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CHAPTER 5
EMOTIONS
Objectives
After studying the material in Chapter Four of Looking Out/Looking In, you should understand:
1. Describe how the four components of emotions affect the way you feel, and hence your
communication, in an important situation.
2. Describe how influences on emotional expression have affected your communication in an
important relationship.
3. Apply the guidelines for effectively communicating emotions in an important situation.
4. Identify and dispute the fallacies that are creating debilitative emotions in an important situation.
Explain how more rational thinking can lead to more constructive communication.
Notes on Class and Student Activities
1. How Would You Feel?
Objective
To provide situations involving emotions that will prompt an examination of students’ feelings.
Instructions
1. In groups, have students generate situations in which they or their friends or family get emotional
(e.g., weddings, funerals, birthdays, promotions, failures). They should write down specific
situations.
2. Once the list is made, groups should discuss what emotions are felt in each situation. They should
note how different people are likely to feel differently in each situation.
4. Discussion of each group’s situations and responses will allow them to compare their individual
reactions and group reactions.
Discussion Questions
1. How do these emotions manifest themselves in the body (both physically and nonverbally)?
2. How do labels influence emotions?
3. What intensity differences exist between different emotions?
4. Is it easy and/or common for us to verbally express our emotions in these situations? Explain.
2. Recognizing Your Emotions (MindTap Ch 5: What Are Emotions? - Pause and Reflect)
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Objective
To further the student’s awareness of his or her feelings through self-monitoring.
To discover how these feelings register themselves physically in the body.
To notice patterns in emotional behavior.
Instructions
Assign the online activity Recognizing Your Emotions (MindTap Ch 5: What Are Emotions? - Pause
and Reflect) over a three-day period and follow up with class discussion.
Options
• For a non-online activity, create a duplicatable form for the diary/journal.
• Another way of adding importance to the assignment is to collect the diaries and take a number of
the better entries and publish them for the whole group. It goes without saying that this is done
without disclosing the individual’s name.
• You’ll find that this diary technique is used on many occasions in the text. Our experience is that
this is one of the best ways to promote out-of-class effort.
Discussion Questions – drawn from MindTap Ch 5: What Are Emotions? - Pause and Reflect
1. How did you recognize the emotions you felt: through physiological stimuli, nonverbal
behaviors, or cognitive processes?
2. Did you have any difficulty deciding which emotions you were feeling?
3. What emotions do you have most often? Are they primary or mixed? Mild or intense?
4. In what circumstances do you or don’t you show your feelings? What factors influence your
decision to show or not show your feelings? The type of feeling? The person or persons
involved? The situation (time, place)? The subject that the feeling involves (money, sex, and
so on)?
5. What are the consequences of the type of communicating you just described in step 4? Are
you satisfied with these consequences? If not, what can you do to become more satisfied?
3. Stating Emotions Effectively (5.3 in Student Activities Manual)
Objective
To describe how the four components affect your emotions, and hence your communication in an
important situation.
To describe how the influences on emotional expression listed in this chapter have affected your
communication in an important relationship.
To apply the guidelines for effectively communicating emotions in an important situation.
Instructions
Drawing on the answers to 5.3 in the Student Activity Manual, students engage in a group activity.
Group members evaluate the effectiveness of different forms of expressing emotions (or of not
expressing the emotion at all). Encourage group members to comment on the clarity of each expression
and emotion.
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Discussion Questions
1. How does the expression of feelings vary from situation to situation . . . from receiver to receiver?
2. What are some reasons for and for not expressing true feelings in each situation with each receiver?
4. Emotional Language – Self-Talk (5.4 in Student Activities Manual) or Talking To Yourself (MindTap Ch
5: Managing Emotions – Pause & Reflect)
Objective
Identify and reappraise the fallacies that are creating debilitative emotions in an important situation.
Explain how more rational thinking can lead to more constructive communication.
Instructions
Drawing on the answers to 5.5 in the Student Activity Manual of Talking To Yourself from MindTap
Pause & Reflect, students engage in a group or class discussion.
Discussion Questions
1. How easy or difficult was it to identify the voice behind your self-talk?
2. Were there few or many differences between you and your classmates’ reactions? Are there few or
many ways to interpret an activating event?
3. How are feelings shaped by thoughts?
5. How Irrational Are You? (MindTap Ch 5: Managing Emotions – Pause & Reflect)
Objectives
To help students to identify whether their self-talk contains any irrational thoughts.
To provide students with the opportunity to reflect on how their thoughts may cause debilitating
emotions.
Instructions:
This activity is built on the foundation of the previous activity, Emotional Language – Self-Talk (5.4 in
Student Activities Manual) or Talking To Yourself (MindTap Ch 5: Managing Emotions – Pause &
Reflect), and should be assigned with that in mind. It can be used as a basis for a group activity. Have the
students compare answers and then conduct a class discussion with questions below:
Discussion Questions
1. Which fallacies appeared most often in your groups? Why do you suppose there are some more
popular than others?
2. Which subjects seemed to most commonly stimulate irrational thinking? Speculate about why.
3. How did your awareness of self-talk change, if at all, prior to and after this activity? Explain.
6. Emotion Labor in the Workplace (MindTap Ch 5: Influences on Emotional Expression - On the Job)
Instructions:
Have students read Emotion Labor in the Workplace prior to class and lead class discussion.
Discussion Questions
1. How does one’s display of emotion change based on their occupation?
2. Who sets the emotional norms at a workplace? How do we know how much emotion is acceptable
or appropriate?
3. How does emotional contagion affect the workplace?
7. Reappraising Irrational Thoughts (5.5 in Student Activity Guide)
Objective
Identify and reappraise the fallacies that are creating debilitative emotions in an important situation.
Explain how more rational thinking can lead to more constructive communication.
Instructions
Have students individually complete the activity Reappraising Irrational Thoughts (5.5 in Student
Activity Guide). In groups, ask students to imagine several real-life scenarios that could follow the flow
of the activity – activating event, self-talk, emotion, irrational fallacy, and reappraisal. Have each group
present their results to the rest of the class.
Discussion Questions
1. How easy or difficult was it to identify and dispute the irrational fallacies?
2. Does the approach seem realistic for use in your lives? Explain.
3. How might you use this tool practically in your own lives? Would it require any adjustments to
make it work for you?
Sample Quiz
1. Generally speaking, people are more likely to share negative emotions rather than positive emotions.
2. Your text argues that the complete and open expression of emotions is one key to positive
relationships.
3. Anger can be either a facilitative or debilitative emotion.
4. The fallacy of causation is based on the irrational belief that emotions are caused by others rather
than by one’s own self-talk.
5. Considering when and where to express feelings does not include thinking about people’s moods or
their readiness for hearing personal disclosures.
6. Roxanne’s mood was affected by the excellent service she received at the coffee shop. This is best
explained by the concept of
a. social conventions.
b. emotional contagion.
c. reappraisal.
d. emotion labor.
e. emotional memory.
7. People who subscribe to the fallacy of perfection believe
a. everyone is perfect except them.
b. there’s no point in striving for perfection since it is unattainable.
c. a worthwhile communicator should be able to handle any situation with complete
confidence and skill.
d. perfection requires much practice.
e. only professors are perfect.
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8. “You never listen to me!” is an example of subscribing to the fallacy of
a. overgeneralization.
b. perfection.
c. shoulds.
d. causation.
e. helplessness.
9. When you believe that satisfaction in life is determined by forces beyond your control, you are falling
for the fallacy of
a. causation.
b. helplessness.
c. catastrophic expectations.
d. approval.
e. shoulds.
10. Two things that distinguish facilitative feelings from debilitative ones are
a. emotions and behavior.
b. interpretation and intention.
c. longevity and interpretation.
d. intention and intensity.
INSTRUCTIONS for questions 11- 15: Match each of the statements below with the fallacy it most clearly
represents.
a. fallacy of causation
b. fallacy of shoulds
c. fallacy of overgeneralization
d. fallacy of perfection
11. “Those interviewers made me so nervous.”
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12. “You ought to keep in touch more.”
13. “I know he’ll be crushed if I don’t go out with him.”
14. “You never tell me how you feel.”
15. “I lost my temper with Mac last night. I’ve had a course in interpersonal communication; I know
better.”
16. Recall a time when you experienced a powerful emotion. Describe how the four components of
emotions affected the way you felt, and hence how you communicated in the situation.
Answer: will vary Type: E What Are Emotions? Application
2. Give examples of cultural, gender, and social influences on emotional expression from your own
life.
Answer: will vary Type: E Influences on Emotional Expression
Application
3. Explain the concept of self-talk and how it can affect our emotions. Describe the self-talk process
and provide an example from your own life where it has influenced your feelings.
Answer: will vary Type: E Managing Emotions Application
4. Define and explain debilitative emotions, as well as the differences between them and facilitative
emotions. Also, describe the process by which one can minimize the irrational thinking that can
lead to debilitative emotions.
Answer will vary Type: E Managing Emotions Analysis
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5. Describe the concept of “flaming,” and explain how it may impact communication competence.
Answer will vary Type: E Managing Emotions Comprehension
