Emotions and Types of Emotional Responses

Emotions and Types of Emotional Responses Emotions Print Emotions and Types of Emotional Responses The 3 Key Elements That Make Up Emotion By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Reviewed by Reviewed by Amy Morin, LCSW on July 01, 2019 facebook twitter instagram Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, author of the bestselling book 13 Things Mentally Strong People Dont Do, and a highly sought-after speaker. Learn about our Wellness Board Amy Morin, LCSW Updated on July 17, 2019 More in Psychology Emotions Psychotherapy Basics Student Resources History and Biographies Theories Phobias Sleep and Dreaming In This Article Table of Contents Expand Defining Emotions Subjective Experience Physiological Response Behavioral Response Emotions vs. Moods View All Back To Top Emotions seem to rule our daily lives. We make decisions based on whether we are happy, angry, sad, bored, or frustrated. We choose activities and hobbies based on the emotions they incite. Defining Emotions According to the book Discovering Psychology by  Don Hockenbury  and  Sandra E. Hockenbury, an emotion is a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response.?? In addition to trying to define what emotions are, researchers have also tried to identify and classify the different types of emotions. The descriptions and insights have changed over time: In 1972, psychologist Paul Eckman suggested that there are six basic emotions that are universal throughout human cultures: fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, and sadness.??In 1999, he expanded this list to include a number of other basic emotions, including embarrassment, excitement, contempt, shame, pride, satisfaction, and amusement.??In the 1980s, Robert Plutchik introduced another emotion classification system known as the wheel of emotions. This model demonstrated how different emotions can be combined or mixed together, much the way an artist mixes primary colors to create other colors.?? Plutchik proposed 8 primary emotional dimensions: happiness vs. sadness, anger vs. fear, trust vs. disgust, and surprise vs. anticipation. These emotions can then be combined to create others (such as happiness anticipation excitement). In order to better understand what emotions are, lets focus on their three key elements, known as the subjective experience, the physiological response, and the behavioral response. Verywell / Emily Roberts The Subjective Experience While experts believe that there are a number of basic universal emotions that are experienced by people all over the world regardless of background or culture, researchers also believe that experiencing emotion can be highly subjective.?? While we have broad labels for emotions such as angry, sad, or happy, your own experience of these emotions may be much more multi-dimensional, hence subjective. Consider anger, for example. Is all anger the same? Your own experience might range from mild annoyance to blinding rage. Plus, we dont always experience pure forms of each emotion. Mixed emotions over different events or situations in our lives are common. When faced with starting a new job, you might feel both excited and nervous. Getting married or having a child might be marked by a wide variety  of emotions ranging from joy to anxiety. These emotions might occur simultaneously, or you might feel them one after another. The Physiological Response If youve ever felt your stomach lurch from anxiety or your heart palpate with fear, then you realize that emotions also cause strong physiological reactions. (Or, as in the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion,  we feel emotions and experience physiological reactions simultaneously.) Many of the physiological responses you experience during an emotion, such as sweaty palms or a racing heartbeat, are regulated by the sympathetic nervous system, a branch of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary body responses, such as blood flow and digestion. The sympathetic nervous system is charged with controlling the bodys fight-or-flight reactions. When facing a threat, these responses automatically prepare your body to flee from danger or face the threat head-on. While early studies of the physiology of emotion tended to focus on these autonomic responses, more recent research has targeted the brains role in emotions. Brain scans have shown that the amygdala, part of the limbic system, plays an important role in emotion and fear in particular.?? The amygdala itself is a tiny, almond-shaped structure that has been linked to motivational states such as hunger and thirst as well as memory and emotion. Researchers have used brain imaging to show that when people are shown threatening images, the amygdala becomes activated. Damage to the amygdala has also been shown to impair the fear response.?? The Behavioral Response The final component is perhaps one that you are most familiar withâ€"the actual expression of emotion. We spend a significant amount of time interpreting the emotional expressions of the people around us. Our ability to accurately understand these expressions is tied to what psychologists call emotional intelligence, and these expressions play a major part in our overall body language. Research suggests that many expressions are universal, such as a smile to indicate happiness or a frown to indicate sadness. Sociocultural norms also play a role in how we express and interpret emotions. In Japan, for example, people tend to mask displays of fear or disgust when an authority figure is present. Similarly, Western cultures like the United States are more likely to express negative emotions both alone and in the presence of others, while eastern cultures like Japan are more likely to do so while alone.?? Are Our Emotional Expressions Universal? Emotions vs. Moods In everyday language, people often use the terms emotions and moods interchangeably, but psychologists actually make distinctions between the two. How do they differ? An emotion is normally quite short-lived, but intense. Emotions are also likely to have a definite and identifiable cause. For example, after disagreeing with a friend over politics, you might feel angry for a short period of time. A mood, on the other hand, is usually much milder than an emotion, but longer-lasting.?? In many cases, it can be difficult to identify the specific cause of a mood. For example, you might find yourself feeling gloomy for several days without any clear,  identifiable  reason. The 6 Major Theories of Emotion