Reflections: Emotional Competency - Recognize these emotions

Learn to recognize these emotions in yourself and others
Know how you feel

Each emotion serves as a primal beacon, guiding us along the difficult path of survival and procreation. Many researchers have worked to define emotions and have created their own lists of what they consider to be an emotion. Several of those lists are presented here. Use these lists and short descriptions to recognize the emotions you are feeling; then use the detailed description of each emotion to guide you toward the most constructive response. A subjective mood map locates each emotion according to the energy level and good-bad feelings often associated with it.
Seven Basic Emotions

Paul Ekman has dedicated his career to researching emotions, focusing primarily on these seven basic emotions.

Fear — Danger lurks

Sadness — Impending loss

Anger — Conspecific threat, trespass, thwarted goals, plea for justice

Joy — Impending gain

Surprise — Unexpected event

Disgust — Contamination, toxic contact

Contempt — Substandard behavior or being

The following facial expressions are characteristic of these seven basic emotions throughout the world:

Surprise Disgust Contempt Fear Joy Sadness Anger

The Passion and Reason 15

The book Passion and Reason provides clear definitions and descriptions of 15 separate emotions. These are:

Anger — Conspecific threat, trespass, loss attributed to an agent, unjust insult, thwarted goals, plea for justice

Envy — Desiring other's stature objects

Jealousy — Threat to sexual access.

Fright — Concern for a future specific unpleasant event.

Anxiety — Concern for an unidentified unpleasant event.

Guilt — You have a standard and I did not meet it.

Shame — I have a standard and I did not meet it

Relief — Anticipated undesirable outcome has not occurred

Hope — Anticipation of future desirable event or outcome

Sadness — A specific undesirable outcome has occurred

Depression — lost hope

Happiness — A desirable event or outcome has occurred

Pride — I approve of my actions, I have met a standard (mine = smug, yours = authentic)

Love — Attraction and caring

Gratitude — Appreciating another's kindness

Compassion — Feeling the pain of another

Aesthetic Experience — Awe, wonder, and slight fear of nature and its creations.

The Rationalized 22

The book The Cognitive Structure of Emotions describes these 22 distinct emotions in an organized structure:

Appraisal of an event:

Joy — (contented, cheerful, delighted, ecstatic, elated, euphoric, feeling good, glad, happy, joyful, jubilant, pleasantly surprised, pleased) — Pleased by the appraisal of an event

Distress — (depressed, distressed, displeased, dissatisfied, distraught, feeling bad, feeling uncomfortable, grief, homesick, lonely, lovesick, miserable, regret, sad, shock, uneasy, unhappy, upset) — displeased by the appraisal of an event

Fortune of others:

Happy-for — (delighted-for, happy-for, pleased-for) — Pleased about an event desirable for another

Sorry-for — (compassion, pity, sad-for, sorry-for, sympathy) — Displeased about an event undesirable for another

Resentment — (envy, jealousy, resentment) — Displeased about an event desirable for another

Gloating — (gloating, Schadenfreude) — Pleased about an event undesirable for another

Appraisal of an agent's action:

Pride — (pride) — Approving of one’s own action

Shame — (embarrassment, feeling guilty, mortified, self-blame, self-condemnation, self-reproach, shame, (psychologically) uncomfortable, uneasy) — Disapproving of one’s own action

Admiration — (admiration, appreciation, awe, esteem, respect) — Approving of another’s action

Reproach — (appalled, contempt, despise, distain, indignation, reproach) — Disapproving of another’s action

Appraisal of an Object:

Love — (adore, affection, attracted-to, like, love) — Liking an appealing object

Hate — (aversion, detest, disgust, dislike, hate, loathe, repelled-by, revulsion) — Disliking an unappealing object

Appraisal of a possible future (prospective) event:

Hope — (anticipation, excitement, expectancy, hope, hopeful, looking forward to) — Pleased about a prospective desirable event

Fear — (apprehensive, anxious, cowering, dread, fear, fright, nervous, petrified, scared, terrified, timid, worried) — Displeased about a prospective undesirable event

Satisfaction — (gratification, hopes-realized, satisfaction) — Pleased about an confirmed desirable event

Relief —(relief) — Pleased about a disconfirmed undesirable event

Fears-confirmed — (fears-confirmed, worst fears realized) — Displeased about a confirmed undesirable event

Disappointment — (dashed-hopes, despair, disappointment, frustration, heartbroken) — Displeased about a disconfirmed desirable event

Compound Emotions:

Gratification — (gratification, pleased-with-oneself, self-satisfaction, smug) — Pride + joy

Gratitude — (appreciation, feeling indebted, thankful) — Admiration + joy

Anger — (anger, annoyance, exasperation, fury, incensed, indignation, irritation, livid, offended, outrage, rage) — Reproach + distress

Remorse — (penitent, remorse, self-anger) — Shame + distress

The Goleman Categories

In appendix “A” of his book Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman proposes these basic families of emotions:

Fear: (Safety) anxiety, apprehension, nervousness, concern, consternation, misgiving, wariness, qualm, edginess, dread, fright, terror and in the extreme cases phobia and panic.

Anger: (Justice) fury, outrage, resentment, wrath, exasperation, indignation, vexation, acrimony, animosity, annoyance, irritability, hostility, and perhaps these are manifest in the extreme as hatred and violence.

Sadness: (Loss) grief, sorrow, cheerlessness, gloom, melancholy, self-pity, loneliness, dejection, despair, and depression in the extreme case.

Enjoyment: (Gain) happiness, joy, relief, contentment, bliss, delight, amusement, pride, sensual pleasure, thrill, rapture, gratification, satisfaction, euphoria, whimsy, ecstasy, and at the far edge, mania.

Love: (Attraction) acceptance, friendliness, trust, kindness, affinity, devotion, adoration, infatuation, and agape.

Disgust: (Repulsion) contempt, distain, scorn, abhorrence, aversion, distaste, and revulsion

Surprise: (Attention) shock, astonishment, amazement, and wonder

Shame: (Self-control) guilt, embarrassment, chagrin, remorse, humiliation, regret, mortification, and contrition.

And Also:

Flow — The absence of emotion or self-consciousness.

Ambivalence — Multiple, simultaneous, conflicting emotions.

It is likely that the variation and discrepancies among these lists result from a reification fallacy. The abstraction that we loosely call “emotion” is not real, it is not well-defined, and it most likely describes a composite of disparate real phenomenon that are not yet well understood.

Non-Emotions

In his 1991 book, Emotion and Adaptation, Richard Lazarus lists several mental states that may be emotion related, but are not themselves actual emotions. The list includes the complex states of: grief and depression; the ambiguous positive states of: expansiveness, awe, confidence, challenge, determination, satisfaction, and being pleased; the ambiguous negative states of: threat, frustration, disappointment, helplessness, meaningless, and awe; the mental confusion states of bewilderment and confusion; the arousal states of: excitement, upset, distress, nervousness, tension, and agitation; and finally the pre-emotions of: interest, curiosity, amazement, anticipation, alertness, and surprise.

Note he included “awe” and “depression” in the list of emotions described in his later book, Passion and Reason. Also, Paul Ekman includes “surprise” in his list of basic emotions.

Other mental states, such as bored, alert, drowsy, and trance are also not emotions.