Topic 4: Basic emotions
Dr. Paul Ekman, an American psychologist, has identified 6 basic emotions and how to recognize them:
- Happiness has many definitions, one of which is “the joy we experience from striving towards our potential”. Happiness as an emotion is associated with the states of contentment, satisfaction, pleasure or joy. Happiness is one of the most popular emotions, and it has been studied throughout different philosophical, religious, and biological approaches. All of these studies try to define the source of happiness. The main physical expression of happiness is the smile.
- Disgust is an emotion associated with things that are unclean, inedible, infectious, or offending. It is related to something revolting (causing the desire to vomit) in terms of taste, smell or touch. The facial expression of disgust is raised upper lip, wrinkled nose, raise cheeks and eyebrows pulled down. Disgust is one of the emotions that decreases the heart rate.
- Anger is a strong feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism. It can be experienced within the range of irritation to rage. Physically when we are angry, we experience increased heart rate, higher blood pressure a surge of adrenaline and noradrenaline. It is often associated with the fight or flight response to threat. Anger is characterized by lowered eyebrows, pressed lips, eyelids pulled up.
- Fear: we experience fear when we encounter threatening or dangerous stimuli. It occurs in response to threatening presence, such as a pain or threat of pain. When we are afraid, we try to escape or avoid the situation. When experiencing fear, we raise our brows, open our mouth slightly, and our eyes go wide open as well as our nostrils. Our heart beats fast and we may experience cold sweat.
- Surprise is the emotion that is experienced for the shortest time. It appears when we encounter an unexpected event. Unlike the other emotions it is not always negative or always positive. It may be neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant. The way we express surprise is similar to the way we express fear: raised eye brows (but not drawn together); upper eyelids raised; lower eyelids neutral; jaw dropped down.
- Sadness results from a loss of something or someone important. Sadness can be from mild to strong starting from disappointment and going through grief, sorrow, melancholy… It is the longest lasting of emotions. It is characterized by lowered the corners of the mouth, raised inner part of the brows, upper eyelids dropped and eyes looking down.
- Admiration – a feeling of respect and approval
- Adoration – to regard with loving admiration and devotion
- Aesthetic Appreciation – appreciation and admiration of beauty
- Amusement – pleasantly entertained or diverted (as by something funny)
- Anxiety – apprehensive uneasiness or nervousness usually over an impending or anticipated ill: a state of being anxious
- Awe – an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime
- Awkwardness – feeling of lacking ease or grace (as of movement or expression) or lacking social grace and assurance and causing embarrassment
- Boredom – the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest
- Calmness – a state of tranquillity
- Confusion – being perplexed or disconcerted
- Craving – an intense, urgent, or abnormal desire or longing
- Disgust (already described above)
- Empathetic pain – deep sense of distress and sadness, evoked by observing someone else’s pain
- Entrancement – a state of being into a trance
- Envy – painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage
- Excitement – heightened state of energy, enthusiasm, eagerness
- Fear – (already described above)
- Horror – painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay
- Interest – a feeling that accompanies or causes special attention to something or someone
- Joy – the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires, the experience great pleasure or delight
- Nostalgia – a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition
- Romance – an emotional attraction or aura belonging to an especially heroic era, adventure, or activity
- Sadness – (already described above)
- Satisfaction – the feeling experienced when one’s wishes are met
- Sexual desire – a desire for sexual intimacy (there is a debate in psychology if it is an emotion or a biological urge like hunger)
- Sympathy – the capacity to feel sorrow for another’s suffering or misfortune
- Triumph – a feeling of great satisfaction and pride resulting from a success or victory
- It is important to help young people develop their emotional vocabulary and also the skills to recognize their own feelings. Tools for this can be found in the Skills development section.