Question 1-Interactive View

I found the interactive viewpoint which assumes that we have more control over over our feelings then the physiological influences on emotions, which assumes that we have less control. I have always related more to the idea that emotions are the trigger for physiological responses, and that if we learn to control these thoughts and emotion we will experience less stress and anxiety. An example is that when you start thinking about something that makes you anxious you may start to feel uneasiness or nausea. The idea that this works the other way around is interesting to me as well. In Wood (2010) we learned about the James-Lange view which supports the idea that the physiological responses come first, which then trigger the emotional responses we experience. An example of this is seeing someone else give there speech before us may result in our nerves acting up and causing sweaty palms, and a nervous stomach, then in result we begin feeling nervous and emotional toward this response. I agree that our perceptions of our experiences may have great influence on our emotions, but I also believe that your own thoughts, and self-talk can also trigger stress and other physiological responses. From my personal experience I have had both physiological trigger emotional, as well as thought and emotion trigger physiological. The James-Lange philosophical viewpoint does seem helpful in explaining situations where someone sees another person become ill, and then they start feeling ill, or when we see someone yawn, many of us yawn in response. This might be because we are experiencing a perception of tiredness or illness, which then causes us to feel more tired or question our health. I experience the interactive viewpoint more often in life. Having awareness of the interactive viewpoint helps me control my thoughts and remind myself that worrying and thinking about negativity will only lead to other problems including physical responses.