Summary: Class Journal Reflections and More!
Thursday’s class meeting was a fascinating one where we delve into sharing our reactions to from our own journal responses. The class was asked to reflect upon parts of their journal responses that they found to be surprising. As a recap, recall our responses addressed several questions intended to orient us to our current emotions and moods in relation to previous and past ones. The questions challenges us to think about the ways in which our emotions relate to our surroundings.
As the class began sharing their reactions to their personal experiences while journaling, a few talking points and themes became prominent.
We began by speaking about the relation between our emotions and vulnerability. After referring to the Soloman reading we grappled with the question: “Are our emotions always a result of caring?”
From here we transitioned into a conversation about our personal “truths.” With much ambiguity in the term, this topic led us to several subtopics including: culture, desires, external influences, agency, time, etc.
Through honest reflections the class collectively dissected their writing experiences, while finding alignment to the Soloman reading. The conversation traveled in several directions. This lack of structure symbolizes the ways in which individuals experience incredibly unique emotions. The class’s ability to understand every student’s perspective is a testament to the universality of emotions that allows connections to be made and bonds to be formed.
Next came our lecture highlighting some essential terms for the unit. Professor Gallegos walked us through the distinctions between cognitivism and noncognitivism. Here we learned the former focuses on one’s thoughts and perceptions, while the latter, feelings and behaviors. This discussion opened us up to the question: “Which is an emotion?”
Other key terms introduced in the context of cognitivism was intentionality vs aboutness. Cognitivists would argue emotions are thoughts, therefore they are about something! However, noncognitist who view emotions as feelings/ bodily sensations would disagree.
This led us to transition into the distinction between emotions, moods, feelings, concerns, and traits. The introduction to the topic of concerns led to our last talking point which was core relational themes – such themes include: safety, security, justice, and loss.
We concluded the class by discusses course logistics.
Shared by: Laura Labate
Image Credit: https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-to-be-vulnerable-emotionally-How-does-it-feel-to-be-vulnerable-to-someone