What is Emotion?

Emotion is a strong feeling aroused in human beings for somebody or something. Basically, it is a psychological phenomenon that influences our thought and behaviour. There are different theories regarding emotions, and according to theories, the number of emotions varies. Crow and Crow defined “emotion as a strong feeling with which a person’s mental and physical condition is connected. And that is shown by his outer behavior”.

Different theories of emotions 

According to most of the theories, there are six basic emotions; happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. According to Robert Plutchik, there are 8 basics emotions; anger, fear, sadness, joy, trust, surprise, disgust, and anticipation. If we see Darwin’s theory, there are 34 emotions; joy, love, suffering, weeping, grief, devotion, high spirit, low spirit, tender feeling, anxiety, anger, hatred, dejection, despair, disgust, guilt, disdain, contempt, pride, patience, helplessness, affirmation, surprise, negation, fear, self-attention, modesty, shyness, reflection, blushing, mediation, determination, ill-temper, sulkiness, mediation.

Research on emotions by the University of California

Apart from the above theories, recent research has been conducted by the University of California, Berkeley. In that research, various individuals were studied in different situations. And according to their emotional reactions in that situations, there are total 27 emotions. They are; admiration, amusement, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathetic pain, entrancement, envy, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire, sympathy, triumph.

Types of Emotions

So when we examine all the emotions, we find mainly two types of emotions:

 Positive emotions: Positive emotions give pleasure. It is a good feeling like happiness, love, acceptance, pride, excitement, calmness etc. so positive emotions feel good.

 Negative emotions: Negative emotions are bad feelings and painful like anger, sadness, fear, grief, regret, jealousy, hatred etc. so negative emotions feel bad.

Characteristics of emotion

1. Emotion is a complex condition because during this condition there are many physical and emotional changes take place.
2. During emotion, many reactions take place in the internal part of the body like there are reactions in the heart, lungs and glands. There is a change in blood flow, blood pressure and respiration (heartbeat).
3. During emotion, the energy level of our body is increased.
4. During emotion, there are also some changes in the movement outer body parts like in hands, legs, eyes, face etc. For example, a person is in a fit of anger, his face looks red, and through his eyes and body language, we can say he is in anger. So in this way, through the outer body part, a person can express his emotion.
5. In every emotion, there is a feeling. That feeling may be happy or sad. Without feeling, there cannot be any emotion. We experience some external and internal changes in our body during exercise, like redness on the face, an increase in heartbeats, etc. But this condition can’t be called emotion because there is no feeling there.
6. Emotion is diffused because during emotion, not only one part of the body but the whole body feels a kind of strain.
7. Emotion is a continuous process when, once it arises, it persists in a person even after excitement.
8. For emotion, we need a special stimulus.
9. Sometimes emotion pushes a person towards a special goal.
10.  The intensity of emotion is not always the same; sometimes, it is very high, sometimes, it is very low.
11. Sometimes emotion provides security because, in the presence of emotion, a person can protect himself due to an increase in energy level.

Components of emotions

Basically, there are 4 components of emotions.

1. Feeling: Every emotion gives a kind f feeling, whether it is a happy or sad feeling.
2. Emotional expression: During emotion, not only in the internal body but, there is a change in the external body part that helps in the expression of feeling.
3. Physical changes: during emotion, there are external and internal changes in our body like low and high BP, redness in the face, an increase of heart beat, changes in brain waves, changes in the nervous system etc.
4. Interpretation of emotional expression and physical changes by others: Other persons named this emotional expression the negative and positive expression and behavior.

Let’s discuss the words from dictionary that describes the emotions (positive or negative).

Positive emotions

The positive emotions are listed as follows:

Acceptance
Admiration
Adoration
Affection
Alarmed
Amazement
Ambivalence
Amusement
Apathy
Apprehension
Assertive
Astonished
Attentiveness
Attraction
Brooding
Brazen
Bliss
Calm
Caring
Charity
Cheeky
Cheerfulness
Comfortable
Confident
Content
Contempt
Courage
Curiosity
Dazed
Delighted
Desire
Determined
Eagerness
Empathy
Enchanted
Enjoyment
Enlightened
Ennui
Euphoria
Excitement
Expectancy
Fascination
Focused
Fondness
Friendliness
Glee
Gloomy
Glumness
Gratitude
Happiness
Help
Hope
Hospitable
Humility
Interest
Intrigued
Joviality
Joy
Jubilation
Kind
Liking
Love
Longing
Melancholy
Mixed up
Modesty
Mortified
Mystified
Optimistic
Overwhelmed
Passion
Patience
Preserving
Pleased
Pleasure
Politeness
Positive
Pride
Relaxed
Relieved
Reluctant
Remorse
Resentment
Satisfaction
Self-caring
Self-compassionate
Self-confident
Self-conscious
Self-critical
Self-loathing
Self-motivated
Self- respecting
Self-understanding
Sentimentality
Serenity
Strong
Sympathy
Tenderness
Thankfulness
Thrilled
Tolerance
Triumphant
Trust
Vigilance
Worthy

Negative emotions

The negative emotions are listed as follows:

Afraid
Agitation
Agony
Aggressive
Alienation
Anger
Anguish
Annoyed
Anxious
Arrogant
Awe
Aversion
Baffled
Bewildered
Bitter
Bored
Carefree
Careless
Claustrophobic
Coercive
Confusion
Cowardly
Cruelty
Cynicism
Dejection
Demoralized
Depressed
Despair
Disappointment
Disbelief
Discombobulated
Discomfort
Discontentment
Disgruntled
Disgust
Disheartened
Dislike
Dismay
Disoriented
Dispirited
Displeasure
Distraction
Distress
Disturbed
Dominant
Doubt
Dread
Driven
Dumbstruck
Ecstasy
Elation
Embarrassment
Enchanted
Envy
Epiphany
Exasperated
Fear
Flakey
Fright
Frustrated
Fury
Greed
Grief
Grouchiness
Grumpiness
Guilt
Hatred
Helpless
Homesickness
Hopeless
Horrified
Humiliation
Hurt
Hysteria
Idleness
Impatient
Indifference
Indignant
Infatuation
Infuriated
Insecurity
Insightful
Insulted
Irritated
Jealousy
Lazy
Loathing
Lonely
Loopy
Lust
Mad
Miserable
Miserliness
Moody
Nasty
Negative
Nauseated
Neglect
Nervous
Nostalgic
Numb
Obstinate
Offended
Outrage
Panicked
Paranoid
Pensiveness
Perplexed
Pessimism
Pity
Possessive
Powerless
Puzzled
Rage
Rash
Rattled
Regret
Rejected
Resignation
Restlessness
Revulsion
Ruthless
Sadness
Scared
Schadenfreude
Scorn
Self-pity
Shame
Shameless
Shocked
Smug
Sorrow
Spite
Stressed
Strong
Stubborn
Stuck
Submissive
Suffering
Sullenness
Surprise
Suspense
Suspicious
Tension
Terror
Tired
Torment
Troubled
Uncertainty
Undermined
Uneasiness
Unhappy
Unnerved
Unsettled
Unsure
Upset
Vengeful
Vicious
Vulnerable
Weak
Woe
Worried Wrath