The sequence of psychological events is: from perception to evaluation to emotional response. On the level of
immediate awareness, however, the sequence is: from perception to emotion. A person may or may not be
consciously aware of the intervening value-judgment. A separate act of focused awareness may be required to grasp
it, because of the extreme rapidity of the sequence. That a person may fail to identify either the judgment or the
factors involved in it, that he may be conscious only of the perception and of his emotional response, is the fact
which makes possible men's confusion about the nature and source of emotions.
There are many reasons why a person may remain unaware of the evaluative processes underlying his emotions.
Among the most important of these reasons are the following:
- Competence at introspecting and identifying one's own mental processes has to be acquired; it has to be learned.
Most people have not formed the habit of seeking to account to themselves for the reasons of their beliefs,
emotions, and desires; consequently, when they do attempt it, they frequently fail—and do not persevere. - Most people do not hold their values and convictions in clearly defined form. Vagueness and obscurity
characterize a good deal of their mental contents. Their beliefs and values have never been formulated in precise,
objective language, and are stored in the subconscious only as approximations, by means of pre-verbal symbols,
such as images, which their owners cannot easily translate into objective, articulate speech. - Sometimes, an emotion and the value-considerations underlying it are extremely complex. For example, suppose
a wife is emotionally upset; she knows that the feeling involves her husband. Perhaps he has been inconsiderate of
her in some way; but he is working very hard and is under a strain; but she, too, is under a strain and is tired of
bearing the emotional burden of his work pressures; still, she knows she is inclined to be oversensitive; on the other
hand, she wants to be honest with him about her feelings; but she does not want to upset him and, perhaps, make
the situation worse. All of these considerations may be clashing in her subconscious. On the conscious level, she
feels an emotion of diffuse irritation at the universe in general and at her husband in particular, plus some amount
of guilt—and she cannot untangle the reasons.