Emotions and Types of Emotional Responses

Emotions are reactions that human beings experience in response to events or situations. The type of emotion a person experiences is determined by the circumstance that triggers the emotion. For instance, a person experiences joy when they receive good news and fear when they are threatened.

Emotions have a strong influence on our daily lives. We make decisions based on whether we are happy, angry, sad, bored, or frustrated. We also choose activities and hobbies based on the emotions they incite. Understanding emotions can help us navigate life with greater ease and stability.

"Being aware of our internal emotional state and being more mindful and present with how our mind and body respond to situations enables us to manage stress better," says Annie Miller, MSW, LCSW-C, LICSW. "We can then have improved emotional regulation, as well as emotional resilience and lower levels of anxiety."

What Are Emotions?

In "Discovering Psychology," authors Don Hockenbury and Sandra E. Hockenbury suggest that emotions are complex psychological states that involve three distinct components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response.

In addition to trying to define what emotions are, researchers have also tried to identify and classify the different types of emotions. The descriptions and insights have changed over time.

• In 1972, psychologist Paul Ekman suggested that there are six basic emotions that are universal throughout human cultures: fear, disgust, anger, surprise, joy, and sadness.
• In the 1980s, Robert Plutchik introduced another emotion classification system known as the wheel of emotions. This model demonstrated how different emotions can be combined or mixed together, much like the way an artist mixes primary colors to create other colors.
• In 1999, Ekman expanded his list to include a number of other basic emotions, including embarrassment, excitement, contempt, shame, pride, satisfaction, and amusement.

Key Elements of Emotions

To better understand what emotions are, let's focus on their three key elements, known as the subjective experience, the physiological response, and the behavioral response.

Subjective Experience

While experts believe that there are a number of basic universal emotions experienced by people all over the world, regardless of background or culture, researchers also believe that experiencing emotion can be highly subjective.

Consider anger. Is all anger the same? Not necessarily. Your own experience might range from mild annoyance to blinding rage. Additionally, you may experience anger differently than someone else.

We also don't always experience pure forms of each emotion. Mixed emotions over different events or situations in our lives are common.

When faced with starting a new job, for example, you might feel both excited and nervous. Getting married or having a child might be marked by a wide variety of emotions ranging from joy to anxiety. These emotions might occur simultaneously or you might feel them one after another.

Physiological Response

If you've ever felt your stomach lurch from anxiety or your heart palpate with fear, you've already experienced the strong physiological reactions that can occur with emotions. Many of these physiological responses are regulated by the sympathetic nervous system, a branch of the autonomic nervous system.

The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary body responses, such as blood flow and digestion. The sympathetic nervous system is charged with controlling the body's fight-or-flight reactions.

While early studies of the physiology of emotion tended to focus on 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.

The amygdala is a tiny, almond-shaped structure that has been linked to motivational states such as hunger and thirst as well as behavior and emotion. Brain imaging studies reveal that when people are shown threatening images, the amygdala becomes activated. Damage to the amygdala has also been shown to impair the fear response.

Behavioral Response

The final component is perhaps one that you are most familiar with—the actual expression of emotion. We spend a significant amount of time interpreting the emotional expressions of the people around us. Our ability to accurately understand these expressions is tied to what psychologists call emotional intelligence and these expressions play a major part in our overall body language.

Sociocultural norms also play a role in how we express and interpret emotions. For example, research has found that Western cultures tend to value and promote high-arousal emotions (fear, excitement, distress) whereas Eastern cultures typically value and prefer low-arousal emotions (calmness, serenity, peace).

Theories of Emotion

Charles Darwin proposed the evolutionary theory of emotion, which suggests that emotions are adaptive to our environment and improve our chances of survival. According to this theory, emotions like love are adaptive because they promote mating and reproduction while fear is adaptive because it keeps us safe from predators.

The James-Lange theory of emotion maintains that our physical responses are responsible for emotion. If someone sneaks up on you and shouts, for instance, your heart rate increases, causing you to feel fear.

The Cannon-Bard theory refutes the James-Lange theory, asserting that people experience emotional and physiological responses at the same time, with each response acting independently. An example would be feeling fear when you see a deadly snake while your body prepares to run.

The Schachter-Singer theory is a cognitive theory of emotion that suggests our thoughts are actually responsible for emotions. Similar to this theory is the cognitive appraisal theory. It posits that someone must first think before experiencing an emotion. For instance, your brain judges a situation as threatening, and as a result, you experience fear.

Types of Emotions

In addition to different theories about the development of emotions, there are also various theories as to how many types of emotions humans experience. As mentioned, psychologist Paul Ekman established the following six universal emotions:

• Happiness: Many people strive for happiness as it is a pleasant emotion accompanied by a sense of well-being and satisfaction. Happiness is often expressed by smiling or speaking in an upbeat tone of voice.
• Sadness: All of us experience sadness now and then. Someone might express this emotion by crying, being quiet, and/or withdrawing from others. Types of sadness include grief, hopelessness, and disappointment.
• Fear: Fear can increase heart rate, cause racing thoughts, or trigger the fight-or-flight response. It can be a reaction to actual or perceived threats. Some people enjoy the adrenaline rush that accompanies fear in the form of watching scary movies, riding roller coasters, or skydiving.
• Disgust: Disgust can be triggered by a physical experience, such as seeing or smelling rotting food, blood, or poor hygiene. Moral disgust may occur when someone sees another person doing something they find immoral or distasteful.
• Anger: Anger can be expressed with facial expressions like frowning, yelling, or violent behavior. Anger can motivate you to make changes in your life, but it's also important to find a healthy outlet to express anger so it doesn't cause harm to yourself or others.
• Surprise: Surprise can be pleasant or unpleasant. You might open your mouth or gasp when you're surprised. Like fear, surprise can trigger a fight-or-flight response.
  

Primary vs. Secondary Emotions

Emotions can also be categorized based on whether they are primary or secondary.

• Primary emotions are the emotions that humans experience universally. There are different theories as to what these specific emotions are, but they often include happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise.
• Secondary emotions stem from—and are variations of—primary emotions. Sometimes, we have secondary emotions in response to our primary emotions (i.e., "I'm frustrated that I'm so sad"). Secondary emotions may include frustration, pride, envy, and jealousy.

Emotions, Feelings, and Moods

In everyday language, people often use the terms emotions, feelings, and moods interchangeably, but they actually mean different things. Emotions are reactions to stimuli, but feelings are what we experience as a result of emotions.

An emotion is normally quite short-lived, but intense. Emotions are also likely to have a definite and identifiable cause. Feelings are influenced by our perception of the situation, which is why the same emotion can trigger different feelings among people experiencing it.

Take the example of disagreeing with your friend. You might both walk away from the conversation having experienced the emotion of anger. Your anger might feel like frustration because you feel that your friend never listens to you when you speak. Your friend's anger, on the other hand, might feel like jealousy because they feel you know much more about the topic than they do.

A mood can be described as a temporary emotional state. Sometimes moods are caused by clear reasons—you might feel everything is going your way this week, so you're in a happy mood. But in many cases, it can be difficult to identify the specific cause of a mood. For example, you might find yourself feeling gloomy for several days without any clear, identifiable reason.

If you've been struggling with low mood or difficult emotions, talk to a physician or a mental health professional about your concerns. They can offer support, guidance, and solutions that can help you get back to feeling your best. Our National Helpline Database also provides different resources that might help.

What Emotion Are You? Take the Quiz

Our fast and free emotion quiz can help you better understand your emotional responses to certain situations, and why you may think or behave the way you do.

This emotion quiz was medically reviewed by Rachel Goldman, PhD, FTOS.

Most of us experience a wide variety of emotions. The feelings that stem from these emotions can feel overwhelming at times, but a helpful first step can simply be to label the emotion. Understand that it's okay to experience any type of emotion—even emotions that can be difficult to cope with like sadness or anger.

If you are having trouble coping with your emotions or feelings, consider talking to a mental healthcare professional who can help you address your concerns.