Silent Struggles of A Mother: Whitney Nelson

Silent Struggles of A Mother: Whitney Nelson

Subjective Label (Situation) Angel is a mother who just lost her job. Her daughter Sienna has noone but her in this new city they moved to 6 months ago. The job she thought would change their lives just let them go. Sienna has no idea that her mother does not know where their next check is coming from. Sienna only knows that her birthday is in 3 days. Angel is panicking. She is feeling worry and scared.

Physiological Arousal When Angel starts looking at all her bills her heart starts beating a mile a minute. Her body starts reacting to the stress and shes feeling sick. Sienna still has no idea.

Cognitive Interpretation Angel starts thinking about rent, groceries, and Sienna's birthday. She realizes how scared she really is after losing her job. She starts thinking about how she left everything behind for this job, and now it's gone.

Behavioral Expression Angel becomes very quiet and tries to hide her feelings from Sienna. Eventually, she starts crying and tells Sienna what's going on. Sienna hugs her mom and lets her know they are going to be okay. That sense of reassurance from her almost 6-year-old made her feel better.

One Theory of Emotion: Schachter-Singer Theory With this theory it basically explains that our bodies react to something. After our thoughts help us to better understand what we are feeling. When Angel's heart starts racing and crying from stress and fear is an example. The thoughts of her job and bills caused her to feel scared.

Cherry, K. (2026, August 26). The 6 major theories of emotion. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/theories-of-emotion-2795717 Cherry, K. (2026, April 30). Emotions and types of emotional responses. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-emotions-2795178 OpenStax. (2020). Psychology 2e. https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e