Emotional Intelligence

Elgin's fifth chapter was the first with which I wholeheartedly agreed with and also the first chapter with which I was able to grasp some sort of understanding with only one read-through. One passage in particular was intriguing for me. "What we hear depends on what we listen to and what we listen for." Elgin gives an example of how parents of an infant genuinely believe their child has different cries and that they can distinguish between the different cries and find meaning in them. A person who is not directly related to the family who merely hears the cry of the child would not find meaning in the cry, but instead find it annoying. After reading this passage, my initial response was to wonder if Elgin actually believed the parents could differentiate the cries of their child or if she had a different explanation. Not having any children of my own, I'm somewhat reluctant to believe that parents have this ability. Reading further, Elgin explained that parents are in reality conditioning the child to produce a variety of cries with their varied responses. Being a neuroscience major, this was a very satisfying response. 

Elgin goes on to make the claim that "context influences emotion." Emotions shown, such as love and infatuation, may appear the same taken out of context but shown in the situation are very different. This is a concept I think I agree with but I'd like to see what the rest of the class thinks. Is emotion the feeling that we ourselves are feeling or is it what is viewed by others? Do emotions have to be justified in order to be true emotions? Obviously someone can feel fear while watching a scary movie but is it "fear" they're actually feeling if they know they are watching a fictional film?