What is emotion and main types

Emotion is a personal experience that can generate a feeling of pleasure or discontent from a given situation and it manifests itself through the body's reactions, such as crying, smiling, shivering and even when the face turns red. Human emotions can be considered positive or negative and are innate or are learned through living with other people.

Emotions generally express feelings spontaneously and it is not always possible to control them, as it involves a series of reactions in the brain. However, when these emotions generate disturbances and damage personal and work relationships, there are ways to learn how to deal with feelings better, by doing psychotherapy, for example. See more what is psychotherapy.

In addition, there are different types of emotions, with each person expressing their feelings in different ways, even going through the same situations, as each person reacts according to temperament, personality and motivation.

Main types of emotions

Emotion is an expression of a person's feeling and they can be of different types, however, some psychologists when studying emotions classified the basic emotions, which can give rise to new feelings. The main basic emotions are:

1. Fear

It is the way the body reacts to any threat or danger, presenting itself with an increase in heart rate, rapid breathing and muscle contraction. Facial expressions are characterized by astonishment, such as widening the eyes, for example.

Often, this type of emotion is triggered by situations, objects and animals that do not necessarily generate danger and can turn into phobia, which is exaggerated fear. Anxiety can also cause fear, as it causes the person to feel in advance that some bad event is going to happen. See more what are the symptoms of anxiety.

2. Sadness

Sadness is a type of emotion that occurs mainly due to situations of loss and tends to be felt for a transitional period. This emotion can give rise to other types of emotions such as guilt, shame, isolation, feeling of emptiness and is visible through crying, excessive desire to sleep and loss of enthusiasm to work and leave the house.

When the sadness is deep, there is no reason to exist and it is continuous, it is necessary to consult a psychiatrist, as it can become a depression and this requires the use of specific medications, such as antidepressants. Check out more on how to differentiate sadness from depression.

3. Joy

Joy is an emotion that is characterized by feelings of happiness, contentment, satisfaction, generates well-being and the most evident facial expression is the presence of smiles. A happy person can be the result of a situation like getting a gift, meeting friends, getting a promotion at work and being with family.

A cheerful person can feel excited, hopeful, energetic, inspired, fun and can better develop day-to-day activities, such as working, for example. This emotion usually changes throughout life, that is, a person can feel happier in certain situations, however, it can vary with sadness.

4. Disgust

Disgust is an emotion that can be compared to disgust or disgust and this often happens with certain foods and smells. People may be disgusted by different objects according to their own culture and experiences.

This type of emotion can be a response of the body to certain situations such as pregnancy and can be the result of treatments with chemotherapy, for example.

5. Anger

Anger is a powerful emotion that can happen because of differences and disagreement between people, because of the feeling of injustice and frustration. This emotion can be observed by the frowning expression and the angry person tends to speak louder and become more aggressive.

When anger is excessive, it is necessary to discover the cause, as this can damage the relationship between people and cause conflicting situations. The psychologist is a professional who can help people understand why this emotion is very felt and can recommend cognitive behavioral therapy. See more how cognitive behavioral therapy is done.

Consequences of emotions

Different emotions are caused by external situations and some reactions that manifest emotions include:

• Stomach ache;
• Cry or laugh;
• Shaking, especially the legs;
• Blush;
• Losing your voice;
• Feel your breath or heart racing.

Given the emotion and behavior that the person has, it is important that the person learn to deal with the reaction, especially when it is negative. Find out how in: 4 steps to control negative emotions.

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Bibliography

• COWEN, Alan S .; KELTNER, KELTNER, Dacher. Self-report captures 27 distinct categories of emotion bridged by continuous gradients. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Vol.114, n.38. E7900-E7909, 2017
• LINDNER, Evelin G. What are emotions?. RBSE - Brazilian Journal of Sociology of Emotion. Vol. 12, n.36. 822-845, 2013
• TRAMPE, Debra; QUOIDBACH, Jordi; TAQUET, Maxime. Emotions in Everyday Life. PLoS One. Vol.10, n.12. e0145450, 2015
• VERY WELL MIND. The 6 Types of Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior. Available in: . Accessed on Dec 20, 2019