Personality and Emotions (1954)

[Music] this is an age of speed a nervous age that keeps our emotions stirred all of us young or old schooled or illiterate are endowed by Nature with the ability to live a life filled with many kinds of emotions but whether we will show them in an uncontrolled Outburst whether we will act in some antisocial way whether we swallow our upsets or deny them even to ourselves we cannot do away with them they are part of our personality we inherited many confusing and conflicting ideas about emotions some of which still Linger on but today people in distress need not conceal their emotional problems anymore they can find help and counsel from a new group of Specialists psychiatrists psychologists social workers and the modern religious counselors in this film we're not concerned with clinically disordered emotions but with everyday experiences involving emotions for these we must start at the beginning with the newborn child welcome young man welcome to life for you as for all children Life Begins as an emotional experience obviously this new and strange world comes as a shock to you though just one minute old you are a personality with a name and identity by which we recognize you as an individual look at him this new individual is well equipped for all the physiological functions of living and for emotional responses to events around him from his first breath he is capable of being happy or unhappy and can make others around him happy or unhappy how he learns to use his inborn capacities will largely depend on what this new world offers him how he as a child will experience his relations with others for emotions are not learned deliberately like skills or facts the baby will develop them through living with others by responding to those who handle him speak to him comfort him or provoke him by reacting emotionally to those he sees and touches to those whose songs he hears and so as the child grows he will learn many new things some from books and teachers but probably much more from trying testing accepting and rejecting in other words from living with others from the beginning the child literally feels his way through life loving hating worrying trying to find a place for himself in this new world of grown-ups from day to day the basic emotional responses tie in with one new experience after another with Q after Q with a child's own responses to new situations and new cues as an example an infant experiences a strong emotional shock when the pediatrician gives him his first injection several signal May connect with this unpleasant experience such as the specific odor of the office the color of the doctor's jacket the sight of his instruments later when the mother brings the child to a doctor's office the mere smell of it may provoke the same responses that were part of the earlier experience of pain and these in turn May release emotional responses of crying and rebelling in defense against the anticipated pain as the child matures she can tell herself that the visit to the doctor's office is important for her health therefore she can soothe her responses by reasoning which means that she has learned to control an emotional reaction through signals given to herself by reasoning in his daily routine the child continuously learns about life memories of many of his early experiences May fade and seem forgotten but they are rarely completely erased although he may not be conscious of them they are often operating in his later life as the Forgotten childhood where a young infant's drive has been kept low where parents paid attention to his early requests the child easily progresses to the next developmental step exploration striving to achieve some gratifications by himself this struggling to achieve gratifications by himself is part of the preparation for later life but even at the height of achievements it will be the childhood pattern of his emotional experiences that will largely govern his relations with others that's why it is so important that he learns to manage emotions honestly as he develops physically where did a helpless infant get this capacity for emotions just as he could breathe eat and digest food from the time he opened his eyes he could also respond with emotions let's try to visualize what goes on inside the human body when pain or danger threatens the adrenal glands release hormones into the blood the heart pumps the blood carrying these chemical Messengers to all parts of the body in the liver they release an emergency ration of stored sugar into the bloodstream the heartbeat accelerates the blood pressure goes up breathing becomes faster from this point of view we may describe emotions as primitive biological reactions to painful or threatening stimulations from outside intense responses involving the whole body from the very beginning the human baby is equipped with this emotional defense setup as his experiences grow his emotional responses become more varied here is a boy just beginning to explore the world with curiosity with eagerness but the road of exploration is not smooth he is unable to handle his blocks and so he's frustrated and Disturbed sister's too young to help here comes mother the toy hammer is a good release for his emotional and physical reactions and soon the blocks are forgotten someday he'll be able to meet such frustrating incidents without [Music] crying from day to day his play experiences are increasing not without occasional upsets these are his sister's crayons and here's Lynn to claim her right you bad bad boy this is a familiar scene and a very significant one observe how Lynn uses words to express her emotions that's quite a step forward from crying or hitting bad bad boy sometimes grown-ups find a child's sincere expression of emotions shocking and so may tend to undermine the child's emotional sincerity lindar play with your brother come on darling play with your brother I don't like you well Lynn you don't really mean that you love your brother of course I don't like oh be nice to brother he's our baby [Music] Lynn is jealous of the baby and shows it no use telling her that she must love Toby right now she wants to get rid of a baby as competition for Mother's Love mother's insistence that she must love Toby not only confuses her but increases her jealousy another example this one about learning and unlearning signals that cause emotional upsets Patsy is scared of dogs and so's her mother Patsy's fear is strengthened by the examples of her mother's uneasiness whenever she comes out there's a threatening animal on the street gradually she withdraws from playing outside one day her father comes home from the office with a present she's eager to see it but out of the box comes a stuff dog no she doesn't like dogs not even stuffed dogs it may take a long time for py to become friendly to dogs that is to unlearn her fear of dogs but not all so-called childish upsets are confined to little children for instance a youngster may fall back to bed wedding in protest against a new baby another May revert to thumb sucking or nail biting when facing an unpleasant or threatening situation a new teacher or Stern parental demand adolescence is an especially sensitive age sometimes the fear of new responsibilities makes adolescents act in what we call a childish manner these excursions to less mature Behavior are often indications that some disappointment or pressure is weighing upon the youngsters recognizing this parents friends and teachers can help them to overcome from their troubles and return to a more mature level we are getting increasingly aware that the emotional causes sometimes lead to physical discomforts like in the case of this girl taking medicine alone may not cure her often a competent physician will decide to call upon a psychiatrist or psychologist to help him probe deeper into the emotional causes of certain ailments strong emotions tend to express themselves even when we try to hide or suppress them when continuously suppressed they may go underground and may interfere with bodily functions such as digestion or elimination or they may disturb the heart and circulation or give rise to recurrent headaches symptoms of such ailments are often called psychosomatic psychosomatic are such physical disturbances that have emotional causes up to now we've been discussing mostly emotional upsets but our satisfactions are emotions too the natural love of parents for children is one of them the affection of parents for each other the stirrings of attraction between the young adults all these and many more are high points of emotional satisfaction the study of emotions is a complex subject this film set out only to create an awareness of this problem by showing that we all are born capable of emotions that we develop emotionally through living with others that there is no Golden Rule or magic formula for emotional maturation that emotions cannot be denied only suppressed if we recognize and accept our emotions if we learn to channel them to useful purposes they will become the raw materials for the building of healthy personalities capable of feeling and therefore of living rich and full lives as useful members of society [Music]