Feeling

Feeling is the nominalization of the verb to feel. The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch through either experience orperception. The word is also used to describe experiences other than the physical sensation of touch, such as "a feeling of warmth" and of sentience in general. In Latin, sentiremeant to feel, hear or smell. In psychology, the word is usually reserved for the conscious subjective experience of emotion. Phenomenology and heterophenomenology are philosophical approaches that provide some basis for knowledge of feelings. Many schools of psychotherapy depend on the therapist achieving some kind of understanding of the client's feelings, for which methodologies exist.

Perception of the physical world does not necessarily result in a universal reaction among receivers, but varies depending on one's tendency to handle the situation, how the situation relates to the receiver's past experiences, and any number of other factors. Feelings are also known as a state of consciousness, such as that resulting from emotions, sentiments or desires.

People buy products in hopes that this certain product will make them feel a certain way either happy, excited or beautiful. Some women buy beauty products in hopes of achieving a state of happiness or a sense of self beauty. Past events are used in our lives to form schemas in our minds and based on those past experiences we expect our lives to follow a certain script just because of a past event.

A social psychologist, Daniel Gilbert alongside other researchers conducted a study on the influence of feelings on events. The results showed that when the participants predicted a positive feeling for an event, the higher the chances that they wanted to relive the event. Predicted feelings were either short lived or did not correlate to what the participant expected.

How you Feel About What You Feel 

Individuals in society predict that a certain something will give them the desired outcome or feeling of expectation. Indulging in what one might have thought would've made them happy or excited only causes a temporary fill or it might actually give the complete opposite results than we had expected. Events and experiences are done and relived in life to satisfy one's feelings.

Details and information about the past is used to make decisions. Gilbert and Wilson conducted a study to show how pleased a person would feel if they purchased flowers for themselves for no specific reason (birthday, anniversary, promotion or etc...) just because and how long they thought that feeling would last. People who had no experience of purchasing flowers for themselves and those who had experienced buying flowers for themselves were tested. Results showed that those who had purchased flowers in the past for themselves felt happier and that feeling lasted longer versus a person who had never experienced purchasing flowers for themselves. Past experiences of feelings influence our current decision making. Feelings from the past dictate how we will feel in the future and if we in turn want to feel that way again.

Arlie R. Hoschild, a sociologist depicted two account of emotion. The organismic emotion is the outburst of emotions and feelings. In organismic emotion, emotions/ feelings are not thought about prematurely, but instantly expressed. In organismic emotion social and other various factor do not influence how the emotion is perceived, so these factors have no control onto how or if the emotion is suppressed or expressed.

In interactive emotion, emotions and feelings are controlled. In interactive emotion the individual is constantly in a conversation as to how to react or what to suppress. Unike in organismic emotion, in interactive emotion the individual is aware of their decision on how they feel and how they show it.

Erving Goffman, a sociologist and writer compared how actors withheld their emotions to the everyday individual. Like actors, individuals can control how the emotions are expressed, but they cannot control the emotion or feelings that they feel on the inside. Inner feelings can only be suppressed in order to achieve the expression you want people to see on the outside. Goffman explains that emotions and emotional experience are an ongoing thing that an individual is consciously and actively working through. Individuals want to conform to society with their inner and outer feelings.

The Feeling of Knowing or Not Knowing

The way that we see other people express their emotions or feelings is what we use to respond back. The way an individual responses to a situation is based on feeling rules. If an individual is uninformed about a situation the way they respond would be in a completely different demeanor than if they were informed about a situation. If a tragic situation had occurred and you had knowledge of it, then your response would be sympathetic to that situation versus if you had no knowledge of the situation then your response would be indifferent. A lack of knowledge or information about an event can shape the way an individual sees things and the way they respond back.

Timothy D. Wilson, a psychology professor tested this theory of the feeling of uncertainty along with his colleague Yoav Bar-Anan, a social psychologist. Wilson and Bar-Ann found that the more uncertain or unclear an individual is about a situation, the more invested they are. Since an individual does not know the background or the ending of a story they are constantly replaying an event in their mind which is causing them to have mixed feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, and et cetera.

Individuals in society want to know every detail about something in hopes to maximize the feeling for that moment, but Wilson found that feeling uncertain can lead to something being more enjoyable because it has a sense of mystery. In fact the feeling of not knowing can leave our minds to wonder off and to constantly think and feel about what could've been.

Social Class and Feelings

Class differences influence and varies how a parent raises their child. Middle-class parents raise their child through the use of feelings and lower-class parents raise their children through behavior control. Middle-class parents and lower-class parents raise their children to be like them feeling and behavioral wise. Middle-class children get reprimanded for feeling the wrong way and lower-class children are punished for behaving in a bad manner or behavior.

Lionel Trilling, an author and literary critic described the technique that the middle and the lower class parents use over under-working and overworking their children's feelings causes them to seek approval of their feelings in the future. When children of the lower class of working class family go out into the work field they are less prepared for emotional management than the middle class children.