Understanding the Basic Emotions

What is that thing that makes your heart flutter when you hear your partner’s voice or tug painfully when you don’t? Oh, I know it. It’s love. Perhaps the most common of many other basic human emotions. But we are not talking about love today. Let’s talk about the whole package altogether: emotions. Understanding basic emotions help us to understand how and why human beings react in certain ways. Human beings are wired to feel. It is the surest proof of our humanity.

Of course not all emotions are positive, some are negative. Therefore, it is important to understand properly what emotions are all about.

What are Basic Emotions?

Emotion is defined by the American Psychological Association (APA) as “a complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioural and physiological elements.”

Emotions are the effects certain actions have on us as human beings. They are the reactions we have to things that happen to us, have happened, or that we even expect to happen to us.

For instance, if you have a new date with someone after you close off from work, you’re sure to feel excited in the hours leading up to that date. Or when you remember the loss of a loved one to death or heartbreak, even after many years, it still makes you sad. It’s interesting to see that different events and the reactions they provoke from us are equally different and can be either positive or negative.

Components of Basic Emotions

According to Don Hockenbury and Sandra E. Hockenbury’s book titled “Discovering Psychology,” emotions involve three components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioural response.

1. The Subjective Experience of Emotion

It explains how people experience a particular emotion differently based on different factors. For instance, an extrovert is more likely to be physically expressive about his emotions, but not an introvert.

2. Physiological Responses

Why is there a lurch in your stomach when you have to do something that you dread? Or what are the butterflies in your belly about too? Those are simply physiological responses. These have to do with certain basic emotions that we are feeling at that moment. For instance, when you find yourself in a dangerous situation, your nerves trigger your body to react by fleeing or defending yourself. That is simply a physiological response to one of the basic emotions called fear.

3. Behavioural Responses

These are also basic body expressions we identify with emotions. We are able to identify basic emotions by these expressions that we can read from people. You can judge from a person’s laughter or tears or fidgeting the exact mood that they are in at that moment.

Alright then. Let’s talk about these basic emotions and understand them too.

What Are the Basic Emotions?

Since different events often take place in one’s life, these different events provoke different emotional reactions as well. Understanding the basic emotions helps us to identify them.

In 1972, a psychologist named Paul Ekman revealed the basic emotions which are common to all human beings universally as being a total of six (6). The six basic emotions include fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, and sadness. He later increased this list in 1999 to include embarrassment, excitement, contempt, shame, pride, satisfaction, and amusement. But in this article, we will only consider the six basic emotions mentioned earlier: fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, and sadness.

Fear

Fear is one of the basic universal human emotions. It is the response we have when we sense an immediate threat or danger either physically or psychologically. However, we sometimes imagine or wrongly preconceive these threats. Many people experience different fears daily. Some have abnormal fears. Phobias are what we know as abnormal fears.

Examples of such phobias include fear of heights (Acrophobia), fear of open spaces (Agoraphobia), fear of enclosed spaces (Claustrophobia), fear of storms (Astraphobia), and fear of insects (Entomophobia, which is probably a valid fear, in my opinion) and others. It is important to note that not everyone experiences fear the same way. Some past experiences can influence how people respond to certain events.

Physiological Signs of Fear

There are symptoms that characterize fear and they include:

• Increase in the heart rate
• Trembling body and voice
• Stomach upset or nausea
• Increased sweating
• Dry mouth
• Pale face

Everyone has their fears, but as with most things, some people have an excessive amount of fear and this can result in panic attacks. You should seek the help of a licensed therapist to help you deal with panic attacks if you have them frequently. Feel free to send us a mail as well.

Disgust

Disgust is another basic emotion. It is a mild or intense feeling of dislike. The things we consider offensive or repulsive are what trigger disgust. It can be perceived by our physical senses when we see, smell or taste something that irritates us. Also, someone’s actions, speech, or even appearance can cause disgust. As all emotions have subjective experiences, so also does disgust. What disgusts one person could very well be different from what disgusts another person.

Physiological Signs of Disgust

Some physiological responses of disgust include:

• Lowered eyebrows
• Upturned lips
• Scrunched up nose
• Nausea
• Visibly looking away from what disgusts one and so on

Expressing disgust can however have its downside as it can lead to the degrading of other people. For instance, if someone has a condition that makes them give off an offensive smell that disgusts other people, those people tend to avoid coming in close contact with that person. Thereby making that person feel less of a human. It is important to understand this emotion and how to manage and express it properly too.

Anger

The emotion that is triggered when a person is dissatisfied because they feel they have been wronged or treated unfairly is what is known as anger. It is generally perceived as a negative emotion because it tends towards violence. However, I think it is only negative when it is not properly managed. This is why we must understand how emotion works.

Managing anger and being able to express it well helps us as human beings in sharing with people what ticks us off. This will also help us understand one another better too, and we will consequently relate with ourselves better.

Physiological Signs of Anger

Anger is marked by the following physiological signs:

• Furrowed brows
• Tightly pressed lips
• Tension in the muscles
• Sweating
• Clenched jaws and fists

Of course, when anger gets intense and unmanaged, it often leads to disastrous and regrettable actions. Different things trigger anger in different people. They include the feeling of not getting what one wants, rejection, injustice, etc.

Surprise

This is considered the briefest human emotion. It happens instantaneously! At that moment when you walk into your dark living room and your friends switch on the lights screaming, “Surprise! Happy birthday!” what you feel then is the emotion called a surprise. It can translate to happiness or anger if your ex was invited.

The feeling of surprise is brief! A surprise can be pleasant. It can also be unpleasant, such as when you discover that you didn’t get the job you were so sure you qualified for, or even something as simple as the sound of crashing plates startling you.

Physiological Signs of Surprise

A surprised person has one (or more) of the following physiological responses:

• A startled gasp
• Increased heart rate
• Raised eyebrows
• Jaw drops open
• Startled jump
• Widening of eyes

Happiness

Happiness is inarguably the most positive emotion and what triggers it varies for different people. What makes people happy differs from one person to another. Generally, happiness is triggered when something, someone or events bring us joy, contentment, fulfilment, etc.

Physiological Signs of Happiness

The following physiological signs show that a person is happy:

• Relaxed muscles
• General air of contentment
• Smiling lips and eyes too
• Laughter and so on.

A person’s level of happiness can be positively or negatively affected by the type of people they spend the bulk of their time with, the kind of job they do and if they love it, their disposition to not getting things done the way they want, etc.

Sadness

This is probably the most commonly experienced emotion. The feeling of losing something precious to one provokes sadness. It is considered a negative emotion. Some universal triggers for sadness include the death of a loved one, a painful breakup, a lingering sickness, having to say goodbye to a loved one, etc.

Physiological Signs of Sadness

Sadness also has some physiological signs such as;

• Tightness in the chest
• Downcast eyes
• Watery eyes
• Heavy limbs

The numerous varieties of emotions and how they are categorized are still being explored. Eckman after some time expanded his list of emotions but he noted that unlike his first six, not all of them could necessarily be expressed through facial expressions. Those emotions are:

• Excitement
• Contentment
• Amusement
• Contempt
• Pride in achievement
• Relief
• Shame
• Embarrassment
• Guilt
• Satisfaction

FAQs on Basic Emotions

What is the difference between emotions and feelings?

Emotions and feelings are both reactions that human beings experience. The difference between the two is that emotions come from the mind while feelings are the external responses we have to emotions.

What is basic emotion theory?

Basic emotion theory proposes that human beings have a limited number of emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, etc.

What is the difference between depression and sadness?

Sadness is a basic emotion that every human being experiences. Depression, on the other hand, is a mental disorder.

What are some questions to ask about emotions?

1. Are you a sensitive person?
2. Can you control your emotions well?
3. Are you generally a positive or negative person?
4. How do you control your thoughts?
5. Do you find it easy or difficult to express how you’re feeling to others?

Conclusion

Emotions play very important roles in our lives. Understanding the basic emotions is not merely about figuring out which ones are good or bad in themselves. There are no bad emotions. Although we can have a blend of these emotions and it might be difficult to identify them, that’s why we need to also learn emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence helps us to appropriately identify, express our emotions and navigate them to better our quality of life.

When people communicate what they feel or want to their loved ones, it helps both parties to understand the needs of the other and act accordingly to each other.