Emotions are complex psychological states which involve three distinct components:
- A subjective experience
- A physiological response
- A behavioural (or expressive) response
In 1972 Paul Eckman suggested that there are six basic emotions that are universal across all humans: fear, disgust, anger, Surprise, happiness, and Sadness.
In 1980s, Robert Plutchik introduced the wheel of emotions which demonstrated how different emotions can be combined or mixed together. He proposed eight primary emotional dimensions: happiness vs Sadness, anger vs fear, trust vs disgust, and Surprise vs anticipation. These emotions can be combined to form others i.e. happiness + anticipation = excitement.
Subjective Experience
Whilst the popular belief is that there are a number of basic universal emotions which are experienced by people all over the world regardless of background or culture. However, the act of experiencing emotion can be highly subjective, for example the experience of anger can vary greatly between individuals despite being a unviersally shared emotion.
We don’t always experience pure form of each emotion, instead we tend to experience a degree of mixed emotions at any given time.
Physiological Response
Emotions can cause physiological effects in the body, such as when you feel your heart palpate from anxiety. Cannon-Bard theory of emotion suggests that we feel emotions and experience physiological reactions at the same time.
The autonomic nervous system and sympathetic nervous system contribute to the physical experiences of emotions.
While early studies of the physiology of emotion tended to focus on these autonomic responses, more recent research has targeted the Brain’s 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.
Behavioural Response
We spend a great deal of time interpreting the emotional expressions of people around us, this is known as Emotional Intelligence, these expressions play a major role in out body language.