Just how many emotions are there?

[Zythryn]

This question came up in another thread. I wanted to start a new thread rather than hijack another:)

 

QUOTE=sebbysteiny]That's an interesting idea I havn't heard before. Please say what you think are the other 'base emotions' and how they interact. Also, is there any advantage of interpretting emotions in this way, ie this model be used to *explain* anything?

 

As I mentioned in the other thread, I think Fear is a base emotion which many other emotions are built on.

Another base emotion could be grief.

Rage may be another.

 

I have zero, none, nada, zip, no psychology training. This is simply my opinion based on what I have seen/experienced in my life.

 

I would appreciate any input from others on this as I find it intruiging.

[CraigD]

When I took my first Psychology class (having a lot of hours to fill to complete a BS in Math, I eventually took several Psych classes as “fun” electives). My “General Psych” instructor, a recent PhD, contended that “there’s only 1 emotion – arousal”, meaning that nearly everything attribute ascribed to emotions is due to cognitive interpretation.

 

There’s a lot to support that idea – when measured by easy-to-obtain physiological data like pulse, blood pressure, and skin conductivity (“polygraph” measurements), there appears to be little difference between fear, love, hate, happiness, etc. Blood chemistry reveals that “flight or fight” is practically the same physiological state.

 

However, in light of advances in brain imaging in the last couple of decades – PET, MRI, etc. – I think the “one emotion” theory is somewhat obsolete. There appear to actually be distinct, “fundamental” emotions, neurophysiologically independent of subjective interpretation, characterized by different areas, intensities, and patterns over time of brain activity. For example, regions of the temporal lobe appear to be active when one is experiencing certain kinds of meditative wonder and contentment, such as devout religionists experience during prayer, while fear and aggression appear to be more localized in the hypothalamus.

 

Though I’ve read a lot of literature involving brain imaging of specific regions during specific emotional states, I’ve not encountered any attempting to systematically and comprehensively catalog these studies. Doing so would, I think, be a substantial research undertaking – though a valuable one – and the most likely approach to reaching a scientifically sound answer to the question “how many emotions are there?” Other, more abstract or philosophical approaches, are, IMHO, too subjective to be of much use.

[Zythryn]

Fascinating Craig, thanks for the information.

Do you recall if fear and agression activated the same parts of the hypothalamus?

I agree with you, it would be quite an undertaking to 'map' all of the emotions. Like you, I suspect it would be extremely useful and insightful.

[moo]

Hmmm... how about milder emotions such as being annoyed or perplexed? Or are these even considered to be emotions? :shrug:

 

moo

[CraigD]

Do you recall if fear and agression activated the same parts of the hypothalamus?

I don’t recall anything suggesting that these emotions activate parts of hypothalamus differently, but that might be because I’m just an interested amateur – brain science is pretty specialized, technical stuff! My guess is that fear and aggression fit well with the “one emotion only” model, differing mostly in the subject’s cognitive interpretation. My personal experience is that, when I’ve felt afraid, I’ve tended to be aggressive, and when aggressive, felt somewhat afraid.

Hmmm... how about milder emotions such as being annoyed or perplexed? Or are these even considered to be emotions?

Though it’s hard to come up with objective descriptions of some of the more subtly worded emotions like these, I suspect they’re related to major neurochemicals like epinephrine and serotonin, which are associated with particular brain regions (though, unlike serotonin, Epinephrine is primarily secreted by a gland outside of the brain, involving more complicated neurochemical and hormonal mechanism). I don’t know if current brain imaging techniques are adequate to map these mechanisms to particular brain activity.

[sebbysteiny]

There’s a lot to support that idea – when measured by easy-to-obtain physiological data like pulse, blood pressure, and skin conductivity (“polygraph” measurements), there appears to be little difference between fear, love, hate, happiness, etc. Blood chemistry reveals that “flight or fight” is practically the same physiological state.

 

I agree that the psychological and scientific data of emotions is important, worthy of study, and further important to this thread.

 

At the same time, if Zythryn has some ideas about classifications of emotions, then I think we should all hear them and discuss the evidence and the conclusions even if they fly in the face of the scientific explanation.

 

I believe it is possible for two emotions to be so fundamentally similar in both cause and effect that it is best for practical purposes to treat them the same EVEN IF they arose from activities in completely different lobes in completely different parts of the brain.

 

All that really matters to me is that your ideas describe the facts accurately / is testable and that it has practical applications.

 

I have zero, none, nada, zip, no psychology training. This is simply my opinion based on what I have seen/experienced in my life.

 

That's enough for me. It maybe that your instinct has noticed something that the scientific surveys and measurments of chemical levels in lobes has missed.

 

Lets here the entire theory from beginning to end.

[InfiniteNow]

Do you recall if fear and agression activated the same parts of the hypothalamus?

The hypothalamus is a pretty small region in the center of the brain, responsible for all manner of control of our bodily functions and hormone secretion, which is still being studied in search of greater understanding. I've included a few links below for your reference. It seems more lateral hypothalamus, but I'm not sure how to classify fear into hypothalamic terms, as it tends to be viewed as an amygdalal emotion. If I were to guess, I'd suggest that fear and aggression activate the same parts, but it's an interesting query.

 

 

http://thalamus.wustl.edu/course/hypoANS.html

http://www.endotext.org/neuroendo/neuroendo3b/neuroendo3b.htm

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/hypopit/anatomy.html

 

 

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n05/mente/struct_i.htm

The hypothalamus is also believed to play a role in emotion. Specifically, its lateral parts seem to be involved with pleasure and rage, while the median part is like to be involved with aversion, displeasure and a tendency to uncontrollable and loud laughing. However, in general terms, the hypothalamus has more to do with the expression (symptomatic manifestations) of emotions than with the genesis of the affective states. When the physical symptoms of emotion appear, the threat they pose returns, via hypothalamus, to the limbic centers and, thence, to the pre-frontal nuclei, increasing anxiety. This negative feed-back mechanism can be so strong as to generate a situation of panic.

[Zythryn]

I am afraid I don't have anything as advanced as a theory.

Just observations. For example, it seems to me that greed is a combination of fear and agression.

 

Other basic emotions may be things such as happiness.

 

Combine any of the 'base' emotions and you get a more complicated emotion. We give each a different name to better be able to label it. Similar to our giving multiple names to different shades of color (green, lime green, dark green, etc).

[InfiniteNow]

Combine any of the 'base' emotions and you get a more complicated emotion. We give each a different name to better be able to label it. Similar to our giving multiple names to different shades of color (green, lime green, dark green, etc).

Or, if you'll permit, there are certain notes which combine to form the harmony (or awful non-harmony as it were) which is us.

[Zythryn]

Bravo!! That is an awesome metaphor:D

[HydrogenBond]

Here is an easy to derive subdivision of emotion/instincts. At one extreme is fear and at the other extreme is rest. These are the two bookends. Between rest and fear is desire. Between desire and fear is hate. And between desire and hate is hunger. Hunger is a desire that needs hate to destroy what we desire to eat, so we can eat it.

 

If we go the other way, between rest and desire is sex. Between sex and rest is love. There are also futher subdivisions between these that one can make.

 

Fear, hate, hunger, desire, sex, love, rest.

 

In a capitalist culture, subdivisions between hunger and desire and desire and sex, makes us want to constantly consume goods sold by sexy people. It is not natural hunger, because we don't destroy the goods we consume. The sex element makes us hot and heavy for a little while and then we lower our desire to love (love our new toy) and then rest (take it or leave it) without destruction. We are then hungry consumers again full of desire for the latest and greatest.

[sebbysteiny]

If we go the other way, between rest and desire is sex.

 

Maybe for you, but not for me :doh:.

 

Hydrogen Bond's General Post

 

What makes you make the conclusions you have reached? I don't see any logical reason for this spectrum.

 

Surely, also, if there are 'base emotions' the absence of one amounts to the existances of it's opposite, so why do we need to include the opposite end of the 'spectrum'?

 

And the idea that 'rest' is an emotion is strange to me. A state of no addrenaline and not much stimulation of other hormonal glands seems to me to be an absence rather than a presence of emotions.

[sebbysteiny]

I am afraid I don't have anything as advanced as a theory.

Just observations. For example, it seems to me that greed is a combination of fear and agression.

 

Other basic emotions may be things such as happiness.

 

Combine any of the 'base' emotions and you get a more complicated emotion. We give each a different name to better be able to label it. Similar to our giving multiple names to different shades of color (green, lime green, dark green, etc).

 

Firstly, why is greed 'an emotion'? Surely greed is just another form of desire taken to an extreme. I think greed happens when you get 'high' on your success for getting something and you want that 'rush' again so you get greedy. I don't see how aggression or fear comes into greed.

 

Also, I don't want to be aggressive and what tests can we do to see if you are right and what practical utility can your ideas have?

[HydrogenBond]

Emotions are an internal response that can have an external output affect. In other words, if one is angry one will feel sensations in their body and even in their heart. The anger will also output externally in one's body language and facial expressions. Emotions may seem simpleton but it is a rather complex neural output affect that takes a lot of neural processing. Thinking and reasoning is quite neural conservative by comparison.

 

Rest is not normally considered an emotion. By rest I meant a feeling of calm contentment, where the emotional valence is quite low. It will still have an output affect that can put a smile on one's face. Most animals spend most of their time in rest.

 

Fear does the most to the body causing adrenline to flow. It opens and dialate the eyes, increase muscular tension and tone, heighten awareness in all our sensory systems, etc., It is a very global emotion that may require the most neural processing of all.

 

Desire is interesting. This emotion also gets the body going and will help focus consciousness toward the object of desire. If one looks at dancing as a courting ritual, complex movements and body language are often part of desire.

 

When one blends these three basic emotions the body affects also blend. The facial affects also blend. For example between fear and desire is hate. One has the adrenline from fear. But because of the desire, the fight and flight is reduce to fight. Hate is a type of negative courting ritual with the hostile body language and fighting almost like a dance.

 

Becuase hate is a combination of fear and desire, one can see how love-hate can become the two-sided coin in many relationships. There is a desire there but also a fear of getting hurt. This indecision creates hate. If there wasn't love, the desire element would be weaker.

 

Pregidice is a type of hate connected to both fear and desire. It is the fear of the unknown coupled with an attraction to its novelty. There is no love there only attraction. The attraction to the novelty creates an obsession, while the fear keeps them in ignorance of their desire. It is almost like hunger with a need to destroy the object they unconsciously fear-desire.

 

If we look at instincts the big four are fear, hunger-thirst, sex, rest. The sex is seasonal making it a big three most of the year. Modenr humans are a little different in that generic desire formed between hunger-thirst and sex. This makes us able to add unnatural variety and excessiveness to these basic animal urges.