Pain sensitivity occurs when the integrity of tissues is violated, the action of damaging factors on them and is often one of the painful symptoms of the disease. According to the definition of P. A. Anokhin, “pain is a kind of mental state of a person, determined by the totality of physiological processes in the central nervous system, brought to life by some overpowered or destructive irritation."

The process of pain sensation consists of 3 parts: D) receptor systems; 2) sensitive pathways; 3) cortical centers that form the feeling of pain (the term "receptor" was introduced by Sherrington, 1906). Pain is formed as a response of the body to destructive stimuli. It arose in the process of evolution as an adaptive property aimed at improving survival in the external environment.

Pain is divided into 2 main types: 1) acute epicritic pain, which is quickly recognized, easily localized, adaptation quickly develops to it and lasts as long as the stimulus acts; 2) protopathic pain, rough, which is realized slowly, poorly localized and determined, persists for a longer time and there is no adaptation to it. In addition, there are somatic, neuralgic (localized) and vegetative (diffuse) leucorrhoea. Special types of pain are causalgia and phantom pain. Causalgia is considered as the result of prolonged irritation at the site of damage to the nerve or spinal nerve root and the formed dominant focus in the cerebral cortex, which attracts any irritation to itself. Such patients experience excruciating burning pain from the slightest irritation. Phantom pains occur in the stump after amputation of a limb. Patients have a false idea of ​​the presence of an amputated limb. The cause of the pain is improper wound treatment, foreign body, scars, neuroma. Often, repeated operations are necessary to remove the focus of irritation in the stump.

The sensation of pain is associated with a change in certain vital body constants. In acute epicritic pain, the integrity of the protective integumentary membranes is violated, due to which the constancy of the internal environment of the body is maintained. The sensation of pain signals even a slight destruction of the protective shell and thus prevents its further destruction. Acute epicritical pain occurs under the action of destructive stimuli on the protective membranes of the body, differentiates the place of the violation, which enables the body to take appropriate measures.

The formation of rough, poorly differentiated protopathic pain is associated with a change in the level of oxygen respiration of tissues. The introduction of any substances that disrupt the oxidative processes in the tissues leads to pain. The causes of pain can be different: inflammation, metabolic disorders, tissue rupture or blockage of blood vessels, but pain appears when it is the oxidative tissue processes that support their normal vital activity.

pain receptors. There are two theories explaining the perception of pain: 1) pain is the result of excitation of special pain receptors, has its own specific ways of conducting excitation and specific nerve centers. These are non-encapsulated, free nerve endings; in the dental pulp, for example, there are a lot of them; 2) excessive irritation of any somatic receptors (tactile, thermal, cold) causes pain, that is, there is a non-specific mechanism of pain excitation.

It is known that all somatic receptors according to the threshold of sensitivity are divided into low- and high threshold. Low-threshold ones are excited by non-damaging stimuli (pressure, touch). High-threshold receptors are excited when exposed to strong, damaging stimuli (pricks, incisions, strong temperature effects, etc.). But they can also react to non-damaging factors. These high-threshold receptors are called pain receptors, or nociceptors. Noci-

21centors are free nerve endings of unmyelinated fibers.

If we consider nociceptors according to the mechanism of their excitation, then we can distinguish two types: 1) mechano- and 2) chemo-monociceptors. To mechanociceptor include receptors of the skin, epidermis, muscles, joints and thermal nociceptors of the skin that respond to mechanical irritation and heating above 36-43 ° C and do not respond to cooling. Excitation is carried out along A l fibers.

Chemonocyceptors are localized both on the integumentary membranes of the body, and in deep tissues, visceral organs, especially a lot of them in the membranes of blood vessels. They transmit impulses mainly through afferent C-fibers.

Sensitive pathways. Pain impulses traveling along the AD and C-fibers enter the spinal cord through the posterior roots and form two bundles. The classical three-neural specific spinothalamic pathway has been most fully studied. The pain receptors of this pathway can be viewed as a collection of non-encapsulated nerve endings of the axon of the spinal ganglion. Pain is perceived and transformed by the neurons of the spinal ganglion, that is, the 1st neuron is located in the spinal ganglion. In the posterior horns of the spinal cord lies the 2nd neuron, the fibers of which go to the opposite side of the spinal cord and, as part of the lateral spinothalamic pathway through the medial loop, reach the thalamus opticus, where the 3rd neuron is located. Its fibers are diffusely sent to the region of the posterior central gyrus of the parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex, where pain is formed. Strictly localized pain with a certain projection on the surface of the body is perceived and transformed along this path. It is also called somatic pain. It is transmitted along A^ fibers.

There is also a non-specific reticulocortical pathway that forms non-localized diffuse pain (stomach pain, body pain, etc.). This path is subdivided into spinoreticular, spinothectal and spinobulbothalamic. The reticular formation plays the role of a kind of battery in the central nervous system. The participation of the reticular formation in the formation of diffuse pain is evidenced not only by numerous experimental data, but also by its anatomical connections throughout the trunk of the mo:ma with a specific three-neuronal pathway. In the formation of non-localized pain, the frontal lobes of the brain and the gelatinous substance of Roland, located in the posterior horns of the spinal cord, take part.

Using electrophysiological research methods, it was shown that all levels of the central nervous system (cortex, thalamic and limbic systems, nuclei of the posterior hypothalamus, elements of the dorsal parts of the spinal cord) are involved in the formation of pain. The pain reaction is the response of the entire CNS. An important link in the CNS in response to a painful stimulus is the entry of nociceptive impulses into the structures of the hypothalamus, since the hypothalamus is both an emotional and a vegetative center. Excitation of the hypothalamus is accompanied by a state of negative emotion, activation of the ANS occurs, and hormonal reactions of the body change through the connections of the hypothalamus with the pituitary gland. The function of the adrenal glands is activated, the release of adrenaline and corticosteroids increases. Removal of the adrenal glands leads to the death of animals with severe pain irritation. The release of releasing factors (or liberins) by the hypothalamus regulates the release of pituitary hormones: ACTH, thyroid-stimulating, ADH (anuria in case of painful excitation).

Neurochemical processes of pain excitation. The main chemicals that cause the activation of chemociceptors are mediators: acetylcholine, norepinephrine and serotonin. In addition, in case of tissue damage (trauma, inflammation), the formation of potassium chloride, histamine, serotonin, prostaglandins, kinins, substance P, somatostatin increases, which increase the excitation of both mechano and chemociceptors. Of the kinins, bradykinin is the most studied, the amount of which increases with pain irritation in the perfusate of the skin and tooth pulp. The introduction of bradykinin is used to prove the participation of certain nerve units in pain stimulation. Fibers containing bradykinins are found in the hypothalamus and cerebral cortex. In the mechanisms of pain excitation has great importance substance or substance P. It has been established that during antidromic stimulation of the fibers of the dental pulp, substance P is released, which is currently considered a mediator of nociceptive impulses at the level of neurons of the posterior horns of the spinal cord, and not at the level of peripheral receptors. However, substance P differs from classical mediators in a number of ways, so substance P is more of a modulator rather than a mediator of nociceptive impulses,

In the body, in addition to the nociceptive system, there is an endogenous antinociceptive system that controls and regulates pain sensitivity. Since ancient times, the analgesic properties of opium preparations have been known. The introduction of morphine causes a decrease in pain in humans and an increase in the threshold of nociceptive reactions in animals. The existence of opiate receptors in the body has led to the assumption that they bind morphine-like substances, not only exogenous, but also endogenous - ligaids related to this type of receptor.

In 1975, such endogenous morphine-like substances were isolated for the first time from the brain, as well as from the pituitary gland of pigeons and other animals in the form of oligopeptides. In 1976, oligopeptides were found in human cerebrospinal fluid and blood. Various types of these oligopeptides are called endorphins (END) and enkephalins (ENK). Some properties of ENCs are characteristic of mediators. Currently, it is believed that END are produced mainly in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, ENK - in the hypothalamus. ENKs have a wider localization in the CNS. The largest amount of ENC in humans was found in the globus pallidus, 2 times less - in the substantia nigra, 3 times less - in the caudate nucleus, hypothalamus, etc. The precursor of END is lipotropin, which is produced in the hypothalamus. Activation of the endorphin mechanisms of the hypothalamus leads to an increase in the release of hormones and END from the pituitary gland, while the content of END in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid increases. This allows it to contact various opiate receptors.

In contrast to END, ENC-containing cells and fibers are localized in almost all switching stations of pain impulses: neurons of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, giant cell nucleus, reticular formation, nuclei of the hypothalamus, thalamus, and even the frontal cortex. This gives rise to the assumption that the mechanisms of the effect of ENC on the nociceptive system are associated with their direct and local effect on opiate receptors and are carried out depending on the level of their localization. The opioid system can have 2 mechanisms of action on opiate receptors: 1) through the activation of the hypothalamic END with subsequent activation of the pituitary END and their influence through the blood and cerebrospinal fluid. This is the epdorphin mechanism; 2) through the activation of terminals containing ENC and END.

As a result of research, it was found that morphine and morphine-like substances inhibit the conduction of pain impulses, starting from peripheral nociceptors. It has been shown that morphine reduces the content of bradycypium in the perfusate of the skin, as well as in the dental pulp when they are painfully irritated, and blocks the release of prostaglandins.

Injecting morphine directly into a person's spinal cord produces more pain relief than intravenous injection. One of the main mechanisms for the transmission of pain impulses at the level of neurons in the posterior horn of the spinal cord is the release of substance P, a modulator that enhances the excitation of pain interneurons. Morphine in doses that cause analgesia in cats, led to the disappearance of the effect of increasing the amount of substance P during electrical stimulation of the sciatic nerve. There is an opinion about it. that morphine and opioid peptides act presynaptically on the release of substance P from the primary terminals and thereby inhibit the conduction of pain impulses.

It is assumed that the opioid system is the controller of the intensity of nociceptive excitation. People with a high content of opioids in the cerebrospinal fluid respond to an increasing stimulus with a decrease in sensitivity to it, and people with a lower content of opioids, on the contrary, respond with an increase in sensitivity. The restrictive function of the endogenous opioid system also plays a certain role in the genesis of some body reactions that occur to superstrong stimuli, leading to a state of shock. With all types of shock, there is a decrease in general and pain sensitivity, a lack of response to electrical stimulation, which indicates a blockade of the conduction of pain impulses. This can be done through the mechanism of the endogenous opioid system.

A decrease in pain sensitivity is caused by neurotensin (its analgesic effect is 100-1000 times greater than that of morphine), serotonin. There is an independent mechanism for the regulation of pain sensitivity - serotonergic, different from the opioid mechanism. The cerebral cortex regulates pain sensitivity. If a person is warned about pain, then he feels it less. The emotional regulation of pain sensitivity is well known. Stressful situations reduce the feeling of pain. Emotional states such as fear sharply increase the reaction to pain, lower the threshold of pain sensitivity, and states such as aggression, on the contrary, reduce pain sensitivity. It is not yet known through which mechanism the action of emotional arousal is realized: opioid or serotonergic.

An independent adrenergic mechanism of anti-tinocyception associated with the activation of negative emotional areas of the brain was found. This mechanism has an adaptive value, since it allows the body in stressful situations to neglect pain effects and thereby give all its strength to the struggle for the preservation of life: for example, with emotions of fear - to flee, with emotions of anger - aggression.

25 Thus, there is a constant interaction of nociceptive and antinociceptive mechanisms of the body. This forms the threshold of pain sensitivity and its functional fluctuations.

They are manifested by emotional reactions that are disproportionate in intensity or inadequate in quality in response to changes in situations that are essential for patients.

Emotional explosiveness or explosiveness. It is manifested by an increased readiness for emotional reactions in the form of disorders or disorders close to those in response to various emotional stimuli. From the outside, one may get the impression that violent emotional reactions arise over perfect trifles (a rude word, an ironic remark, etc.). But these are usually such “trifles” that hurt the wounded self-esteem of the individual very much. Reactions of expressed discontent, anger with verbal, and often with physical, prevail. It happens that in such a rush, the victim is seriously injured, sometimes incompatible with life. Sometimes in such patients "free-floating aggressiveness" is detected, so that external aggression can immediately transform into auto-aggression. Such aggressors do not value their own or other people's lives. Most often they are psychopaths. During the reaction, self-control is significantly reduced, patients mostly act impulsively.

Explosiveness is often found in patients with psychopathic disorders of various origins (TBI, schizophrenia, etc.). E. Bleuler notes in "easily excitable psychopaths" and bouts of despair with attempted suicide, as well as "fear or even stuporous states." Recall that here we are not talking about acute reactions to stress or reactions to repeated stress, when the first, as it were, prepared the ground for a reaction to the latter (“mental anaphylaxis”, “mental allergy”). Sometimes hysterical patients can turn themselves on to the point of affect, especially if they have developed such a defensive reaction somewhere in the zone.

Defensiveness- emotional toughness. It is manifested by persistent fixation of predominantly negative emotional reactions that have arisen in a situation of frustration. Rancor, revenge, aggressive fantasies are typical. The patient, for example, talks about a long-standing conflict with his colleague and at the same time plays with his jaws, clenching his fists as if it were a very recent skirmish. He does not forget to add that if he got this man now, "I would pay him in full." Another patient, 15 years later, severely beat a classmate because he “made fun of me at school in front of everyone.” Such patients get rid of mental trauma for a long time and with difficulty, not being able to switch to something else. They seem to be invariant and strictly adhere to their previous habits and patterns of behavior. Defensiveness can also manifest itself in relation to positive emotions and attachments. Patients say that they are “monogamous” and cannot start a second family if the husband or wife has died, they prefer to live in one place, it is very difficult for them to change their occupation, hobbies, entertainment, they keep old things for a long time, but get used to new ones. rather difficult, they listen to the same music and watch old films they once loved many times, do not include new people in their circle of friends, etc. Emotional viscosity is characteristic of epileptoid psychopaths, epilepsics, individuals with age-related personality changes, described in parkinsonism and postencephalitic mental disorders.

Emotive lability- easy, capricious change of mood under the influence of the most insignificant reasons, sometimes not noticed either by the patient himself, let alone those around him, - tachythymia. The wind rose, the sun went down, it rained, the heel broke, the pen stopped writing, a stain appeared on the blouse - all this can noticeably spoil the mood. But it easily rises if pleasant little things happen right there: the seller didn’t miscalculate, someone said a compliment, smiled, gave up his seat on the bus - and the mood is good again, life makes you happy again, everyone likes you, and rainbow mirages reappear ahead. In some cases, emotive lability reaches the degree of emotional hyperesthesia, when the mood becomes dependent on an infinite number of random details of what is happening.

These are people of the mimosa type, impressionists who cringe at a casual glance, intonation of voice, the smell of sweat, the sight of a withering flower. Such painful fragility makes it difficult to live, maintain equal relations with people, think about something serious, and generally creates a feeling of ephemeralness, airiness of the existing, in which everything is so conditional and changeable. Emotive lability is a sign of the corresponding psychopathy, portending the possibility of a more serious affective pathology.

emotional incontinence- inability to control not only their emotions, but also their external manifestations. The disorder is described by E. Bleuler in mental retardation, as well as in the mentally ill. It characterizes a significant decrease in the ability of self-control and dysfunction of higher integrative authorities.

Weakness- compassionate tearfulness, excessive sentimentality, manifested in the perception or memories of touching events. One of the early signs of cerebral atherosclerosis. Weakness is often associated with traumatic events in the past and in such cases is reminiscent of the approaching symptom of "living in the past". Weakness is also found in states of neuropsychic asthenia, when a rational attitude to what is happening is replaced by a fruitless emotional one. Excessive tearfulness is often found with mild hysteria. Sometimes tears characterize impotent anger, self-pity and resentment towards someone, a state of tenderness, a discharge of emotional stress, the ability to share the suffering of someone. There are also tears of joy. The latter things are not actually weak-mindedness.

Weakness should not be confused with violent crying, which, like violent laughter, occurs with pseudobulbar disorders. “Hysterics” with sometimes uncontrollable sobs are due to the fact that patients fall into the appropriate role, in need of consolation, but cannot immediately get out of it on their own. It does not apply to weakness and tearfulness in patients with painful insensitivity: here the tears flow as if by themselves, mechanically, without being accompanied by the experience of the corresponding emotions. There are also "made tears" - someone "forces the patient to cry or he feels that it is not he who is crying, but someone else instead of him." Tears, like laughter, are very meaningful.

Emotional dullness- underdevelopment or loss of higher feelings while maintaining or even reviving simpler emotions. Patients lack such feelings as compassion, tenderness, a sense of justice, remorse, a sense of beauty, a religious feeling, intellectual feelings, etc. Emotionally stupid individuals are callous, cruel, not inclined to repentance, many of them do not even know a sense of shame. They absolutely do not care what feelings they form as parents and educators. Many parents today teach children to be selfish, to love only themselves, not to stand on ceremony with those who are weaker, to refuse help and to learn to say a firm “no” when they ask for something, and if they beat, then lying down. The leitmotif of such teachings is the conviction that “you can’t live good now and you have to win your place under the sun by force.”

Here is an example of the emotional stupidity of a school teacher who was transferred to disability due to illness. The patient is a teacher-mathematician by profession, she taught physics and mathematics in high school. She told me that she had developed a new system of teaching her disciplines and that after six months her class was unrecognizable: the eternal C students began to show miracles in solving problems. That is why - out of envy - she was suspended from lessons. Her method consisted of composing problems of a type that would be of interest to schoolchildren. In a year she came up with four hundred such problems and was extremely proud of it. Here is some of them. “A brick slides across the roof of a five-story building. The length of the sliding path is 5 m. The height of the house is H, the sliding speed is X. An old man is approaching the house at a speed of Y. He is at a distance B from the place where the brick was supposed to fall. The question is: will the brick fall on the head of this bald old man? Or: “The climber fell off a cliff 250 m high. The question is: how long will it take him to reach the gorge and how fast will he break on its bottom?” The saddest thing about this story of emotional stupidity was that all the children liked the tasks, and none of their parents protested.

A slightly lower degree of emotional dullness is referred to as emotional impoverishment or impoverishment. Attachments, altruistic feelings, empathy of such patients are significantly weakened, fragile and quickly dry up. Thus, a 30-year-old patient reports that he is still not married and does not intend to marry, that he has never been fond of anyone before, has never been in love and has not sympathized with anyone.

“Love,” he explains, “is animal magnetism, the relationship of male and female. Why get married - to mate? And then even if you get married, you have to adapt to society, tedious legal procedures will follow. He doesn't even think about becoming a father. “What is it for, what is the point of having children, I don’t like them, and caring for them disgusts me.” Several times I got a job, even for good pay. After 1–2 months, he quit his job, while not formalizing his dismissal, without notifying in advance of his intention. Questions about duties, responsibility, about the fact that he let someone down, left without attention. His motivation for leaving work was as follows: “The work is boring, monotonous, I would like vivid impressions, otherwise everything quickly gets bored.” He does not visit his parents, does not write letters to them. I only had one friend at school. Nothing in given time does not get carried away, does not communicate with anyone, practically does not leave the house. Lives on the help of parents. At home he sometimes plays computer games, sometimes watches TV, occasionally reads whatever comes to hand.

“Of course, I should work, but there is nothing that would be to my liking.”

The degree of emotional impoverishment is, of course, different, but usually it concerns the highest feelings: affection, love, friendship, gratitude, cordiality, respect, compassion. Even minor emotional changes play, according to E. Bleiler, "an outstanding role" and "especially because in any disorder it is the affective mechanisms that first of all reveal the symptoms."

Emotional Paradox- disproportionate intensity of affective reactions to the objective significance of emerging situations and circumstances. Thus, a 31-year-old patient, a dissector at a children's hospital, is satisfied with his work, it does not depress him, does not darken his mood. He explains: "At the cellular level, the corpse is not visible." A good photographer, especially likes to take pictures of children. He loves nature, serious music, "pop music is disgusting to me." Very vulnerable - "one word is enough to spoil the mood for the whole day." Not married, never had a close relationship: “This is pure physiology; love was invented in order not to feel like cattle.

He endures the atmosphere of the psychiatric ward (located in the general ward) calmly, is not burdened by being here, communicates with patients on an equal footing, goes with them for lunch, to work. The offer to be treated was accepted without resistance. Informed by the doctor that he is ill, and quite seriously. He listened to this calmly, did not ask what he was ill with. He did not ask about what this disease threatens, how it will affect his life. He calmly accepted the offer to apply for disability. For some reason, I remembered that once I spent the night in the morgue for a whole month. "There's one bad thing - it's hot." Another patient reports: “I’m not afraid of fights, the men fight bloody, with knives, and I climb to separate them. Per recent times one broke up seven fights. More than anything, I'm afraid of mysticism and watching thrillers.

Another patient stoically endures the situation of the department, noise, quarrels, fights between patients, he is not traumatized by the fact of the disease (he knows what he is ill with), not too bright prospects for being actually thrown out of life. And yet one day he suddenly became very indignant, shouted, was excited - the reason was that he was moved to another bed in the ward.

Irritability- a tendency to frequent and relatively shallow reactions of discontent on various, usually minor reasons, which often have no direct relationship to the true causes of the disorder. One of the most common causes of irritability is the egocentrism of patients - they are dissatisfied with many things only because "everything is not done the way it should", i.e. "not in my opinion." The egocentric gets annoyed when they don’t listen to him: how can you not listen to me, it’s others who are able to grind nonsense, but not me. It infuriates him when he is interrupted, although he himself does not allow anyone to open his mouth: “he also interrupts, boor, it would be better for him to be silent, listen to what they say smart people". The egocentric constantly reproaches someone, teaches, instructs, gives very impartial assessments, he is generally annoyed by everything that, in his opinion, is unfair, i.e., hurts his exorbitant pride. Tantrums are irritable to scandals: they are offended that they are not appreciated, they do not understand, they do not thank them at every step, they need their path to be strewn with roses of admiration.

Often irritability is a way of defusing accumulated discontent on someone. Resentment and tension splash out on household members, children, animals; gets to the objects. Dishes are shattered, clothes are torn to shreds, pens and pencils are broken. One patient smashed his car with a hammer because it wouldn't start. The transfer of emotions from one object to another is sometimes called the transport of emotions. Patients, irritated, often want at all costs to maintain the illusion of their control over what is happening by demonstrating aggression, the strength of their I. Irritability may be the result of dissatisfaction with themselves: few are able to understand themselves in order to understand what is still wrong with them . The easiest way is to find the culprit in order to divert your attention from yourself with a flash of irritation, as if to displace dissatisfaction with yourself, and at the same time restore self-esteem. Sometimes irritation is a mild form of expressing indignation, that is, dissatisfaction with the merits of the case, which does not offend the dignity of another; such people are often dissatisfied with themselves, or rather, with the fact that they did something wrong, at the wrong time, let someone down and generally did something not worthy of themselves.

Usually they are immediately ready to apologize and rectify the situation as soon as possible. Finally, irritability is a constant companion of asthenia - irritable weakness or "failure of the brakes" - hypersthenia. Such patients are initially indignant, then they think, and then they realize that they “got excited” and were wrong. Emotions are generally difficult to control, but losing control over them is much easier. And when that happens, they always have the first word. If irritability is combined with other manifestations of increased emotional sensitivity, it may be a sign of excessive sensibility of depressed patients. So, irritability can be characteristic of patients with various disorders, some of its main causes, as it seems to us, we have identified.

Emotional coarsening- loss of subtle, differentiated emotional reactions associated with a mild decrease in intelligence with organic brain damage in persons who are premorbidly disharmonious in terms of personality. Due to too simplified, incomplete, fragmentary or one-sided understanding of what is happening, patients become quite inadequate: tactless, naked, familiar, boastful or even dishonest, since deceit and cunning are in the order of things for them. They often change the sense of proportion, delicacy, courtesy, tolerance, in a decent society they resemble an elephant in a china shop. They cannot understand that they are shocking someone with their inappropriate behavior, they can injure someone with an obscene phrase, offend or cause self-loathing. They also love to joke. But their jokes are vulgar, obscene and often repeated to the accompaniment of their own laughter.

Due to importunity, they shamelessly break into someone else's conversation and try to take him away to their side, where they wash the bones for someone. They speak loudly, a lot, as if they are trying to shout someone down. Their phraseology is very far from refinement, the statements are confused, the beginning and end of the latter are rarely on the same line of reasoning. Patients easily cross the boundaries of subordination, interfere with personal relationships with official ones, do not take into account the self-respect and ethical position of the interlocutor. And if the interlocutor is also a subordinate, he falls into the position of a “fool”, which should not be reckoned with at all. Patients are often very cheeky, can be rude and even sneer at people who are addicted to them. They are incapable of dialogue: they interrupt the interlocutor, do not allow him to complete his thought, do not try to understand him, impose their opinion, and then draw dubious conclusions from the conversation, relating not so much to the problem under discussion as to interpersonal relationships.

Subordinates rarely leave the office of such a boss with a light heart, unless they use flattery or something else to appease the "deity". Such a dialogue is a bit like a violation of communication in the form of a double dialogue, described in the families of patients with schizophrenia (J. Batesson, 1956). For example, a son, rejoicing at the visit of his mother, puts his hand on her shoulder. The mother responds with a grimace of disapproval. The patient withdraws his hand, to which his mother reproaches him for not loving her. The patient blushes, but the mother makes a remark to him, they say, you can’t be so embarrassed. In other circumstances, emotionally hardened patients may behave quite differently: they fawn, please, humiliate themselves, agree with everything and eat through the eyes of the boss, trying to talk less so as not to inadvertently anger him. It was rightly said by someone: silence is a shield for a fool, a fool is smart as long as he is silent. The essence of the matter does not change from this change of dishes. Coarseness of emotions and feelings occurs quite often and usually comes to the fore, while intellectual decline remains, as it were, in the shadows, and gross violations are often not detected.

Anniversary reactions- the appearance or intensification of a sense of grief on the date of the tragic event. This happens, for example, on parental day, on days of remembrance of the victims of war or terrorist acts, disasters, etc. For example, participants in battles in hot spots get together from time to time to remember their dead fighting friends. Usually restrained in conversations about mourning events with strangers, here they indulge in detailed reminiscences, reviving the smallest details of what happened in their memory. It does not do without a feast. They drink to remember the dead, to alleviate the severity of the loss and to suppress the guilt of the survivors. In hindsight, it often seems that the misfortune could have been prevented.

parathymia- inversion of emotional reactions, replacement of adequate emotions by directly opposite ones. So, the mother congratulates her daughter on her birthday as follows: “Galina! I don't wish you a happy birthday. I don't wish you happiness. I curse you, the mother's curse is the worst!" The girl was raped in the company, her friends held her legs. In shock, she returned home, did not say anything to her relatives, went to the bathroom, lay down in her clothes in the water and burst out laughing. Another patient remembered that at the age of seven she fell into the water, got frightened, began to drown. She was rescued by a woman passing by. Instead of the joy of salvation and gratitude to the woman, "I scolded the savior in all sorts of ways, told her that she was a fool and ugly."

Idiosyncrasy to emotions- intolerance of various emotions: “I perceive my emotions too sharply. And good ones too. After them, palpitations, discomfort, I feel very bad. I try not to worry or be happy at all. This symptom seems to be the opposite of painful insensibility. In the latter case, patients suffer from the fact that they have ceased to be aware of their emotions. In the second case, on the contrary, the patient is too acutely aware of her emotions and already suffers about this.

Emotional ambivalence- the coexistence of polar feelings in relation to the same object or phenomenon: “I seem to have two I: one loves my mother, the other hates her ... I am attached to my husband, tender with him and at the same time he infuriates me, I am ready to kill him.” The patient wants his wife dead, but when he sees her dead in hallucinations, he despairs. The disorder indicates the splitting of the Self.

Escalation of affectivity- excessive expressiveness (in gestures, facial expressions, postures, voice intonations) in hysterics as a means of suppressing others, self-affirmation and as a mechanism for discharging excessive motivation (to teach a lesson, punish someone, moderate libido, etc.). Patients start small: raise their voice, cry, walk around the room nervously. Then, gradually and as if involuntarily, they inflate themselves to such an extent that they can no longer get out of the role on their own, unless they are saved by a swoon.

Emotional burnout- a symptom complex, including emotional and (or) physical exhaustion, depersonalization and decreased performance (Pelmann, Hartman, 1982). Emotional exhaustion is experienced as inner emptiness, exhaustion of affective resources, emotional overstrain. Interest in work is lost, the patient goes there as if “to hard labor”, without enthusiasm and enthusiasm, but rather with disgust. Depersonalization is expressed by the feeling of impersonal people, they all seem equally unpleasant.

Relations with them become purely formal, employees often cause irritation, hostility, discontent and indignation. Conflicts with them are quite likely if colleagues did not realize that they were dealing with a person who was left with mental strength. The decline in efficiency is associated with such reasons as the appearance of a negative assessment of oneself as a professional, self-doubt, feelings of worthlessness, doubts about one's competence, dissatisfaction with oneself, and a decrease in motivation to work.

Emotional burnout occurs in individuals who are in intensive and close communication with clients, patients, pupils, students and colleagues in the provision of professional assistance. peculiar emotional people who do not know how to protect themselves from excessive affective response to production situations. The surgeon should not die with every patient, the psychiatrist should not go crazy with the patient, accepting his grief as his own; teacher - do not worry about the failures of students as if he himself receives ones and deuces. Work should not exceed the optimal level of tension, otherwise it will lead to fatigue and many mistakes in simple situations. The amount of load should be rational and in no case go beyond the scope of mental hygiene. Managers do not know or do not want to know anything, overloading their subordinates; usually, unfortunately, they care more about themselves and their prestige in the eyes of their superiors.

The disorder develops at the age of 30-40 years, more often in women with these professions, as well as scientists and managers. It is sometimes referred to as compassionate fatigue. It is necessary to timely identify patients and provide rehabilitation assistance using and (small doses of antidepressants, nootropics, normalization of sleep, physiotherapy, etc.).

Learned helplessness- a condition caused by "getting into harmful, unpleasant situations", "which can neither be avoided nor prevented" (Seligman). In experiments on animals, the helplessness of the latter becomes such that even the emerging opportunity to get out of the situation is not used. Some authors see this disorder as a factor contributing to the onset or intensification of depression. W. Frankl observed the complete loss of the ability to resist in the Nazi death camps; For some reason, such prisoners were called Muslims, perhaps because they placed their hopes only on the Almighty.

Dyshomophilia- tension, anxiety during homoerotic fantasizing. It is observed in homo-, heterosexuals and even in asexuality. It is recommended not to confuse the disorder with "egodystonic homosexuality".

Emotional Paralysis of Balti(1901), or affective anesthesia. Described as a variant of psychogenic stupor without impaired consciousness with a complete shutdown of emotions without subsequent amnesia. Derealization is also observed, the patient perceives what is happening from a distance, from the outside, as something that seems to him. At the same time, he can move, behave outwardly quite adequately.

Loss of syntonicity It manifests itself in the fact that the patient does not feel the emotional context in someone's conversation with him, and thus cannot discover the meaning of the speech addressed to him. So, the patient perceives the usual sympathetic questions of a doctor about his well-being as an "interrogation", says that "they climb into his soul." When asked to clarify what he means, he declares that they are pestering him, showing inappropriate curiosity. He considers the advice to receive medical treatment as pressure on him, he is indignant that he is “dictated”, “imposed”. He is offended by a joke, believing that he is being “ridiculed”, he regards a benevolent attitude towards himself as an attempt to “manipulate” him, etc. It is more often observed in patients with schizophrenia.

vicarious pleasure- replacement of one's own dissatisfaction with joy or pleasure for other people. The father rejoices, for example, that his son at school gets fives in mathematics, and he himself, no matter how hard he tried, at one time did not know how to do this. A voyeur gets substitutionary pleasure by spying on the intimate relationships of other people.

Phobic reactions- excessive fears of something, observed in timid, fearful natures. It is important that such patients do not know how to assess the true extent of the danger and do not have sufficient personal experience of acting in dangerous situations. They are not able to adequately control their fears. The best form of fear control is the skills to overcome threatening situations. For example, a person sees someone drowning. He runs in fear along the shore and calls for help. Another person silently throws himself into the water and saves the drowning man without fear. Phobic reactions are not obsessive, although the patient fruitlessly struggles with them, is burdened by them, would like to get rid of them, while realizing that they are something not entirely normal. In addition, he is also ashamed of fears, he tries not to tell anyone about them. VV Kovalev defines such fears as overvalued, exaggerated.

hypophobia- lack of a sense of fear, leading to an underestimation of the degree of danger or threat of any situations. Described in patients with schizophrenia, in alcoholic intoxication, with neurosis - "sthenic sting of a psychasthenic." There are cases of complete absence of fear - anaphobia. A 30-year-old patient claims that she does not know what fear is at all, she has never experienced it under any circumstances. She says that in her school years she went alone to the cemetery at midnight, even before school she visited the “anatomist”, visited the morgue, even took her friends there out of curiosity. She never had fears in her dreams, no matter what she dreamed. From the very beginning, she watched horror films quite calmly and said: “I don’t understand what people find scary in them.” She jumped from a parachute and “was not at all afraid, even the instructor was surprised,” drowned and “was not at all afraid: I’ll drown like that, so it’s necessary.” “I was not afraid of a psychiatric hospital either, I came myself, what is there to be afraid of.”

Without fear, she walked at night along the unlit streets of the city, where "I know, they killed, robbed, raped." “I’m not brave, no, I just don’t have developed fear. Well, there are people without legs, so I have something similar to this. There is also such a phenomenon as kontphobia - the desire to get into dangerous situations for the sake of sharp impressions, not accompanied by fear.

Satomura Syndrome (1979)- a kind of fear of superiors or another high-ranking person. This is the fear of appearing funny or unpleasant in their eyes. Considered as a neurosis characteristic of the Japanese. Apparently, it is found not only in them.

Humor Disorders- the inability to see something worthy of compassion behind a comical, playful form. First of all, the sense of humor changes when perceiving real life situations of a humorous plan. At the same time, the sense of humor and in relation to oneself suffers. The perception of humor in the corresponding images (cartoons, etc.) seems to be preserved to a greater extent (Bleicher, Kruk, 1986).

According to our preliminary impressions, the loss of a sense of humor at first manifests itself, apparently, in the fact that when an individual encounters an object of humor, he becomes very cheerful, his mood rises, so that he himself is not averse to amusing someone, and then having a good time. the rest of time. The second, hidden plan of humor is not distinguished at the same time, light sadness and in-depth reflections on human nature, and usually there is no one about oneself. The next stage of the sense of humor deficiency occurs when the individual becomes funny, very funny, when he encounters manifestations of humor. He is sometimes disassembled by Homeric laughter, and he does not think of anything serious.

Starting to laugh, he will do this all evening (for example, at a laughter concert) and at very dubious jokes. It is worth provoking some “decoy duck” to laugh, as amicably, as if on command, the rest of the lovers of humor begin to laugh. A laughing individual resembles a stoned drug addict who finds everything funny that you show him. A. Maslow, meanwhile, noticed that people with a genuine sense of humor usually do not have fun and do not laugh, only a sad smile runs across their face. Such people, according to statistics, are only 1-3 per hundred. The continuing degradation of the sense of humor is expressed in the fact that the individual will laugh with pleasure when someone is laughed at. But he does not accept jokes addressed to him, moreover, he may be offended by this or, worse, angry. Finally, humor dies when it is taken “seriously”, i.e. not taken at all.

The lack of a sense of humor is especially acute in patients with schizophrenia who are educated, intelligent, knowledgeable, but who understand jokes and allegory in general very literally. The best sense of humor - it is well known - is developed among pessimists who see the weaknesses and shortcomings of people better than others and, nevertheless, treat them with particular delicacy and care. However, in depressed patients, a sense of humor, like other high feelings, is blocked, which makes it extremely difficult for them to survive depression - they lose their inner support, which only helps people in misfortune. Patients with epilepsy are deprived of a sense of humor once and for all.

With their rigidity, getting bogged down in trifles, they do not have time to notice how this spark of God sweeps over them - a moment of humor. With alcoholism, the sense of humor degrades to banality, vulgarity, cynicism with an indispensable element of smut - mentions of betrayal, meetings with passionate beauties and something else like that. One would like to call such humor genital. "Black humor" has only one similarity with the original - it is the use of a comic configuration. In the depths of it lies not compassion, not high sadness, but merciless cynicism, ready to strike all the saints and everything that is called the existential, enduring and eternal values ​​​​of human existence.

A person faces emotional reactions every day, but rarely thinks about them. Nevertheless, they greatly facilitate his life. What gives an emotional release to a person? It helps keep the nerves in order. For this reason, those persons who hide the manifestation of their emotions are more likely to suffer from heart failure and nervous diseases.

Definition

What is an emotional response? This is a process that is expressed in actions, words or a state. It occurs in response to mental or external irritation. For example, someone scared you, and you start to worry. Or someone made a surprise for you, and you were delighted. The emotional reaction to the same situation in two people can be different. Everything will depend on how this or that person looks at the current situation. Each person is the author of their emotions, for this reason people can not only sincerely rejoice at something, but also fake their emotions. And sometimes the limits of decency make a person restrain his feelings. But still, the real emotion and its simulated prototype will not escape the gaze of an attentive viewer.

Kinds

What are the types of emotional reactions? Conventionally, they can be divided into two groups. In the first, emotions are divided according to their positive coloring.

• Positive. There are fewer positive emotions than negative ones. Is it due to the fact that there is not much pleasant in life? Not really. Historically, it so happened that a person felt good where he was calm. And the calm course of life does not cause any vivid emotions.
• Negative. There are more negative emotions than positive ones. Perhaps this is due to the fact that our ancestors spent a lot of time hunting and protecting themselves and their families. For this reason, they had many emotions associated with fear and irritation.

What other types can emotional reactions be divided into?

• Congenital. Man does not know what anger is from birth. This emotion is acquired. But even a baby knows what fear is.
• Learned. Developing, the child learns the world and learns to express their emotions. Parents teach their child. They make sure that the child can respond in accordance with generally accepted norms to a particular situation.

Examples

What emotional reactions do you know? Below are the 6 main ones.

• Anger. This reaction occurs in the human soul when the expectation does not coincide with reality. The mood of a person deteriorates, and he begins to get annoyed. So that the nerves do not give up, he splashes everything out, most often on the interlocutor or on the one who turned out to be the closest.
• Joy. When a person is happy with something, he smiles and laughs. Such a reaction occurs to positive events.
• Yearning. A sad state of mind is common to everyone from time to time. Thanks to longing, a person can feel joy more sharply.
• Fear. This is an innate feeling that a person involuntarily experiences whenever he is in potential danger. The survival instinct is triggered, which warns of impending disaster.
• Astonishment. This emotional reaction can be both positive and negative. Everything will depend on the circumstances in which the person is faced with surprise.
• Disgust. In a similar way, a person reacts to what is unpleasant for him. This emotion is acquired and formed under the influence of education.

Degrees

Emotional reactions of a person develop in three directions. Conventionally, they can be characterized by three degrees.

• Rapidity. Each emotional reaction comes with lightning speed, but how long it will last, a person does not know. It all depends on how much the person is affected by this or that circumstance.
• Depth. Even if something pissed off a person, resentment can quickly pass, as well as joy. But how strongly an emotion will hit a person will be determined by the depth of feelings of a particular person to the person or object that caused the emotional reaction.
• Intensity. Some emotions are remembered for a long time, while others pass quickly. This is called the intensity of the reaction.

Types

Emotions are different, and human reactions to it too. What a person is not interested in passes quietly and does not touch the thin strings of the soul. What is important to a person leaves a strong imprint. What are the types of emotional reactions?

• Emotional response. Such a reaction is considered the most standard and running. Something upset or delighted you, you laugh or cry, respectively. Emotional reactions of the child should be developed by parents. If they do not do this, it means that their child will grow up as an insensitive egoist.
• Emotional outburst. Something that does not fall under the definition of “response” can safely be called a flash. This is a short strong reaction that leaves an imprint on the human soul. If you suddenly and strongly scare a friend, you can see a vivid example of an emotional outburst.
• Emotional explosion. Such a reaction, unlike a flash, is not lightning fast. It can occur due to a series of circumstances that alternately caused first an emotional response, and then an outbreak.

Functions

Why do people need emotional reactions and states?

• Regulatory. To nervous system could function normally, it needs to be discharged from time to time. Due to the outburst of emotions, tension is relieved and nerves return to normal.
• Estimated. It is not necessary for a person to test something on their own experience in order to understand whether it is good or bad. A person can assume emotions and reactions to them that he will experience in a given situation.
• Incentive. Some emotional reactions make a person do something. If we take into account the veracity of the saying that movement is life, then it is thanks to the receipt of specific emotions that a person can continue to move.
• Communicative. With the help of body language, a person can even convey more information than he can do it verbally, turning to the help of words.

First reaction

A person can hide a lot from strangers, but not his feelings. Strong emotional disturbances are always transmitted through emotional reactions. An example of such behavior can be artificial smiles, which today it is customary to “put on” in society. If your friend keeps a gloomy face on the way to you, but his face changes when the person has already come close, this means that the person is not very good-natured. on the face it is possible, but to an experienced eye insincerity is immediately visible. As well as obvious joy, which betrays the sympathy of one person for another. If, when a person appears in a company of three, one of them begins to smile broadly, then this is a clear sign of an indifferent attitude. So if you want to know how a person feels about you, look at how he behaves when you appear.

Emotions arise under the influence of external influences or processes occurring in the body itself. Factors causing the emotional process can be divided into three classes:

1) factors that can cause emotion due to the innate sensitivity of the body to them; we will call them natural (unconditioned) emotional stimuli;

2) factors that have acquired the ability to evoke emotion due to the fact that they have become signals of important events for the subject;

3) factors that have acquired the ability to evoke emotion due to the fact that they correspond or contradict the cognitive structures acquired in experience; these factors were called by Berlyne "collative" (collative variables), or "comparative" (Berlyne, 1967, p. 19).

Let's consider these factors.

Natural (unconditioned) emotional stimuli

Any physical influence on the body that causes excitation of receptors and certain changes in the biological balance of the body (homeostatic changes) is a natural exciter of emotions. Apparently, emotional processes can also be caused by some specific configurations of stimuli, including certain situations. However, virtually nothing is known about these factors, at least when it comes to humans, and the assumptions that can be made about this are based on extrapolations from animal studies and very anecdotal observations in humans.

Emotional meaning of sensory stimuli. As you know, a person's contact with the outside world begins with the impact on the receptors of sensory stimuli. These stimuli provide information about the properties of objects and events and at the same time cause affective changes. Both the magnitude and the sign of these changes depend to a certain extent on the sensory modality, that is, on the type of analyzer that received the signal. In some modalities, the emotional component is of secondary importance, in others it plays a dominant role. The French psychologist A. Pieron expressed this dependence in a special table in which he arbitrarily determined the cognitive and affective coefficients for certain types of sensory influences (Pieron, 1950). However, the figures given by Pieron are not based on any real measurements and represent only an abbreviated form of description intuitive assessment.

The affective component depends not only on the sensory modality, but also on the kind of influence within that modality. Thus, as Titchener noted, achromatic colors (white and black) can rarely be pleasant or unpleasant, as well as sound noises and tones. Chromatic colors usually have a more pronounced affective meaning. As Heinrich writes, “red, especially strongly saturated, is the color of strength and energy. With weaker saturation, its emotional tone decreases and acquires the character of seriousness and dignity. Purple has this character even more, forming a transition to a calm mood of purple and blue. Violet has a sullen seriousness” (Heinrich, 1907).

It is possible to cite experimental data confirming such observations. Thus, it has been established that the red color causes stronger excitation than the blue color of the same brightness, and this is reflected, in particular, in an increase in systolic blood pressure, a decrease in the conductivity of the skin of the palm, a change in the rhythm of breathing, depression of the alpha rhythm in the EEG, and also in the reports of subjects obtained using a standardized methodology for the study of emotions.

When discussing the issue of the emotionality of sensory stimuli, it is necessary to pay special attention to vestibular and kinesthetic influences. Kinesthetic stimuli can have significant emotional overtones. Thus, in studies conducted by Kagan and Berkan, it was found that the possibility of movement can serve as a positive reinforcement for animals; moreover, the effectiveness of this reinforcement depends on the degree of deprivation caused by keeping animals indoors.

Emotions caused by sensory stimuli can be both positive and negative. The sign of emotion depends primarily on the quality of the stimuli. P. Young found that people of different ages react in very similar ways to certain odors. Thus, the correlation between the assessments of 14 different odors made by subjects of three age groups (7–9 years old, 10–13 and 18–24 years old) ranged from 0.91 to 0.96, which indicates that the sign of emotions, caused by the presented substances, does not change significantly with increasing age (Young, 1967). It has also been established that the affective value of pure sound tones (that is, the ability to evoke emotions of a certain sign and intensity) depends on their height and strength. These dependencies can be expressed graphically. Such curves were introduced by Guilford (based on Young's data) and were called "isohedons"; thus, isohedons are lines representing the properties of stimuli that have identical affective meaning.

The role of the intensity of stimuli. The intensity of the stimulus is one of the essential factors that determine its emotional significance. Schnirla formulated a general position that determines the nature of the reaction of the body. According to this author, "on early stages In ontogenetic development, low-intensity stimulation tends to evoke reactions of approach, while high-intensity stimulation tends to evoke reactions of withdrawal from the source of influence” (Schneirla, 1959). To illustrate this thesis, the author gives many examples of the behavior of animals at different levels of phylogenetic development. A similar dependence can be established in humans.

The relationship between the strength of the stimulus and the emotional reaction caused by it was also noted by psychologists of the past. Wundt believed that a barely perceptible sensation has an extremely small sensory coloring; as the intensity of the sensation increases, its positive sensory coloring grows, but, having reached a certain intensity, this positive coloring begins to decrease and, passing through the zero point, becomes negative.

The curve presented by Wundt corresponds to the accumulated experimental data. Back in 1928, Engel investigated the assessment of sour, salty and bitter solutions of various concentrations and obtained a curve similar to the Wundt curve; in 1960, Pfafmann obtained similar results by studying taste preferences in rats.

When discussing the intensity of a stimulus, one should also recall the influence of the suddenness of its appearance. Objects that appear unexpectedly and move quickly cause a negative reaction. Schnirla believes that this can explain, in particular, the well-known effect described by Tinbergen and consisting in the fact that the same perceptual form can either cause or not cause a strong emotional reaction (runaway) in young birds, depending on whether where it is being moved.

This effect can be explained by the fact that the shape of the figure when moving from left to right causes a more significant and faster change in excitation in the retina than when moving from right to left, and this leads to a rapid increase in internal excitation, causing a fear reaction.

The influence of the strength of irritation and the rate of its increase was also observed by E. Franus. In studies of fear reactions in young children, he found that such reactions are easily elicited by relatively large, rapidly approaching, and loudly making animals (Franus, 1963).

The Role of Repetitions and Internal States

The role of repetition. The change in the emotional coloring of stimuli under the influence of their repetition has been the subject of many studies. Tolman, one of the first to study this problem, found that rats receiving food at both ends of the T-shaped maze spontaneously change the direction of the search when repeating successive trials. So, if the last time they turned left, then in the next trial they turn right, in the next - to the left, etc.

In further experiments, an attempt was made to establish whether this tendency to alternate is due to the processes that are responsible for receiving stimuli, or the processes that are responsible for performing reactions, in other words, whether it is due to "bored stimulation" or "bored actions." The data obtained indicate the dominant influence of the processes occurring in the sphere of perception. Experiments on rats have shown that under changing stimuli, animals do not tend to change their response (Glanzer, 1953).

The phenomenon of alternation is also inherent in people. This was shown by Wingfield with a very simple experiment. He asked the subjects (students) to repeatedly light one of the two bulbs in front of them (without specifying which one). Under such conditions, the subjects lit alternately one or the other light bulb. If the bulbs differed in color, the tendency to alternate was more pronounced. Karsten investigated the phenomenon of satiety by asking subjects to draw lines for as long as they could, for example. As it was repeated, signs appeared that indicated resistance to further work, and the tendency to modify the shape of the lines (introduction of stimulus variability) increased. This tendency noticeably decreased when the principle of line grouping changed (the stimulus changed). All these data suggest that the repetition of stimuli leads not only to an increase in the threshold of sensitivity (adaptation), but also to a change (decrease) in the attractiveness of the stimulus.

The repetition of sensory stimuli does not always lead to such consequences. When the subject is still learning to perceive this kind of stimuli, repetition for some time leads to an increase in their attractiveness. This may explain the great attraction that simple sensory stimuli have for young children, and which, as is well known, decreases with age. It is likely that the emotional significance of negative stimuli also changes to some extent: under the influence of repetitions, it also decreases.

Repetitions may not affect the attractiveness of stimuli if they are separated by more or less significant intervals. So, in experimental animals, the effect of alternation was not observed if the samples in the experiment did not follow directly one after another. In persons who have been isolated for a long time (in the chamber of silence), there is an increase in sensitivity to color - it seems more saturated. This indicates a weakening of the effect of satiety, which manifests itself in people under normal conditions (many people remember that in childhood the colors seemed to them more vivid and attractive).

Repeated repetition of the same irritants for several days makes him emotionally neutral. This is indirectly evidenced by the experiments conducted by Soltysik and his collaborators, in which they studied the effect of a simple sound stimulus on cardiac activity in dogs. Changes in the activity of the heart can be considered as a vegetative component of the emotional reaction. These experiments showed that as the auditory stimulus is repeated, a systematic decrease in the heart rate occurs - a cumulation of the extinction effect is observed (Soltysik et al., 1961). In adults, the emotional reaction to simple sounds is completely extinguished and therefore does not cause changes in the activity of the heart.

The described dependence explains, in particular, why an irritant that is attractive to a small child is not attractive to an adult (for example, a brightly colored object, the sound of objects thrown on the floor, etc.). However, an adult can be captured by unusual color phenomena if they are observed rarely or for the first time (such as, for example, the aurora borealis).

The change in the emotional significance of sensory stimuli can be not only temporary, but - under the influence of experience - and longer. At the first application, sensory stimuli cause a non-specific reaction of the whole organism in the form of increased activation (arousal), and its degree depends on the intensity of the stimuli. Under the influence of repetition, anticipatory schemes are formed in the body, “expectations, neural models of experienced events” (Pribram, 1967, p. 831). These models, which provide the possibility of a differentiated reflection of the surrounding phenomena, are the standards with which the incoming impacts are “compared”. Acting stimuli evoke an emotional response until their representation in neural models becomes sufficiently strong. If the incoming stimuli fully correspond to internal standards - anticipatory schemes, or, as we will call them, attitudes - addiction sets in and, as a result, the emotional reaction is suppressed. If the properties of stimuli change, an emotional reaction occurs again. New properties, in turn, are included in the structure of schemes, and after a series of repetitions, the new stimulus again loses its ability to evoke emotion.

As a result of such processes, there is a gradual inhibition of emotional sensitivity to most simple sensory stimuli. To elicit a response, these stimuli must either have unusual properties or appear in new configurations. These configurations, in turn, must become more and more complex, and the differences between their elements more and more subtle. In this way, in particular, aesthetic taste is formed.

The above analysis allows us to consider that the source of stimulation that affects the emotional state of the individual is the physical environment; the simpler, more familiar and less differentiated this environment is, the less will be its ability to evoke emotions.

It should be added that some stimuli retain their emotional significance despite repetition, in any case, susceptibility to them disappears much more slowly than to other stimuli; This applies primarily to those stimuli that have a direct effect on physical state body: for example, strong thermal effects (burn, cold), mechanical damage to tissues, a number of chemical irritants (some odors). This also applies to those stimuli that in the phylogenetic development were associated with phenomena important for the individual or species (some taste stimuli, sexual stimuli).

Sensitivity to these stimuli, as, indeed, to all others, varies depending on the state of the organism and, above all, on the state of needs.

The role of internal states. The emotional significance of the stimulus may change under the influence of somatic factors. This is indicated, in particular, by observations of animals; for example, in animals surgically deprived of the adrenal glands, while maintaining the threshold of physiological sensitivity to salt, the threshold for salt preference is significantly reduced, in other words, “interest” in salt increases. In experiments conducted by Young, it was found that food preference depends on the diet and the needs of the body (Young, 1961).

pain sensitivity

Given the above data, we can confidently assert that each sensory stimulus has a certain emotional significance. In other words, it causes a state of pleasure or displeasure, changes in the level of activation and in the activity of internal organs; if it is strong enough, it can also cause organized activity in the form of, for example, grasping, running away, attacking, etc. The emotional significance of the stimulus depends on its intensity, as well as on which receptors it is perceived - irritation of some receptors usually causes positive reactions, others - negative; a sharp, sudden, strong irritation of any receptor causes a negative reaction (most often in the form of fear or rage). Moderate impacts usually evoke positive emotions. The emotional significance of a sensory stimulus changes under the influence of experience, and also depending on organic conditions; repetition leads to a decrease in the emotional significance of the stimulus (that is, addiction).

These statements are of a very generalized nature, since they refer to various sensory stimuli, and above all to those in which the cognitive (informational) component predominates. A more detailed characterization of the emotional characteristics of these stimuli would require a special discussion of individual modalities, which is beyond the scope of this work. However, considering importance pain as a source of emotions, we will consider here only this modality as an example.

Pain. Painful stimuli are one of the primary sources of the emotional process. Pain occurs when some internal or external factor irritates specialized nerve fibers, the so-called type C fibers. These fibers are among the thinnest, and nerve impulses travel through them more slowly than other fibers. This explains the fact that pain usually occurs somewhat later than other sensations.

The process caused by painful irritation is very complex; it contains several points. First of all, it is known that the reaction to pain stimulation, as it were, consists of two independent components: cognitive and emotional. The latter manifests itself in the form of a negative emotion of suffering. In some cases, these components can be separated, as evidenced, in particular, by the following observation. There are patients who experience very severe chronic pain that is not relieved by medication. In such cases, surgery is sometimes used to relieve pain, which involves cutting the nerve pathways in the front of the brain (called a leucotomy). As a result of such an operation, one can sometimes observe an amazing effect. The person claims that he still knows that he is in pain, but now this knowledge does not bother him and he does not experience any suffering. In other words, the sensory (or cognitive) component of pain is preserved, but its emotional component disappears. The cognitive component informs about what is damaged (although not very clearly), while the emotional component prompts the individual to avoid or eliminate the factor causing the damage.

People who lose sensitivity to pain due to illness are doomed to many injuries. So, children suffering from such a disease are constantly injured or burned, because the loss of pain sensitivity deprives them of sufficient caution.

Different people characterized by different emotional responses to pain. It is possible that this is due to the unequal sensitivity of the receptors.

Sensitivity to pain depends to some extent on the experience of the first days of life. This is evidenced by observations and experiments conducted on animals. So, in one experiment, cardboard tubes were put on the lower and upper limbs of a newborn chimpanzee (named Rob). This excluded any irritation of these parts of the body, but did not interfere with movement. When the characteristics of sensory responses were studied in this chimpanzee at the age of two and a half years, it turned out that they differed from the reactions of chimpanzees who grew up under normal conditions. In particular, surprising changes have taken place in the field of pain sensitivity. While the common chimpanzee reacted violently to a pin prick and immediately sought to remove the piercing object, Rob did not show a negative reaction, but rather tried to examine the instrument of influence.

The same was observed in dogs that were kept for some time after birth in complete isolation (in a small darkened and isolated from sounds cage). As adults, these dogs exhibited unusual responses to painful stimuli. So, a burn or a prick with a pin made no impression on them; at the sight of a lighted match, they approached and sniffed it. These actions were repeated several times. It should be emphasized that a normal dog that has never seen a fire behaves this way only once and then starts to avoid it (Hebb, 1955, 1958).

Such observations show that the reaction to pain, in addition to the moment of negative emotion, or suffering, contains one more moment associated with it - the element of fear acquired in experience. The individual often finds himself in a situation in which a little pain portends a greater one. Mild pain as a result of damage can subsequently become significant due to a tumor, pain in the abdomen can develop into a severe pain attack, etc. Such an experience leads most people to perceive pain not only as an actual irritation, but also as a signal of something even worse, as an indicator, the emotional component of which is summed up with a purely painful factor.

It has been established that the reaction to pain can be noticeably weakened if the fear factor is eliminated. This, in particular, is directed to prenatal psychotherapy. As evidenced by reports from clinics in different countries, such psychotherapy significantly reduces the intensity of pain in parturient women.

As a result of the application of an appropriate procedure, the reaction to pain can be reduced or even completely eliminated. This procedure consists in turning a painful stimulus into a signal that portends something useful for the body. This was first established in experiments conducted by M. N. Erofeeva in the laboratory of I. P. Pavlov.

The dog, placed in a special rack, received irritations with an electric current, which at first caused a violent defensive reaction. Each stimulus was followed by food reinforcement. Repeated repetition of this combination of stimuli gradually turned the pain effect into a signal to receive food. As a result, the signs of a defensive reaction in the dog began to disappear; irritation with current began to cause a food reaction (saliva, turning the head in the direction from which food was supplied, etc.). Ultimately, even the strong electricity, which led to damage to the skin of the animal, did not cause a pain reaction, but only caused signs of interest in food. However, very strong pain caused by direct irritation of the nerve endings located in the periosteum excludes the possibility of such a rearrangement of reactions, remaining a strong negative stimulus.

Changes in responses to pain have not only been observed in animal experiments. It has been established, for example, that with appropriate training, it is possible to reduce the reaction to pain from an injection in children. preschool age; it is even possible to achieve that the child will willingly agree to an injection. The researchers who obtained this result used a method similar to that used by M. N. Erofeeva in the Pavlovsk laboratory. The experience was as follows. First of all, the children were told that they would receive the toy they were interested in, provided they agreed to the injection. At the same time, the researchers tried to ensure that the promised object was really very attractive for the child and, in addition, that the desire to receive a toy arose before the fear of being stabbed. Thus, the attention of the child was concentrated on a pleasant event awaiting him. Under these conditions, the injection was perceived as a stage of approaching pleasure and received a completely different meaning: it became a signal of something positive and thus acquired the character of a positive impact.

Thus, although pain usually causes negative emotional processes, under the influence of life experience, the characteristics of these processes can undergo significant transformations.

Irritations that are generated by the processes occurring in the body itself also have a strong emotional effect. These irritations are caused by 1) natural fluctuations in biological balance due to the very process of vital activity, 2) the activity of internal organs and muscles, 3) pathological changes occurring in the body, and 4) functional changes associated with the introduction of certain substances into the body. Let's look at each of these factors separately.

Factors that cause a strong emotional reaction. Changes in homeostatic balance

Changes in homeostatic balance. Fluctuations in biological balance are the source of states, traditionally called drives. Their mention in the discussion of emotions is due to two reasons: first, in higher animals, homeostatic changes acquire the character of motives (that is, determine the direction of actions) only at later stages of development (under the influence of experience and exercise), while at earlier stages they have almost exclusively emotional character; secondly, each impulse contains a distinct emotional component, which at certain stages of the action of the impulse (for example, at the stage of satisfaction) becomes dominant.

The main sources of emotions include changes in homeostatic balance associated with:

• with a deficiency of certain nutrients, which is signaled by chemical changes in the blood and contractions of the stomach, although the latter component is not required;
• with changes in osmotic pressure in the tissues, which creates a state called "thirst";
• with a change in the partial pressure of oxygen and the content of carbon dioxide in the blood, expressed in a feeling of suffocation;
• with the course of the menstrual cycle and the process of secretion of sex hormones, leading to a change in sexual arousal;
• with bowel or bladder fullness perceived as an urge to defecate or urinate, or vague pain in the abdomen.

Emotions associated with these factors in the initial period of life are non-specific; they are not represented in the mind of the subject (which is still in its infancy) and cause almost no specific changes in behavior yet. The main effect of any excitation during this period is reduced to a general increase in activation with a negative sign (undifferentiated displeasure). As learning occurs, certain types of excitation are associated with certain schemes of actions, which leads to their separation into a separate motivation mechanism. Thus, from the indefinite experience of restlessness and excitement, more and more specific feelings of hunger and thirst gradually emerge. In a later period, sexual emotion is highlighted and detailed.

Homeostatic changes occur, as a rule, cyclically: detection of deficiency - achievement of satisfaction. The first link of this cycle usually causes negative emotions and an increase in activation (and later also a specific state of arousal), while the second one causes a decrease in activation and positive emotions.

The action of internal stimuli associated with homeostatic changes causes a state of readiness, which is expressed in an increase in general emotional sensitivity. If in environment objects are not detected with the help of which it would be possible to eliminate the violation of homeostatic equilibrium (satisfy the impulse), as well as signals indicating exactly where to look for such objects, and a specialized reaction of impulse does not arise. In this case, there is a significant increase in activation - there is a general excitation or a state of tension; such states are usually described as "vague desire", "inexplicable anguish" or "strange restlessness", etc. In these cases, the tendency to negative reactions increases: irritability, nervousness, tension, etc.

Certain urges (such as hunger or sex) give rise to strong, aggressive emotions. From animal observations it is known that male sex hormones contribute to the appearance of aggressive reactions. The effect of hunger on the occurrence of negative emotions may be due to the fact that biochemical changes in the blood cause a breakdown in the normal activity of cell ensembles, thereby contributing to the disorganization of cortical processes, which can cause negative emotions. It is quite possible that this influence is associated with the action of not only biochemical, but also nervous factors - a strong excitation of food centers can cause changes in the nonspecific (reticular) activating system, which in turn leads to a disruption in the activity of the cortex.

Emotional shifts caused by a lack of food became the subject of a special study in a well-known experiment with a group of volunteer subjects who were starving for several months. They were observed, in particular, depression, irritability, loss of sexual interests. And in Everyday life often a hungry person shows increased aggressiveness and a tendency to anger; sexual deprivation can also be the reason for the increase in aggressive tendencies.

Some impulses are cyclical. So, with a certain regularity, hunger manifests itself. In this regard, distinct cyclic mood changes can occur, which is especially noticeable in children.

According to some data, the strength of sexual desire in women also has a cyclical character, and this, apparently, is associated with the menstrual cycle. However, this opinion is not shared by all researchers. Some of them believe that fluctuations in sexual excitability are associated not so much with fluctuations of a biological nature, but with fluctuations in the fear of a possible pregnancy, depending on the phases of the monthly cycle. However, it is undeniable that, depending on the monthly cycle, more general changes in mood and activation level occur.

Muscle and nerve activity. As is known, nervous activity leads to an increase in fatigue: this condition is characterized by both changes in the activity of internal organs and a number of mental changes, for example, a weakening of interests (motivation), increased irritability, etc.

The emergence of emotions is also associated with muscle activity. The performance of hard, overwork is a source of strong negative emotions, while the performance of work that corresponds to the capabilities of the body causes positive experiences. Each significant effort requires a harmonious coordination of the various functions of the body: blood circulation, respiration, the release of certain substances, the intensity of metabolism must be adapted to the actions performed. If the corresponding systems function normally, a person has a feeling of strength, vivacity, cheerfulness, otherwise there is poor health, depressed mood, discontent, etc.

This dependence explains the often observed differences in the mood of young and old people. A young healthy organism in itself is a source of unreasonable joy, a surge of strength, etc., while the dysfunction of an aging organism can be the cause of dissatisfaction, bad mood, grouchiness, etc.

Factors that cause a strong emotional reaction. Pathological changes and the action of pharmacological agents

pathological changes. Pathological processes arising in the body cause, as a rule, a deterioration in mood (due to a general disturbance normal functions body), as well as a feeling of pain (when they are sufficiently localized). Deterioration of mood is one of the first signs of an incipient disease. In such cases, there is an increase in irritability, poor health, anxiety, loss of interest. Sometimes emotion acts as a specific sign of the disease that it accompanies. These diseases include diseases of the heart and coronary vessels. One of the typical manifestations of angina pectoris is paroxysmal anxiety. It seems to the patient that something terrible will happen soon, he experiences overwhelming fear. Anxiety sometimes reaches very great strength. There is an opinion that the impulses that excite the centers of fear are caused by an insufficient supply of oxygen to the heart muscle. This opinion, however, is not shared by everyone. In any case, very often the appearance of severe unreasonable anxiety (sometimes occurring in a dream) can indicate the onset of heart disease.

Anxiety is also one of the most characteristic features hyperthyroidism.

However, pathological processes cause not only negative emotions. So, for unknown reasons, with oxygen starvation, an elevated mood occurs immediately before the loss of consciousness. This is a serious danger, in particular for climbers and pilots, since good health and the absence of anxiety do not at all contribute to the adoption of appropriate preventive measures.

Another example is the euphoric mood in patients suffering from organic brain damage. As Bilikevich writes: “Painfully, he is not preoccupied with anything, his thoughts are serene; he is satisfied and happy” (Bilikiewicz, 1960). These phenomena are observed in such severe diseases as progressive paralysis, epilepsy, chorea, multiple sclerosis.

The action of pharmacological agents. Emotional processes can also arise under the influence of the introduction of certain substances into the body. In medical practice, for example, the so-called LSD-25 was used - a drug that causes psychotic symptoms in healthy people. In experiments, it was found that under its influence numerous changes of an emotional nature may appear.

Some people develop euphoria, uncontrollable laughter, etc. This mood may later turn into a state of intense anxiety. It is not entirely clear, however, whether these reactions are a direct consequence of the use of a pharmacological agent; the fact is that LSD also causes significant changes in perceptual processes (of the hallucinatory type). This perceptual experience can influence the experience of emotion. However, the strength and nature of the flow of emotional reactions in these cases indicate that this drug also leads, apparently, to a direct excitation of the centers of emotions.

The introduction into the body of substances that cause emotional processes (and not only for research purposes) is not an invention of our time. So, in the early Middle Ages, some northern tribes had a custom called “walking with naked skin” (that is, without a shell - Berserk). This expression meant great, reckless courage, a fierce battle with the enemy. In the old Norwegian sagas, it is said that giants once lived, who were called so - Berserk. These people from time to time fell into a terrible frenzy, which doubled their strength, made them insensitive to pain, but deprived them of their mind: at such moments they behaved like wild animals. Such a state began with trembling, baring of teeth, convulsions, a rush of blood to the face and turned into a rage. With a terrible animal roar, they pounced on the enemy, gnawed and destroyed everything that came across them on the way.

The behavior described is reminiscent of the behavior of animals in which the fury center in the diencephalon is irritated in experiments. Apparently, this behavior of people was caused by the action of some substance of plant origin. Many historical studies of customs, religious rites, etc. indicate that such a remedy was, most likely, mushrooms from the genus of fly agaric. It is also known that the custom of intoxication with the help of such mushrooms is widespread among the Siberian peoples.

Influencing emotions by introducing certain substances is widely used in our time, with the only difference being that drugs are used instead of poisonous mushrooms, and most often alcohol.

general characteristics natural emotional stimuli. Natural emotional stimuli are of great importance in the initial period of an individual's life. On their basis, primary mechanisms of regulation, primary motives and so-called emotional needs are formed. The formation of impulses occurs due to the fact that the excitation that occurs as a result of a violation of the biological balance in the body is associated with the images of objects with which this excitation can be weakened, the program of actions that ensure the achievement of these objects, as well as with the image of the conditions that are necessary for the implementation these actions. Due to this, there is a separation of functional units - motives. So, for example, the induction of hunger can be considered as a connection formed in ontogenesis between excitations coming from the internal organs (primarily under the influence of stomach contractions and changes in the chemical composition of the blood), food images, memorized motor schemes for reaching food, as well as a whole system of associations related to information about where and when food can be found, what signals its presence and what - its absence. The basis of the qualitative differences between drives is the differences in the operations through which they can be reduced.

The formation of emotional needs is associated with the action of exteroceptive emotional stimuli. The latter cause states of strong excitement, a positive or negative sign, which the individual learns to avoid or achieve. So, for example, pain or other harmful effects lead to the establishment of a connection between fear and certain factors that can cause or eliminate this fear (or pain). Emotionally positive influences, such as something warm, soft, are, as Harlow's experiments show, a very important prerequisite for motivation to establish contact with other individuals. It is quite possible that any kind of sensory influences entails emotional reactions that influence the formation of more complex regulatory mechanisms. However, so far we have very scarce information about these mechanisms.

It is not entirely clear whether relatively simple sensory stimuli alone are unconditional emotiogenic factors, or whether certain configurations of stimuli can also be them. In favor of the fact that some configurations of stimuli may have the ability to excite emotions is evidenced, for example, by experiments in which young chimpanzees, from birth brought up in isolation from other individuals, were subjected to various stimulations. It turned out that a slide showing the face of an angry male chimpanzee evoked a fear response in the animals. It is possible that other configurations of sensory stimuli are capable of evoking emotions just as naturally. It is necessary, for example, to take into account the fact that such a complex system of stimuli as signals about the position of an individual in a group can have an emotional impact. Reactions to such situational factors are observed in higher herd animals (for example, in dogs, monkeys), and it is possible that they also manifest themselves in some form in humans. Of course, this applies only to the most elementary relations, such as "domination - submission", which are signaled by certain mimic configurations and expressive movements.

Turning neutral stimuli into emotional ones

Neutral stimuli can turn into emotiogenic if they acquire the function of signaling important events for the subject. This occurs due to the formation of conditioned emotional reflexes, due to generalization, and also as a result of higher mental processes through which a person evaluates the meaning of situations. Before considering each of these processes in more detail, it should be emphasized that, using the concept of "neutral stimulus", one can have in mind three kinds of phenomena.

First, each sensory stimulus will be neutral, in which, as a result of repetition, the ability to evoke emotion has disappeared or is extremely weakened.

Secondly, a neutral stimulus can be any configuration of sensory stimuli due to objects and situations.

Thirdly, sensory stimuli or their configurations can be neutral only with respect to one particular emotional process. In other words, a factor capable of evoking a certain emotion (for example, food) can be completely neutral in relation to the emotion of fear and only as a result of an appropriate process acquire the ability to evoke this emotion as well.

Emotion conditioning (learning). Tadeusz Zakrzewski in his book cites the case of a pilot who, during the Second World War, was shot down over the English Channel while flying a sortie in a bomber. He managed to escape and return to his unit, but from that moment on, flying over the strait, he each time experienced severe anxiety, accompanied by pronounced somatic manifestations (sweating, trembling). After he crossed the strait, these manifestations disappeared (Zakrzewski, 1967, p. 49).

It is obvious that the basis of such phenomena is the process of formation of conditioned reflexes (learning).

For the first time, the importance of this process for the emergence of emotional reactions was revealed about fifty years ago in an experiment conducted by Watson and which has become a classic. The study was conducted on an eleven-month-old boy named Albert. The basis of the study was the observation that in children, the fear response is easily elicited with a loud sound. The experiment went as follows.

The boy was shown a white rat, with which he repeatedly played. When he extended his hand to take the rat, the experimenter struck a gong located behind the boy. There was a loud sound, the child shuddered and screamed in fright. Soon he received the dice, calmed down and began to play. He was shown the rat again. This time the reaction of the child followed with some delay, he no longer so quickly and impatiently extended his hand and only carefully touched the animal. At that moment, the gong sounded again, which again caused a violent reaction of fear. After a few minutes, the child calmed down and took up the cubes again. When the rat was brought in for the third time, the reaction of the child was completely different. He showed all the signs of fear at the mere sight of this animal. There was no longer any need to strike the gong. The child turned away from the rat and began to cry.

When Albert was shown the white rat again a month later, the fear reaction did not change. There are reasons to believe that it has become sustainable. According to the author, she could have survived even until the end of her life. Moreover, it was noticed that this reaction arose not only at the sight of a white rat. And other, at least somewhat similar objects, such as a dog, a cat, a rabbit, a guinea pig, a fur coat, and even a Santa Claus mask, caused a reaction of fear.

In this experiment, two very important processes are observed that explain why people begin to react emotionally to initially neutral objects.

The first process is the formation of conditioned emotional reactions: neutral stimuli that precede or accompany the appearance of emotiogenic stimuli acquire the ability to evoke emotions themselves.

It cannot be said that in the described experiment (as well as in the Jones experiment considered below), the neutral stimulus acquired a conditional value, since the applied stimuli already had some emotional significance. In this case, the process of the so-called alteration of the stimulus took place, which, as studies of the Konorsky school show, proceeds somewhat differently than the conditioning of a truly neutral stimulus.

The second process is the generalization of emotional stimuli: indifferent stimuli, similar to stimuli that evoke emotions, also acquire the ability to evoke emotions.

Studies of the formation of conditioned emotional reactions are carried out not only for scientific, but also for medicinal purposes. Thus, this process is widely used as a psychotherapeutic tool.

One of these psychotherapeutic procedures is to develop a conditioned reaction of disgust. For example, a patient for whom handbags and prams were sexual fetishes (which brought him into constant conflict with the law) was shown these objects and their photographs just before he began to vomit violently from an earlier injection of apomorphine. The author of this method, Raymond, ensured that these objects acquired the ability to cause a strong feeling of disgust (Bandura, 1961). A similar procedure is used in the treatment of alcoholism.

Attempts have also been made to give positive emotional meaning to negative stimuli. One of the first such attempts is the experiment of M. Jones, conceived as a continuation of Watson's experiment and conducted under his leadership, Jones tried to eliminate the strong fear that arose in the child she was studying at the sight of a rabbit (Jones, 1924).

The procedure for developing a positive conditioned reflex in this case consisted in the fact that the stimulus that caused fear (the rabbit) was shown and gradually brought closer in situations where the child experienced positive emotions, namely at the moment of playing with other children who were not afraid of the rabbit, and later when getting your favorite treats. As a result of the application of such a procedure, tolerance towards the rabbit gradually increased, which was subsequently replaced by a positive reaction.

It should be emphasized that imitation played a significant role in this experiment. Persons that are of emotional value to other people cause a tendency to imitate (Bandura, Huston, 1961) and thus contribute to the formation of new emotional relationships.

In the experiments of Peters and Jenkins, the positive reinforcement procedure was applied to patients suffering from chronic schizophrenia. Considering limited opportunity social influence on such patients, a procedure based on primary reinforcement was applied to them (Bandura, 1961, p. 149). Patients in whom acute hunger was aroused by means of subcomatose injections performed various tasks, receiving food as a reward. After some time, the behavior of the experimenter directed at them acquired a reinforcing value for the patients. Thus, through food reinforcement, certain actions of other people acquired positive emotional significance.

These and many other (mainly animal) experiments show that, due to the formation of conditioned responses, initially neutral stimuli can become "attractive" (positive) and "repulsive" (negative). The main condition for emotional learning is the connection in time between the neutral stimulus and the reinforcing agent that evokes the emotion.

Is this a sufficient condition? Some authors consider this doubtful. For example, Valentine failed to obtain the result described by Watson when he used binoculars instead of a rat as a neutral stimulus. At the moment when a strong whistle was heard, the girl he studied did not react with fear, but only began to look in the direction from which the sound came. But she did not become afraid of binoculars after that. However, she found a completely different behavior in relation to the caterpillar. Seeing her, the girl turned away and refused to touch her. When a strong whistle sounded at the sight of the caterpillar, the child became frightened and cried loudly (Valentine, 1956, pp. 132-133).

Referring to other similar studies, Valentine expresses the opinion that as a result of the formation of a conditioned connection, only such an irritant can become emotiogenic, which from the very beginning is itself capable of causing some degree of emotional arousal. A perfectly neutral stimulus cannot become a conditioned emotional stimulus.

It is impossible to fully agree with such an opinion. First of all, the empirical argument to which Valentine refers is not entirely clear. As follows from his description, the reinforcing stimulus (whistle) used did not cause a pronounced fear reaction, that is, it did not actually perform the function of reinforcement. Therefore, it is not surprising that in these conditions it was not possible to develop fear in relation to binoculars. On the other hand, the caterpillar, for reasons that will be discussed later, immediately caused a negative (though not very strong) emotional reaction.

Nevertheless, the data cited by Valentine is noteworthy, as it points to two important facts.

The first is the fact of facilitating the emotional reaction. Some stimuli, for one reason or another, become emotiogenic faster than others: a caterpillar caused fear more easily than binoculars. Conversely, some stimuli are difficult to become conditioned. Thus, in the Jones experiment, the rabbit very slowly acquired the features of a positive emotional stimulus; apparently, the initial emotional reaction (fear) prevented the development of a new one. This suggests that stimuli that already have some emotional significance acquire the features of an emotiogenic stimulus more easily if they are reinforced by a related emotion.

Secondly, the phenomenon of the summation of emotions deserves attention. In the case described, the caterpillar and the whistle, when applied simultaneously, evoked an emotional reaction that each of these stimuli separately could not evoke.

Conditioned emotional reactions have a number of features that distinguish them from other conditioned reactions.

One difference concerns the effect of reinforcement. As Maurer points out, punishment affects motor and emotional responses differently. If the punished movement shows a tendency to inhibition, then the punishment of the fear reaction only strengthens it (Mowrer, 1960, pp. 416-419). Thus, punishment can act as a reinforcing factor in emotional responses.

However, Maurer's statement applies only to negative reactions. Positive emotional reactions obey the patterns inherent in motor reactions: they are developed and consolidated under the influence of reward and disappear under the influence of punishment.

The second difference concerns the way in which emotional reactions occur. If new motor reactions (skills) are developed when they serve certain goals, that is, they lead to receiving a reward or avoiding punishment, new emotional reactions arise as a result of coincidence in time alone - when a neutral stimulus precedes an emotional one or acts simultaneously with it (there same).

Another feature of emotional reactions is their resistance to extinction. Even with a small number of combinations, they can be very stable. These data were obtained, in particular, in studies in which motor and vegetative reactions to a conditioned stimulus were simultaneously recorded (vegetative reactions can be considered as an indicator of emotion). Thus, a group of Polish researchers found that in the process of extinction of a motor conditioned response to sound, movement disappears much earlier than the reaction of the heart. Vegetative reactions associated with emotional processes are developed faster and fade more slowly.

Emotional reactions are also difficult to differentiate. Therefore, they are rarely responses to some specific stimulus that portends something useful or harmful, on the contrary, they are often caused by a whole complex of stimuli that do not benefit the individual and do not threaten him in any way. This explains the peculiar irrationality of emotions that can sometimes be observed in everyday life.

The irrationality of emotions is also associated with the phenomenon of generalization. As a result of generalization, the individual reacts emotionally to objects and situations that have never brought him anything bad or good, but which are somewhat similar to those with which some of his emotional experiences were already associated in the past.

Generalization of emotions

The scope of manifestation of an emotional reaction depends on how wide the generalization was. From the studies of Pavlov's school it is known that on early stages gaining experience, generalization has a very wide range - in the first phase of the development of a conditioned reflex, many phenomena, even slightly resembling a conditioned stimulus, are capable of causing a conditioned reaction. Pavlov called this phenomenon "primary generalization". Later, under the influence of new experience, the limits of generalization narrow.

Something similar is observed in the study of the process of generalization of emotions. Thus, in the experiments of Watson and Jones mentioned above, after the development in children of emotional reactions to certain animals (rat and rabbit), the same reactions began to be evoked by many other objects, somewhat reminiscent of the original object of the reaction: other animals, soft, fur objects, etc.

Generalization extends not only to similar objects, but also to those objects that appeared simultaneously with the source of emotion. In other words, emotions are associated with the entire situation as a whole.

The ease of formation of "conditioned emotional reflexes", the clear tendency of emotions to establish connections with different elements of the situation, as well as the difficulties in developing differentiated reactions explain the fact that human emotional reactions are extremely indefinite, "diffuse" in nature. Emotions “color” any situation in which a person finds himself. Due to the similarity of situations, their emotional significance is “mixed”, partially changing, as a result of which new, special forms of emotions arise. Any new situation already has a certain emotional “tone” for a person, depending on what emotions he experienced in similar conditions.

At the initial stages of human development, the generalization of emotional reactions occurs on the basis of the physical similarity of stimuli and their contiguity in time. Later, as it develops, a new basis for generalization arises - semantic similarity.

The idea that generalization occurs on the basis of semantic similarity has long been expressed, although using a different terminology, by researchers of psychoanalytic orientation. They argued that the emotional attitude to a particular object is transferred to other objects that are similar in meaning. One of Freud's fundamental propositions, the proposition about the "primary choice of the object", is based on this kind of premise.

According to Freud, objects or persons that for the first time in childhood satisfied the libidinal desire of the child become, as it were, models to which the adult later orients himself. So, the mother, for example, becomes the standard of the desired woman. Freud was not referring to physical properties; rather, he emphasized the similarity of influences, relations, that is, the similarity in content. Therefore, an adult is looking for in a woman not so much the color of the eyes or hair of his mother, but a certain attitude towards himself.

Whether this statement is true or not (and it undoubtedly needs many qualifications), it is indisputable that the generalization of emotions can occur not only on the basis of physical similarity. This can be illustrated by the experiment conducted by Loisi, Smith and Green (Lacey, Smith, Green, 1964).

The subject sat comfortably in a chair. On his left hand, in the place where the nerve passes close to the surface of the body, an electrode was attached, with the help of which it was possible to apply electrical stimulation of a small force to the subject, causing, in addition to sensations of burning and pinching, a sharp involuntary spasm of the forearm muscle. The subject, who was informed that the peculiarities of the coordination of intellectual and motor activity were being studied, performed the following task: in response to each word given through the loudspeaker, he had to find and say aloud as many words as possible (a chain of associations). At the same time, he had to press the telegraph key at the most regular pace. After the stop signal, he had to stop both activities and wait until the next word was presented. From time to time, immediately after the completion of the chain of associations, the subject received an electric shock. The experimenter (the subject did not know about this) used a list of words in which two words: “paper” and “cow” were repeated six times. One group of subjects received an electric shock each time after completing the associations to the word "paper", the other - to the word "cow". At the same time, two vegetative reactions were recorded: vasodilation of the fingers and galvanic skin reaction.

What are the results of this experiment? First of all, it was found that people who received an electric shock after a chain of associations to the word "paper" soon began to experience a galvanic skin reaction to this word. This group of subjects did not have this reaction to the word "cow". The opposite effect was found in those who received an electric shock after associating with the word "cow": they had no reaction to the word "paper" and had a distinct reaction to the word "cow".

For those for whom meaningful word was “cow”, there was an emotional reaction to 8 other words, which were united by the fact that their meanings were somehow connected with the village (“plow”, “bread”, “chicken”, “rake”, “sheep”, tractor» , "peasant"). It should be emphasized that these words do not have a sound similarity with the word "cow" (in English language where the study was conducted). It was also found that 22 out of 31 subjects could not indicate when they received an electric shock and when they experienced signs of anxiety. In other words, the reaction was unconscious. The subject did not know what he was afraid of; True, he knew that he was afraid of the current, but did not know that fear arises in him at the presentation of certain words, including those that were not for him a signal of an electric shock.

Similar data were also obtained in many other experiments.

The question arises: what determines the breadth of generalization, in other words, what will and what will not cause an emotional reaction?

One of the most important factors determining the limits of generalization is the strength of the applied stimulus: the greater it is, the stronger the generalization. So, it was found that when applying a stronger electric shock, a wider generalization occurs than with a weaker one.

The limits of generalization also depend on susceptibility to certain kinds of emotional stimuli. Such susceptibility is determined by various factors, among which one of the main ones is the spatial or temporal distance from an event significant for the subject. The dependence in question can be illustrated by the study of Epstein (Epstein, 1962). This author studied a group of 16 skydivers, whose data were compared with a control group of 16 people who were not involved in skydiving. With skydivers, the experiment was carried out two weeks before the jumps (or two weeks after them), as well as on the day of the jumps. The control group was studied according to the same scheme - twice with a two-week interval between tests. Both groups were offered an associative test containing words that cause anxiety, as well as words, the meaning of which, to one degree or another, was associated with the situation of jumping. During the experiment, a galvanic skin reaction was recorded. The words that caused anxiety were, for example, such words: “dead”, “wounded”, “fear”, etc. As an example of the four degrees of proximity of the meanings of words to the situation of jumps, we will name the following: “music” (I), “sky” (II), “fall” (III), “parachute line” (IV).

It turned out that the emotional reaction of skydivers, measured in units of skin conductivity (microsiemens), was the greater, the closer the connection of the test word with the situation of parachute jumps. The situation was different with the subjects of the control group. They reacted emotionally to the words that caused anxiety, but the words associated with the jumping situation did not evoke an emotional reaction in them.

It should be emphasized that on the day of the jumps, the paratroopers' anxiety increased significantly. Words that did not cause anxiety when the day of jumping was still far away, called her on the day of the jumps. The average reaction value (in microsiemens) was as follows:

*) Average results of both studies are given.

This study indicates that a person in an emotional situation exhibits an increased susceptibility to emotional stimuli. This finds its expression in the fact that even those stimuli begin to evoke an emotional reaction, the meaning of which has a very remote resemblance to the emotional factor.

This basically banal fact allows us to come to very important conclusions. In particular, it indicates that the occurrence of strong reactions to weak emotional stimuli can be considered as a symptom that the current situation is emotional for a given person.

One more point should be emphasized: the process of generalization is a very variable phenomenon, depending on the strength of emotions. This means that stimuli that are neutral in some situations are capable of evoking emotional reactions in other situations. This, apparently, can explain the fact that an angry, or, as they usually say, "wound up", a person is quickly aroused under the influence of even weak stimuli, for example, under the influence of words containing a very remote hint of possible criticism or disapproval. For the same reasons, with an increased level of sexual arousal, a person perceives as sexually attractive even those who, under other circumstances, would seem to him not deserving of any attention. The same can be said about other emotions.

Excessive strength of emotional arousal, and above all anxiety, can lead to pathological disorders. A person begins to experience fears of taking appropriate precautions in situations that objectively do not require it. A number of authors believe that these mechanisms can explain the symptoms of some mental illnesses.

The dependence of generalization on the strength of emotions can be used to determine the strength of latent emotions. The wider the range of stimuli that cause a certain emotion, the greater the power of the corresponding latent emotion. This dependence was confirmed, in particular, in the studies of I. Obukhovskaya, who showed that children with a high level of anxiety about failure refuse to complete tasks at those stages when there is not yet sufficient information about success or failure. The reaction of refusal in this case is due to the generalization of the fear of failure, which arises at the very beginning of activity when confronted with signals that are still very weakly associated with failure (see Obuchowska, 1965).

Assessing the meaning of situations

Emotional reactions of a person in new or complex situations in which there are no strong natural or conditioned emotional stimuli depend on how this situation is evaluated or what value is attached to it. According to Lazarus, two main types of appraisal of the situation (appraisal) can be distinguished: assessment of it as threatening or favorable (Lazarus, 1968, p. 191). Evaluation of the situation causes a tendency to perform appropriate adaptive actions (namely, a tendency, since these actions are not always carried out). In principle, adaptive actions can be carried out on the basis of exclusively cognitive mechanisms, without the participation of emotional processes. Emotions arise only when some additional circumstances appear. So, negative emotions arise when an individual assesses the situation as dangerous, but does not have ready and, in his opinion, sufficiently reliable ways to resolve it, that is, when these ways have yet to be found and there is some uncertainty about such a possibility.

Therefore, the threat itself does not yet evoke emotion; crossing, for example, a street with heavy traffic, we usually do not experience fear, although objectively it is quite dangerous. We do not feel fear because we know how to behave on the roadway and how to avoid danger. Similarly, people who are accustomed to working in dangerous environments and who have mastered the means of eliminating the threat do not experience anxiety.

When a threat situation evokes emotion, it can find expression in three main forms: in the form of fear, anger and sadness (feelings of depression). The nature of the resulting emotion depends on the assessment of the person's capabilities: if we believe that the situation is not too dangerous or if it is perceived as an obstacle to the satisfaction of needs, the tendency to anger and attack is likely to arise. If the danger appears to be great, the tendency to fear and avoidance prevails. Finally, if neither attack nor avoidance is possible, there may be a feeling of overwhelm and a refusal to take action.

The emotional response to a favorable situation takes the form of joy, satisfaction, hope, and so on. However, the presence of a favorable situation in itself is not enough for the emergence of positive emotions. Some additional conditions are needed, but they are not yet well known. It is quite possible that positive emotions arise, in particular, when a favorable situation develops unexpectedly or after a period of uncertainty, or when there is an abrupt transition from a state of threat to a state of safety within a short period of time, etc.

The process of the emergence of negative and positive emotions, depending on a person's assessment of the situation, was quite fully studied at different phases of parachute training, when some autonomic and muscle indicators were used as objective correlates of emotional reactions. As an example, let us cite the data of the study of Soviet cosmonauts; these studies have found the following reactions:

1. on the eve of the day on which the jumps were scheduled, if it was necessary to wait for the start of actions, there was an increase in emotional activation (anxiety, doubts) with its accompanying vegetative manifestations (increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, increased muscle tension, difficulty falling asleep);

2. before the jump (critical moment) - increased heart rate up to 140 beats per minute, dry mouth, increased arm strength (according to dynamometry);

3. after opening the parachute (disappearance of the main source of danger) - a joyful rise in mood;

4. after landing (achieving the goal) – for some time, an increase in activation (pulse up to 190), then its decline: a decrease in arm strength, a slowdown in pulse, etc. (Gorbov, 1962; Khlebnikov and Lebedev, 1964).

Language plays an important role in assessing the situation. A person categorizes the emerging situations and thereby classifies them. The names themselves, which a person uses in this case, are associated with certain emotional mechanisms and, when a certain situation is assigned to a certain class, evoke certain emotions. In many cases, when a person is faced with unfamiliar situations, he can take advantage of other people's assessments. Thus, information about the opinions of others can lead to the formation of one's own assessments.

The emotions that arise under the influence of such information may change when confronted directly with the situation. This can be illustrated by the results of another part of the experiment by Lacy and his collaborators.

These authors, using the methodology already described, conducted an experiment with another group of subjects, who, before the experiment, were given additional information about which words would be reinforced by the current. This information markedly changed the reaction of the subjects. At the first presentation of a critical word (for some subjects, this word was the word "cow", for others - "paper"), the warned subjects had a very strong reaction, which was not in the first group.

This is explained by the fact that the words “you will get an electric shock” for most of the subjects were already associated with the experience of pain in the past and therefore caused fear in themselves. Through the establishment of a connection between these words and the word "paper" (or "cow"), it also acquired the ability to cause fear. For this, a single comparison of it with an emotionally significant phrase was enough.

Characteristically, as the presentation of the test word was repeated in combination with an electric shock, the warned subjects experienced a gradual fading of emotional reactions to this word. On the contrary, those subjects who were not warned and learned from experience became more and more afraid of him. This can be explained by the fact that the reaction to a verbal signal can be disproportionately large compared to the event foreshadowed by it. It is known that the emotions caused by the assessment of the situation are often stronger than the emotions that arise during real contact with this situation. So, the Soviet researcher N. N. Malkova found that the expectation of a painful injection causes a more significant increase in blood pressure than the injection itself.

We often encounter this phenomenon in everyday life. Thus, children who have committed their first offense in their lives are much more afraid of the police than children who have several drives.

A similar pattern was also established in the study of the emotional reactions of soldiers to different types combat means of the enemy in the real conditions of front-line life. At first, the strength of the emotional reaction was determined by the secondary properties of the weapon (for example, noise, suddenness of appearance) and the ordinary ideas associated with them. Later, with the accumulation of experience, the fear of one or another type of weapon began to depend on the actual danger posed by this weapon. So, at first, enemy planes caused a strong fear. Later, this reaction became weaker, as experience showed that the effectiveness of an aircraft attack on dug-in soldiers was relatively low. But the fear of mortar fire has increased significantly.

Change in the importance of an emotiogenic stimulus

The factor that has acquired the value of an emotiogenic stimulus does not remain unchanged. Some changes may occur spontaneously over time. Others are the result of repetition of experiences associated with this factor.

Over time, emotional reactions can either increase or decrease. The spontaneous increase in emotional response is called the "incubation effect".

The phenomenon of incubation was first systematically observed in experiments carried out over 50 years ago by Diven. This author investigated the process of developing emotional conditioned responses to verbal stimuli using a technique later used by Lacy and his co-workers and established the fact of semantic generalization. In his experiments, another noteworthy fact was also obtained, which was revealed by repeating the experiments. So, with some subjects, the second experiment was carried out immediately after the first, with the rest it was carried out in a day or two. It turned out that the strength of the emotional reaction (in terms of galvanic skin reaction) to the conditioned stimulus (the word "ovin") is greater the next day than immediately after the first experiment. In other words, over time, the emotional response to the verbal stimulus increased. Similar facts were obtained by Gaitt in experiments on animals; he established that experimentally induced behavioral disturbances in dogs not only did not disappear, but often deepened and expanded over the course of many months after the completion of the experiment.

As you can see, time is not always the "best healer"; over time, negative emotion can not only not weaken, but even intensify.

The phenomenon of incubation was also discovered in a study by Martha Mednick. Her experiment did not differ significantly from Dyven's. It turned out that the subjects, 24 hours after the completion of the process of formation of conditioned emotional reactions, had a higher level of GSR than directly ate the experiment. Mednick also found that after 24 hours, the decay process also occurs faster (Mcdnick, 1957).

In everyday life, the phenomenon of incubation takes the form of "disappointment" in what caused pain, suffering, caused fear, etc. This attitude not only persists, but even intensifies over time. To prevent this, after a negative event, you should repeat it again as soon as possible, this time ensuring a successful outcome. However, there is another danger associated with repetition. If repetition is performed under conditions of coercion, an emotional conflict may arise, causing an even greater increase in negative emotional reaction.

The causes and mechanisms of the phenomenon of incubation are still unknown. It is possible that a process similar to the “fatigue-rest” cycle takes place here: the repetition of a reinforced conditioned stimulus leads, due to fatigue, to a weakening of its action (the phenomenon of the so-called consolation with reinforcement). After a break due to the removal of fatigue, the reaction occurs with renewed vigor. A similar phenomenon is observed in the process of intensive learning of a skill; after a break, the action is performed better than at the end of the skill development process. This assumption is supported, in particular, by the fact that in Mednik's experiment, at the last presentation of the stimulus, the conductivity of the skin was lower than at the previous ones, that is, fatigue was observed.

The phenomenon of incubation resembles the phenomenon of reminiscence. Perhaps they are based on a similar mechanism.

Along with an increase in the strength of the emotional reaction, that is, along with the effect of incubation, a weakening of the strength of the reaction is often observed over time. The question arises: does the stimulus spontaneously lose its emotional meaning if we do not encounter it for a long time? This seems unlikely; there is evidence that the loss of emotional Meaning by the stimulus occurs as a result of extinction. Probably, the connection between the neutral stimulus S and the emotional reaction E does not disappear spontaneously over time, but for its disappearance it is necessary that both S and E appear independently of each other. If S does not appear separately, its connection with E may not disappear.

The problem discussed here is a special case of a more general and not yet solved problem of erasing traces of memory. At first glance, this seems self-evident: material that is not repeated is forgotten. However, it is not known why exactly it is forgotten: either because it was “not used”, or because the elements of the learned structure later became components of other functional systems and consequently fell out of the original structure. In other words, forgetting can occur not so much because the connection between A and B was not repeated, but because during this time the connections A-C and B-D were formed, which led to the exit of elements A and B from the primary functional formation. Thus, as Jenkins and Dallenbach argued, forgetting is a consequence of retroactive inhibition.

The hypothesis that forgetting is based on retroactive inhibition suggests some conclusions regarding the stability of the S–E bonds. If E is a strong negative emotion, then, apparently, there should be a tendency to counteract the reproduction of elements associated with this emotion. Therefore, the individual will resist remembering S, will avoid everything that can be connected with S, and therefore S will not be able to form other connections than the original one; as a result, the S–E bond can persist indefinitely.

Such phenomena are actually observed. Strong traumatic experiences rarely go away; most often they are isolated from other elements of experience and, forced out of consciousness, continue to exist for many years; events or situations containing S (or similar associations) can lead to renewal and actualization of the entire strong emotional reaction associated with them.

A traumatic emotional connection shows a tendency to "encapsulate", to protect with a "thick armor" from a possible renewal. Such a fence is provided by the formation of the ability to avoid everything that can have even the most remote connection with the experienced.

Extinguishing emotions

One can only add that the formation of such "encapsulated" foci affects the entire subsequent life and activity of the individual. Their disorganizing effect on the human psyche becomes especially evident if such a focus is very extensive and concerns moments important for regulating relations between a person and his environment. This disorganizing effect is associated primarily with the emergence of a number of behavioral patterns that make it possible to avoid the actualization of the "painful focus"; there is rationalization, the formation of opposition, denial, etc., in other words, the processes that Freud and the psychoanalytic school described as the consequences of emotional conflict and repression.

Thus, in one of the patients studied, the first sexual experience ended in a feeling of complete failure and humiliation, after which a strong tendency arose to "suppress" this experience. The patient did manage to forget about him, to remove him from his "conscious self", but this did not remain without consequences in his sexual sphere. Each sexual contact was accompanied by severe anxiety (due to the generalization of the traumatic experience), which caused him a functional disorder and general disorganization in the sphere of sexual life, and subsequently in other areas, one way or another connected with self-esteem.

If the emotion is not overly strong, the barrier it creates will not be insurmountable, and as a result, the individual components of the experience will be able to gradually form new connections, which will contribute to the disintegration of the original negative association.

Thus, in the light of our hypothesis, the main condition for the loss of the value of an emotional stimulus by some factor is the process of extinction, that is, the manifestation of this factor without an emotion associated with it. This hypothesis allows us to explain this process with the help of extinction laws.

As is known, extinction usually occurs gradually, and its effects are most pronounced at the beginning of the process.

However, this process is not sustainable. If it is interrupted for some time, then during the next test, an increase in the ability of the stimulus to cause a reaction can be detected - the phenomenon of the so-called spontaneous disinhibition. True, it does not lead to a complete restoration of the reaction force, although it can be quite large.

Let us give as an example the gradual weakening of a person's enthusiasm for some other person. This process occurs mainly according to the laws of extinction: as a person analyzes his contacts with a given person, he notes a weakening of his emotional reaction to him. But after a break - when he did not touch on this topic for some time - there is again an increase in emotional involvement (although usually this reaction is no longer so strong). This is due to the phenomenon of spontaneous recovery.

It should be noted that the subject may erroneously interpret such an unexpected increase in enthusiasm as a sign that the former feelings were “real”, that this person “can never be erased from memory”, that “evil rock is weighing over the feeling”, etc. If in such a mental state there is a renewal of contact, that is, a repeated reinforcement, the extinction effect may completely disappear and everything will be repeated all over again. If a person can overcome the crisis and does not do anything that would cause a reinforcement of the emotional reaction, then soon there will be a further, even greater weakening of it.

The extinction process depends on the way the emotion is reinforced. If reinforcement occurs without disruption, extinction is more "painful" but quicker. If reinforcement was irregular, extinction is slower and less effective.

Emotions can persist for a particularly long time, reach an exceptionally great strength - clearly disproportionate to the value of the stimulus - and lead to pathological symptoms when a person is exposed to opposite influences for a long time, if hope, then fear, then love, then humiliation are aroused in him. Such antagonistic "forces" have a reinforcing effect on emotional processes.

This explains, in part, how difficult it is sometimes to break certain unfortunate emotional ties in human relationships. People who do not fit together and whose life together brings only conflicts and disappointments, nevertheless cannot part, even in the absence of objective reasons connecting them (children, economic dependence, etc.), since the essence of their relationship is up to hitherto accounted for the irregular receipt of positive reinforcements. Therefore, the hope for improvement disappears extremely slowly, and even after the most difficult trials, these people still expect something from each other.

avoidance reaction

As a result of systematic studies, other factors on which the quenching process depends were also clarified. One is the strength of the reinforcing stimulus, in this case the strength of the emotion. The stronger the emotion, the harder it is for the reaction to fade.

Some emotional reactions are especially difficult to extinguish. Such reactions include, in particular, anxiety, which contributes to the emergence of an avoidance reaction (an avoidance reaction is a reaction that occurs in an individual in response to a danger signal and which is designed to eliminate this danger, that is, to eliminate the effect of a negative stimulus). This is evidenced by some animal studies. In one of them, a dog was trained to jump over a barrier at the sound of a bell in order to avoid the electric shock that the bell was signaling. Solomon, Keimin, and Winn, the authors of this experiment, determined that the dog performed this action 800 times without any sign of extinction.

How can we explain such an amazing persistence of the avoidance reaction? According to N. Miller (1960), it is connected with the fact that the avoidance reaction is constantly reinforced, as it reduces fear. The call causes fear, the jump reduces it. Fear reduction, acting as a reinforcer, strengthens the connection. This assumption could, in some cases, explain the robustness of the association between calling and jumping. However, it is still necessary to explain the connection between the sound signal and the emotion of fear. To elucidate the latter, two facts should be remembered: the inertia of emotional reactions (their lesser susceptibility to the process of extinction compared to motor reactions), as well as Soltysik's analysis of recurrent inhibitory stimuli.

According to Soltysik, extinction does not occur when a so-called conditioned brake is added to the conditioned stimulus. Pavlov called a conditional brake such an irritant that signals that there will be no reinforcement. If such a stimulus was presented in combination with a conditioned stimulus, the conditioned response did not occur (hence the name "brake").

As a result of the avoidance reaction, stimuli appear that acquire the features of a conditioned brake (since they carry information that there will be no reinforcement, in this case punishment), and the action of stimuli signaling punishment ceases. Therefore, if an individual, having received a signal of danger, flees and really avoids this danger, the stimuli associated with the avoidance reaction become a conditioned brake. Since the conditioned inhibitor has been found to preclude extinction, the inhibitory avoidance response prevents danger signaling stimuli from losing their original meaning. The mentioned authors present some experimental data confirming this idea. Thus, it is impossible to stop being afraid if every time you run away at a signal of danger.

Will the fear response disappear otherwise? Clinical observations suggest that this does not always happen. Thus, the anxiety that arises among pilots in connection with the performance of certain tasks (for example, during high-altitude, night flights) sometimes continues to persist very stubbornly, despite the repeated repetition of this activity without any negative reinforcement; sometimes, as the repetition increases, the anxiety even intensifies. With regard to such cases, the explanation proposed by Soltysik is apparently unacceptable.

It can be assumed that the strong emotion of fear is itself so unpleasant that it serves as a reinforcer for the avoidance reaction. The elimination of this reaction would be possible if the conditioned signal appeared in a situation that excludes the occurrence of emotional reactions (for example, as a result of the use of pharmacological agents or special procedures that lead to relaxation and elimination of anxiety). Known cases practical application such procedures that led to successful results (Bandura, 1967, Eysenck, 1965).

It should be added that the persistence of the avoidance reaction observed in the experiments of Solomon and his co-workers mentioned above can be explained in a completely different way, without recourse to the mediating role of anxiety. Some authors believe that as a result of repetitions, a strong associative link is established between the signal and the corresponding actions, which persists even after the anxiety disappears. The latter occurs only when the avoidance reaction becomes impossible. In such a case, the avoidance response would be an adaptive action devoid of an emotional component. In favor of such an interpretation, in particular, the fact that a dog that has learned to effectively avoid electric shock disappears any signs of fear.

Thus, the stability of some reactions may be associated not so much with the difficulties of the process of extinguishing emotions, but with the firm consolidation of certain skills that arose in the past under the influence of emotions and subsequently lost their emotional character.