--Original published at Lynsey Wissler's Blog

Lynsey Wissler

Emotion Test

When I took this test I did fairly well. I received a 19/20 when trying to examine the emotions just by their facial expressions. This has been a skill that I have had since I was younger. I am generally very good at being able to tell how people are feeling just from watching them.

There were two emotions that I felt were very hard to tell apart from this test. Embarrassment and Shame I think can be hard to tell the difference between, especially due to the fact that often times the two go hand in hand in a situation. because they are so similar the facial expressions that are associated with them can be similar. When considering emotions that were easy to tell apart I think positive vs. negative emotions were easily distinguishable. For example, when someone was smiling it was easy to tell that they were not angry. However, it was difficult to tell if they were smiling because of happiness or love.

I think that this test is somewhat credible. I think that the pictures definitely display the emotions that they are representing in the test, however, I think that they are over exaggerated which makes it easier to determine the emotion. This could potentially be a problem because often I think when people are experiencing one of the listed emotions they are not as obvious about it as this test makes it seem.

For me, I can use this information in my future very effectively. As an education major, much of my job is reading people and deciphering what is the best approach to help them learn the information in the best possible way. Being able to distinguish emotions can help my future as a teacher develope while learning how to work with children and their emotions. Overall, this test was very beneficial and interesting when deciphering emotions and how I myself can interpret them.

--Original published at Em

Dan Gilbert suggests that the pre-frontal cortex is the justification for the advancements of the human mind. This is because humans can simulate situations. The impact bias suggests that different impacts are less severe or have less impact then they do. The fact that astonished me was that i it happened more that 3 months ago than it has no impact. Humans synthesize happiness. Synthesized happiness is what we get when we do not get what we wanted Natural happiness what we get when we get what we wanted. People do not know they synthesize happiness and this “can be a supreme disadvantage”. The irreversible term is not conducive to the synthesis of happiness. This is because happiness does not work when the student is killing themselves over the choice instead of just being content with what they have.  If someone is always worrying about their own mistakes then they are not content. They cannot learn. Gilbert claims we can manufacture happiness if we simply allow ourselves to be.

I believe this is very true. This perspective is very true. I always stress so much. I stress over things for example in chemistry if I do not have exactly the grade I want I am not happy. Where Gilbert is correct if I am trying my best this is not the end of the world. IN the long term being grateful for all the things you do have is much more important than focusing on the one thing you do not.