Short introduction to psychology of emotions

Important terms: affect, emotion, feeling, mood.

affect = an umbrella term that covers both emotions and moods. Affective states are psycho-physiological constructs = concepts that connect mental and physical processes. In physical processes we can measure levels of activation or arousal of organism (heart rate, skin conductance, pupil dilatation, salivation, blood sugar levels, sexual arousal), but it will not inform us about actual subjective experience of such activation.

emotion = a complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioral, and physiological elements, by which an individual attempts to deal with a personally significant matter or event.  People’s experience of emotion depends on how they evaluate their environment (cognitive appraisal). The cognitive appraisal can be unconscious. Emotions tend to occur either instantaneously or very soon after an event takes place. Emotions tend to be intense but short-lived (seconds to minutes). Very intense emotions positive or negative can cloud our judgement and reasoning. Nonverbal behavior accompanying emotions includes facial expressions, postures, and gestures.

feeling = conscious experience of emotional reaction. In special cases (e.g. trauma, abuse) people can disconnect "dissociate" from their feelings.

mood = emotions have the potential to turn into, change or create moods. Moods are low intensity emotions experienced for longer peridos of time (hours to days). Moods run "in the background" and can have a less specific, immediate or obvious cause/source.

Affect has it´s valence = subjective spectrum of positive-to-negative evaluation of an experience an individual may have had. We can experience simultaneous existence of contradictory feelings, such ambivalence results into uncertainty or indecisiveness about a course of action.

Purpose of emotions is an adaptation to our social and natural environment, thus our emotions communicate information about said environments and our understanding of them.

The basic emotions

The psychologist Paul Ekman and his colleagues have found that people in different cultures can identify the six basic emotions: anger,  disgust, contempt, happiness, sadness, fear, surprise  (https://www.paulekman.com/universal-emotions/). 

Cultural variations

Some differences in emotion experience and display exist among cultures. Some languages have labels for emotions that are not labeled in other languages (lítost, schadenfreude). Same situation brings about different emotion in different culture (disgust at particular foods eg. haram/halal food). Cultures vary in display rules of emotions - those are norms (often gendered) that tell people whether, which, how, and when emotions should be displayed (in patriarchal cultures it is more acceptable for men to display anger). There are also norms that determine how and when to show emotions that are not actually felt. Acting out an emotion that is not felt is called emotion work or emotional labour (trying to manage and produce the right feeling for the job (e.g. flight attendant smiling and acting kindly towards agressive passenger).

Interpersonal communication

Aggression