A/V Geeks 16mm Films: Mastering Emotions - Psychology for Living

Night is the most wonderful, the air is so soft, and Hank, Hank is such a nice guy. Let's go up to Mountain Park for a while and look at the moon. We can turn off at Hatfield. Let's decide when we get to Hatfield, all right? Okay. You could have impulsively answered yes or no. Why didn't you, Sally? Was it because you have learned to recognize when your own emotions want to take over? It wasn't too long ago when you started to think about your emotions objectively. There was that day in class. Hank was there, too. May I have your attention, please? You are wondering what today's lesson will be about. Today's lesson in psychology is going to be about emotions. Now, we all start with a primary set, and as we grow older, we acquire more of them. We've all read about Bluebeard's closet and Pandora's box. Most of us know the fascination of locked places and hidden things. That fascination is probably the emotional side of our curiosity. Would you like to know what's in the box? All right. Why don't you come up around the table? You've just experienced emotion, unreasoning, illogical emotion. Think now. Do you think that I'd turn loose a poisonous snake in the classroom? Only association would cause you to feel the emotion of fear at the sight of a harmless snake. Emotion can so work on us that under its stimulus, we may sometimes perform feats of almost superhuman strength. Now, would you like to come up around the table and see what's in the second box? Most of you now plainly show the results of emotional conditioning. A box held a snake. You don't like snakes, so now you associate a box with a snake, or with some possible danger. Many experiences condition us emotionally. A bitten child may fear a dog, or a howling dog may make us feel lonely. A train whistle at night, the ticking of an old clock, a word, may bring an emotional response. Those puppies reminded you of your own Cappy. Cappy rarely changes his feelings toward you. He's friendly and loyal, and you feel the same way toward him. You wouldn't tolerate anyone hurting a single hair of his shaggy coat. Yet how quickly your emotions changed while walking with Cappy that afternoon. You saw the familiar convertible rolling by. Hank was smiling. There was an attractive girl beside him, a stranger. She sat so close to him, she was practically in his lap. How could he, the deceitful? You yank poor Cappy along behind you, the Cappy you love. You were hurt, furious, and indignant all at once. You were jealous. You felt completely alone, deserted. Any other time, you would have been the first at the phone, just in case it was Hank. But now jealousy had swept away your common sense. Fortunately, your mother has a sense of humor, and you hoped Hank never found out what a fool your emotions had made of you. You came to realize what your parents mean to you, how pleasant the feeling of emotional security is, the mutual love and respect you all share and take for granted. Loving others and being loved is a good feeling, a feeling everyone wants to share. Then there was the night your schoolmates shared a different, ugly emotion, hate. Everybody was whooping it up at the rally. The excitement about the coming game built up to a frenzy of enthusiasm. Then someone started a whispered rumor that twisted excitement into something else. What made them pick that particular teacher's house? What reason did anyone have to start such a thing? As a stone smashed the window, you saw how hysteria turns individuals into a mob. You were amazed to see sudden impulses rob normally decent people of their values. That night you and Hank kept your emotional balance and remained rational, so you learned that it isn't always easy to think things out in the heat of the moment. And you'll never forget that day in the fencing class, Sally, when you found out how uncontrollable an intense emotion can be. Your opponent's dogged parrying seemed perfect, tireless. Again and again she moved just a little faster than you. Your intense frustration boiled up inside you and then suddenly erupted into white anger. You wanted to injure her and then caught control of yourself. It left you sick to your stomach and even now you wince when you think of it. No, you never want to feel that way again, Sally. It wasn't easy learning to stop and think things out when strong emotion possesses you, but that's the real test of whether you are learning to handle your emotions. Let's just go on home, shall we, Hank? You're the boss. You sure you won't mind? Of course I mind. You've learned through experience that no matter how deep the emotion is, you don't have to let it take you over. You have come to realize that by bringing calm reasoning to emotional questions, your decision. You're starting to think about your emotions, Sally, and you are on the way toward emotional maturity.