Emotions are consistent with feelings, behaviors, physiological changes, and cognition and always occur in a particular context that influences them.

During the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman identified six basic emotions that he suggested were universally experienced in all human cultures. The feelings he identified were happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger. He later expanded his basic emotions to pride, shame, embarrassment, and excitement.

Happiness

Of all the types of emotions, happiness tends to be the one people will strive to achieve the most. Happiness is a pleasant emotional state characterized by contentment, joy, gratification, satisfaction, and well-being.

The outward signs that characterize happiness are:

• Facial expressions such as smiling
• Body language, such as a relaxed stance
• An upbeat, pleasant tone of voice

Happiness is considered one of the basic human emotions, and our understanding of happiness tends to be heavily influenced by culture. For example, pop culture suggests attaining a home or having a high-paying job will result in happiness. Happiness is often much more complex and unique to each individual (Gruber & Moskowitz, 2014).

Happiness and health are connected, and research has supported the idea that happiness plays a role in physical and mental health. Happiness is linked to various outcomes, including increased longevity and marital satisfaction (Lawrence et al., 2015).

Conversely, unhappiness has been connected to various poor health outcomes. Stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness are linked to lowered immunity, increased inflammation, and decreased life expectancy (Wolkowitz et al., 2010).

Sadness

Sadness is often defined as a transient emotional state characterized by disappointment, grief, hopelessness, disinterest, and a dampened mood.

Sadness is something that all people experience from time to time. In some cases, people can experience prolonged and severe periods of sadness that can turn into depression.

Sadness is expressed outwardly in the following ways:

• Dampened mood
• Quietness
• Lethargy
• Withdrawal from others
• Crying

The type and severity of sadness vary depending on the root cause and how people cope.

Fear

Fear is a powerful emotion that can also be essential to survival. When you face some danger and experience fear, you go through what is known as the fight or flight response. Your muscles tense, your heart rate and respiration increase, and your mind become more alert, priming your body to run from danger or stand and fight (Kozlowska et al., 2015). This response helps you be prepared to deal with threats in your environment.

Expressions of fear can include:

• Facial expressions such as widening the eyes and pulling back the chin
• Attempts to hide or flee from the threat
• Physiological reactions such as rapid breathing and heartbeat

Some people are more sensitive to fear, and the specific situations that trigger fear vary widely across individuals. Fear is an emotional response to an immediate real or perceived threat. Fear can also be learned through negative experiences and trauma; anticipating a learned threat or potential danger can trigger fear. We generally think of this as anxiety. Social anxiety, for example, involves an anticipated fear of social situations.

Some individuals actively seek out fear-provoking situations. For example, extreme sports enthusiasts seek out the fear-inducing thrill of competition. These individuals seem to thrive and even enjoy these feelings.

Repeated exposure to a fear-inducing object or situation can lead to familiarity and acclimation, reducing feelings of fear and anxiety (Adolphs, 2013). This process is used by exposure therapy, where people are gradually exposed to the things that frighten them in a controlled and safe context. Eventually, feelings of fear begin to decrease as they become desensitized.

Disgust 

The sense of disgust can originate from unpleasant tastes, sights, or smells. Researchers believe this emotion evolved as a reaction to foods that may be harmful or fatal. For example, disgust is a typical reaction when people smell or taste foods that have gone bad.

Poor hygiene, infection, blood, rotten things, and death can trigger a disgust response. This is the body's way of avoiding things that may carry transmittable diseases (Oaten et al., 2009). People can experience moral disgust when they observe others engaging in behaviors that they find distasteful, immoral, or evil.

Disgust is expressed in several ways, including:

• Turning away from the object of disgust
• Physical reactions such as vomiting or retching
• Facial expressions such as wrinkling the nose and curling the upper lip

Anger

Anger can be a compelling emotion characterized by hostility, agitation, frustration, and antagonism toward others. Like fear, anger can affect your body's fight or flight response. When a threat generates feelings of anger, you may be inclined to fend off the danger and protect yourself.

Anger is outwardly displayed through:

• Facial expressions such as frowning or glaring
• Body language, such as taking a solid stance or turning away from someone
• The tone of voice, such as speaking gruffly or yelling
• Physiological responses such as sweating or turning red
• Aggressive behaviors such as hitting, kicking, or throwing objects

Anger can sometimes be a positive and constructive feeling. It can help clarify your needs in a relationship and motivate you to take action and find solutions to things that are bothering you.

Anger can become a problem when it is excessive or expressed in ways that are unhealthy, dangerous, or harmful to others. Uncontrolled anger can quickly turn to aggression, abuse, or violence.

Anger can have both mental and physical consequences. Unchecked anger can impede our ability to make rational decisions and negatively impact our health. Anger is associated with the development of coronary heart disease and diabetes (Staicu et al., 2010). Anger is connected to behaviors that pose health risks, such as aggressive driving, alcohol consumption, and smoking.

Surprise 

Surprise is usually brief and characterized by a startling physiological response following something unexpected.

This emotion can be positive, negative, or neutral. An unpleasant surprise can be trigged by someone jumping out from behind a tree and scaring you.

Surprise is characterized by:

• Facial expressions such as raising the brows, widening the eyes, and opening the mouth
• Physical responses such as jumping back
• Verbal reactions such as yelling, screaming, or gasping

Surprise is another emotion that can trigger the fight or flight response. When startled, people experience a burst of adrenaline that helps prepare the body to either fight or flee (Gottlieb, 1999).

Surprise can have significant effects on human behavior. Research has shown that people tend to notice surprising events disproportionately. For this reason, surprising and unusual events in the news tend to stand out in our memories. Research has also found that people tend to be more swayed by surprising arguments and learn more from incredible information.

Other Emotions 

The six basic emotions are a portion of the many emotions that people are capable of experiencing. Eckman's theory suggests that these core emotions are universal throughout cultures across the globe.

Eckman later added other emotions to his list but suggested that, unlike his original six emotions, these are not necessarily encoded through facial expressions. Some of the emotions he included in his theory later are:

• Amusement
• Contentment
• Excitement
• Contempt
• Embarrassment
• Relief
• Pride in achievement
• Guilt
• Satisfaction
• Shame

Biologically Grounded Emotions

From an evolutionary and survival perspective, four or five biologically grounded emotions are essential. These emotions are:

1. Anxiety or fear
2. Sadness
3. Anger
4. Happiness or joy
5. Disgust

Psychologist Robert Plutchik (1991) created a wheel of emotions consisting of eight basic and eight advanced emotions. Emotions can be connected to form different feelings; much like paints can be mixed to create different colors. According to this theory, the more basic emotions are building blocks. More complex feelings are blends of these more basic ones. For example, basic emotions such as joy and trust can be combined to create love.

The primary emotions and their opposites are:

The advanced emotions and their opposites are:

A 2017 study (Cowen & Kettner, 2017) suggests more basic emotions than previously believed. These researchers identified twenty-seven categories of emotion. Rather than being entirely distinct, they found that people experience these emotions simultaneously. 

Feelings are Useful

People tend to think of feelings as positive or negative depending on whether they agitate (like fear, anger, and guilt) or encourage (like pleasure, joy, contentment, and satisfaction). Our approach to understanding feelings is to think of them as guides, or loyal friends, trying to get your attention so you’ll consider factors other than logic in your response to a situation. Feelings try to help you respond to different situations. Every feeling is “good” in terms of its purpose to serve you, protect you, and guide you. Your feelings offer honest information. Listening to feelings is an important skill. Considering them provides more data to incorporate into your choices about action (behavior).

Feelings are Indicators

Your feelings are valuable sources of personal information, but don’t let them run your life. It is not always a good idea to act on them. Whether and how to respond are ethical choices that you need to make. For example, a feeling of anger offers personal information to you about your situation, usually in which you feel frustrated, mistreated, misinterpreted, hurt, threatened, or blocked. These feelings get your attention by agitating your body, so you recognize the problem. What you do with this information is the issue.

The guiding principle is to accept your feelings and use discernment when choosing your behaviors. You are free to feel when you make this distinction between feelings and behaviors. You can feel frustrated and decide not to express this feeling to your partner. Instead, you can choose a more positive course by pausing to calm your body (feelings) and then asking your partner for a few moments to discuss the matter cooperatively. You want to learn from your feelings but not let them dictate to you. You want to listen to your feelings, consider their counsel, and then decide how to respond constructively and effectively. Integrating your feelings and reason gives you a complete picture of your life, relationship, and sexuality.

Identifying and Releasing Feelings

Feelings are also an indicator that something is going on with your clients. The following are five steps to identify and release feelings. They are helpful steps to follow when working with clients working through emotional issues blocking them or making it challenging to focus. Could you bring attention to your body? This is where feelings originate.

1. Identify the place in your body that “hurts.” Where is there tension or tightness, or pain?

• Upper chest relates to sadness
• Heart relates to hurt
• Stomach relates to anger or fear

2. I'd like you to focus on the physical area where the feeling occurs.
3. Accept whatever feeling comes up.

• Open yourself to it. Experience it without resistance.
• Become choice-less about whether you want to have the feeling or not.
• Stay with the feeling and don’t analyze it.

4. You can express the feeling by choosing the feeling word that seems challenging to say.

Watch for the following defenses:

• Storytelling
• Speaking in the second or third person, such as saying “you” or “people” instead of “I.”
• Avoiding the use of primary feeling words such as angry, sad, hurt, lonely, ashamed, happy, afraid

If your client is unsure of their feelings, you may find “trying on” different feelings helpful. Try making a feeling statement such as “I feel disappointed” and seeing if the feeling intensity comes to the surface. If the emotion resonates with the client, you may have helped the client get closer to the emotion. If the feeling statement doesn’t resonate with the client, a different feeling or word may fit their experience better.

Like the above point, some people may respond well to closed questions to help identify their feelings, such as “Do you feel sad?”. However, some clients may become distracted by this approach. Use the direct method sparingly and test the waters with your client first.

References

Adolphs R. (2013). The Biology of Fear. Current Biology, 23(2), 79-93.

Gottlieb, M. M. (1999). The Angry Self: A Comprehensive Approach to Anger Management. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig Tucker & Co.

Gruber, J., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2014). Positive Emotion, Integrating the Light Sides and Dark Sides. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Kozlowska, K., Walker, P., Mclean, L., & Carrive, P. (2015). Fear and The Defense Cascade: Clinical Implications and Management. Harvard Review of Psychiatry. 23(4):263-287.

Lawrence, E. M., Rogers, R. G., Wadsworth, T. (2015). Happiness and Longevity in The United States. Social Science Medicine, 145, 115-119.

Staicu, M. L., & Cuţov, M. (2010). Anger and Health Risk Behaviors. Journal of Medical Life. 3(4), 372-375.

Wolkowitz, O. M., Epel, E. S., Reus, V. I., & Mellon, S. H. (2010). Depression Gets Old Fast: Do Stress and Depression Accelerate Cell Aging? Depression and Anxiety. 27(4):327-338.