How Can Emotional Eigenstates Enhance Our Understanding of Feelings?

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The discussion centers on modeling emotions using a state space formalism, where emotions like anger, sadness, and joy are represented as probabilities in a vector. The dynamics of these emotions are described by the equation d x/dt = A x, with A being a probability transition matrix that is unitary. The dominant eigenvector of A, with an eigenvalue of 1, represents an emotional state that remains constant over time, while other states may oscillate or decay. The concept of a "psychon" is introduced as a quantization of the amplitude of emotions. The approach acknowledges the non-linear nature of feelings and the challenges in quantifying them objectively. The conversation encourages further exploration of the psychology of emotions, but notes that the ideas presented are not formalized or published, leading to the thread's closure.
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I saw some control diagrams for emotions on this website

http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/sadness.htm

and thought it would be cool to model it with a state space formalism. let's take x as a vector x = [anger, sadness, joy, etc...] where anger sadness and joy are quantities probabilities that one is angry, sad, joyful, etc...

the equation d x/dt = A x where a is the probability of transitioning between emotions.

x would be normalizable to one. Since A is a probability transition matrix, it's unitary, so

the dominant eigenvector of A would have eigenvalue of 1. This would an emotional eigenstate that doesn't change in time. All other eigenstates would oscillate or decay for negative or complex eigenvalues.

A "psychon" would be a quantization of the amplitude in x.

Granted feeling are non linear and this is a first approximation, but it would be cool to see where this goes.
 
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Emotions are subjective, they are not amenable to external quantification (not easily). Furthermore this isn't published work so it goes against PF rules.

If you'd like to have a discussion about the psychology of emotions by all means do some reading on the subject and share what you find interesting, or need help with.

Thread locked.
 
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