Classification of Emotions —
According to psychologists, humans are born with certain emotions at birth. The complications of these emotions are increased with age. The emotions acquired at birth are referred to by psychologists as basic emotions.
Now the question is what are the basic emotions? What is their numbers?
It is noticed that there is disagreement among psychologists about the basic emotions and their number. Some say there are three basic emotions, some say there are four basic emotions, and some say there is no such thing as basic emotions.
According to psychologist J.B. WATSON, there are only three basic emotions – fear, anger and love.
According to STAGNER, there are only four basic emotions – pleasure, pain, elation and depression.
Again SERMAN says there is no such thing as basic emotion of human. We don’t get emotion inhereditary. As we become familiar with the environment, our mental processes take a certain form. He called this as emotion.
Classification of Emotions:-
Psychologist MCDOUGAAL has mentioned three types of human emotions. Namely – 1) Primary or basic emotion, 2) Complex or mixed emotion, 3) Acquired emotion.
1) Primary or Basic Emotion:-
Emotions associated with instincts are called primary or basic emotion by MacDougall. According to him human instincts are 14. Thus, the primary or basic emotions of human are also 14.
They are – (1) Fear, (2) Anger, (3) Disgust, (4) Tender emotion, (5) Lust, (6) Wonder, (7) Negative self feeling, (8) Positive self feeling, (9) Feeling of loneliness, (10) Feeling of ownership, (11) Felling of creativeness, (12) Amusement, (13) hunger, (14) Feeling of distress.
2) Complex or Mixed Emotion:-
Sometimes two or more instincts are awakened together in us. As a result, two or more emotions combined and create a special emotion in us. McDougall mentioned this particular emotion as complex or mixed emotion. Some examples of such complex or mixed emotions are respect, gratitude, envy, shame, pity, admiration, vengeful feelings, benevolence, contempt, etc.
3) Earned Emotion:-
In addition to primary or basic emotion and mixed or complex emotion, we often have a special type of emotion that is not associated with any instinct. They develop from our direct experience as a result of adaptation to the environment. For example – hope, regret, dispute, joy etc. MacDougall mentioned these as acquired emotions.
In addition to the above classification of emotion, emotions are again divided into two categories based on the needs in individuals and their social life. Namely – Beneficial emotion and Harmful emotion.
Beneficial Emotion:-
The emotions which help the individual in his personal and social life are called beneficial emotion. Like – love, love, joy, excitement etc.
Harmful Emotion:-
Harmful emotions are those that create obstacles in the adaptation in the individual in his personal and social life. For example – fear, jealousy, greed etc.
Physical Changes in Emotion:-
Physical changes are closely related to emotion. Emotion sometimes gives us the ability to overwork. Again it sometimes reduces our normal working capacity. Every emotion has its own expression. Physical changes that occur in us due to emotion we can divide them into two categories. Namely – changes in external behavior and several changes in internal body systems.
The changes in our external behavior that result from emotion are –
1) Changes in facial expressions.
2) Changes in the movement of our various organs. E.g. – During anger we sometimes move our hands and feet loudly. Again sit quietly at the time of sadness.
3) Changes in the voice. For example, if someone laughs or cries due to anger, the tone of his voice will be different.
4) Changes in the movement of the eyeball. Movement of the eyeball is controlled by a type of muscles. But at the time of emotion pull of this muscle are sometimes increased and sometimes decreased. As a result, sometimes the eyes look bigger, and sometimes the eyes are smaller.
5) Variation in the amount of saliva secretion in the mouth.
6) Substantial changes in skin temperature.
7) Changes in facial temperature.
to be continued…