Anna Batalla Rubio
Seminar A (Group 71)
1. How do you typically manage negative emotions?
Normally, I tend to hide my negative emotions when I’m in front of other people, more than
when I’m alone; I suppose that most of people tend to do that. I consider myself as a shy
person, not as an extrovert one, so, maybe shy people tend to hide a bit more their feelings
than the extrovert ones. However, I think that sometimes you may show your negative
emotions for your own sake. For example, if someone treats you bad, you do have to
exteriorise your negative emotion of anger to show that person how you feel, to make
him/her realise that what s/he have done is bad, and to be respected.
2. Describe several recent examples. How might you early experiences, gender, and
cultural background have influenced your style of emotional regulation?
I think that a lot of stereotypes related with gender and our culture influence a lot on the
self-regulation of emotions. For example, we know that laughing in a funeral is not correct,
even if a friend has told you a really funny joke; we repress this emotion in this context
because we know that for respect to the others we don’t have to laugh. Another example
could be, if you have argued with some member of your family (mother, father, brother,
sister) and then you have a family dinner with the rest of the family, you will act like if
nothing had happened, you will hide that emotion of anger or sadness in front of the others.
Because you don’t want them to know about it, and because it’s not “the place” to discuss
it.
Referring to gender, one example could be: if some boys are playing football in a park and
one of them fall getting injured, maybe this child wants to cry but he repress this emotion to
be more “man” in front of the other guys, because “crying is from girls”. This is a good
example to see how great the influence of the society and culture is.
So, maybe there are a lot of situations where the society regales our emotions in fact,
instead of doing it by ourselves. We have a great pressure.
3. How would you describe your “temperament” or your personality traits as a child?
Do you think it has remained stable, or has it changed? What factors might be
involved?
I was a quiet child, I used to not get into trouble, and I was prudent I can say. But, I was
also curios to discover and be creative. I was shier than now, although I had a lot of friends
and I got along with almost everyone. My family always have said that I was a very good
girl, sometimes too good. They also said and say that I have a funny and cheerful
personality. When I grew up and started secondary education I began to change my
personality, I “learn” to be not that too good. I learn to fight for what I want and to make me
respect. I think that I’m stronger thanks to the experiences that I had lived. However, I’m
still a bit shy and prudent, I get nervous easily; I think that’s in my genes and it is very
difficult to change. So, I think that my personality or “temperament” has not changed a lot; I
think that I’ve just gained experience that has made me stronger and confident. My own
experience and the education that I have received are the main factors involved.
4. How would you characterize your internal working model? What factors in addition
to your early relationship with your parents, might have influenced you?
If I had to choose between one of the nine emotional types from Naranjo, I would choose
the gluttony one. Because I always try to be happy and not worrying a lot for problems,
sometimes I tend to show a cheerful character (apparently) just to not make the people I
love be worried for me. Even though, firstly, I find it hard to try new things, I try to overcome
the fear by trying these new things or situations.
I think that my parents have worked too hard to make me a good person, they have taught
me to be emphatic with the others. They also have tried to give me what I needed, they
have always been very aware of me, so, maybe it have influenced a bit negatively in my
independence. Because I always had a great support beside me.
5. What have you learned for your teaching practice from emotional regulation?
This exercise has made me realise about the evolution of my personality, and the factors
that can affect us without realising. With the fact of analysing the different emotional types I
could see that some behaviours or ways of being have their own explanation. I could give
an answer to the question of why a person acts like that. I could understand a bit more
some emotions by comparing them with my own experience.