious next time round. Many people fear losing all control while in the dental chair, and get panicky as a result. If that's the case, it is important to talk to the patient throughout the procedure, tell you what you are doing and what sensations to expect, and explain each and every step. This will actually help the patient to feel in control, by understanding what's going on. Tell/Show/Do (TSD) was initially designed for children's dentistry, but can be adapted for use with any age group. The tell phase involves an explanation of the procedure including descriptions of any instruments which may be used and for what reason. The show phase is used to demonstrate a procedure up to the point where the instrument is actually used. The do phase is then initiated with the client's consent and the treatment is performed. Nowadays, most dentists and hygienists are aware of the need to avoid "threatening" words, such as pain, hurt, drill, or extract. In dental terms, this is referred to as “euphemistic language". With a nervous patient, it's particularly important to avoid threatening language. For example, use ‘discomfort’ not pain or hurt, ‘numb or freeze’ instead of shot, injection or needle. Why are words so powerful in shaping our thinking' This is strongly concerned with learning by association. "Clinical-sounding" words will trigger existing associations with being treated in a clinical or depersonalising way. The most important way for a dentist to help a patient overcome their anxiety is to be sensitive to their needs and emotions and adjust communication and treatment accordingly. Once trust is established, often fear virtually disappears. (Irish Dental Association-Article, www.simplestepsdental.com, www.dentalfearcentral.com )