Everything else that we do when we are emotional is learned, not preset, and is likely to be specific to the culture or a particular

individual. These learned actions, which include physical activity and the words we speak, are the product of our continuing lifelong experience (and assessment) of what works when coping with what triggered the emotion and the events that unfold over the course of an emotional episode. It is easier and faster for us to learn actions that are consistent with our preset, automatic emotional actions. For example, for fear we would more easily learn an action pattern that involves literal or figurative withdrawal than one that involves attack. But any action pattern can become established for any emotion. Once learned, these action patterns operate automatically, just as if they were preset. We can deliberately interfere, overriding or supplanting our reflexes and impulses with quite different actions or no action at all. The interference may also occur automatically, governed by an overlearned habit and not by deliberation. The man stonewalling may do so without thought, without conscious choice. Either way, by deliberate choice or well-established habit, interfering with emotional expressions and actions may be a struggle when the emotion is very intense. For most people it will be easier to prevent an action than totally to remove any sign of the emotion in our face or voice. I believe this is so because we have such excellent voluntary control over the bodily (skeletal) muscles, without which we could not engage in all the complex and skilled actions necessary for our survival. Indeed, we have much better control over our bodily muscles and our words than we have for our facial muscles or the settings in our vocal apparatus. Just because something we do occurs involuntarily, governed by automatic appraisal without conscious consideration, does not mean that it is the product of our evolution and universal. Habits are learned and operate automatically, often outside of our awareness. In understanding the cascade of changes that occur during an emotional episode, we must remember that the initial second or two will typically combine both preset facial and vocal expressions and preset and learned actions, as well as other nonvisible or nonaudible changes. So far I have described what can be observed, heard, or seen when someone becomes emotional. There is a set of internal physiological