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What are some of the basic emotions we all experience


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When you see people smiling, you know they’re happy. When they’re crying, you know they’re sad. Across cultures, recognizable facial expressions and certain reactions have become associated with the basic emotions. You pick up on these visual cues from person to person, but do you know what goes into them?

Below, we explore the theories of basic emotions, as well as how they’re represented and how they differ from complex emotions.

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The Six Basic Emotions

A widely accepted theory of basic emotions and their expressions, developed Paul Ekman, suggests we have six basic emotions. They include sadness, happiness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. [1]

Sadness

An emotional state characterized by feelings of disappointment, grief or hopelessness

Expression: Frown, loss of focus in eyes, tears

Happiness

A pleasant emotional state that elicits feelings of joy, contentment and satisfaction

Expression: Smile, laughter

Fear

A primal emotion that is important to survival and triggers a fight or flight response

Expression: Wide eyes, tense stretched lips

Anger

An emotional state leading to feelings of hostility and frustration 

Expression: Glare, eyebrows drawn together, tight lips

Surprise

A brief emotional state, either positive or negative, following something unexpected

Expression: Raised brows, open mouth, gasp

Disgust

A strong emotion that results in feeling repulsed

Expression: Wrinkled nose, gagging, no eye contact

Other Theories of Basic Emotions

Many other theories of basic emotions exist. They include, but aren’t limited to:

  • The Wheel of Emotion: Developed by Robert Plutchik, groups eight basic emotions in pairs of opposites [1]

Joy-Sadness

Anger-Fear

Trust-Distrust

Surprise-Anticipation

  • Four Basic Emotions: Based on research by Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow, suggests there are only four basic emotions [2]

Happiness

Sadness

Fear/Surprise

Anger/Disgust

Basic vs. Complex Emotions

Unlike basic emotions, complex emotions vary in their appearances across people and cultures. Some examples of complex emotions include grief, jealousy and regret.

Complex emotions are made up of two or more basic emotions. For example, fear, anger and disgust make up the complex emotion of hate. [3]

Basic Emotion Complex Emotion
Expression is universally recognizable Expression varies & can be hard to recognize
Produced automatically Requires cognitive processing
Pure, can’t be deconstructed Made up of multiple emotions

Emotions, both basic and complex, play a huge role in how we live our lives, our physical health and our interpersonal relationships.

“Emotions change how we see the world and how we interpret the actions of others.” – Paul Ekman, “Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life”

The study of basic emotions is far from complete. Interested in learning more about theories of emotion and emotions’ effect on humans psychologically and physically? Consider an online psychology degree from the University of West Alabama. If you already hold a bachelor’s in psychology, consider our online master’s in experimental psychology. At UWA, you’ll earn your degree entirely online at one of the state’s most affordable institutions. Our culturally and intellectually diverse institution and flexible structure allow you to challenge yourself while still fitting education into your busy lifestyle.

  1. psychologytoday.com
  2. theatlantic.com
  3. dictionary.apa.org

11.1 The Experience of Emotion – Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition

Chapter 11. Emotions and Motivations

Learning Objectives

  1. Explain the biological experience of emotion.
  2. Summarize the psychological theories of emotion.
  3. Give examples of the ways that emotion is communicated.

The most fundamental emotions, known as the basic emotions, are those of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. The basic emotions have a long history in human evolution, and they have developed in large part to help us make rapid judgments about stimuli and to quickly guide appropriate behaviour (LeDoux, 2000). The basic emotions are determined in large part by one of the oldest parts of our brain, the limbic system, including the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the thalamus. Because they are primarily evolutionarily determined, the basic emotions are experienced and displayed in much the same way across cultures (Ekman, 1992; Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002; Fridland, Ekman, & Oster, 1987), and people are quite accurate at judging the facial expressions of people from different cultures. View “Video Clip: The Basic Emotions,” to see a demonstration of the basic emotions.

Watch: “Recognize Basic Emotions” [YouTube]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haW6E7qsW2c

Not all of our emotions come from the old parts of our brain; we also interpret our experiences to create a more complex array of emotional experiences. For instance, the amygdala may sense fear when it senses that the body is falling, but that fear may be interpreted completely differently (perhaps even as excitement) when we are falling on a roller-coaster ride than when we are falling from the sky in an airplane that has lost power. The cognitive interpretations that accompany emotions — known as cognitive appraisal — allow us to experience a much larger and more complex set of secondary emotions, as shown in Figure 11.2, “The Secondary Emotions.” Although they are in large part cognitive, our experiences of the secondary emotions are determined in part by arousal (on the vertical axis of Figure 11. 2, “The Secondary Emotions”) and in part by their valence — that is, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant feelings (on the horizontal axis of Figure 11.2, “The Secondary Emotions”),

Figure 11.2 The Secondary Emotions. The secondary emotions are those that have a major cognitive component. They are determined by both their level of arousal (mild to intense) and their valence (pleasant to unpleasant). [Long Description]

When you succeed in reaching an important goal, you might spend some time enjoying your secondary emotions, perhaps the experience of joy, satisfaction, and contentment. But when your close friend wins a prize that you thought you had deserved, you might also experience a variety of secondary emotions (in this case, the negative ones) — for instance, feeling angry, sad, resentful, and ashamed. You might mull over the event for weeks or even months, experiencing these negative emotions each time you think about it (Martin & Tesser, 2006).

The distinction between the primary and the secondary emotions is paralleled by two brain pathways: a fast pathway and a slow pathway (Damasio, 2000; LeDoux, 2000; Ochsner, Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002).  The thalamus acts as the major gatekeeper in this process (Figure 11.3, “Slow and Fast Emotional Pathways”). Our response to the basic emotion of fear, for instance, is primarily determined by the fast pathway through the limbic system. When a car pulls out in front of us on the highway, the thalamus activates and sends an immediate message to the amygdala. We quickly move our foot to the brake pedal. Secondary emotions are more determined by the slow pathway through the frontal lobes in the cortex. When we stew in jealousy over the loss of a partner to a rival or recollect our win in the big tennis match, the process is more complex. Information moves from the thalamus to the frontal lobes for cognitive analysis and integration, and then from there to the amygdala. We experience the arousal of emotion, but it is accompanied by a more complex cognitive appraisal, producing more refined emotions and behavioural responses.

Figure 11.3 Slow and Fast Emotional Pathways. There are two emotional pathways in the brain (one slow and one fast), both of which are controlled by the thalamus.

Although emotions might seem to you to be more frivolous or less important in comparison to our more rational cognitive processes, both emotions and cognitions can help us make effective decisions. In some cases we take action after rationally processing the costs and benefits of different choices, but in other cases we rely on our emotions. Emotions become particularly important in guiding decisions when the alternatives between many complex and conflicting alternatives present us with a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity, making a complete cognitive analysis difficult. In these cases we often rely on our emotions to make decisions, and these decisions may in many cases be more accurate than those produced by cognitive processing (Damasio, 1994; Dijksterhuis, Bos, Nordgren, & van Baaren, 2006; Nordgren & Dijksterhuis, 2009; Wilson & Schooler, 1991).

The Cannon-Bard and James-Lange Theories of Emotion

Recall for a moment a situation in which you have experienced an intense emotional response. Perhaps you woke up in the middle of the night in a panic because you heard a noise that made you think that someone had broken into your house or apartment. Or maybe you were calmly cruising down a street in your neighbourhood when another car suddenly pulled out in front of you, forcing you to slam on your brakes to avoid an accident. I’m sure that you remember that your emotional reaction was in large part physical. Perhaps you remember being flushed, your heart pounding, feeling sick to your stomach, or having trouble breathing. You were experiencing the physiological part of emotion — arousal — and I’m sure you have had similar feelings in other situations, perhaps when you were in love, angry, embarrassed, frustrated, or very sad.

If you think back to a strong emotional experience, you might wonder about the order of the events that occurred. Certainly you experienced arousal, but did the arousal come before, after, or along with the experience of the emotion? Psychologists have proposed three different theories of emotion, which differ in terms of the hypothesized role of arousal in emotion (Figure 11. 4, “Three Theories of Emotion”).

Figure 11.4 Three Theories of Emotion. The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that emotions and arousal occur at the same time. The James-Lange theory proposes the emotion is the result of arousal. Schachter and Singer’s two-factor model proposes that arousal and cognition combine to create emotion.

If your experiences are like mine, as you reflected on the arousal that you have experienced in strong emotional situations, you probably thought something like, “I was afraid and my heart started beating like crazy.” At least some psychologists agree with this interpretation. According to the theory of emotion proposed by Walter Cannon and Philip Bard, the experience of the emotion (in this case, “I’m afraid”) occurs alongside the experience of the arousal (“my heart is beating fast”). According to the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, the experience of an emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal. Thus, according to this model of emotion, as we become aware of danger, our heart rate also increases.

Although the idea that the experience of an emotion occurs alongside the accompanying arousal seems intuitive to our everyday experiences, the psychologists William James and Carl Lange had another idea about the role of arousal. According to the James-Lange theory of emotion, our experience of an emotion is the result of the arousal that we experience. This approach proposes that the arousal and the emotion are not independent, but rather that the emotion depends on the arousal. The fear does not occur along with the racing heart but occurs because of the racing heart. As William James put it, “We feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble” (James, 1884, p. 190). A fundamental aspect of the James-Lange theory is that different patterns of arousal may create different emotional experiences.

There is research evidence to support each of these theories. The operation of the fast emotional pathway (Figure 11. 4, “Slow and Fast Emotional Pathways”) supports the idea that arousal and emotions occur together. The emotional circuits in the limbic system are activated when an emotional stimulus is experienced, and these circuits quickly create corresponding physical reactions (LeDoux, 2000). The process happens so quickly that it may feel to us as if emotion is simultaneous with our physical arousal.

On the other hand, and as predicted by the James-Lange theory, our experiences of emotion are weaker without arousal. Patients who have spinal injuries that reduce their experience of arousal also report decreases in emotional responses (Hohmann, 1966). There is also at least some support for the idea that different emotions are produced by different patterns of arousal. People who view fearful faces show more amygdala activation than those who watch angry or joyful faces (Whalen et al., 2001; Witvliet & Vrana, 1995), we experience a red face and flushing when we are embarrassed but not when we experience other emotions (Leary, Britt, Cutlip, & Templeton, 1992), and different hormones are released when we experience compassion than when we experience other emotions (Oatley, Keltner, & Jenkins, 2006).

The Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

Whereas the James-Lange theory proposes that each emotion has a different pattern of arousal, the two-factor theory of emotion takes the opposite approach, arguing that the arousal that we experience is basically the same in every emotion, and that all emotions (including the basic emotions) are differentiated only by our cognitive appraisal of the source of the arousal. The two-factor theory of emotion asserts that the experience of emotion is determined by the intensity of the arousal we are experiencing, but that the cognitive appraisal of the situation determines what the emotion will be. Because both arousal and appraisal are necessary, we can say that emotions have two factors: an arousal factor and a cognitive factor (Schachter & Singer, 1962):

emotion = arousal + cognition

In some cases it may be difficult for a person who is experiencing a high level of arousal to accurately determine which emotion he or she is experiencing. That is, the person may be certain that he or she is feeling arousal, but the meaning of the arousal (the cognitive factor) may be less clear. Some romantic relationships, for instance, have a very high level of arousal, and the partners alternatively experience extreme highs and lows in the relationship. One day they are madly in love with each other and the next they are in a huge fight. In situations that are accompanied by high arousal, people may be unsure what emotion they are experiencing. In the high arousal relationship, for instance, the partners may be uncertain whether the emotion they are feeling is love, hate, or both at the same time. The tendency for people to incorrectly label the source of the arousal that they are experiencing is known as the misattribution of arousal.

Figure 11.5 Capilano Suspension Bridge. Arousal caused by the height of this bridge was misattributed as attraction by the men who were interviewed by an attractive woman as they crossed it.

In one interesting field study by Dutton and Aron (1974), an attractive young woman approached individual young men as they crossed a wobbly, long suspension walkway hanging more than 200 feet above a river in British Columbia (Figure 11.5, “Capilano Suspension Bridge”). The woman asked each man to help her fill out a class questionnaire. When he had finished, she wrote her name and phone number on a piece of paper, and invited him to call if he wanted to hear more about the project. More than half of the men who had been interviewed on the bridge later called the woman. In contrast, men approached by the same woman on a low, solid bridge, or who were interviewed on the suspension bridge by men, called significantly less frequently. The idea of misattribution of arousal can explain this result — the men were feeling arousal from the height of the bridge, but they misattributed it as romantic or sexual attraction to the woman, making them more likely to call her.

Research Focus: Misattributing Arousal

If you think a bit about your own experiences of different emotions, and if you consider the equation that suggests that emotions are represented by both arousal and cognition, you might start to wonder how much was determined by each. That is, do we know what emotion we are experiencing by monitoring our feelings (arousal) or by monitoring our thoughts (cognition)? The bridge study you just read about might begin to provide you with an answer: The men seemed to be more influenced by their perceptions of how they should be feeling (their cognition) rather than by how they actually were feeling (their arousal).

Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer (1962) directly tested this prediction of the two-factor theory of emotion in a well-known experiment. Schachter and Singer believed that the cognitive part of the emotion was critical — in fact, they believed that the arousal that we experience could be interpreted as any emotion, provided we had the right label for it. Thus they hypothesized that if an individual is experiencing arousal for which there is no immediate explanation, that individual will “label” this state in terms of the cognitions that are created in his or her environment. On the other hand, they argued that people who already have a clear label for their arousal would have no need to search for a relevant label, and therefore should not experience an emotion.

In the research, male participants were told that they would be participating in a study on the effects of a new drug, called suproxin, on vision. On the basis of this cover story, the men were injected with a shot of the neurotransmitter epinephrine, a drug that normally creates feelings of tremors, flushing, and accelerated breathing in people. The idea was to give all the participants the experience of arousal.

Then, according to random assignment to conditions, the men were told that the drug would make them feel certain ways. The men in the epinephrine informed condition were told the truth about the effects of the drug — that they would likely experience tremors, their hands would start to shake, their hearts would start to pound, and their faces might get warm and flushed. The participants in the epinephrine-uninformed condition, however, were told something untrue — that their feet would feel numb, they would have an itching sensation over parts of their body, and they might get a slight headache. The idea was to make some of the men think that the arousal they were experiencing was caused by the drug (the informed condition), whereas others would be unsure where the arousal came from (the uninformed condition).

Then the men were left alone with a confederate who they thought had received the same injection. While they were waiting for the experiment (which was supposedly about vision) to begin, the confederate behaved in a wild and crazy manner (Schachter and Singer called it a “euphoric” manner). He wadded up spitballs, flew paper airplanes, and played with a hula-hoop. He kept trying to get the participant to join in with his games. Then right before the vision experiment was to begin, the participants were asked to indicate their current emotional states on a number of scales. One of the emotions they were asked about was euphoria.

If you are following the story, you will realize what was expected: The men who had a label for their arousal (the informed group) would not be experiencing much emotion because they already had a label available for their arousal. The men in the misinformed group, on the other hand, were expected to be unsure about the source of the arousal. They needed to find an explanation for their arousal, and the confederate provided one. As you can see in Figure 11.6 ,”Results from Schachter and Singer, 1962″ (left side), this is just what they found. The participants in the misinformed condition were more likely to experience euphoria (as measured by their behavioural responses with the confederate) than were those in the informed condition.

Then Schachter and Singer conducted another part of the study, using new participants. Everything was exactly the same except for the behaviour of the confederate. Rather than being euphoric, he acted angry. He complained about having to complete the questionnaire he had been asked to do, indicating that the questions were stupid and too personal. He ended up tearing up the questionnaire that he was working on, yelling, “I don’t have to tell them that!” Then he grabbed his books and stormed out of the room.

What do you think happened in this condition? The answer is the same thing: the misinformed participants experienced more anger (again as measured by the participant’s behaviours during the waiting period) than did the informed participants. (Figure 11.6, “Results from Schachter and Singer, 1962”, right side). The idea is that because cognitions are such strong determinants of emotional states, the same state of physiological arousal could be labelled in many different ways, depending entirely on the label provided by the social situation. As Schachter and Singer put it: “Given a state of physiological arousal for which an individual has no immediate explanation, he will ‘label’ this state and describe his feelings in terms of the cognitions available to him” (Schachter & Singer, 1962, p. 381).

Figure 11.6 Results from Schachter and Singer, 1962. Results of the study by Schachter and Singer (1962) support the two-factor theory of emotion. The participants who did not have a clear label for their arousal took on the emotion of the confederate.

Because it assumes that arousal is constant across emotions, the two-factor theory also predicts that emotions may transfer or spill over from one highly arousing event to another. My university basketball team recently won a basketball championship, but after the final victory some students rioted in the streets near the campus, lighting fires and burning cars. This seems to be a very strange reaction to such a positive outcome for the university and the students, but it can be explained through the spillover of the arousal caused by happiness to destructive behaviours. The principle of excitation transfer refers to the phenomenon that occurs when people who are already experiencing arousal from one event tend to also experience unrelated emotions more strongly.

In sum, each of the three theories of emotion has something to support it. In terms of Cannon-Bard, emotions and arousal generally are subjectively experienced together, and the spread is very fast. In support of the James-Lange theory, there is at least some evidence that arousal is necessary for the experience of emotion, and that the patterns of arousal are different for different emotions. And in line with the two-factor model, there is also evidence that we may interpret the same patterns of arousal differently in different situations.

Communicating Emotion

In addition to experiencing emotions internally, we also express our emotions to others, and we learn about the emotions of others by observing them. This communication process has evolved over time and is highly adaptive. One way that we perceive the emotions of others is through their nonverbal communication, that is, communication, primarily of liking or disliking, that does not involve words (Ambady & Weisbuch, 2010; Andersen, 2007). Nonverbal communication includes our tone of voice, gait, posture, touch, and facial expressions, and we can often accurately detect the emotions that other people are experiencing through these channels. Table 11.1, “Some Common Nonverbal Communicators,” shows some of the important nonverbal behaviours that we use to express emotion and some other information (particularly liking or disliking, and dominance or submission).

Table 11.1 Some Common Nonverbal Communicators.
[Skip Table]
Nonverbal cue Description Examples
Proxemics Rules about the appropriate use of personal space Standing nearer to someone can express liking or dominance.
Body appearance Expressions based on alterations to our body Body building, breast augmentation, weight loss, piercings, and tattoos are often used to appear more attractive to others.
Body positioning and movement Expressions based on how our body appears A more “open” body position can denote liking; a faster walking speed can communicate dominance.
Gestures Behaviours and signs made with our hands or faces The peace sign communicates liking; the “finger” communicates disrespect.
Facial expressions The variety of emotions that we express, or attempt to hide, through our face Smiling or frowning and staring or avoiding looking at the other can express liking or disliking, as well as dominance or submission.
Paralanguage Clues to identity or emotions contained in our voices Pronunciation, accents, and dialect can be used to communicate identity and liking.

Just as there is no universal spoken language, there is no universal nonverbal language. For instance, in Canada we express disrespect by showing the middle finger (the finger or the bird). But in Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, the V sign (made with back of the hand facing the recipient) serves a similar purpose. In countries where Spanish, Portuguese, or French are spoken, a gesture in which a fist is raised and the arm is slapped on the bicep is equivalent to the finger, and in Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, and China a sign in which the hand and fingers are curled and the thumb is thrust between the middle and index fingers is used for the same purpose.

The most important communicator of emotion is the face. The face contains 43 different muscles that allow it to make more than 10,000 unique configurations and to express a wide variety of emotions. For example, happiness is expressed by smiles, which are created by two of the major muscles surrounding the mouth and the eyes, and anger is created by lowered brows and firmly pressed lips.

In addition to helping us express our emotions, the face also helps us feel emotion. The facial feedback hypothesis proposes that the movement of our facial muscles can trigger corresponding emotions. Fritz Strack and his colleagues (1988) asked their research participants to hold a pen in their teeth (mimicking the facial action of a smile) or between their lips (similar to a frown), and then had them rate the funniness of a cartoon. They found that the cartoons were rated as more amusing when the pen was held in the smiling position — the subjective experience of emotion was intensified by the action of the facial muscles.

These results, and others like them, show that our behaviours, including our facial expressions, both influence and are influenced by our affect. We may smile because we are happy, but we are also happy because we are smiling. And we may stand up straight because we are proud, but we are proud because we are standing up straight (Stepper & Strack, 1993).

Key Takeaways

  • Emotions are the normally adaptive mental and physiological feeling states that direct our attention and guide our behaviour.
  • Emotional states are accompanied by arousal, our experiences of the bodily responses created by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.
  • Motivations are forces that guide behaviour. They can be biological, such as hunger and thirst; personal, such as the motivation for achievement; or social, such as the motivation for acceptance and belonging.
  • The most fundamental emotions, known as the basic emotions, are those of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.
  • Cognitive appraisal also allows us to experience a variety of secondary emotions.
  • According to the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, the experience of an emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal.
  • According to the James-Lange theory of emotion, our experience of an emotion is the result of the arousal that we experience.
  • According to the two-factor theory of emotion, the experience of emotion is determined by the intensity of the arousal we are experiencing, and the cognitive appraisal of the situation determines what the emotion will be.
  • When people incorrectly label the source of the arousal that they are experiencing, we say that they have misattributed their arousal.
  • We express our emotions to others through nonverbal behaviours, and we learn about the emotions of others by observing them.

References

Ambady, N., & Weisbuch, M. (2010). Nonverbal behavior. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds. ), Handbook of social psychology (5th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 464–497). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Andersen, P. (2007). Nonverbal communication: Forms and functions (2nd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Damasio, A. (2000). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. New York, NY: Mariner Books.

Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York, NY: Grosset/Putnam.

Dijksterhuis, A., Bos, M. W., Nordgren, L. F., & van Baaren, R. B. (2006). On making the right choice: The deliberation-without-attention effect. Science, 311(5763), 1005–1007.

Dutton, D., & Aron, A. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 510–517.

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553.

Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 203–23.

Fridlund, A. J., Ekman, P., & Oster, H. (1987). Facial expressions of emotion. In A. Siegman & S. Feldstein (Eds.), Nonverbal behavior and communication (2nd ed., pp. 143–223). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hohmann, G. W. (1966). Some effects of spinal cord lesions on experienced emotional feelings. Psychophysiology, 3(2), 143–156.

James, W. (1884). What is an emotion? Mind, 9(34), 188–205.

Leary, M. R., Britt, T. W., Cutlip, W. D., & Templeton, J. L. (1992). Social blushing. Psychological Bulletin, 112(3), 446–460.

LeDoux, J. E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 155–184.

Martin, L. L., & Tesser, A. (2006). Extending the goal progress theory of rumination: Goal reevaluation and growth. In L. J. Sanna & E. C. Chang (Eds.), Judgments over time: The interplay of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (pp. 145–162). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Nordgren, L. F., & Dijksterhuis, A. P. (2009). The devil is in the deliberation: Thinking too much reduces preference consistency. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(1), 39–46.

Oatley, K., Keltner, D., & Jenkins, J. M. (2006). Understanding emotions (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Ochsner, K. N., Bunge, S. A., Gross, J. J., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2002). Rethinking feelings: An fMRI study of the cognitive regulation of emotion. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(8), 1215–1229.

Russell, J. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1161–1178.

Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychological Review, 69, 379–399.

Stepper, S., & Strack, F. (1993). Proprioceptive determinants of emotional and nonemotional feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(2), 211–220.

Strack, F., Martin, L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 768–777. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.5.768

Whalen, P. J., Shin, L. M., McInerney, S. C., Fischer, H., Wright, C. I., & Rauch, S. L. (2001). A functional MRI study of human amygdala responses to facial expressions of fear versus anger. Emotion, 1(1), 70–83;

Wilson, T. D., & Schooler, J. W. (1991). Thinking too much: Introspection can reduce the quality of preferences and decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(2), 181–192.

Witvliet, C. V., & Vrana, S. R. (1995). Psychophysiological responses as indices of affective dimensions. Psychophysiology, 32(5), 436–443.

Image Attributions

Figure 11.2: Adapted from Russell, 1980.
Figure 11.5: Capilano suspension bridge by Goobiebilly (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Capilano_suspension_bridge_-g.jpg) used under CC-BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en).

Figure 11.6: Adapted from Schachter & Singer, 1962.

Long Descriptions

Figure 11.2 long description: The Secondary Emotions
Level of Arousal Unpleasant Pleasant
Mild
  • Miserable
  • Sad
  • Depressed
  • Gloomy
  • Bored
  • Droopy
  • Content
  • Satisfied
  • At ease
  • Serene
  • Calm
  • Relaxed
  • Sleepy
  • Tired
Intense
  • Alarmed
  • Afraid
  • Angry
  • Intense
  • Annoyed
  • Frustrated
  • Distressed
  • Astonished
  • Excited
  • Amused
  • Happy
  • Delighted
  • Glad Pleased

[Return to Figure 11. 2]

How many emotions do we experience? | PSYCHOLOGIES

Know Yourself

Psychologists used to think that most human emotions fell into universal categories: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust. However, a new study by University of California psychology professor Dacher Keltner found that people experience more than 27 different emotions, all of which are closely related to each other.

Scientists used new statistical models to analyze the reactions of more than 800 people to emotionally stimulating videos. This allowed them to create a multi-dimensional interactive map that shows the connection of emotions. “We found that it took hundreds of people 27 different feelings to reliably describe the emotions evoked by the videos, rather than six, as scientists had previously assumed.”

Moreover, contrary to the idea that each emotional state is independent of the others, the researchers found that emotions such as awe and peace, horror and sadness, amazement and adoration flow smoothly from one to another.

Lead author Alan Cowen explains: “There are no well-defined clusters for each emotion on our map because everything is interconnected. Emotional experience is much richer and more subtle than previously thought. We hope our findings will help other scientists and engineers better capture the emotional states that affect mood, brain activity, and expression. This will lead to more effective treatment of psychiatric illnesses, understanding of the origin of emotions in the brain and the emergence of technologies that respond to emotional needs.”

The study organizers selected a demographically diverse group of 853 men and women for the experiment. Participants watched silent videos online, 5 to 10 seconds long, that were supposed to evoke emotions.

2185 videos were selected to be screened on topics such as childbirth, children, marriage proposals, weddings, death, suffering, spiders, snakes, awkward falls, risky stunts, sexual acts, natural disasters, natural wonders and awkward handshakes.

The participants in the experiment were divided into three groups. Each group watched a series of videos and then completed a report. The first group reported on the emotions caused by each video in a free form. “Their responses indicated a rich and sophisticated set of emotional states ranging from nostalgia to disgust,” notes Cowan.

Thanks to the obtained data, scientists were able to identify 27 different categories of emotions

The second evaluated each video depending on the intensity of the following emotions: admiration, awe, aesthetic pleasure, amazement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, contempt, strong desire, disappointment, disgust, pain, empathy, delight, envy, excitement, fear, guilt, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, pride, relief, romantic mood, sadness, satisfaction, sexual attraction, surprise, sympathy and triumph.

The experimenters noticed that participants chose similar answers. More than half of the subjects gave the same answers for each video.

The third group of participants rated their emotional response to the commercials on a scale of one to nine. Participants rated on the basis of such oppositions as positive or negative, arousal or calmness, dominance or obedience. The researchers were able to predict how participants would rate videos based on how participants in other groups rated the emotions of watching the same videos.

The study showed that participants in the experiment showed similar or identical emotional responses to each video. Thanks to the data obtained, they were able to identify 27 different categories of emotions. Using statistical modeling and visualization techniques, the researchers compiled emotional responses to videos into a semantic emotion atlas. On this map, each of the 27 categories is indicated by a specific color.

"We wanted to shed light on the full palette of emotions that color the inner world," Cowen said.

About the Authors: Dacher Keltner is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Alan Cowan is a PhD student in neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley.

Text: Zhanna Omelyanenko Photo Source: Getty Images

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What are emotions?

When it's gray outside and morning coffee stains your shirt, a bad mood is guaranteed.

But good news can turn all problems into trifles. It seems that emotions really control us.

In the article we will understand how this happens and what it means for our physical health.

Contents

  • Types of emotions
  • What causes emotions
  • How Emotions Affect Us
  • How to get your emotions under control
  • Genetic tests will help you understand your emotions better
  • Contrived problems?

Emergency is how the American Pediatrics Association describes the current emotional health of US children and adolescents.

Coronavirus has shaken the stability and mental health of not only children, but also many adults around the world, however, even after the pandemic, emotional tension has practically not decreased.

Rospotrebnadzor, referring to UN data, reports a global increase in mental and psychological problems among the population.

But if external conditions influence the internal emotional state so strongly, can something be corrected? Or at least minimize the negative impact of bad news to help people feel better? Actually it is possible. But first we need to understand what exactly we feel.

Types of emotions

Human emotions play a decisive role: from the impact on our communication with the outside world to physical health and the quality of decision making.

Photo by Tengyart / Unsplash

Having analyzed the main types of emotions, we can better identify them and more easily attribute them to a certain palette of our feelings.

Attention - we are entering the zone of scientific turbulence. The fact is that scientists still cannot agree on the exact definition of the types and quantity of emotions. For example, back in the 17th century, Rene Descartes identified six basic emotions from which all the rest grow. They were joy, sadness, surprise, desire, love, hate .

In the 1970s, psychologist Paul Ekman named the same number, but collected a different set of feelings. According to his definition, happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise and anger should be attributed to the number inherent in all people and cultures. Later he expanded and supplemented his list with pride, shame, embarrassment and excitement.

Photo by Julia Taubitz / Unsplash

In 2014, a group of scientists from Glasgow proposed to seriously reduce the number of basic emotions. In the study, they asked subjects to identify the emotions of the animated faces they created and found that anger and disgust were perceived to be similar. Just like fear and surprise.

Photo by Joe Caione / Unsplash

For example, anger and disgust share the same wrinkled nose, while surprise and fear share raised eyebrows. Thus, scientists came to the conclusion that these emotions are the product of an evolving society. And as “basic” they left joy, sadness, fear / surprise and anger / disgust.

We can perceive basic emotions as roots around which branches of many other emotions grow. Modern researchers have identified at least 27 different categories of emotions and their gradients.

This is an extensive but not exhaustive list:

admiration adoration aesthetic evaluation
fun alarm awe
awkwardness boredom calmness
embarrassment rod disgust
sympathy pain envy
excitement fear horror
interest joy nostalgia
romantic mood sadness satisfaction
sexual desire sympathy triumph

Where do emotions “grow”

Knowledge of basic emotions allows us to better understand our feelings. But can we say that they will be the same for all people?

In the past, scientists agreed on the understanding of emotions as innate, biologically determined reactions to certain problems and opportunities. It was believed that their architect is evolution itself, the main function of which is the survival of the species.

Regardless of culture or environment, people are afraid of danger.

Fear is important because it helped the ancestors to escape from danger in time. Or parents: no matter what society they live in, but, looking at the children, most of them will experience a feeling of love.

Photo by Heike Mintel / Unsplash

Researcher Lisa Feldman-Barrett debunks a classic theory in How Emotions Are Born.

Summarizing a huge amount of data, she came to the idea that emotions do not have an innate nature. These reactions are not automatic, but developed in response to one's own experience and previous knowledge.

Researcher denies the universality of human emotions by showing a portrait of tennis player Serena Williams. Some of the observers saw in her face a state of agony, although in reality it was a triumph after a victorious match.

We can easily get confused when interpreting emotional expressions. And this proves their individuality.

Photo by Sydney Sims / Unsplash

From this, Feldman-Barrett comes to define emotion as social knowledge. It's like muffins and muffins - the essence may be the same, but in different families the dish will be called differently.

How emotions affect us

Emotions do not exist separately from us, just as we do not exist with our emotions separately from society.

Therefore, many experiences, including empathy, shame, guilt, friendship, love, gratitude, anger, revenge, gossip, are at the same time mechanisms for cooperation in the group.

Photo by Nik / Unsplash

There is even a view of emotions not as a separate phenomenon, but as a language of communication . So we gradually come to the idea that our emotional state determines the achievements and successes of each individual person.

When we feel bad, it is more difficult to go in for sports, work, plan, even corny on time to take the necessary medicines. And the longer we stay in a state of such decline, the more difficult it is to get out of it.

Emotions also directly influence our decisions. Anger, fear, or sadness compel one action, while gratitude or pride another.

Photo by Intricate Explorer / Unsplash

Research shows that behavioral modification can reduce the risk of many diseases that significantly affect quality of life, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Evidence suggests that emotions can improve the quality of health decisions.

Taking care of one's own emotional state brings results that are tangible on the physical level. Stress, anxiety and other emotions that are commonly described as “bad moods” lead to a deterioration in the functioning of the immune system.

The stress hormone cortisol can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system.

Stress can also have an indirect effect on the immune system , since a person may choose unhealthy behavioral strategies to "improve" their condition: they begin to abuse alcohol or smoke.

Vagus nerve stimulation (nervus vagus) can improve the emotional state. After all, it is he who determines how quickly a person can cope with stressful situations and get out of them.

By the way, the vagus nerve is also responsible for the "butterflies in the stomach" that accompany our love.

Photo by __ drz __ / Unsplash

An increase in the number of positive emotions increases the tone of the vagus nerve. The effect extends to the perception of social connections. That is why in a good mood it is easier for us to achieve results.

How to control emotions

It seems that since negative emotions are so harmful, they should simply be suppressed.

Turns out this is a bad idea. Refusal to express and express your feelings is harmful to both physical and emotional health of a person. And it leads, among other things, to depressions. Therefore, bad emotions are worth living through.

One of the best ways to live emotions, and not drive them into yourself, is to call them by their proper names.

It may take time to learn to distinguish the entire emotional palette. The basic basic feelings can become the roots from which the lush branches of your personal emotional scale will grow.

This acceptance will help you learn to live with any emotions and not suffer when things go wrong.

Photo by Aaron Burden / Unsplash

Psychologists recommend that you write down all your feelings for at least one week, and check them every few hours. This exercise will help you learn to feel and increase your emotional vocabulary.

Genetic testing as a tool to manage emotions

Sometimes monitoring emotions on your own may not be enough.

Due to personal or external circumstances, there may not be enough time or even energy to analyze what is happening and one's own feelings. Especially if they are heavy and by themselves limit your daily activities.

The thing is that our emotions are connected not only with the experience, but also with the level of hormones. Their hesitation can seriously complicate life.

A sign of hormonal imbalance can be anxiety or restlessness, as well as anger or high irritability.

Photo by David Knox / Unsplash

If a person often breaks down into trifles, is ready to vomit and throw because of a spilled drop of coffee or socks scattered on the floor, perhaps a hormonal imbalance “yells” in him.

It's not just about the familiar relationship between adrenal hormones (adrenaline, norepinephrine, cortisol) and stress. Studies by Texas scientists show that the level of adiponectin also affects the characteristics of stress.

Low adiponectin leads to longer survival of the traumatic event. It can be assumed that therefore people with post-traumatic stress disorder can be haunted by unpleasant memories for a long time.

Every case is different, but if your symptoms make life difficult for you, you should first consult a doctor. He will prescribe special tests and give recommendations.

In addition, you can take a genetic test. Genetic testing results can help test an individual's predisposition to certain hormone levels, and personalized dietary and lifestyle recommendations can help you take better care of your health.

According to the results of the Atlas Genetic Test , the user will have access to personalized recommendations on nutrition and physical activity, which will also help maintain physical and then mental health.

Contrived problems?

There is a theory that emotions are a problem in the First World countries. Usually, this ironic expression hides a slightly dismissive attitude towards the problems of people who are unfamiliar with "real" difficulties.

But modern research refutes this view. Both positive and negative emotions have a unique impact on people's self-esteem and health.

Photo by Himanshu Singh Gurjar / Unsplash

The stronger the impact of hunger, domestic problems and security threats, the stronger the link between positive emotions and health.

Emotions are important to health throughout the world, in every climate zone and in every political regime, and understanding them can greatly improve the quality of our own lives.

More useful articles on the Atlas blog:
  • How motivation works
  • Neurogenesis, neurons and new neural connections
  • How to accept your illness