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WELLNESS - Emotions are so deeply intertwined with our lives and mental health. We all feel emotions and this is something normal. There are positive and negative emotions. And even though their name suggests that the negative ones are not good, they indeed are. You might feel that what is labeled as negative does not have a nice or good effect on you. That you rather keep it away as negative means bad and positive means good.
But things are not like this, and even though people might feel tempted to reject or run away from negative emotions and seek only the positive ones, they all have their roles. Emotions are part of every moment and some might be more intense than others. As a college student, you probably already know that emotions are part of your everyday life. They might be more intense when you take an exam or present your project in front of the entire class and the teacher. Or less intense when you are collaborating on a group project, studying, or commuting between classes. But what is the role of emotions in college life? How are they linked with learning?
Enhancing Motivation
Everyone talks about motivation in the context of learning, but not only. Students are always looking for motivation to learn which can come from distinct sources. Motivation can be intrinsic, meaning students are motivated by their goals, their dreams, by their wish to succeed. But, they can also be motivated extrinsically, by grades and marks they could get on their essays.
Positive emotions are part of motivation and enhance it considerably. You might have noticed that when you earn good grades or you are appreciated for your work and effort, you feel better. You feel positive emotions like pride and even courage to pursue your academic goals. On the other hand, you might feel negative emotions when you do not get the grade you were expecting, which might dwindle your motivation too. Students have lots of essays to write during their college years and this comes with emotions. Some topics might be more challenging to approach and write about, so nervousness can easily appear. You can find out more about the concept of regret essay by checking free essay examples you find online. They offer valuable insight into how an essay should look like, but also more information about emotions.
Affecting Learning
As mentioned above, there are two types of emotions: positive and negative. While the positive ones enhance your motivation which in turn improves your learning process, the negative ones might affect it. Negative emotions are not bad if they are in normal doses.
However, they sometimes can become too intense, they can affect your learning. For example, stress has an adaptive function when it is in normal quantities. It helps you gather all your resources and face the situation at hand. However, in high quantities, it can not be adaptive. It can turn into burnout and together with other emotions, it can be anxiety and depression too. All of them affect the learning process and the motivation too.
So, as a student who is experiencing burnout, depression, anxiety, or a combination of all these it can be overwhelming to find your flow, be productive, and be motivated to pursue your academic tasks. And this affects your development and improvement as a student, as you do not put in the effort to learn and expand your knowledge anymore.
Supporting Learning
Indeed, positive emotions can fuel your motivation and skyrocket it. Or, negative emotions can dwindle along with the learning process. But emotions can support the learning process too, as they have a huge influence on a wide range of cognitive skills. Your decision-making, attention, critical thinking, and regulation are significantly improved by emotions.
Final Thoughts
We all hear talking about emotions everywhere. They govern our life, but we also need to learn how to accept them, live them, and more importantly, not run away from them. So, learning how they affect the learning process and more about their role in college life is crucial. Everyone wants positive emotions, as they feel good. But negative emotions are part of everyone’s life and this is natural too.
So, as a college student, you need to learn about both of them. Positive emotions enhance learning and support learning and the development of cognitive skills. While negative emotions affect learning and development if they are in high quantities.
(Mary Cardoza is a content writer and blogger. She loves psychology and often writes articles on this topic. Her dream is to become a coach and support students who struggle with college challenges and learn how to cope with them.)
