Basic Emotional States

[spider]

I think this might be an interesting discussion. Are there basic emotions that all other feelings fit into? What are those basic emotions.

I think that fear, happiness, sadness, are basics. What else might be basic emotions?

[seekinghga]

I would say that the basic emotional state is joy/sorrow; all the others consisting solely of these to differing degrees.  For example, anger stems from doubt [edit: ie. doubt gives birth to fear, which is the cause of anger], and doubt depends from sorrow [sorrow, of course, being contralateral to joy on the scale].

     -   ------------------------|--------------------------  +
Sorrow                            0                                 Joy 

[corwin137]

Mad
Sad
Glad
Afraid
Ashamed
and/or Hurt
Feelings, not facts.  Indicators of possible realities.
Mad is always secondary to another, gives energy to heal, set limits, etc.
Sad heals loss.
Hurt heals damage.
Glad is an overall sense of things being OK or "good".
Afraid indicates possible dangers, notes to be cautious.
Ashamed lets us know our boundaries (where we 'stop' mentally/e-motionally/spiritually and physically and where others 'start'), our limits (keeps egos in check, keeps us from feeling 'god'like), also lets us know what our ethical standards are.

My .02.

[SWM]

this is really interesting. through counselling training i became familiar with glad, sad, mad and bad as four primary emotions.
glad = happy,
sad = sad/ unhappy
mad = anger
bad = guilt or shame
however i also believe that fear is another.


kind of agreeing with SeekingHGA and at the same time kind of disagreeing.

i think that the idea that you put forth is a valid but not quite acurate. i am sure that a linear continuum does not provide enough depth for the qualities and flavours of emotion.  maybe if the diagram had a vertical scale also. maybe even length, height and depth. dont know... still trying to conceptualise this in my mind.

i do have concept but it is too difficult to explain. something along the lines of a cube that has its six faces joined by lines throught is center. thus providing a 3 dimensional quality to emotion.


soemthing else that occured to me while pondering. given that we happiness and sorrow are at two ends of one spectrum.  what would be the polar opposite of say fear or anger. what would the opposite of guilt/ shame would that be pride, righteousness.  are those opposites actually even considered emotions.

what about hope, is hope an emotion?

i can see this is going to keep me awake tonight!

[seekinghga]

It has always been my way to pass over the emotions as "unruly children" that we must keep in check at all times.  I agree with you SWM, most implicitly, that my model was oversimplified.  By expanding it to levels of area and volume we are able to more firmly grasp the intrinsic workings of such things.  As long as one wields Occam's razor with duty and precision, he will be on firm ground to base his theories.  And so is it with emotional states.  I tend to think of the emotions as wild horses; for what that's worth.

Cheers.

[ConsciousPuppet]

     We should start by defining what an emotion is:
Where do they come from? I understand that emotions are the reaction or feelings that result from the interpretation of a particular situation/scenario. We either like or dislike what that situation means to us. So first we interpret.
     Second thing we do is thinking on options (what to do).
When we like something we try to recreate  the scenario to live it again. If you don't like something you avoid it or change it.
If you cant do anything you give up. Important to remember that all emotions move in function of a goal, i think its Pleasure/Pain.

     So all emotions could be divided into:
-i like and will try to repeat/ feel good
-i dislike and will avoid or change/ feel bad
-i cant do anything, so whether i like or dislike i feel bad

So this formula guarantees that well only be happy 1/3rd of our lives XD

[SWM]

     We should start by defining what an emotion is:
Where do they come from? I understand that emotions are the reaction or feelings that result from the interpretation of a particular situation/scenario. We either like or dislike what that situation means to us. So first we interpret.
     Second thing we do is thinking on options (what to do).
When we like something we try to recreate  the scenario to live it again. If you don't like something you avoid it or change it.
If you cant do anything you give up. Important to remember that all emotions move in function of a goal, i think its Pleasure/Pain.

     So all emotions could be divided into:
-i like and will try to repeat/ feel good
-i dislike and will avoid or change/ feel bad
-i cant do anything, so whether i like or dislike i feel bad

So this formula guarantees that well only be happy 1/3rd of our lives XD

yes, i think this correct on most parts. obvioulsy this is a simplified conceptualisation.  somethings i'd like to add; the function of emotion rather than pleasure/ pain, i would say the function of emotion is the enhancement of the existence of the individual. and this is achieved through pleasure/ pain sensations.

also this formula would gaurantee we are happy only 1/3 of our lives, only IF we had equal amounts of -like -dislike - cant do anything about it, experiences.

[ConsciousPuppet]

hey SWM. wat does an enhancement of existence of the individual mean. like, how'd u get the concept or idea?

PS: ur no fun, last one was a joke 

[SWM]

hey SWM. wat does an enhancement of existence of the individual mean. like, how'd u get the concept or idea?

PS: ur no fun, last one was a joke 

oops, forget to switch my sense of humour on. *click* there you go thats better.

enhancement of the existence of the individual. did you ever hear of "the actualising tendency" or "self actualization"?

if we think of people (or other organisms) reaching there fullest potential. the potential of an acorn is to become a oak tree, which eventuall create a huindred or more oak trees. so humans also have potentialities such as this.  to become the best they can be and to create the conditions for growth for themselves and others.  there are instances where the process becomes distorted and individuals become destructive to themselves and others, however if we examine this distorted process we can still identify the actualising tendency at work.

[ConsciousPuppet]

Im in my first year of Psychology [tho my third year in college] and its funny that this week I was exposed to Carl Rogers theory [actualizing tendency]. I think organismic value measures wats good or bad for the organism through
feel good/feel bad. I still dont get how can learned valuing replace instinctive valuing of the environment, unless ones instincts trust more the values of our stronger looking peers [in relation to our own strength, parents or siblings].
      ...anyways, carry on with the emotion discussion

[SWM]

Im in my first year of Psychology [tho my third year in college] and its funny that this week I was exposed to Carl Rogers theory [actualizing tendency]. I think organismic value measures wats good or bad for the organism through
feel good/feel bad. I still dont get how can learned valuing replace instinctive valuing of the environment, unless ones instincts trust more the values of our stronger looking peers [in relation to our own strength, parents or siblings].
      ...anyways, carry on with the emotion discussion

yes the organism forms its values based on feel good/ feel bad experiences as you say. the introjected values can become stronger because feel good /feel bad experiences can also come form social pressures. also the organsim may trust the experience of others or more accurately they have been conditioned not to trust their own oganismic valuing.

 
are you familiar with carl rogers' 19 propositions?

[SWM]

may find the following topic useful

http://psychologyforum.us/counselling-and-psychotherapy-forum/carl-rogers-theory-19-propositions/

[oujdaboy]

may find the following topic useful

http://psychologyforum.us/counselling-and-psychotherapy-forum/carl-rogers-theory-19-propositions/

Thank you for the link so interesting

[anaklio]

From a neuroscience perspective, the original post was pretty accurate. There are nicely defined circuits for joy, fear, anger, and curiosity (Panksepp, 1998).