Distinctive Emotion: A Real Feeling Or Just An Illusion?

The concept of emotion is a complex and multifaceted one, with no single, universally accepted definition. Emotions are often described as a process, a particular kind of automatic appraisal influenced by evolutionary and personal past. They are a combination of subjective experience, cognitive processes, expressive behaviour, psychophysiological changes, and instrumental behaviour.

Emotions are responses to significant internal and external events, and they prepare us to deal with important events without having to think about them. They are responses to some kind of stimulus, such as a social interaction, remembering or imagining an event, or talking about, thinking about, or physically re-enacting a past emotional experience.

Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity. They are also related to the anti-stress complex, with an oxytocin-attachment system, which plays a major role in bonding.

Emotions are considered to be either occurrences (e.g. panic) or dispositions (e.g. hostility), and can be short-lived (e.g. anger) or long-lived (e.g. grief). They can be conscious or unconscious, and are associated with distinctive thoughts, memories, and images.

Emotions are typically not longer than an hour. If an emotion persists for an extended amount of time without interruption, it is more likely to be categorised as a mood or a disorder.

Emotions are a critical component of our daily lives and can often define the human experience. They are a complex and multifaceted concept, with no single, universally accepted definition.

The variety and complexity of emotions

Emotions are a complex and multifaceted aspect of the human experience. They are a process, a particular kind of automatic appraisal influenced by our evolutionary and personal past, in which we sense that something important to our welfare is occurring. Emotional responses are an unbidden occurrence, meaning that we don't choose to feel them, they just happen to us automatically.

Emotions can be occurrences (e.g., panic) or dispositions (e.g., hostility), short-lived (e.g., anger) or long-lived (e.g., grief), primitive (e.g., fear of a suddenly looming object) or sophisticated (e.g., fear of losing a chess match). They can be conscious (e.g., disgust about an insect in the mouth) or unconscious (e.g., unconscious fear of failing in life). They can have prototypical facial expressions (e.g., surprise) or lack them (e.g., regret). They can involve strong motivations to act (e.g., rage) or not (e.g., sadness). They can be present across species (e.g., fear) or exclusively human (e.g., schadenfreude).

Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity. They are responses to significant internal and external events. They can be positive or negative experiences that are associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity. They are complex, involving multiple different components, such as subjective experience, cognitive processes, expressive behaviour, psychophysiological changes, and instrumental behaviour.

Emotions can be differentiated by their evaluative, physiological, phenomenological, expressive, behavioural, and mental components. They can be classified as occurrences or dispositions, short-lived or long-lived, primitive or sophisticated, conscious or unconscious, and present across species or exclusively human.

The structure of emotions

Emotions have components, and these components are jointly instantiated in prototypical episodes of emotions. For example, an episode of intense fear due to the sudden appearance of a grizzly bear on a hike involves an evaluative component (e.g., appraising the bear as dangerous), a physiological component (e.g., increased heart rate and blood pressure), a phenomenological component (e.g., an unpleasant feeling), an expressive component (e.g., upper eyelids raised, jaw dropped open, lips stretched horizontally), a behavioural component (e.g., a tendency to flee), and a mental component (e.g., focusing attention).

The three main traditions in the study of emotions are the Feeling Tradition, the Evaluative Tradition, and the Motivational Tradition. The Feeling Tradition takes the way emotions feel to be their most essential characteristic, and defines emotions as distinctive conscious experiences. The Evaluative Tradition regards the way emotions construe the world as primary, and defines emotions as being (or involving) distinctive evaluations of the eliciting circumstances. The Motivational Tradition defines emotions as distinctive motivational states.

Physical structures of emotion

The physical structures of emotions are complex and multifaceted. They involve a variety of different components, including the evaluation of an external stimulus, neural responses, and the related psychophysiological reactions, expressive modifications, instrumental actions, and, lastly, experiential and subjective psychological components related to such changes.

The neurobiology of emotion

The neurobiology of emotion is a pleasant or unpleasant mental state organised in the limbic system of the mammalian brain. Emotions are related to certain activities in brain areas that direct our attention, motivate our behaviour, and determine the significance of what is going on around us.

The physical expression of emotion

The physical expression of emotion can be understood through the study of facial expressions, body language, and vocal tones. Facial expressions can be raised eyebrows, widened eyes, and an open mouth (surprise); a relaxed stance (happiness); an upbeat, pleasant way of speaking (happiness); turning away from the object of disgust (disgust); frowning or glaring (anger); speaking gruffly or yelling (anger); sweating or turning red (anger); and hitting, kicking, or throwing objects (anger).

Experiential structures of emotion

The experiential structures of emotion can be understood through the study of the subjective experience of emotional states. This includes the study of the conscious experience of emotional states, the study of the unconscious experience of emotional states, and the study of the experience of emotional states without conscious perception.

Social structures of emotion

The social structures of emotion can be understood through the study of the role of interpersonal communication in social environments and the study of the role of emotions in human culture and social interactions.

Emotions and rationality

Emotions have long been thought to score poorly in terms of both cognitive and strategic rationality. However, researchers in both philosophy and affective science have started rehabilitating the emotions in terms of both cognitive and strategic rationality.

Emotions can be rational in terms of fittingness, warrant, and coherence. Fittingness refers to emotions that are directed towards things that are truly dangerous, because this is what fear represents. Warrant refers to emotions that are rational in the warrant sense, even though, unbeknownst to the subject, the emotion is not directed towards things that are truly dangerous. Coherence refers to the consistency of emotions with other representations of what the world is like.

Emotions can also be rational in terms of their strategic (or prudential) rationality, which concerns their ability to lead to actions that promote the agent's interests and properly relate to other processes that affect actions, notably decision-making.

The structure of emotions

• Conceptual - emotions are defined by their logical-formal criteria, and the most abstract category within a hierarchy.
• Psychological - emotions are basic and atomic, not containing any other emotions.
• Biological - emotions are innate, hardwired mechanisms that link the processing of a sensory input to a pattern of behavioural responses.

Emotions are often conceived as composite and multi-component constructs, including:

• Evaluation of an external stimulus
• Neural responses
• Related psychophysiological reactions
• Expression modifications
• Instrumental actions
• Experiential and subjective psychological components

• Feelings - emotions are defined as distinctive conscious experiences.
• Evaluations - emotions are defined as distinctive evaluations of the eliciting circumstances.
• Motivations - emotions are defined as distinctive motivational states.

Each of these three perspectives captures something true and significant about emotions, but no theory within any tradition appears immune from counterexamples and problem cases.

Physical structures of emotion

The physical structures of emotion refer to the overt behaviour, neurology, and physiology that underpin our emotional responses.

Overt Behaviour

The behavioural expression of emotion includes conscious and unconscious gestures, mannerisms, postures, and actions that can be either spontaneous or deliberate. Facial expressions are a key aspect of this, with emotions like anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise typically associated with distinct facial expressions. For example, a sincere smile, known as a Duchenne smile, is characterised by the stretching of the mouth, elevation of the cheeks, and contraction of the muscles around the eyes.

Neurology

Emotions are rooted in our neurology, with the limbic forebrain (including the thalamus, hypothalamus, reticular formation, and amygdala) serving as the core of emotional brain activity. The amygdala, in particular, plays a crucial role in reading the emotional aspect of our perceptions and transmitting feelings from one person to another. The anterior cingulate cortex and the insula are also important brain regions involved in emotional intelligence, allowing us to monitor and correct our behaviour, as well as plan and carry out actions with emotional significance.

Physiology

Emotions are often accompanied by distinct bodily sensations and physiological changes. For instance, excitement may cause a pounding heart and light steps, while anxiety might tighten our muscles and make our hands sweat. These bodily changes involve adjustments in the skeletomuscular, neuroendocrine, and autonomic nervous systems.

Integrated Perspective

It's important to view these physical structures of emotion as integrated components of a whole. For instance, the experience of anger involves not only physiological changes and facial expressions but also intentionality, beliefs, and evaluative judgments about the situation or person that triggered the emotion. This highlights the complex and multifaceted nature of emotions.

The neurobiology of emotion

Emotions are a stirred-up state caused by physiological changes occurring as a response to some event. They are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity.

The neurobiological underpinnings of emotions are complex and involve multiple components, such as subjective experience, cognitive processes, expressive behavior, psychophysiological changes, and instrumental behavior.

The prefrontal cortex is the seat of human personality and plays a role in decision-making and in adopting behavioral strategies more appropriate to the physical and social situation. It also helps in the regulation of emotions through reappraisal.

The amygdala and anterior insula are involved in experiencing both positive and negative emotions. The thalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus are the key regions of the limbic system that are closely related to emotional memory.

The perception of emotions in humans occurs at three levels:

• Perception at the subcortical level- visual processing can occur in the absence of the striate cortex.
• Perception at the critical level- early perceptual processing to categorize faces as distinct from other visual objects is done in the fusiform gyrus.
• Lateralized perceptions of emotions- the right hemisphere is more adapted to the recognition of one's own face.

The neurobiological basis of normal emotion perception involves three related processes:

• The identification of emotionally salient information in the environment.
• The generation of emotional experiences and behavior in response to the above.
• The regulation of emotional experiences and behavior.

The neural regions involved in the identification of emotionally salient information include the amygdala and anterior insula. The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped region within the anterior part of the temporal lobe. The anterior insula is a part of the cerebral cortex at the base of the lateral fissure.

The generation of emotional experiences and behaviors involves the amygdala, the insula, the ventral region of the anterior cingulate gyrus, and ventromedial and ventrolateral regions of the prefrontal cortex.

To date, there is limited understanding of the neural basis of emotion regulation. However, dorsal prefrontal regions may have a particular role in this process.

The structure-function relationship between brain and emotions is better described in terms of pluripotentiality, which refers to the fact that one neural structure can fulfill multiple functions, depending on the functional network and pattern of co-activations displayed at any given moment.

The concept of basic emotions can still be fruitful if updated to current neurobiological knowledge that overcomes traditional one-to-one localization of functions in the brain.

The physical expression of emotion

• Facial expressions: e.g., widening the eyes, pulling back the chin, frowning, glaring, smiling, etc.
• Body language: e.g., attempts to hide or flee from the threat, a relaxed stance, taking a strong stance or turning away, etc.
• Physiological reactions: e.g., increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, turning red, etc.
• Verbal reactions: e.g., yelling, screaming, or gasping.
• Tone of voice: e.g., an upbeat, pleasant way of speaking, gruffly or yelling, etc.
• Aggressive behaviours: e.g., hitting, kicking, or throwing objects.

Frequently asked questions