What is Emotion: Definition and 22 Discussions

Emotions are biologically based psychological states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioural responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, creativity, and motivation.Research on emotion has increased over the past two decades with many fields contributing including psychology, medicine, history, sociology of emotions, and computer science. The numerous theories that attempt to explain the origin, function and other aspects of emotions have fostered more intense research on this topic. Current areas of research in the concept of emotion include the development of materials that stimulate and elicit emotion. In addition, PET scans and fMRI scans help study the affective picture processes in the brain.From a mechanistic perspective, emotions can be defined as "a positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity." Emotions produce different physiological, behavioral and cognitive changes. The original role of emotions was to motivate adaptive behaviors that in the past would have contributed to the passing on of genes through survival, reproduction, and kin selection.In some theories, cognition is an important aspect of emotion. Other theories, however, claim that emotion is separate from and can precede cognition. Consciously experiencing an emotion is exhibiting a mental representation of that emotion from a past or hypothetical experience, which is linked back to a content state of pleasure or displeasure. The content states are established by verbal explanations of experiences, describing an internal state.Emotions are complex. There are various theories on the question of whether or not emotions cause changes in person's behaviour. On the one hand, the physiology of emotion is closely linked to arousal of the nervous system. Emotion is also linked to behavioral tendency. Extroverted people are more likely to be social and express their emotions, while introverted people are more likely to be more socially withdrawn and conceal their emotions. Emotion is often the driving force behind motivation. On the other hand, emotions are not causal forces but simply syndromes of components, which might include motivation, feeling, behaviour, and physiological changes, but none of these components is the emotion. Nor is the emotion an entity that causes these components.Emotions involve different components, such as subjective experience, cognitive processes, expressive behavior, psychophysiological changes, and instrumental behavior. At one time, academics attempted to identify the emotion with one of the components: William James with a subjective experience, behaviorists with instrumental behavior, psychophysiologists with physiological changes, and so on. More recently, emotion is said to consist of all the components. The different components of emotion are categorized somewhat differently depending on the academic discipline. In psychology and philosophy, emotion typically includes a subjective, conscious experience characterized primarily by psychophysiological expressions, biological reactions, and mental states. A similar multi-componential description of emotion is found in sociology. For example, Peggy Thoits described emotions as involving physiological components, cultural or emotional labels (anger, surprise, etc.), expressive body actions, and the appraisal of situations and contexts.

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  1. S

    Simplest organism with emotion

    <moderator moved to General Discussion> What is the simplest organism with emotion? Can it occur without any nervous system?
  2. C

    Can Your Brain Feel Anger Without Feedback from the Body?

    Can your brain feel emotion like anger without feedback from the body? When you feel anger.. your stomach tighten and there is a lot of other body sensation.
  3. I

    Can an action potential last for a long time?

    I just learned that "action potential is a short-lasting event" (wiki) If someone is experiencing an emotion of sadness, is that same action potential keeps firing many times back to back or can it actually be a possibility that an action potential lasts for a "very long time". I am guessing...
  4. A

    Did you get scolded by professor?

    My group was the last one finishing the lab report for today's physics lab. The instructor asked why I didn't try more data point after I turned in the report. (The manual doesn't require a specific number of data point) I said I didn't really have enough time. He responded sarcastically, "Do...
  5. D

    Exploring the Physics of Emotions: Is There a Fundamental Variable?

    So... this may not be the right forum... but I figured biology was pretty close. While we have built a very strong correlation between let's say dopamine and happiness (not sure if that's right), I was wondering if anyone knows of research that looks at correlations between matter and emotions...
  6. A

    Unraveling the Mystery of How Music Evokes Emotions

    Why music causes emotions in our mind? They are just sound waves interpreted by our brain? But what causes it to trigger emotions? Do scientists have an answer for this yet?
  7. B

    The Frontal Lobe controls Emotion

    The Frontal Lobe controls Emotion / Personality / Decision Making. But if you look up Temporal Lobe it says this handles Emotion. Can you tell me what I am not getting?
  8. Krunchyman

    I want to rid myself of all emotion

    I believe that emotions are confusing, illogical and unnecessary. I want to rid myself of all of them, fear, hate, love, happiness. How do I do so? I want to become a completely logical being. Note that I am not asking to remove myself of intuition for intuition is a valuable tool.
  9. O

    Is there a way to control my emotions during presentations and discussions?

    Hi everyone :) I have been exploring this forum as a guest and just created my account I just want to talk about a situation I encountered at school today. My physics teacher is a quite nice guy and really tries to make our class fun. One day, we got into a discussion about appropriate...
  10. Ferris_bg

    Willpower, motivation and emotion

    | --- willpower --- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | ------ motivation ------- \\\\\\\\ | ------------ emotion ----------- \ Let's imagine the picture above is a house with 3 floors. First is emotion, second motivation and third willpower. The house has a roof and basement too, which are empty. The...
  11. R

    Can there be Artificial Consciousness and Emotion?

    Consciousness has been generally defined as the awareness of one’s self and its surroundings. But as shown from an expert of A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine Consciousness can be defined as something more than just “awareness” “Consciousness is not merely a by-product of...
  12. R

    How do you preserve an emotion to enforce motivation?

    Say a week, month, or year of undergoing consistent tasks, during this time, every morning when you wake up you kind of forget who you are. You start to hate everything about your hobby/career path. If it's a hobby, you simply quit. For an education, it's not that simple... but if you quit...
  13. A

    Artificially Controlling Human Emotion

    In the future, if mankind engineered a device that could voluntarily be used to control and manipulate our emotions for the better, should we use them?
  14. P

    Is pain just an emotion?

    Is pain just an emotion? I understand that pain is brought about by such things like nerve endings sending signals to the brain in an effort to notify us of danger, much like the hand on the oven burner. Hey… it’s hot, might want to move your hand away from the fire. But the brain confuses...
  15. A

    Have you read any books on Human Emotion?

    Recently? What are some that you would like to share?
  16. P

    Phenomena in which emotion is bended or distorted into pieces ?

    Thanks:smile: Is there a term used to describe a phenomena in which emotion is bended or distorted into pieces ? For example, a sad feeling may lead to some acts involved and conducted orderedly; and if such a sequence of acts are carried out in an unexpected order (and this order is supposed...
  17. S

    How do we technically define emotion in singing?

    Sometimes, people can be singing pretty good, but they don't have any emotion in the song. and sometimes, people sing pretty pathetic, but they got so much emotion in it, that we still like it. I was wondering, what is emotion in singing technically? Am I being clear?
  18. S

    Can Injecting Chemicals Induce Emotion?

    Is there currently any way by injecting chemicals/hormones into the body to induce a specific emotion into a person such as hate, anger, guilt, etc.
  19. J

    The Role of Expectancy in Human Emotions: A Scientific Perspective

    would you all agree that most of our love and hatred stems from the little emotion of expectancy. i mean would we all really be fighting and loving, killing and giving birth if it weren't for expectancy. would you get mad at someone if you didnt expect any particular outcome, would you love...
  20. Ivan Seeking

    Can the brain automate processing of emotions for a blind man?

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1263470.htm [Broken]
  21. B

    What Is Your Strongest Emotion?

    what do you think is the strongest human emotion? post another if I've left something important out.
  22. S

    How is it possible to know that we feel emotion consciously?

    Firstly, this belongs in General Philosophy because it deals with more than the nature of consciousness. Now, we can all agree that we are aware of being conscious and that we FEEL emotions- they don't simply affect our behavior and psychology, but we FEEL them uniquely- this is...
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