Negative emotions. Emotions and feelings, lists

Emotion is an outward source. This is a way of self-expression in life. This is a characteristic of a person’s attitude towards life.

The emotions people express can be divided into two broad categories. You can count them opposite friend friend, or we can simply say that there is a dividing line at which emotions of one type turn into emotions of another type.

We can call these two types of emotions “negative” and “positive.” This is not so much a value judgment, but rather a description of the basic action of each group. Ratings as "good" or "bad" are not particularly helpful.

Negative emotions express an attempt or intention to “exclude.” Strengthening your own position at the expense of others. Stay away from bad things, destroy what is perceived as a threat. Negative emotions are fueled by a deep-seated fear of the unknown, fear of the actions of others, and the need to control and contain others so as not to be harmed by them.

Positive emotions express an attempt or intention to "turn on". Consider something in its entirety. Work on learning new points of view, interact more with others, enjoy getting better at something. Positive emotions are fueled by a deep desire for pleasure and unity.

Negative emotions are, for example: indifference, grief, fear, hatred, shame, guilt, regret, indignation, anger, hostility.

Positive emotions are, for example: interest, enthusiasm, boredom, laughter, sympathy, action, curiosity.

Within each category there is a range of different emotions. It can be said that some are more positive or more negative than others. But they do not have to be placed on a linear scale for convenience, since each of them is a mixture of several elements.

Some emotions are disguised as positive or negative, but are actually something completely different. There is a kind of pity that seems to be a genuine concern for others, but which is more likely to be a consolation from the fact that someone else has it worse. There is an underlying hostility that masquerades as friendliness that may be difficult to recognize at first. Likewise, some types of anger or tears may appear negative, but may actually be an expression of concern and concern for the whole. It is not the superficial outward appearance that matters, but the underlying mechanism and motivation.

It may seem like you just need to get rid of negative emotions. But it's not that simple. They have an important purpose. In essence, they show that there is something that a person does not know and cannot cope with. If negative emotions become a stimulus to learn something and deal with it, they are very useful. If a person is always joyful, he may not notice what is wrong.

Positive and negative emotions are opposites. It is impossible to get rid of one and leave only the other. Ultimately they need to be combined into one.

A client's negative emotion usually directs us to areas that need to be addressed. It shows us that there is something here that the personality cannot cope with. We help her deal with it and transform it into something more rewarding and joyful.

Negative emotions are useful as an incentive to get away from the unwanted. Positive emotions are useful as an incentive to move towards what you want.

Trouble occurs when parts of this system get stuck. Especially when the functions of emotions are reversed and the person begins to move towards what she does not want. Therefore, stuck negative emotions are the primary target for processing.

People can express all sorts of combinations of these emotions. Some people remain stuck in a negative emotion, such as grief, almost all the time. Others remain stuck in positive emotions, such as contentment, and do not know how to experience negative emotions, even when they need to.

Some people react according to certain emotional patterns in stressful situations. For example, a person may have hidden grief or fear that is triggered by certain circumstances. An offhand remark can press a button that releases pent-up anger.

The goal of processing is to make people more flexible with emotions, able to use any most appropriate emotion, and able to use their full range when necessary. A flexible and active person will most likely prefer to live in a positive frame of mind. But in fact, the goal is to unite into one whole, to go beyond the positive/negative idea altogether.

Man is a unique being who also has feelings. They help to express an attitude towards another person or a reaction to any event, be it sad or cheerful. That is why you need to understand what emotions are and what they mean.

What emotions does a person have?

Emotions are reactions to any situation that lasts short time. They are easy to see, they lie on the surface. You can always understand whether a person is happy or sad.

There are three groups of emotions:

1. Positive.
2. Negative.
3. Neutral.

Each group is divided into a variety of emotions that a person can feel. Most large group are negative emotions, in second place are positive ones. But there are very few neutral ones.

What types of emotions are there?

In addition to the groups of emotions listed above, there are two more types, depending on the person’s activity - sthenic and asthenic. The first type pushes a person to take some action, the second, on the contrary, makes a person passive and aggressive. Each person is individual, which is why emotions affect everyone differently and it is very important to know what positive, negative and neutral emotions are.

A person perceives what is happening and shows his feelings, and this happens very often unconsciously. But after a moment a person can come to his senses and hide his emotions. This suggests that emotions can be controlled, you just need to learn how to do it.

Do you need to restrain your emotions?

Emotions are given in order to become human. They have quite a strong influence on a person. It is thanks to emotions that man stands at the highest level of the animal world.

Nowadays people prefer to hide their trying to be under the guise of indifference to everything is both bad and good at the same time.

It’s good because those around you know less, which means they will do less harm, that is, the person becomes less vulnerable. And it’s bad because by hiding emotions, a person becomes indifferent, callous, and after a while he completely forgets what emotions and feelings are. This can lead to prolonged depression. That is why it is best not to hold back your emotions, but to throw them out. Of course, if they are negative, then it is better to throw them out in some secluded place so that no one can see.

“Negative” emotions play a more important biological role compared to “positive” emotions. It is no coincidence that the mechanism of “negative” emotions functions in a child from the first days of his birth, and “positive” emotions appear much later. A “negative” emotion is an alarm signal, a danger to the body. A “positive” emotion is a signal of returned well-being. It is clear that the last signal does not need to sound for a long time, so emotional adaptation to the good comes quickly. The alarm must be sounded until the danger has been eliminated. As a result, only “negative” emotions can become stagnant. “Negative” emotions are harmful only in excess, just as everything that exceeds the norm is harmful. Fear, anger, rage increase the intensity of metabolic processes, leading to better nutrition brain, increase the body's resistance to overload, infections, etc.

The neural mechanisms of positive emotional reactions are more complex and subtle than negative ones. “Positive” emotions have independent adaptive significance, i.e. the role of “positive” emotions is different from the role of “negative” emotions: “positive” emotions encourage living systems to actively disrupt the achieved “balance” with environment: “The most important role of positive emotions is the active disruption of peace, comfort, the famous “balancing of the body with external environment"". "Negative emotions, as a rule, ensure the preservation of what has already been achieved by evolution or the individual development of the subject. Positive emotions revolutionize behavior, encouraging the search for new, not yet satisfied needs, without which pleasure is unthinkable. This does not indicate the absolute value of positive emotions They can be caused by primitive, selfish, socially unacceptable needs. similar cases we will undoubtedly give preference to such negative emotions as anxiety for the fate of another person, compassion for those in trouble, and indignation at injustice. Social value emotions are always determined by the motive that brought them to life.”

Types of emotional states

Depending on the depth, intensity, duration and degree of differentiation, the following types of emotional states can be distinguished: feeling tone, emotions themselves, affect, passion, mood.

The simplest form of emotions is the emotional tone of sensations - innate hedonic experiences (from the Greek hedone - pleasure), accompanying certain vital influences (for example, taste, temperature, pain). Already at this level, emotions are differentiated into 2 polar classes. Positive emotions caused by useful influences encourage the subject to achieve and maintain them; Negative emotions stimulate activity aimed at avoiding harmful influences.

1. Sensual or emotional tone is the simplest form of emotion, an elementary manifestation of organic sensitivity that accompanies individual vital influences and encourages the subject to eliminate or preserve them. Often such experiences, due to their weak differentiation, cannot be expressed verbally. The sensual tone is realized as emotional coloring, a peculiar qualitative shade of a mental process, as a property of a perceived object, phenomenon, action, etc.

2. Emotions themselves are mental reflection in the form of direct biased experience life meaning phenomena and situations determined by the relationship of their objective properties to the needs of the subject. These are subject specific mental processes and conditions that arise in a specific environment and are narrowly focused. Emotions arise when there is excessive motivation in relation to the real adaptive capabilities of the individual. Emotions arise due to the fact that the subject cannot or does not know how to give an adequate response to stimulation (situations characterized by novelty, unusualness or suddenness).

It is traditional to divide emotions into positive and negative. However, emotions such as anger, fear, shame cannot be unconditionally categorized as negative. Anger is sometimes directly correlated with adaptive behavior and even more often with defense and affirmation of personal integrity. Fear is also associated with survival and, along with shame, contributes to the regulation of permissive aggressiveness and the establishment of social order.

A popular classification of emotions in relation to activity and, accordingly, their division into sthenic (inducing action, causing tension) and asthenic (inhibiting action, depressing). Classifications of emotions are also known: by origin from groups of needs - biological, social and ideal emotions; by the nature of the actions on which the probability of satisfying the need depends - contact and distance.

3. Affect is a rapidly and violently occurring emotional process of an explosive nature, which can provide a release in action that is not subject to conscious volitional control. The main thing in affect is an unexpected shock, sharply experienced by a person, characterized by a change in consciousness, a violation of volitional control over actions. In affect, the parameters of attention change sharply: its switchability decreases, concentration and memory are impaired, up to partial or

complete amnesia. Affect has a disorganizing effect on activity, consistency and quality of performance, with maximum disintegration - stupor or chaotic, unfocused motor reactions. There are normal and pathological affects.

The main signs of pathological affect: altered consciousness (disorientation in time and space); inadequacy of the intensity of the response to the intensity of the stimulus that caused the reaction; the presence of post-affective amnesia.

4. Passion is an intense, generalized and prolonged experience that dominates other human impulses and leads to concentration on the object of passion. The reasons that cause passion can be different - ranging from bodily inclinations to conscious ideological beliefs. Passion can be accepted and sanctioned by the individual, or it can be experienced as something unwanted and intrusive. Characteristics passions are the strength of feeling, expressed in the appropriate direction of all thoughts of the individual, stability, unity of emotional and volitional moments, a peculiar combination of activity and passivity.

5. Mood is a relatively long-lasting, stable mental state of moderate or weak intensity. The reasons that cause mood are numerous - from organic well-being (vital tone) to the nuances of relationships with others. Mood has a subjective orientation; in comparison with a sensory tone, it is perceived not as a property of an object, but as a property of the subject. Individual personal characteristics play a certain role.

The variety of manifestations of human emotional life confronts psychology with the need to differentiate them more clearly. According to the tradition of Russian psychology, it is customary to distinguish feelings as a special subclass of emotional processes. A feeling is experienced and revealed in specific emotions. However, in contrast to the actual emotions and affects associated with specific situations, feelings are distinguished in surrounding reality phenomena that have a stable need-motivational significance. The content of a person’s dominant feelings expresses his attitudes, ideals, interests, etc. So, feelings are stable emotional relationships, acting as a kind of “attachment” to a certain range of phenomena of reality, as a persistent focus on them, as a certain “capture” by them. In the process of regulating behavior, feelings are assigned the role of leading emotional and semantic formations of the individual.

Emotional reactions (anger, joy, melancholy, fear) are divided into emotional response, emotional outburst and emotional explosion (affect). The emotional response is, according to the authors, the most dynamic and constant phenomenon of a person’s emotional life, reflecting rapid and shallow switches in a person’s relationship systems to routine changes in situations of everyday life. The intensity and duration of the emotional response are small, and it is not capable of significantly changing a person’s emotional state. A more pronounced intensity, tension and duration of experience is characterized by an emotional outburst, which can change the emotional state, but is not associated with a loss of self-control. An emotional explosion is characterized by a rapidly developing emotional reaction of great intensity with a weakening of volitional control over behavior and an easier transition into action. This is a short-term phenomenon, after which a loss of strength or even complete indifference and drowsiness sets in.

We can talk about emotional experiences of various durations: fleeting, unstable, long-lasting, lasting several minutes, hours and even days) and chronic. At the same time, one must understand the conventions of such a division. These three groups of emotional reactions can be called differently: operational (appearing with a single exposure), current and permanent (lasting weeks and months). However, an emotional reaction (anxiety, fear, frustration, monotony, etc.) under certain conditions can be operational (fleeting), current (long-term), and permanent (chronic). Therefore, the use of this characteristic when identifying a class of emotional reactions is very relative.

Concentrated around a person’s emotions and feelings huge amount various myths. This is due to the fact that people have a poor understanding of their diversity and importance. To learn to understand each other correctly, you need to understand what types of emotions exist and find out their characteristics. In addition, you need to learn to distinguish genuine feelings from mere window dressing.

What are emotions and feelings?

The emotional sphere of a person is a complex intricacy of elements that together make it possible to experience everything that happens to him and around him. It consists of four main components:

• Emotional tone is a response in the form of an experience that sets the state of the body. It is this that informs the body about how satisfied its current needs are and how comfortable it is now. If you listen to yourself, you can evaluate your emotional tone.
• Emotions are subjective experiences relating to situations and events that are important to a person.
• Feeling is sustainable emotional attitude person to some object. They are always subjective and appear in the process of interaction with others.
• An emotional state differs from a feeling by its weak focus on an object, and from an emotion by its greater duration and stability. It is always triggered by certain feelings and emotions, but at the same time as if on its own. A person may be in a state of euphoria, anger, depression, melancholy, etc.

Video: Psychology. Emotions and feelings

Functions and types of emotions

Emotions, to a greater or lesser extent, regulate the lives of each of us. Usually they have four main functions:

• Motivational-regulatory, designed to encourage action, guide and regulate. Often emotions completely suppress thinking in regulating human behavior.
• Communication is responsible for mutual understanding. It is emotions that tell us about a person’s mental and physical state and help us choose the right line of behavior when communicating with him. Thanks to emotions, we can understand each other even without knowing the language.
• Signaling allows you to communicate your needs to others using emotionally expressive movements, gestures, facial expressions, etc.
• Protective is expressed in the fact that a person’s instant emotional reaction can, in some cases, save him from danger.

Scientists have already proven that the more complex a living being is organized, the richer and more varied the range of emotions that it is capable of experiencing.

Emotions and feelings

In addition, all emotions can be divided into several types. The nature of the experience (pleasant or unpleasant) determines the sign of the emotion - positive or negative. Emotions are also divided into types depending on the impact on human activity - sthenic and asthenic. The former encourage a person to act, while the latter, on the contrary, lead to stiffness and passivity. But the same emotion can affect people or the same person differently in different situations. For example, severe grief plunges one person into despondency and inaction, while the other person seeks solace in work.

Not only people have emotions, but also animals. For example, when experiencing severe stress, they may change their behavior - become calmer or nervous, refuse food or stop reacting to the world around them.

Also, the type of emotions determines their modality. According to modality, three basic emotions are distinguished: fear, anger and joy, and the rest are only their peculiar expression. For example, fear, worry, anxiety and horror are different manifestations of fear.

The main human emotions

As we have already said, emotions are usually associated with the current moment and are a person’s reaction to a change in his current state. Among them, several main ones stand out:

• joy is an intense feeling of satisfaction with one’s condition and situation;
• fear is the body’s defensive reaction in the event of a threat to its health and well-being;
• excitement - increased excitability caused by both positive and negative experiences, takes part in the formation of a person’s readiness for important event and activates his nervous system;
• interest is an innate emotion that spurs the cognitive aspect of the emotional sphere;
• surprise is an experience reflecting the contradiction between existing experience and new one;
• resentment is an experience associated with the manifestation of injustice towards a person;
• anger, anger, rage are negatively colored affects directed against perceived injustice;
• embarrassment - worry about the impression made on others;
• pity is a surge of emotions that occurs when the suffering of another person is perceived as one’s own.

Most of us easily distinguish the emotions of another by external manifestations.

Types of human feelings

Human feelings are often confused with emotions, but they have many differences. Feelings take time to arise; they are more persistent and less likely to change. They are all divided into three categories:

• Moral (moral or emotional) feelings arise in relation to the behavior of others or oneself. Their development occurs in the course of any activity and is usually associated with moral standards accepted in society. Depending on how much what is happening corresponds to a person’s internal attitudes, he develops a feeling of indignation or, conversely, satisfaction. This category also includes all attachments, likes and dislikes, love and hatred.
• Intellectual feelings are experienced by a person during mental activity. These include inspiration, joy from success and stress from failure.
• A person experiences aesthetic feelings when creating or appreciating something beautiful. This can apply to both objects of art and natural phenomena.
• Practical feelings give rise to human activity, its results, success or failure.

1. Psychological characteristics of the atmosphere of society

(and corresponding human conditions)

	Aggressiveness
	Greed
	Altruism
	Anomia (deviant behavior: suicidal tendencies, apathy, disappointment, illegal behavior).
	Irresponsibility
	Lack of ideas
	Unselfishness
	Lack of rights
	Unscrupulousness
	Rudeness
	Mutual aid
	Understanding
	Mutual respect
	Hostility
	Permissiveness
	Coarseness
	Discipline
	Integrity
	Cruelty
	Law-abiding
	Intelligence
	Intelligence
	Sincerity
	Conflict
	Creativity
	Xenophobia (fear or hatred of someone or something foreign, unfamiliar, unusual)
	Culture
	Mafia
	Commercialism
	Courage
	Impudence
	Reliability
	Tension
	Bad manners
	Hatred
	Optional
	Moral
	Optimism
	Responsiveness
	Patriotism
	meanness
	Suspicion
	Decency
	Psychological safety
	Idle talk
	Swagger
	Rationality
	Self-control
	Foul language
	Modesty
	Sympathy
	Calm
	Justice
	Tact
	Anxiety
	Hard work
	Familiarity
	Civility
	Humanity
	Honesty

2. List of basic emotions and feelings

Positive

1. Pleasure

2. Joy.

3. Rejoicing.

4. Delight.

5. Pride.

6. Confidence.

7. Trust.

8. Sympathy.

9. Admiration.

10. Love (sexual).

11. Love (affection).

12. Respect.

13. Tenderness.

14. Gratitude (appreciation).

15. Tenderness.

16. Complacency.

17. Bliss

18. Schadenfreude.

19. Feeling of satisfied revenge.

20. Peace of mind.

21. Feeling of relief.

22. Feeling satisfied with yourself.

23. Feeling of security.

24. Anticipation.

Neutral

25. Curiosity.

26. Surprise.

27. Amazement.

28. Indifference.

29. Calm and contemplative mood.

Negative

30. Displeasure.

31. Grief (sorrow).

33. Sadness (sadness).

34. Despair.

35. Chagrin.

36. Anxiety.

38. Fear.

41. Pity.

42. Sympathy (compassion).

43. Regret.

44. Annoyance.

46. ​​Feeling insulted.

47. Indignation (indignation).

48. Hatred.

49. Dislike.

50. Envy.

52. Anger.

53. Dejection.

55. Jealousy.

57. Uncertainty (doubt).

58. Mistrust.

60. Confusion.

61. Rage.

62. Contempt.

63. Disgust.

64. Disappointment.

65. Disgust.

66. Dissatisfaction with oneself.

67. Repentance.

68. Remorse.

69. Impatience.

70. Bitterness.

The feelings we have listed do not exhaust the entire palette, the entire diversity of human emotional states. A comparison with the colors of the solar spectrum is appropriate here. There are 7 basic tones, but how many more intermediate colors do we know and how many shades can be obtained by mixing them!

It is difficult to say how many different emotional states there may be - but, in any case, there are immeasurably more than 70. Emotional states are highly specific, even if they have the same name with modern crude assessment methods. There seem to be many shades of anger, joy, sadness and other feelings.

Love for an older brother and love for a younger sister are similar, but far from identical feelings. The first is colored with admiration, pride, and sometimes envy; the second is a sense of self-superiority, a desire to provide patronage, sometimes pity and tenderness. A completely different feeling is love for parents, love for children. But to designate all these feelings we use one name.

We have made the division of feelings into positive and negative not on ethical grounds, but solely on the basis of the pleasure or displeasure delivered. Therefore, gloating ended up in the column of positive feelings, and sympathy - in the negative feelings column. As we see, there are significantly more negative ones than positive ones. Why? Several explanations can be offered.

Sometimes the idea is expressed that there are simply many more words in the language that express unpleasant feelings, because in good mood a person is generally less inclined to introspection. This explanation seems unsatisfactory to us.

The initial biological role of emotions is signaling, of the “pleasant - unpleasant”, “safe - dangerous” type. Apparently, the signaling “dangerous” and “unpleasant” is more significant for the animal; it is vitally important, more relevant, because it directs its behavior in critical situations.

It is clear that such information in the process of evolution should receive priority over information signaling “comfort”.

But what has developed historically can change historically. When a person masters the laws social development, then this will change his emotional life, moving the center of gravity towards positive, pleasant feelings.

Let's return to the list of feelings. If you carefully read all 70 names, you will notice that some of the listed feelings coincide in content and differ only in intensity. For example, surprise and amazement differ only in strength, that is, in degree of expression. The same is anger and rage, pleasure and bliss, etc. Therefore, some clarifications need to be made to the list.

Typically, feelings come in four main forms:

1. The actual feeling.

2. Affect.

3. Passion.

4. Mood.

Definition feelings given by us above.

Affect - this is a very strong short-term feeling associated with a motor reaction (or with complete immobility - numbness. But numbness is also a motor reaction).

Passion called a strong and lasting feeling.

Mood - the resultant of many feelings. This state is distinguished by a certain duration, stability and serves as the background against which all other elements of mental activity take place.

Thus, if we consider surprise a feeling, then amazement is the same feeling, but brought to the level of affect (remember the final silent scene of “The Inspector General”).

Similarly, we call anger brought to the level of passion by rage, bliss is the affect of pleasure, delight is the affect of joy, despair is the affect of grief, horror is the affect of fear, adoration is love that has become passion in duration and strength, etc.

3. Option: List of basic emotions and feelings

There is no definitive list of emotions either in psychology or physiology. You can count more 500 different emotional states . In conversational practice, people often use the same word to designate different experiences, and their actual nature becomes clear only from the context. At the same time, the same emotion can be designated by different words.

Excitement Serenity Indifference Helplessness Powerlessness Gratitude Cheerfulness Inspiration Guilt Indignation Excitement Inspiration Delight Admiration Arrogance Anger Pride Pride Grief Sadness Contentment Frustration Drive, Pity, Care, Envy Interest Ingratiation Confusion Arrogance Schadenfreude Anger Amazement Irony d Jubilation Cunning Admiration Curiosity Plea Gloominess Hope Arrogance Tension, Wariness Equanimity Indignation Tenderness, Awkwardness Impatience Discouragement Resentment, Doom Preoccupation Mischief Disgust Insult, Caution Disgust Daze Detachment Numbness Sadness Tearfulness Depression Suspicion Submissiveness Patronizing Rush Lost Superiority Anticipation Contempt Neglect Inquisitiveness JoyAnnoyance Absent-mindedness Confusion, Zealousness Sarcasm Grief Boredom Laughter Confusion Confusion Composure Regret Calm Shyness Suffering Fear Longing Shame Anxiety Trembling Passion Surprise Satisfaction Pleasure Dejection Tenderness Peaceful Dejection Tenacity Fatigue Royalty Euphoria Exaltation Ecstasy Energy Enthusiasm Rage...

However, some researchers believe that there are few basic, elementary emotions, and the entire huge list of emotions are the constructions of these bricks, their one or another combination. So, for example, anger is disgust plus aggression. And love is joy when a loved one is nearby and sadness when apart; aggression - in in this case this desire to be close; fear is the fear of losing the object of love... What emotions can be classified as elementary? The list of elementary emotions is controversial. Various lists of elementary emotions offer Izard,McDowell and other researchers.

IN Gestalt therapy it is believed that the most elementary emotions five : MAD – anger, aggression, disgust. SAD – sadness, sadness, suffering. GLAD - joy. SCARED - fear. SEXY – pleasure, bliss, tenderness.

The whole variety of emotions cannot be reduced only to elementary and composite emotions. Having a more complex and original structure - complex emotions. Light sadness, tender gratitude, pride in success...