Affection . From the Latin ´´affectus´´, one of the passions of the mind . It is about the inclination towards someone or something, especially love or affection. Sympathy in which a person feels for other living beings. Result of a process of social interaction between two or more organisms and that will be characterized by feedback .
Summary
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- 1 Affection and emotions
- 2 Affection, necessary to live
- 1 Lack of affection causes disease
- 3 Affection and affect
- 4 Synonyms of affection
- 5 Antonyms for affection
- 6 Related meanings
- 7 Sources
Affection and emotions
Affection has traditionally taken the form of a kiss , a caress, a gesture, an attention, a care, among other modalities and it is a matter that is intimately linked to the universe of emotions . According to Antonio Damasio , a renowned natural neurologist from Portugal , emotions and all the reactions that arise from them have a connection with the body, but feelings are linked to the mind. Although no one has established a series of formal differences between affect and emotions, there are authors who define the former as a process of interaction between a minimum of two people, but consider that the latter occur in the intimacy of each individual .
However, there are theories that contradict it, such as the one created by the Dutch philosopher Benedict de Spinoza , through which he explains that there are great links between affect, emotions, body and mind and that these are not distinguished according to whether the process is individual or collective. It is common for the notion of affection to be used in a more formal or distant way than the concept of love . Feeling affection for someone is not the same as loving them. On the other hand, it is not frequent to say that you love an object, while having affection for something is more common.
For psychology , affectivity is the human being’s susceptibility to different alterations in the real or symbolic world. It is usually produced through an interactive process (who feels affection receives something from the other party). When it is said that a person has affection for another it is because they repeatedly have gestures and actions that express affection, esteem, appreciation and cordiality, but additionally it is because the other or other people have also shown that feeling towards the one who feels affection, it is there where these feelings of friendship , appreciation and attachment are born between these people and the relationships they share.
Affection and affection can be expressed verbally (“I love you”, “I hope to always be with you”), non-verbally (smile, eye contact, hug, kiss, join hands, caresses, whispers, loving tone of voice, between others) and also through supportive behaviors (assistance, satisfaction of needs, collaboration, instrumental support, gifts, etc.). A problem with supportive behaviors is that they do not always have an affective connotation for the other person, so they may not be understood as an expression of affection. In order for them to serve as an expression of affection, it is usually necessary that they be accompanied by other forms of expression of affection, that is, by verbal or non-verbal behaviors.
Affection, necessary to live
The use of the word affection is also related to the obligation that a person or more has to carry out their functions or activities in a specific place or place. It is any act (behavior) of help , protection, care , etc., that contributes to the survival of another living being, since it is very common that the recipient of that love is not exclusively another individual, being able to materialize and profess also by pet for example.
Every living being needs to obtain resources (any form of matter and / or energy) from its environment in order to survive. Affection is essential for the survival of human beings since without a certain amount of affection, no human being is capable of surviving or, what is the same, that without a certain amount of affection every human being becomes ill and irretrievably dies.
The expression of affection has important advantages for mental and physical health . Receiving and also expressing affection contributes to promoting physical health, mental health and general well-being, while its absence contributes to depression and other health problems. Professor Kory Floyd has focused his study on the association between affect communication and health. Their research communication affection hormones can alter the stress , decrease the levels of glucose in blood, reducing lipids in blood ( cholesterol ) and in general, improve the immune system .
Lack of affection causes illness
According to Maria Pilar González (Doctor of Psychology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona ), Esteban Barrull (Doctor of Social Psychology from the University of Barcelona (UB)) and Pascual Marteles (Doctor of Social Psychology from the UB) in the article “El afecto it is a primary need of the human being ”; Only work done on another living being that increases its chances of survival is affective.
Every act of help implies a loss of energy in the one who helps and a gain in the one who receives the help. This respective gain and loss are manifested in a respective decrease and increase in the chances of survival of each. The benefit obtained by the recipient of affection is offset by the harm suffered by the provider. This is the real reason why there are so many problems in affective relationships. Affection is a real and physical transfer of energy, work and life .
If the fact that affection is a primary need of every human being is understood and appreciated, then the immediate and direct consequence is that without affection or without a sufficient amount, the human being becomes ill and dies. Furthermore, if a human being has all his primary needs covered except the affective one, then his illness and death are caused by lack of affection. According to the doctors, individual survival depends on a fine and delicate network of help and affection. Each one is a recipient and giver of affection, weaving a network of affective relationships. Human beings cannot survive without the help of their fellow human beings.
When affection is said to be a primary need, it is affirming that affection is the help that is needed to overcome the threshold of survival. In this way, the survival of the human species is based on its social relationships. Systems of social organization, groups, family , organizations, communities, states, are the mechanisms by which human beings intensively exchange the help that, as individuals, is needed to survive. Outside the social network, disconnected from all help, they are unable to survive.
Affection (or work for the benefit of the survival of another) not only determines the survival of individuals of social species but also their quality of life , that is, the degree to which they will suffer from diseases of any kind. Lack of sufficient affection to live is the cause of diseases of all kinds.
Affection and affect
It is important to know that although the word affect is derived from the word affect, they are completely opposite and opposite. The expression affection refers to a caress , a gesture, an attention, a care, a help , a kiss and a demonstration of affection for the person, in turn, the word affect a person is understood to be to hurt , harm, damage it, which makes one word completely different from the other.
Synonyms for affection
- Sweetie
- Attachment
- Esteem
- Appreciation
- Sympathy
Antonyms for affection
- Antipathy
- Disaffection
Related meanings
- Feeling
- Habibi
- Congruence
- Disappointment
