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Articles
Law of Attraction 1 Feeling 5 Emotion 6 Emotion classification 17 Sociology of emotions 20 Happiness 23 Philosophy of happiness 28 Cosmic ordering 35 Optimism 36 Intuition (knowledge) 39References
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Law of Attraction
New Thought
Beliefs DivinityOmnipresent God ·
Ultimate Spirit · Divine Humanity · Higher consciousness ·
Beliefs Universal law
Law of Attraction · Power of choice · Metaphysics · Life force
Actions
Affirmations · Affirmative prayer · Creative visualization · Healing · Huna · Personal magnetism · Positive thinking
The Law of Attraction is a metaphysical New Thought belief that "like attracts like", that positive and negative thinking bring about positive and negative physical results, respectively.[1] [2] [3] [4] According to the Law of Attraction, the phrase "I need more money" allows the subject to continue to "need more money". If the subject wants to change this they would focus their thoughts on the goal (having more money) rather than the problem (needing more money). This might take the form of phrases such as "I have as much money as I need" or "I have a job that pays very well".
Interpretation
Skeptical Inquirer magazine criticized the lack of falsifiability and testability of these claims.[5] Critics have asserted that the evidence provided is usually anecdotal and that, because of the self-selecting nature of the positive reports, as well as the subjective nature of any results, these reports are susceptible to confirmation bias and selection bias.[6] Physicist Ali Alousi, for instance, criticized it as unmeasurable and questioned the likelihood that thoughts can affect anything outside the head.[1]
The Law of Attraction has been popularized in recent years by books and films such as The Secret. This film and the subsequent book use interviews with New Thought authors and speakers to explain the principles of an alleged metaphysical law that can attract anything that one thinks about consistently. Writing for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Mary Carmichael and Ben Radford wrote that "neither the film nor the book has any basis in scientific reality", and that its premise contains "an ugly flipside: if you have an accident or disease, it's your fault." They asked, "If an airplane crashes, does that mean that one or more of the passengers brought that on himself? Do soldiers killed in Iraq simply not think enough positive thoughts?"[5]
As physical hypothesis
Others have questioned the references to modern scientific theory, and have maintained, for example, that the Law of Attraction misrepresents the electrical activity of brainwaves.[7] Victor Stenger and Leon Lederman are critical of attempts to use quantum physics to bridge any unexplained or seemingly implausible effects, believing these to be traits of modern pseudoscience.[8] [9] [10] Writing in the New York Times, Virginia Heffernan characterised The
In health science
The principles of the law of attraction have also been interpreted in the realm of medicine and illness. The law of attraction has some parallels with the placebo effect. In 1990, Bernie Siegel published a book, Love, Medicine and
Miracles, which asserted that the threat of disease was related to a person's imagination, will, and belief.[6] Siegel primarily advocated "love" as the source of healing and longevity stating that "if you want to be immortal, love someone."[11] [12] Siegel's description has been rejected by some from within the medical community.[13]
Personal responsibility
Robert Sapolsky, a professor and neuroendocrinologist, devoted a chapter in his book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, to Siegel. Sapolsky refers to Siegel's general idea as "benign gibberish" but is particularly critical of what he sees as blaming patients for their illness, based only on anecdotal evidence.[14] Sapolsky sums up his primary criticism as follows:
Where the problems become appallingly serious is when Siegel concentrates on the main point of his book. No matter how often he puts in the disclaimers saying that he's not trying to make people feel guilty, the book's premise is that (a) cancer can be caused by psychosocial factors in the person; (b) cancer (or any other disease, as far as I can tell) is curable if the patient has sufficient courage, love and spirit; (c) if the patient is not cured, it is because of the insufficient amounts of those admirable traits. As we have just seen, this is not how cancer works, and a physician simply should not go about telling seriously ill people otherwise.[14]
History
The New Thought Movement, 1904–1910
Thomas Troward, who was a strong influence in the New Thought Movement, claimed that thought precedes physical form and that "the action of Mind plants that nucleus which, if allowed to grow undisturbed, will eventually attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its manifestation in outward visible form."[15]
In 1906, William Walker Atkinson (1862–1932) used the phrase in his New Thought Movement book Thought
Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World, stating that "like attracts like."[16] The following year, Elizabeth Towne, the editor of The Nautilus Magazine, a Journal of New Thought, published Bruce MacLelland's prosperity theology book Prosperity Through Thought Force, in which he summarized the principle, stating: "You are what you think, not what you think you are." [17]
The book "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles espouses similar principles—that truly believing in the object of your desire and focusing onto it will lead to that object or goal being realized on the material plane (Wattles indicates in the Preface and later chapters of this book that his premise stems from the monistic Hindu view that God pervades everything and can deliver that which we focus on). In addition, the book also indicates that negative thinking will manifest negative results.[18]
Richard Weiss explains in his book The American Myth of Success that during the New Thought movement, the "principle of "non-resistance" was a popular concept taught in conjunction with the Law of Attraction.[19]
The "law of attraction" in Theosophy, 1915–1919
The phrase "Law of Attraction" appeared in the writings of the Theosophical authors William Quan Judge in 1915,[20] and Annie Besant in 1919.[21]
The Law of Success in 16 Lessons
Before the release of Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill released The Law of Success in 16 Lessons (1928) which directly references the Law of Attraction, by name, repeatedly.
"Think and Grow Rich", 1937
In 1937, author Napoleon Hill published his book Think and Grow Rich which went on to become one of the best selling books of all time, selling over 60 million copies. In this book, he discusses the importance of controlling your own thoughts in order to achieve success, as well as the energy that thoughts have and their ability to attract other thoughts. In the beginning of the book, Napoleon Hill mentions a "secret" to success, and promises to indirectly describe it at least once in every chapter of the book. It is never named directly for he says that discovering it on one's own is far more beneficial. Many people have argued over what the secret actually is, with some arguing that it was the Law of Attraction. Hill states the "secret" to which he refers is mentioned no fewer than a hundred times, yet reference to "attract" is used less than 30 times in the text. Most students of the book claim the secret is hidden in its title: THINK (i.e., thoughts)
Mid-1900s–2000
By the mid 1900s, various authors addressed the topic and related ideas under a range of religious and secular terms, such as "positive thinking", "mental science", "pragmatic Christianity", "New Thought", "practical metaphysics", "Science of Mind" / "Religious Science", and "Divine Science".[1] [22] Among the mid 20th century authors who used the term were Florence Scovel Shinn (1925), Sri K. Parvathi Kumar (1942),[23] Alice Bailey (1942),[24] [25] [26] and Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (1968).[27] Author Louise Hay in 1976 released a pamphlet in which she links various diseases and disorders to certain thoughts and states of minds. This list was included in her 1984 best-seller book You Can Heal Your Life, in which she promotes positive thinking as a healing method.[28] Other proponents of the Law of Attraction included Wallace Wattles, Ernest Holmes, Charles Fillmore, Robert Collier, Helen Wilmans, Charles Brodie Patterson, and Helena Blavatsky, who all published books in the early 1900s.
21st century
The Law of Attraction was brought to hundreds of thousands of people for the first time by Rhonda Byrne through the film The Secret(2006) which is based on the "Law of Attraction" and includes many Experts in the Field of Personal Excellence such as Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield, John Grey and Marci Schimoff as well as quantum physicists John Hagelin and Fred Alan Wolf.
'The Secret' was then developed into a book of the same title in 2007. The movie and book gained widespread attention in the media also from Saturday Night Live to The Oprah Winfrey Show in the United States.[1] The same year Esther and Jerry Hicks (who provided much of the original source material for The Secret)[29] released the bestseller, The Law of Attraction.
The Law of Attraction's modern interpretation, as presented in The Secret, is that physical reality is a reflection of inner (subjective) reality, summarized in the quote from The Secret, "your thoughts and your feelings create your life." Author and business man Kevin Trudeau produced an audio compact disk program called "Your Wish Is Your Command" which deals with the same subject of thoughts manifesting reality.
The success of the film and various books led to increased media coverage, both positive and negative. Oprah Winfrey devoted two episodes of her show to discuss the film and the law of attraction.[3] [4] Talk show host Larry
King also discussed it on his show with Bob Solis but criticized it for several reasons. He pointed to the sufferings in the world and asked: "If the Universe manifests abundance at a mere thought, why is there so much poverty, starvation, and death?" A common response to this question from those who subscribe to the Law of Attraction's philosophy is that one's unconscious thoughts (which are more difficult to control) are attracting as well as one's conscious thoughts.
In August 2008, Esther and Jerry Hicks's book Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth
& Happiness appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.[30]
Notes
[1] Whittaker, S. Secret attraction (http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=78fc94dd-c0b2-4ade-891d-98770bfae388& k=70777), The Montreal Gazette, May 12, 2007.
[2] Redden, Guy, Magic Happens: A New Age Metaphysical Mystery Tour, Journal of Australian Studies: 101
[3] "The Law of Attraction: Real-Life Stories - Oprah.com" (http://www.oprah.com/spirit/The-Law-of-Attraction-Real-Life-Stories_1).
oprah.com. . Retrieved November 8, 2010.
[4] "Go Beyond 'The Secret' - Oprah.com" (http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Go-Beyond-The-Secret_1). oprah.com. . Retrieved November 8, 2010.
[5] http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/secrets.html
[6] Kaptchuk, T., & Eisenberg, D. (1998). "The Persuasive Appeal of Alternative Medicine". Annals of Internal Medicine 129 (12): 1061. PMID 9867762.
[7] Scientific American; Jun2007, Vol. 296 Issue 6, p39-39: and the same article online Scientific American Magazine, June 2007; article entitled "The (Other) Secret" page 1 http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-other-secret
[8] Cosmic Mind pages 8 through 19 http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Quantum/01CosmicMind.pdf
[9] The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question - pages 189 to 198 by Leon Lederman with Dick Teresi (copyright 1993) Houghton Mifflin Company
[10] Non-science posing as science; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/#NonSciPosSci [11] Woo, L. (1989, May 5). Doctor's prescription: Love yourself Caring can cure when science can't, Siegel tells 1,300. The Orange County
Register.
[12] Siegel, B. S. (1990). Love, Medicine and Miracles: Lessons Learned about Self-Healing from a Surgeon's Experience with Exceptional Patients. Harper Paperbacks.
[13] Surviving terminal illness with big dose of optimism Surgeon prescribes peace of mind. (1991, June 18).The Atlanta Journal, E1.
[14] Sapolsky, R. M. (1998). Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, 2nd Edition: An Updated Guide To Stress, Stress Related Diseases, and Coping (2nd ed., p. 178-179). W. H. Freeman.
[15] Judge Thomas Troward, “The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science,” 1904.
[16] William Walker Atkinson. Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction. Advanced Thought Publishing. 1906. (http://gitacademy.tripod. com/GodsInTraining/ThoughtVibration.htm) Out of Copyright version
[17] MacLelland, Bruce, Prosperity Through Thought Force, Elizabeth Towne, 1907 [18] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Getting_Rich
[19] The American Myth of Success. Illini Books. 1969. p. 169.
[20] Judge, William Quan (1915). The Ocean of Theosophy. United Lodge of Theosophists. p. 103. ISBN 076610544X. [21] Popular Lectures on Theosophy. Theosophical Publishing House. 1919. p. 79. ISBN 0524034753.
[22] Griffiths, L. ‘Law of attraction’ has long history in inspirational writing (http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/88221) East Valley Tribune, April 21st 2007.
[23] Kumar, Sri K. Parvathi (1942). Occult Meditations. Dhanishta. p. 230. ISBN 8189467042. [24] Bailey, Alice A. (1942). Letters on Occult Meditation. Lucis Trust. pp. 53, p265. ISBN 0853301115. [25] Bailey, Alice A. (1942). Esoteric Psychology II. Lucis Trust. pp. 111–113. ISBN 0853301190.
[26] Bailey, Alice A. (1973). A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Lucis Trust. pp. 1166–1229. ISBN 0853301174. "Section Two - Division F - The Law of Attraction"
[27] Aïvanhov, Omraam Mikhaël (1968). Cosmic Moral Law. Prosveta. p. 384. ISBN 2-85566-445-4.
[28] Mark Oppenheimer (2008), The New York Times, The Queen of the New Age (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/magazine/ 04Hay-t.html?_r=1), article retrieved January 26, 2008,
[29] Jerry & Esther's Statement on The Secret (http://www.meetup.com/Washington-Abraham-Hicks/boards/view/ viewthread?thread=2283719)
[30] NY Times Bestseller information August 31, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/books/bestseller/bestpaperadvice. html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bu&oref=slogin)
Further reading
• The Secret (November 28, 2006) Rhonda Byrne, Beyond Words Publishing, ISBN 978-1582701707
Feeling
Feeling is the nominalization of "to feel".
The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch through either experience or perception. The word is also used to describe experiences, other than the physical sensation of touch, such as "a feeling of warmth".[1] In psychology, the word is usually reserved for the conscious subjective experience of emotion.[2] Phenomenology and heterophenomenology are philosophical approaches that provide some basis for knowledge of feelings. Many schools of psychotherapy depend on the therapist achieving some kind of understanding of the client's feelings, for which methodologies exist. Some theories of interpersonal relationships also have a role for shared feelings or understanding of another person's feelings.
Sensitive, sculpture by Miquel Blay (1910)
Perception of the physical world does not necessarily result in a universal reaction among receivers (see emotions), but varies depending on one's tendency to handle the situation, how the situation relates to the receiver's past experiences, and any number of other factors. Feelings are also known as a state of consciousness, such as that resulting from emotions, sentiments or desires.
Gut feeling
A gut feeling, or gut reaction, is a visceral emotional reaction to something, and often one of uneasiness. Gut feelings are generally regarded as not modulated by conscious thought, and as a reflection of intuition rather than rationality.
The phrase "gut feeling" may also be used as a short-hand term for an individual's "common sense"
perception of what is considered "the right thing to do"; such as: helping an injured passerby, avoiding dark alleys and generally acting in accordance with instinctive feelings about a given situation. It can also refer to simple common knowledge phrases which are true no matter when said, such as "Water is wet", "Fire is hot", or to ideas that an individual intuitively regards as true, without proof (see "Truthiness" for examples).
Footnotes
[1] feeling - Dictionary definition and pronunciation - Yahoo! Education (http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/feeling) [2] VandenBos, Gary (2006) APA Dictionary of Psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
External links
• A Dictionary of Feelings (http://www.feelingdictionary.com)
Emotion
Emotions Affection Anger Angst Annoyance Anxiety Apathy Awe Contempt Curiosity Boredom Depression Desire Despair Disappointment Disgust Ecstasy Embarrassment Empathy Envy Euphoria Fear Frustration Gratitude Grief Guilt Happiness Hatred Hope Horror HostilityHysteria Indifference Interest Jealousy Loathing Loneliness Love Lust Misery Pity Pride Rage Regret Remorse Sadness Satisfied Shame Shock Shyness Sorrow Suffering Surprise Wonder Worry
Emotion is the complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with
biochemical (internal) and environmental (external) influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience."[1] Emotion is associated with mood, temperament, personality and disposition, and motivation. Motivations direct and energize behavior, while emotions provide the affective component to motivation, positive or negative.[2]
No definitive taxonomy of emotions exists, though numerous taxonomies have been proposed. Some categorizations include:
• "Cognitive" versus "non-cognitive" emotions
• Instinctual emotions (from the amygdala), versus cognitive emotions (from the prefrontal cortex).
• Categorization based on duration: Some emotions occur over a period of seconds (for example, surprise), whereas others can last years (for example, love).
A related distinction is between the emotion and the results of the emotion, principally behaviors and emotional expressions. People often behave in certain ways as a direct result of their emotional state, such as crying, fighting or fleeing. If one can have the emotion without the corresponding behavior, then we may consider the behavior not to be essential to the emotion.
The James–Lange theory posits that emotional experience is largely due to the experience of bodily changes. The "functionalist" approach to emotions (for example, Nico Frijda and Freitas-Magalhaes) holds that emotions have evolved for a particular function, such as to keep the subject safe.
Etymology
The English word emotion is derived from the French word émouvoir. This is based on the Latin emovere, where e-(variant of ex-) means "out" and movere means "move."[3] The related term "motivation" is also derived from the word movere.
Classification
Examples of basic emotions. There are basic and complex categories, where some basic emotions
can be modified in some way to form complex emotions (for example, Paul Ekman). In one model, the complex emotions could arise from cultural conditioning or association combined with the basic emotions. Alternatively, analogous to the way primary colors combine, primary
emotions could blend to form the full spectrum of human emotional
experience. For example interpersonal anger and disgust could blend to form contempt.
Robert Plutchik proposed a three-dimensional "circumplex model" which describes the relations among emotions. This model is similar to a color wheel. The vertical dimension represents intensity, and the circle represents degrees of similarity among the emotions. He posited eight primary emotion dimensions arranged as four pairs of opposites. Some have also argued for the existence of meta-emotions which are emotions about emotions.
Another important means of distinguishing emotions concerns their occurrence in time. Some emotions occur over a period of seconds (for example, surprise), whereas others can last years (for example, love). The latter could be regarded as a long term tendency to have an emotion regarding a certain object rather than an emotion proper (though this is disputed). A distinction is then made between emotion episodes and emotional dispositions. Dispositions are also comparable to character traits, where someone may be said to be generally disposed to experience certain emotions, though about different objects. For example an irritable person is generally disposed to feel irritation more easily or quickly than others do. Finally, some theorists (for example, Klaus Scherer, 2005) place emotions within a more general category of "affective states" where affective states can also include emotion-related phenomena such as pleasure and pain, motivational states (for example, hunger or curiosity), moods, dispositions and traits.
The neural correlates of hate have been investigated with an fMRI procedure. In this experiment, people had their brains scanned while viewing pictures of people they hated. The results showed increased activity in the medial frontal gyrus, right putamen, bilaterally in the premotor cortex, in the frontal pole, and bilaterally in the medial insula of the human brain. The researchers concluded that there is a distinct pattern of brain activity that occurs when people are experiencing hatred (Zeki and Romaya, 2008).
Theories
Theories about emotions stretch back at least as far as the stoics of ancient Greece, as well as Plato and Aristotle. We also see sophisticated theories in the works of philosophers such as René Descartes,[4] Baruch Spinoza[5] and David Hume. Later theories of emotions tend to be informed by advances in empirical research. Often theories are not mutually exclusive and many researchers incorporate multiple perspectives (theories) in their work.
Somatic theories
Somatic theories of emotion claim that bodily responses rather than judgements are essential to emotions. The first modern version of such theories comes from William James in the 1880s. The theory lost favor in the 20th century, but has regained popularity more recently due largely to theorists such as John Cacioppo, António Damásio, Joseph E. LeDoux and Robert Zajonc who are able to appeal to neurological evidence.
James–Lange theory
William James, in the article "What is an Emotion?",[6] argued that emotional experience is largely due to the experience of bodily changes. The Danish psychologist Carl Lange also proposed a similar theory at around the same time, so this position is known as the James–Lange theory. This theory and its derivatives state that a changed situation leads to a changed bodily state. As James says "the perception of bodily changes as they occur is the emotion." James further claims that "we feel sad because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and neither we cry, strike, nor tremble because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be."[6] This theory is supported by experiments in which by manipulating the bodily state, a desired emotion is induced.[7] Such experiments also have therapeutic implications (for example, in laughter therapy, dance therapy). Some people may believe that emotions give rise to emotion-specific actions: e.g. "I'm crying because I'm sad," or "I ran away because I was scared." The James–Lange theory, conversely, asserts that first we react to a situation (running away and crying happen before the emotion), and then we interpret our actions into an emotional response. In this way, emotions serve to explain and organize our own actions to us.
The James–Lange theory has now been all but abandoned by most scholars.[8] Tim Dalgleish (2004)[9] states the following:
The James–Lange theory has remained influential. Its main contribution is the emphasis it places on the embodiment of emotions, especially the argument that changes in the bodily concomitants of emotions can alter their experienced intensity. Most contemporary neuroscientists would endorse a modified James–Lange view in which bodily feedback modulates the experience of emotion." (p. 583)
The issue with the James–Lange theory is that of causation (bodily states causing emotions and being a priori), not that of the bodily influences on emotional experience (which can be argued is still quite prevalent today in biofeedback studies and embodiment theory).
Neurobiological theories
Based on discoveries made through neural mapping of the limbic system, the neurobiological explanation of human emotion is that emotion is a pleasant or unpleasant mental state organized in the limbic system of the mammalian brain. If distinguished from reactive responses of reptiles, emotions would then be mammalian elaborations of general vertebrate arousal patterns, in which neurochemicals (for example, dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin) step-up or step-down the brain's activity level, as visible in body movements, gestures, and postures.
For example, the emotion of love is proposed to be the expression of paleocircuits of the mammalian brain (specifically, modules of the cingulate gyrus) which facilitate the care, feeding, and grooming of offspring. Paleocircuits are neural platforms for bodily expression configured before the advent of cortical circuits for speech. They consist of pre-configured pathways or networks of nerve cells in the forebrain, brain stem and spinal cord.
The motor centers of reptiles react to sensory cues of vision, sound, touch, chemical, gravity, and motion with pre-set body movements and programmed postures. With the arrival of night-active mammals, smell replaced vision as the dominant sense, and a different way of responding arose from the olfactory sense, which is proposed to have developed into mammalian emotion and emotional memory. The mammalian brain invested heavily in olfaction to succeed at night as reptiles slept—one explanation for why olfactory lobes in mammalian brains are proportionally larger than in the reptiles. These odor pathways gradually formed the neural blueprint for what was later to become our limbic brain.
Emotions are thought to be related to certain activities in brain areas that direct our attention, motivate our behavior, and determine the significance of what is going on around us. Pioneering work by Broca (1878), Papez (1937), and MacLean (1952) suggested that emotion is related to a group of structures in the center of the brain called the limbic system, which includes the hypothalamus, cingulate cortex, hippocampi, and other structures. More recent research has shown that some of these limbic structures are not as directly related to emotion as others are, while some non-limbic structures have been found to be of greater emotional relevance.
Prefrontal cortex
There is ample evidence that the left prefrontal cortex is activated by stimuli that cause positive approach.[10] If attractive stimuli can selectively activate a region of the brain, then logically the converse should hold, that selective activation of that region of the brain should cause a stimulus to be judged more positively. This was demonstrated for moderately attractive visual stimuli[11] and replicated and extended to include negative stimuli.[12]
Two neurobiological models of emotion in the prefrontal cortex made opposing predictions. The Valence Model predicted that anger, a negative emotion, would activate the right prefrontal cortex. The Direction Model predicted that anger, an approach emotion, would activate the left prefrontal cortex. The second model was supported.[13] This still left open the question of whether the opposite of approach in the prefrontal cortex is better described as moving away (Direction Model), as unmoving but with strength and resistance (Movement Model), or as unmoving with passive yielding (Action Tendency Model). Support for the Action Tendency Model (passivity related to right prefrontal activity) comes from research on shyness[14] and research on behavioral inhibition.[15] Research that tested the competing hypotheses generated by all four models also supported the Action Tendency Model.[16] [17]
Homeostatic/primordial emotion
Another neurological approach distinguishes two classes of emotion. "Classical" emotions including love, anger and fear, are evoked by appraisal of scenarios fed by environmental stimuli via distance receptors in the eyes, nose and ears.[18] "Homeostatic"[19] or "primordial"[20] emotions are feelings such as pain, hunger, thirst and fatigue, evoked by internal body states, communicated to the central nervous system by interoceptors, which motivate behavior aimed at maintaining the internal milieu at its ideal state.[21] These demanding sensations that capture conscious attention are coordinated from the lower or basal regions of the brain and impact diverse regions of the brain, including the frontal lobes.[20]
Cognitive theories
Several theories argue that cognitive activity—in the form of judgments, evaluations, or thoughts—is necessary for an emotion to occur. This, argued by Richard Lazarus, is necessary to capture the fact that emotions are about something or have intentionality. Such cognitive activity may be conscious or unconscious and may or may not take the form of conceptual processing.
An influential theory here is that of Lazarus: emotion is a disturbance that occurs in the following order: 1.) Cognitive appraisal—The individual assesses the event cognitively, which cues the emotion. 2.) Physiological changes—The cognitive reaction starts biological changes such as increased heart rate or pituitary adrenal response. 3.) Action—The individual feels the emotion and chooses how to react. For example: Jenny sees a snake. 1.) Jenny cognitively assesses the snake in her presence, which triggers fear. 2.) Her heart begins to race faster. Adrenaline pumps through her blood stream. 3.) Jenny screams and runs away. Lazarus stressed that the quality and intensity of emotions are controlled through cognitive processes. These processes underlie coping strategies that form the emotional reaction by altering the relationship between the person and the environment.
George Mandler provided an extensive theoretical and empirical discussion of emotion as influenced by cognition, consciousness, and the autonomic nervous system in two books (Mind and Emotion, 1975, and Mind and Body: Psychology of Emotion and Stress, 1984)
There are some theories on emotions arguing that cognitive activity in the form of judgements, evaluations, or thoughts is necessary in order for an emotion to occur. A prominent philosophical exponent is Robert C. Solomon (for example, The Passions, Emotions and the Meaning of Life, 1993). The theory proposed by Nico Frijda where appraisal leads to action tendencies is another example.
It has also been suggested that emotions (affect heuristics, feelings and gut-feeling reactions) are often used as shortcuts to process information and influence behavior.[22] The affect infusion model (AIM) is a theoretical model developed by Joseph Forgas in the early 1990s that attempts to explain how emotion and mood interact with one's ability to process information.
Perceptual theory
A recent hybrid of the somatic and cognitive theories of emotion is the perceptual theory. This theory is neo-Jamesian in arguing that bodily responses are central to emotions, yet it emphasizes the meaningfulness of emotions or the idea that emotions are about something, as is recognized by cognitive theories. The novel claim of this theory is that conceptually-based cognition is unnecessary for such meaning. Rather the bodily changes themselves perceive the meaningful content of the emotion because of being causally triggered by certain situations. In this respect, emotions are held to be analogous to faculties such as vision or touch, which provide information about the relation between the subject and the world in various ways. A sophisticated defense of this view is found in philosopher Jesse Prinz's book Gut Reactions and psychologist James Laird's book Feelings.
Affective events theory
This a communication-based theory developed by Howard M. Weiss and Russell Cropanzano (1996), that looks at the causes, structures, and consequences of emotional experience (especially in work contexts). This theory suggests that emotions are influenced and caused by events which in turn influence attitudes and behaviors. This theoretical frame also emphasizes time in that human beings experience what they call emotion episodes—a "series of emotional states extended over time and organized around an underlying theme." This theory has been utilized by numerous researchers to better understand emotion from a communicative lens, and was reviewed further by Howard M. Weiss and Daniel J. Beal in their article, "Reflections on Affective Events Theory" published in Research on
Cannon–Bard theory
In the Cannon–Bard theory, Walter Bradford Cannon argued against the dominance of the James–Lange theory regarding the physiological aspects of emotions in the second edition of Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and
Rage. Where James argued that emotional behavior often precedes or defines the emotion, Cannon and Bard argued
that the emotion arises first and then stimulates typical behavior.
Two-factor theory
Another cognitive theory is the Singer–Schachter theory. This is based on experiments purportedly showing that subjects can have different emotional reactions despite being placed into the same physiological state with an injection of adrenaline. Subjects were observed to express either anger or amusement depending on whether another person in the situation displayed that emotion. Hence, the combination of the appraisal of the situation (cognitive) and the participants' reception of adrenaline or a placebo together determined the response. This experiment has been criticized in Jesse Prinz's (2004) Gut Reactions.
Component process model
A recent version of the cognitive theory regards emotions more broadly as the synchronization of many different bodily and cognitive components. Emotions are identified with the overall process whereby low-level cognitive appraisals, in particular the processing of relevance, trigger bodily reactions, behaviors, feelings, and actions.
Disciplinary approaches
Many different disciplines have produced work on the emotions. Human sciences study the role of emotions in mental processes, disorders, and neural mechanisms. In psychiatry, emotions are examined as part of the discipline's study and treatment of mental disorders in humans. Nursing studies emotions as part of its approach to the provision of holistic health care to humans. Psychology examines emotions from a scientific perspective by treating them as mental processes and behavior and they explore the underlying physiological and neurological processes. In neuroscience sub-fields such as social neuroscience and affective neuroscience, scientists study the neural mechanisms of emotion by combining neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood. In linguistics, the expression of emotion may change to the meaning of sounds. In education, the role of emotions in relation to learning are examined.
Social sciences often examine emotion for the role that it plays in human culture and social interactions. In sociology, emotions are examined for the role they play in human society, social patterns and interactions, and culture. In anthropology, the study of humanity, scholars use ethnography to undertake contextual analyses and cross-cultural comparisons of a range of human activities; some anthropology studies examine the role of emotions in human activities. In the field of communication sciences, critical organizational scholars have examined the role of emotions in organizations, from the perspectives of managers, employees, and even customers. A focus on emotions in organizations can be credited to Arlie Russell Hochschild's concept of emotional labor. The University of Queensland hosts EmoNet,[23] an e-mail distribution list representing a network of academics that facilitates scholarly discussion of all matters relating to the study of emotion in organizational settings. The list was established in January 1997 and has over 700 members from across the globe.
In economics, the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, emotions are analyzed in some sub-fields of microeconomics, in order to assess the role of emotions on purchase decision-making and risk perception. In criminology, a social science approach to the study of crime, scholars often draw on behavioral sciences, sociology, and psychology; emotions are examined in criminology issues such as anomie theory and studies of "toughness," aggressive behavior, and hooliganism. In law, which underpins civil obedience, politics, economics and society, evidence about people's emotions is often raised in tort law claims for compensation and in criminal law prosecutions against alleged lawbreakers (as evidence of the defendant's state of
mind during trials, sentencing, and parole hearings). In political science, emotions are examined in a number of sub-fields, such as the analysis of voter decision-making.
In philosophy, emotions are studied in sub-fields such as ethics, the philosophy of art (for example, sensory–emotional values, and matters of taste and sentimentality), and the philosophy of music (see also Music and emotion). In history, scholars examine documents and other sources to interpret and analyze past activities; speculation on the emotional state of the authors of historical documents is one of the tools of interpretation. In literature and film-making, the expression of emotion is the cornerstone of genres such as drama, melodrama, and romance. In communication studies, scholars study the role that emotion plays in the dissemination of ideas and messages. Emotion is also studied in non-human animals in ethology, a branch of zoology which focuses on the scientific study of animal behavior. Ethology is a combination of laboratory and field science, with strong ties to ecology and evolution. Ethologists often study one type of behavior (for example, aggression) in a number of unrelated animals.
Evolutionary psychology
Illustration from Charles Darwin's The Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals.
Perspectives on emotions from evolutionary theory were initiated in the late 19th century with Charles Darwin's book
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.[24] Darwin's original thesis was that emotions evolved via natural selection and therefore have cross-culturally universal counterparts. Furthermore, animals undergo emotions comparable to our own (see emotion in animals). In the early 1970s, Paul Ekman and colleagues began a line of research that suggests that many emotions are universal.[2] He found evidence that humans share at least five basic emotions: fear, sadness, happiness, anger, and disgust.[2] Other research in this area focuses on physical displays of emotion including body language of animals and humans (see affect display). The increased potential in neuroimaging has also allowed investigation into evolutionarily ancient parts of the brain. Important neurological advances were derived from these perspectives in the 1990s by, for example, Joseph E. LeDoux and António Damásio.
Social emotions evidently evolved to motivate social
behaviors that were adaptive in the ancestral environment.[2] For example, spite seems to work against the individual but it can establish an individual's reputation as someone to be feared.[2] Shame and pride can motivate behaviors that help one maintain one's standing in a community, and self-esteem is one's estimate of one's status.[2] [25]
Sociology
We try to regulate our emotions to fit in with the norms of the situation, based on many—sometimes conflicting—demands upon us which originate from various entities studied by sociology on a micro level—such as social roles and "feeling rules" the everyday social interactions and situations are shaped by—and, on a macro level, by social institutions, discourses, ideologies, etc. For example, (post-)modern marriage is, on one hand, based on the emotion of love and on the other hand the very emotion is to be worked on and regulated by it. The sociology of emotions also focuses on general attitude changes in a population. Emotional appeals are commonly found in advertising, health campaigns and political messages. Recent examples include no-smoking health campaigns and political campaign advertising emphasizing the fear of terrorism.
Psychotherapy
Depending on the particular school's general emphasis either on cognitive components of emotion, physical energy discharging, or on symbolic movement and facial expression components of emotion,[26] different schools of psychotherapy approach human emotions differently. Cognitively oriented schools approach them via their cognitive components, such as rational emotive behavior therapy. Yet others approach emotions via symbolic movement and facial expression components (like in contemporary Gestalt therapy).[27]
Computer science
In the 2000s, research in computer science, engineering, psychology and neuroscience has been aimed at developing devices that recognize human affect display and model emotions.[28] In computer science, affective computing is a branch of the study and development of artificial intelligence that deals with the design of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, and process human emotions. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer sciences, psychology, and cognitive science.[29] While the origins of the field may be traced as far back as to early philosophical enquiries into emotion,[6] the more modern branch of computer science originated with Rosalind Picard's 1995 paper[30] on affective computing.[31] [32] Detecting emotional information begins with passive sensors which capture data about the user's physical state or behavior without interpreting the input. The data gathered is analogous to the cues humans use to perceive emotions in others. Another area within affective computing is the design of computational devices proposed to exhibit either innate emotional capabilities or that are capable of convincingly simulating emotions. Emotional speech processing recognizes the user's emotional state by analyzing speech patterns. The detection and processing of facial expression or body gestures is achieved through detectors and sensors.
Notable theorists
In the late 19th century, the most influential theorists were William James (1842–1910) and Carl Lange (1834–1900). James was an American psychologist and philosopher who wrote about educational psychology, psychology of religious experience/mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism. Lange was a Danish physician and psychologist. Working independently, they developed the James–Lange theory, a hypothesis on the origin and nature of emotions. The theory states that within human beings, as a response to experiences in the world, the autonomic nervous system creates physiological events such as muscular tension, a rise in heart rate, perspiration, and dryness of the mouth. Emotions, then, are feelings which come about as a result of these physiological changes, rather than being their cause.
Some of the most influential theorists on emotion from the 20th century have died in the last decade. They include Magda B. Arnold (1903–2002), an American psychologist who developed the appraisal theory of emotions; Richard Lazarus (1922–2002), an American psychologist who specialized in emotion and stress, especially in relation to cognition; Herbert Simon (1916–2001), who included emotions into decision making and artificial intelligence; Robert Plutchik (1928–2006), an American psychologist who developed a psychoevolutionary theory of emotion; Robert Zajonc (1923–2008) a Polish–American social psychologist who specialized in social and cognitive processes such as social facilitation. In addition, an American philosopher, Robert C. Solomon (1942–2007), contributed to the theories on the philosophy of emotions with books such as What Is An Emotion?: Classic and
Contemporary Readings (Oxford, 2003).
Influential theorists who are still active include psychologists, neurologists, and philosophers including:
• Lisa Feldman Barrett – Social philosopher and psychologist specializing in affective science and human emotion. • John Cacioppo – from the University of Chicago, founding father with Gary Berntson of social neuroscience. • António Damásio (born 1944) – Portuguese behavioral neurologist and neuroscientist who works in the US • Richard Davidson (born 1951) – American psychologist and neuroscientist; pioneer in affective neuroscience. • Paul Ekman (born 1934) – Psychologist specializing in study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions
• Barbara Fredrickson – Social psychologist who specializes in emotions and positive psychology.
• Nico Frijda (born 1927) – Dutch psychologist who specializes in human emotions, especially facial expressions • Peter Goldie – British philosopher who specializes in ethics, aesthetics, emotion, mood and character
• Arlie Russell Hochschild (born 1940) – American sociologist whose central contribution was in forging a link between the subcutaneous flow of emotion in social life and the larger trends set loose by modern capitalism within organizations.
• Joseph E. LeDoux (born 1949) – American neuroscientist who studies the biological underpinnings of memory and emotion, especially the mechanisms of fear
• George Mandler (born 1924) - American psychologist who wrote influential books on cognition and emotion • Jaak Panksepp (born 1943) – Estonian-born American psychologist, psychobiologist and neuroscientist; pioneer
in affective neuroscience.
• Jesse Prinz – American philosopher who specializes in emotion, moral psychology, aesthetics and consciousness • Klaus Scherer (born 1943) – Swiss psychologist and director of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences in
Geneva; he specializes in the psychology of emotion
• Ronald de Sousa (born 1940) – English–Canadian philosopher who specializes in the philosophy of emotions, philosophy of mind and philosophy of biology.
References
Notes
[1] Myers, David G. (2004) "Theories of Emotion." Psychology: Seventh Edition, New York, NY: Worth Publishers, p. 500.
[2] Gaulin, Steven J. C. and Donald H. McBurney. Evolutionary Psychology. Prentice Hall. 2003. ISBN 13: 9780131115293, Chapter 6, p 121-142.
[3] Emotional Competency discussion of emotion (http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/emotion.htm) [4] See Philip Fisher (1999) Wonder, The Rainbow and the Aesthetics of Rare Experiences for an introduction [5] See for instance Antonio Damasio (2005) Looking for Spinoza.
[6] James, William. 1884. "What Is an Emotion?" (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/emotion.htm) Mind. 9, no. 34: 188-205. [7] Laird, James, Feelings: the Perception of Self, Oxford University Press
[8] jstor.com (http://www.jstor.org/stable/185033), Cornelius L. Golightly, The James–Lange Theory: A Logical Post-Mortem. [9] Dalgleish, T. (2004). The emotional brain. Nature: Perspectives, 5, 582–89.
[10] Kringelbach, M.L.; O'Doherty, J.O.; Rolls, E.T.; & Andrews, C. (2003). Activation of the human orbitofrontal cortex to a liquid food stimulus is correlated with its subjective pleasantness. Cerebral Cortex, 13, 1064–1071.
[11] Drake, R.A. (1987). Effects of gaze manipulation on aesthetic judgments: Hemisphere priming of affect. Acta Psychologica, 65, 91–99. [12] Merckelbach, H.; & van Oppen, P. (1989). Effects of gaze manipulation on subjective evaluation of neutral and phobia-relevant stimuli: A
comment on Drake's (1987) 'Effects of gaze manipulation on aesthetic judgments: Hemisphere priming of affect.' Acta Psychologica, 70, 147–151.
[13] Harmon-Jones, E.; Vaughn-Scott, K.; Mohr, S.; Sigelman, J.; & Harmon-Jones, C. (2004). The effect of manipulated sympathy and anger on left and right frontal cortical activity. Emotion, 4, 95–101.
[14] Schmidt, L.A. (1999). Frontal brain electrical activity in shyness and sociability. Psychological Science, 10, 316–320.
[15] Garavan, H.; Ross, T.J.; & Stein, E.A. (1999). Right hemispheric dominance of inhibitory control: An event-related functional MRI study.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96, 8301–8306.
[16] Drake, R.A.; & Myers, L.R. (2006). Visual attention, emotion, and action tendency: Feeling active or passive. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 608–622.
[17] Wacker, J.; Chavanon, M.-L.; Leue, A.; & Stemmler, G. (2008). Is running away right? The behavioral activation–behavioral inhibition model of anterior asymmetry. Emotion, 8, 232–249.
[18] Derek A. Denton (8 June 2006). The primordial emotions: the dawning of consciousness. Oxford University Press. p. 10. ISBN 9780199203147.
[19] Craig (http://www.cba.arizona.edu/People/Faculty/Craig-A.htm), A.D. (Bud) (2003). "Interoception: The sense of the physiological condition of the body" (http://www.jsmf.org/meetings/2007/oct-nov/CONB Craig 2003.pdf). Current Opinion in Neurobiology 13 (4): 500–505. doi:10.1016/S0959-4388(03)00090-4. PMID 12965300. .
[20] Derek A. Denton (8 June 2006). The primordial emotions: the dawning of consciousness. Oxford University Press. p. 7. ISBN 9780199203147.
[21] Craig (http://www.cba.arizona.edu/People/Faculty/Craig-A.htm), A.D. (Bud) (2008). "Interoception and emotion: A neuroanatomical perspective" (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=DFK1QwlrOUAC&pg=PA272). In Lewis, M.; Haviland-Jones, J.M.; Feldman
Barrett, L.. Handbook of Emotion (3 ed.). New York: The Guildford Press. pp. 272–288. ISBN 978-1-59385-650-2. . Retrieved 6 September 2009.
[22] see the Heuristic–Systematic Model, or HSM, (Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989) under attitude change. Also see the index entry for "Emotion" in "Beyond Rationality: The Search for Wisdom in a Troubled Time" by Kenneth R. Hammond and in "Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
[23] EmoNet (http://www.uq.edu.au/emonet/)
[24] Darwin, Charles (1872). The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals. Note: This book was originally published in 1872, but has been reprinted many times thereafter by different publishers
[25] Wright, Robert. Moral animal.
[26] Freitas-Magalhães, A., & Castro, E. (2009). Facial Expression: The effect of the smile in the Treatment of Depression. Empirical Study with Portuguese Subjects. In A. Freitas-Magalhães (Ed.), Emotional Expression: The Brain and The Face (pp. 127–140). Porto: University Fernando Pessoa Press. ISBN 978-989-643-034-4
[27] On Emotion – an article from Manchester Gestalt Centre website (http://www.123webpages.co.uk/user/index.php?user=mgc& pn=10713)
[28] Fellous, Armony & LeDoux, 2002
[29] Tao, Jianhua; Tieniu Tan (2005). "LNCS". Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction. 3784. Springer. pp. 981–995. doi:10.1007/11573548.
[30] "Affective Computing" (http://affect.media.mit.edu/pdfs/95.picard.pdf) MIT Technical Report #321 ( Abstract (http://vismod.media. mit.edu/pub/tech-reports/TR-321-ABSTRACT.html)), 1995
[31] Kleine-Cosack, Christian (October 2006). "Recognition and Simulation of Emotions" (http://web.archive.org/web/20080528135730/ http://ls12-www.cs.tu-dortmund.de/~fink/lectures/SS06/human-robot-interaction/Emotion-RecognitionAndSimulation.pdf) (PDF). Archived from the original (http://ls12-www.cs.tu-dortmund.de//~fink/lectures/SS06/human-robot-interaction/
Emotion-RecognitionAndSimulation.pdf) on May 28, 2008. . Retrieved May 13, 2008. "The introduction of emotion to computer science was done by Pickard (sic) who created the field of affective computing."
[32] Diamond, David (December 2003). "The Love Machine; Building computers that care." (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/ love.html). Wired. . Retrieved May 13, 2008. "Rosalind Picard, a genial MIT professor, is the field's godmother; her 1997 book, Affective Computing, triggered an explosion of interest in the emotional side of computers and their users."
Further reading
• Dana Sugu & Amita Chaterjee "Flashback: Reshuffling Emotions" (https://sites.google.com/site/sugudana/ articles-1), International Journal on Humanistic Ideology, Vol. 3 No. 1, Spring–Summer 2010.
• Cornelius, R. (1996). The science of emotion. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Freitas-Magalhães, A. (Ed.). (2009). Emotional Expression: The Brain and The Face. Porto: University Fernando Pessoa Press. ISBN 978-989-643-034-4.
• Freitas-Magalhães, A. (2007). The Psychology of Emotions: The Allure of Human Face. Oporto: University Fernando Pessoa Press.
• Ekman, P. (1999). " Basic Emotions (http://www.paulekman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/
Basic-Emotions.pdf)". In: T. Dalgleish and M. Power (Eds.). Handbook of Cognition and Emotion. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Sussex, UK:.
• Frijda, N.H. (1986). The Emotions. Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and Cambridge University Press. (http:// www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521316006)
• Hochschild, A.R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feelings. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• LeDoux, J.E. (1986). The neurobiology of emotion. Chap. 15 in J.E. LeDoux & W. Hirst (Eds.) Mind and Brain:
dialogues in cognitive neuroscience. New York: Cambridge.
• Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman (Eds.),
Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1. Theories of emotion (pp. 3–33). New York: Academic.
• Ridley-Duff, R.J. (2010). Emotion, Seduction and Intimacy: Alternative Perspectives on Human Behaviour (Third Edition), Seattle: Libertary Editions. http://www.libertary.com/book/emotion-seduction-intimacy
• Scherer, K. (2005). What are emotions and how can they be measured? (http://www.affective-sciences.org/ system/files/2005_Scherer_SSI.pdf) Social Science Information Vol. 44, No. 4: 695–729.
• Zeki, S. & Romaya, J.P. (2008), "Neural correlates of hate", PloS one, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 3556. • Wikibook Cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/
Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscience/Motivation_and_Emotion)
• Hogan, Patrick Colm, What Literature Teaches Us about Emotion (http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/ What-literature-teaches-us-about-emotion.php) (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
External links
• Online Demo: Emotion recognition from speech, University of Patras, Wire Communication Lab (http://www. wcl.ece.upatras.gr/ai/resources/demo-emotion-recognition-from-speech)
• Facial Emotion Expression Lab (http://feelab.ufp.pt/index.swf)
• CNX.ORG: The Psychology of Emotions, Feelings and Thoughts (free online book) (http://www.cnx.org/ content/m14358/latest)
• Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions (http://www.qmul.ac.uk/emotions/)
• Humaine Emotion-Research.net: The Humaine Portal: Research on Emotions and Human-Machine Interaction (http://emotion-research.net/)
• PhilosophyofMind.net: Philosophy of Emotions portal (http://www.philosophyofmind.net) • Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (http://www.affective-sciences.org/)
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Theories of Emotion (http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/emotion.htm) • The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Emotion (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotion/)
• University of Arizona: Salk Institute: (http://emotion.nsma.arizona.edu/emotion.html)
Emotion classification
The means by which we distinguish one emotion from another is a hotly contested issue in emotion research and affective science. This page summarises some of the major theories.
Basic and Complex Emotions
Many theorists define some emotions as basic where others are complex. Basic emotions are claimed to be biologically fixed, innate and as a result universal to all humans and many animals as well. Complex emotions are then either refined versions of basic emotions, culturally specific or idiosyncratic. A major issue is to define which emotions are basic and which are complex.
One of the problems here is that there is no consensus on the method by which basic emotions can be determined. Theorists can point to universals in facial expression (e.g. Ekman), distinctive physiological symptoms (e.g. the blush of embarrassment), or labels common to different languages. Moreover there should be some plausible developmental story concerning how the various non-basic emotions can be grounded in the basic ones.
• The Li Chi: Joy, anger, sadness, fear, love, disliking and liking (1st Century BC Chinese encyclopedia, cited in Russell 1991: 426).
• The Stoics: Pleasure/delight, distress, appetite and fear (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, iv: 13-15). • René Descartes: Wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness (Passions, 353).
• Baruch Spinoza: Pleasure, pain and desire (Ethics, pt. III, prop. 59).
• Thomas Hobbes: Appetite, desire, love, aversion, hate, joy and grief (Leviathan, pt. I, ch. 6). • Paul Ekman (1972): Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.
• Paul Ekman (1999): Amusement, anger, contempt, contentment, disgust, embarrassment, excitement, fear, guilt, happiness, pride in achievement, relief, sadness/distress, satisfaction, sensory pleasure, shame, and surprise.
• Jesse Prinz (2004): Frustration, panic, anxiety, physical disgust, separation distress, aversive self-consciousness, satisfaction, stimulation and attachment.[1]
Social v Non-social Distinction
Emotions can also be classified according to those that can occur when the individual is alone and not thinking about others, and those that seem more essentially socially directed. Examples of proposed social emotions include jealousy, love, hatred, guilt and gratitude. A current work by Rechter, Levontin and Kluger from the Hebrew University is done classifying and grouping social emotions, while relating and distinguishing them from non-social, or general, emotions.
Dimensional Models of Emotion
For both theoretical and practical reasons some researchers define emotions according to one or more dimensions. A popular version of this is Russell's (1979) dimensional, or circumplex model, which uses the models of arousal and
valence. Other dimensions have more recently been suggested, for example 'potency' or power.
Plutchik's Model
Robert Plutchik offers a three-dimensional model that is a hybrid of both basic-complex categories and dimensional theories. It arranges emotions in concentric circles where inner circles are more basic and outer circles more complex. Notably outer circles are also formed by blending the inner circle emotions.[2]
Culturally specific emotions
One of the barriers to establishing a taxonomy of the emotions is that different cultures do not always recognise the same emotions in their languages. In some cases, the expressive behaviours, judgements or appropriate reactions associated with an emotion term are different. Moreover, a number of cultures have terms for emotions that have no direct equivalent in the English language. The following is a list of emotion terms that are deemed culturally specific in this sense:
• Acedia (Europe Middle Ages and Renaissance): Spiritual torpor or aversion to religious imagery, suggested as arising from boredom induced by repetitive nature of worship, (Harre 1986 cited in Prinz 2004: 148).
• Amae (Japan): Feeling of dependency akin to what infants feel towards their mothers. Important for bonding individuals to each other and cherished institutions. (Prinz 2004: 131).
• Awumbuk (Baining of Papua New Guinea): Sadness, tiredness or boredom caused by the departure of visitors, friends or relatives, (Russell 1991: 432).
• Fago (Ifaluk): A combination of love, compassion and sadness, (Lutz 1988, cited in Prinz 2004: 147). • Gezellig (the Netherlands): Similar meaning to English word 'cozy', but occurring in the presence of other
people, (Harre, 1986, Doi, 1973 cited in Prinz 2004: 131). Very similar the German word Gemütlich.
• Ijirashii (Japan): Arising when seeing someone praiseworthy overcome an obstacle, (Matsumoto 1994 cited in Prinz 2004: 140).
• Ker (Ifaluk): Pleasant surprise, (cited in Goldie 2000: 91).
• Liget (Ilongot people): Aroused by situations of grief but closely related to anger, can inspire headhunting expeditions, (Rosaldo 1980 cited in Prinz 147).
• Malu (Dusun Baguk, Malaysia): Overlapping of shame and embarrassment, can be elicited by being in the presence of a person of higher rank, (Fessler 1999 cited in Prinz 2004: 156)
• Nginyiwarrarringu (Pintupi Aborigines of the Western Australian Desert): A sudden fear that leads one to stand up to see what caused it, (Russell 1991: 431)
• Schadenfreude (Germany): Feeling of joy triggered by perception of someone suffering.
• Song (Ifaluk people, Micronesia): Close to anger, or admonition, with moralistic overtones and no disposition to revenge. (Lutz 1988 cited in Prinz 2004: 147).
• Sram (Russia): Shame specifically focused on sexual indecency, originating in religious discourse—also used as a noun denoting pudenda, or to prefix a location name in which sexual activity occurs (such as a red light district) • Vergüenza Ajena / Pena Ajena: Also known as 'Spanish Shame'—sense of shame on behalf of another person,
even though that person may not experience shame themselves—for example, cringing when watching a very bad comic—generally more intense when the other is well known to you, though possible even when you dislike the other person—similar to the Dutch term plaatsvervangende schaamte and the German term Fremdschämen— 'external shame' or 'vicarious embarrassment', being vicariously embarrassed by someone else. The humor enacted by video clips of very bad auditions for televised talent shows leverage the vicarious pain of this emotion. Prinz 2004 also cites patriotism as an emotion specific to Western cultures.
Culturally specific phobias or emotion syndromes
• Koro (Assam and South Chinese): An intense anxiety that penis, breasts or vulva may retract into the body, (Yap 1965, cited in Prinz 2004: 136).
• Latah (Malaysia): Affecting middle aged women, an exaggerated startle reflex, outbursts of profanity and disposition to repeat whatever they hear. Cf. Mali-Mali in Philippines, yuan in Burma, ikota in Siberia, jumping
mania in French Canadians of Main (Simons 1996, cited in Prinz 2004: 136).
• Pa-leng (China): A morbid fear of the cold even in hot weather, associated with a yin-yang imbalance (too little yang), (Kleinman 1980, cited in Prinz 2004: 136).
• Pibloktoq (Greenland Intuits): A fear causing sufferers to scream, tear off their clothing, break things, eat feces before collapsing into seizures, followed by deep sleep and loss of memory of the incident, (Yap 1974 cited in Prinz 2004: 135). Cf. amok in Malaysia and phii bod in Thailand. (Simons and Hughes 1993 cited in Prinz 2004: 136).
• Wild pig syndrome (Gururumba, New Guinea): Said to be caused when bitten by the ghosts of their ancestors, this syndrome affects young men entering maturity who begin running wild, stealing and shooting arrows for a few days. Cure involves being held over a smoking fire (Averill 1980, Griffiths 1997, Newman 1965, cited in Prinz 2004: 136).
• Witiko/Windigo (Algonquian Indians): A fear that one has been transformed into a cannibalistic monster, (Trimble, Monson, Dinges & Medicine 1984, cited in Prinz 2004: 135).
Prinz, 2004, also cites anorexia nervosa as a culture specific syndrome found in Western cultures. See also this list of phobias, some of which may be culturally specific.
Bibliography
• Ekman, P. (1972). Universals and Cultural Differences in Facial Expression of Emotion. In J. Cole ed. Nebraska
Symposium on Motivation. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press: 207-283.
• Ekman, P. (1992). "An argument for basic emotions". Cognition and Emotion 6: 169–200. doi:10.1080/02699939208411068.
• Ekman, P. (1999). Basic Emotions. In T. Dalgleish and T. Power (Eds.) The Handbook of Cognition and Emotion Pp. 45–60. Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Fontaine, J. et al.; Scherer, KR; Roesch, EB; Ellsworth, PC (2007). "The world of emotions is not two-dimensional". Psychological Science 18 (12): 1050–1057. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.02024.x. PMID 18031411.
• Freitas-Magalhães, A. (2009). Emotional expression: The brain and the face. Porto: University Fernando Pessoa Press.
• Prinz, J. (2004). Gut Reactions: A Perceptual theory of Emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dana Sugu & Amita Chaterjee ‘Flashback: Reshuffling Emotions’, International Journal on Humanistic Ideology, Vol. 3 No. 1, Spring-Summer 2010 [3]
• Russell, J.A. (1979). "Affective space is bipolar". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37: 345–356. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.3.345.
• Russell, JA (1991). "Culture and the categorization of emotions.". Psychological bulletin 110 (3): 426–50. PMID 1758918.
Notes and references
[1] Jesse Prinz Gut Reactions: A Perceptual Theory of Emotion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): page 157.
[2] Plutchik, R. "The Nature of Emotions" (http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20010716082847/http://americanscientist.org/articles/ 01articles/Plutchik.html). American Scientist. . Retrieved 14 April 2011.
[3] https://sites.google.com/site/sugudana/articles-1
Sociology of emotions
The sociology of emotion applies sociological theorems and techniques to the study of human emotions. As sociology emerged primarily as a reaction to the negative affects of modernity, many normative theories deal in some sense with 'emotion' without forming a part of any specific subdiscipline: Marx described capitalism as detrimental to personal 'species-being', Simmel wrote of the deindividualizing tendencies of 'the metropolis', and Weber's work dealt with the rationalizing effect of modernity in general.
Theory
Emotions are on one hand constitutive of, embedded in, and on the other hand manipulated or instrumentalized by entities that are studied by sociology on a micro level, such as social roles and norms and 'feeling rules' the everyday social interactions and situations are shaped by, and, on a macro level, by social institutions, discourses, ideologies etc. For example, (post-)modern marriage is, on one hand, based on the emotion of love and on the other hand the very emotion is to be worked on and regulated by it. Likewise, modern science could not exist without the emotion of curiosity but it does narrow it leading sometimes to over-specialization of science. Many forms of cultural stratification could not exist without disgust and contempt, and there are politics that could not exist without fear, as many civil and ethnic wars could not take place without hate.
We try to regulate our feelings to fit in with the norms of the situation, based on many sometimes conflicting -demands upon us. Systematic observations of group interaction found that a substantial portion of group activity is devoted to the socio-emotional issues of expressing affect and dealing with tension.[1] Simultaneously, field studies of social attraction in groups revealed that feelings of individuals about each other collate into social networks,[2] a discovery that still is being explored in the field of social network analysis.
Ethnomethodology revealed emotional commitments to everyday norms through purposeful breaching of the norms. For example, students acting as boarders in their own homes reported others' astonishment, bewilderment, shock, anxiety, embarrassment, and anger; family members accused the students of being mean, inconsiderate, selfish, nasty, or impolite. Actors who breach a norm themselves feel waves of emotion, including apprehension, panic, and despair.[3] However, habitual rule breaking leads to declining stress, and may eventually end in enjoyment.
T. David Kemper[4] proposed that people in social interaction have positions on two relational dimensions: status and power. Emotions emerge as interpersonal events change or maintain individuals' status and power. For example, affirming someone else's exalted status produces love-related emotions. Increases or decreases in one's own and other's status or power generate specific emotions whose quality depends on the patterns of change.