Influences on Emotions

Our book describes three different influences on emotions: physiological, perceptual, and social influences. While I do agree to a certain extent with all of these influences, I agree most strongly with the idea of perceptual influences. The book describes the perceptual view of emotions as a view that "asserts that subjective perceptions shape what external phenomena mean to us." This basically means that the way we perceive an event or act shapes what that event or act means to us. For example, if I see a clown running towards me I'll probably perceive it one of two ways: I'd feel threatened if I perceive clowns as scary, or I'd feel joyful if I perceive clowns as friendly.
I agree the most with this perceptual view of emotions because it suggests that we have some control over how we feel about different things. But because it is more accurate, I agree even more with the "cognitive labeling view of emotions". The best example I have of this is a personal experience of mine. A few years ago I was dating this guy who I perceived to be very cool, laid back, and smooth. He always seemed to say the right things at exactly the right time and made me feel like he really cared about me. But then as time passed I got to know more of his friends and I eventually found out from them that he had been talking to multiple girls the same way he had been talking to me and had even hooked up with some of them behind my back. This completely changed my perception of him. Instead of labeling him as a smooth, sweet guy I now labeled him as a player and a liar.
The cognitive labeling view of emotions gives me more insight into emotions than the other views because it helps explain that what we feel can be shaped by how we label external phenomena and our responses, which is something I've thought about before but had never really been able to put into words that clearly.