Aesthetic emotions: what they are and what effects they have on the human mind

The emotions that human beings experience continuously can be classified in different ways, existing negative, positive and neutral emotions, as well as can be classified as basic emotions or advanced. To all this we can add a classification of emotions that may become less known than the previous ones and these are the aesthetic emotions.

Aesthetic emotions have been defined as the emotional response of people to beauty, to any kind of beauty. such as a work of art or a landscape, with the possibility that these emotions may be of a different nature (p. eg, experiencing positive emotions before Van Gogh's “The Starry Night” or sadness before the painting of the “Execution of Torrijos and his companions on the beaches of Malaga”).

In this article we will see what aesthetic emotions consist of and we will also mention some research that has been carried out in this regard.

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What are aesthetic emotions?

Aesthetic emotions have been defined by Rafael Bisquerra, professor emeritus at the University of Barcelona, ​​as

people's emotional response to beauty, any kind of beauty. In this sense, beauty can refer to a certain landscape, a work of art, or a person, so that when visualizing or experiencing them there has been a strong impact emotional.

Where aesthetic emotions have been studied the most has been in terms of the reactions produced before certain works of art (for example, before the painting "Las Meninas" by the painter Diego Velázquez, the painting "The Birth of Venus" by Sandro Boticelli or the sculpture of "David" by Michelangelo, among others). However, these emotions can transcend works of art, so that the emotional experience of beauty can be experienced towards more things and towards beings (for example, a sunset, the views from the top of a mountain, etc.), being usual that they produce emotions pleasant.

However, heesthetic emotions are not always positive and pleasant, as they can also be negative and unpleasant. For example, if we look at any of Francisco de Goya's black paintings such as the painting by "Saturn devouring his son" we could feel various negative aesthetic emotions such as anger or fear, among others; although we could also experience aesthetic emotions of a more neutral nature such as surprise.

Of course, each particular case of viewers can have a great influence depending on various factors such as their sensitivity, their perspective, his way of understanding what he considers the artist has tried to capture, the meaning that the work brings to each person, among other things; in the end the aesthetic emotions that are experienced depend on the particular look of each person, so we can understand that this type of emotion gives rise to a wide range of emotional experiences, so they are quite diverse.

For all this variety at an emotional level that aesthetic emotions represent, there has also been a wide diversity of opinions about it within field of psychology and related branches, there being several defenders of this emotional phenomenon as well as others who have positioned themselves in against. In any case, below we will see some research that has been carried out on aesthetic emotions.

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Research on aesthetic emotions

Aesthetic emotions are a phenomenon that today does not have as much research compared to other types of classifications of emotions. emotions or other fields of research within psychology, so they were quite unknown until a fairly long time. recent.

The great mystery lies in the need to investigate in order to understand under what conditions and how the various aesthetic emotions can be aroused through visual, artistic, scientific, sports, etc.

However, there are some important authors who have validated the existence of aesthetic emotions such as Dickie (1974), Beardsley (1982), Wreen and Callen (1982), Lazarus (1991), Hjort and Laver (1997) or Levinson (1997), among others, including psychologist Rafael Bisquerra, who has focused his studies since the 1990s on education emotional.

Levinson mentioned that aesthetic emotions had not received sufficient validation within art theory. and furthermore they have not received sufficient support in this area; however, positive emotions have been related to the appreciation of works of art, including those of fascination, admiration or pleasure when contemplating quality works.

Lazarus, on the other hand, went so far as to state that there was a discrepancy between the tension and excitement that were present in an ordinary emotion versus appreciation. aesthetic that led to a state of calm when a person is contemplating a work of art, so this would justify the consideration of the existence of emotions aesthetic.

Aesthetic emotions, as we said before, go beyond the contemplation of a work of art of quality, of beauty or that what for us is interesting in some sense; and it is that people can experience aesthetic emotions when receiving an award that they consider important, when achieving an objective that had cost us a lot of effort achieve, by reading a poem that strikes a chord with us, by listening to music, by contemplating some architectural works, by watching a play or a movie, etc.

They can also experience shared aesthetic emotions in various situations, for example, when we see the players of the sports team that we follow win a trophy, or when our favorite tennis player he wins a Grand Slam tournament and we see his face of emotion when celebrating it, in such a way that he manages to infect his followers with those emotions.

In all of the above cases and many more, it is possible to experience various emotions that, from a psychological, they can have characteristics similar to aesthetic emotions, so they could be considered as such.

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Relationship between aesthetic emotions and education

In the field of education, whether in subjects of artistic expression, art history, physics, chemistry, mathematics, philosophy, social sciences, biology... it would be interesting to try teach them in a way that favors the experimentation of aesthetic emotions by students in order that they enjoy throughout the learning process and thus increase the interest in learning. This would be a way of motivating the students, since otherwise, if they consider that the subjects are not significant for them, it will be more difficult for them to be motivated by the studies.

Starting from this perspective, it would be important to consider the teaching of emotional education as a cross-cutting theme that should be taught as a subject or included within some existing ones at all educational levels, ranging from preschool to high school. baccalaureate.

Emotional education could include content and strategies focused on aesthetic emotions and the practice of certain social skills and important skills for day to day, because Many times, students who suffer from a psychological problem or difficulty have certain difficulties in understanding and regulating their emotions., as well as the need to work on certain aspects at the level of social skills and life skills.

Perlvosky mentioned that both the language how emotions are forms of abstract representation and that it is cultures that facilitate development of these emotions, language being the mechanism that makes them accessible to our knowledge.

Thus,when they have not received an education in the field of emotions, including aesthetic emotions, the subjective perception of emotions is very poor, this being the reason why so few words are used to describe what we feel, demonstrating the need for emotional education in the school context.

In short, one of the remnants of the educational system at all levels would be to provide quality teaching in the field of education and some basic notions in the field of psychology such as emotional regulation, the management of certain social skills and those that are important to deal with certain day-to-day remains and depending on the evolutionary stage in which they find themselves. students.