Talk:List of emotions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject on Psychology
Portal		 This article is within the scope of WikiProject Psychology, which collaborates on Psychology and related subjects on Wikipedia. To participate, help improve this article or visit the project page for details on the project.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.

Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it needs.

Contents

[edit] This page is a mess

This page is a mess -- many of these things are not emotions, and are synonyms. I have attempted to move the synonyms into a section, and remove those which are not strictly emotions (rapture, repentance). --dsm iv tr 11:25, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree with DSM IV TR on this matter. I always understood emotion to be tied to physiological responses in the brain. It has been taught ubiquitously in textbooks that the 6 basic human emotions are happiness, saddness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise. In the neurobiology of emotion, the emotions listed are "agreement, amusement, anger, certainty, control, disagreement, disgust, disliking, embarrassment, fear, guilt, happiness, hate, interest, liking, love, sadness, shame, surprise, and uncertainty." It also states: "Emotions are mammalian elaborations of vertebrate arousal patterns, in which neurochemicals (e.g., dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin) step-up or step-down the brain's activity level, as visible in body movements, gestures, and postures."
My question is: why are there 2 or 3 lists in this article (like the one at the top from Aristotle's Rhetoric) that have little to no scientific backing, while other, more accurate lists of emotions are not included in this article? I propose that we first list the basic 6 (as it's agreed upon by many neurobiologists and psychologists), and then list others from the neurobiology of emotion. We can then follow with other, less scientifically accepted lists. Thoughts anyone?

--Ubiq 08:00, 26 December 2006 (UTC)


It's a start! It's definitely a start!  :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.184.184.203 (talk) 05:30, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] incompetence

I studied Maslow heirarchy of needs. Everybody has a very basic need for security and comfort. Not just having a physical place but an emotional place, a feeling place. Self centeredness and fear...

[edit] Needs some Ekman

The most commonly cited list of emotions is that defined by Paul Ekman. It's not perfect, but it's notable enough to be here. matturn 02:32, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Synonyms?

"Synonyms (in ancient Greek syn 'συν' = plus and onoma 'όνομα' = name) are different words with similar or identical meanings and are interchangeable."

Synonyms are words. If one word is a synonym for another word that happens to represent an emotion, then that first word also represents the same emotion. Words are just representations of things, not the things themselves. The section, Synonyms for common emotions doesn't really even make sense! ← (another representation of an emotion) If a word on this list really isn't an emotion, then it should just be deleted (hopefully with some defensible justification). Rfrisbietalk 13:43, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Many of these words are simply not emotions in and of themselves, but are used mistakenly, describing the intensity of an emotion rather than the emotion itself, which may or may not be as strong as the speaker intends. Take angst, as an a example. Webster's online dictionary claims it to be, generally, "a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity" (definition), whereas dread (definition) is "to feel extreme reluctance to meet or face". They differ in magnitude. Trepidation is closer to apprehension than to fear, and is also used in this way. I felt at the time that it was best to describe them as synonyms, since they are used so frequently as such. Meanwhile, I have noticed that glad and happy appear to be as you described, and will gladly (pardon the pun) move "glad" back into the fray. Perhaps you or someone else can suggest a different approach to this section? A separate page (not on the list of emotions), maybe? Thank you! --dsm iv tr 03:11, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Dsm, dread and agnst are not synonyms. Also rfrisbie has a point I want to amplify: when it comes to emotions there usually are no synonyms; we have two words because they are subtly different. Finally, I think inspiration, in the sense of being inspired by something, is an emotion, something similar to awe.--simon

[edit] What is the name for this emotion?

What is the name for the emotion felt when seeing a famous person make a fatal mistake. For example, when a star from another medium melts down on live TV. It's partly fascination (also missing from this article), but something else as well. It's not schadenfreude, because you're not necessarily glad to see the person fall, but you're drawn to the spectacle. Sometimes people say "like watching a train wreck."

I'd call that attentive vicarious embarassment. :) --Ubiq 00:06, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
Empathic people sometimes refer to vicarious embarrassment as 'the dumbchills'. Strong empaths, like INFJs (in the MBTI system) seem to feel more distress watching someone being humiliated than the person who actually experiences the humiliation. Ninquerinquar 19:05, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Timidity goes to the wrong article

The Timidity link goes to the wrong article.

Nothing matched so I removed the link. Rfrisbietalk 13:43, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] oops!

looks like the alphabetical list that is supposed to include all the emotions listed above does not.

[edit] wonder, awe?

i was curious as to whether wonder and/or awe are considered emotions. wonder appears on one list, awe on none. are there any other lists of emotions not yet included that do include awe?

[edit] Lojban

I think this is being given prominence out of all proportion to Lojban's significance. Most people have never heard of Lojban, so to give it a whole section (with no explanation!) quite high up the article seems close to absurd. 86.136.253.254 03:43, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

It currently links to Logjam, a Minnesota festival. I will correct it to Lojban, the language. ADyuaa (talk) 21:21, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Editing the emotions section of the Psychology Project

The content of this section was moved to Wikipedia:WikiProject_Psychology/Emotion, where it belongs... You may go there if you please. Robert Daoust 02:01, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Annoncing a request for renaming category emotion

I made a request for renaming Category:Emotion to Category:Affective states and processes. You are invited to share your thoughts on the matter at Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_September_12 --Robert Daoust 03:31, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

It appears that such a renaming is unacceptable. People want to keep the term emotion as a category. Then, this means one of two alternatives: (1) category emotion includes all affective topics, (2) category emotion is reserved for 'strong' feelings. Alternative (1) is the present problematic situation. Alternative (2) seems to me the way to go for a solution, but the problem of naming and organizing the category 'all affective topics' will require another initiative than mine. --Robert Daoust 18:13, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why add phobia?

Why add "phobia" to the list, considering that fear is already on the list? In fact, "phobia" isn't even an emotion - it's strictly a verb, never a noun, and is a fear of something in particular. You can feel fear, but you can't feel phobia. This page is a mess. It really should be started from scratch - fixing this wreck would just take more work. I think the problem with this page is that there are so many emotions, and many are a blend of other emotions. There are also several emotions that don't even have names. "Emotions" is too broad of a topic to create a single page without becoming a mess. Sorry for the doubt, but...seriously.

[edit] How to clean up this page

I have an idea on how to clean up this page! I don't know how else to suggest it, so I'm just posting it on this page. What if the "List of Emotions" page was strictly an alphebetical list of emotions - giving no information on each emotion, no confusing charts, no Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions, etc. There could just be links to each emotion, and the emotion's personal page can include all the information on that emotion. Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions, etc could also have its own page. Of course, there will still be disagreements about whether something is or isn't an emotion, but that comes with the territory of such a broad, abstract topic. A basic list would be much less messy. Anyone think this is a good idea???


[edit] A suggestion for how to use this page

Why not give examples of emotions used in the arts. I will use "Pride" as an example.

An example of "Pride"

In the musical Oklahoma!, Curly is infatuated with Laurey, and Laurey is infatuated with Curly. But, they are both too proud to admit to each other that they love each other. They are even to proud to let anyone else know how they feel for each other.

An example of the opposite of "Pride" could be: In the musical Oklahoma!, Will Parker has returned early from his trip to Kansas City telling everyone he won fifty dollars so he can marry his girlfriend Ado Annie. But he spent it all on presents for Ado Annie and her father. He shows off all the presents to everyone. Meanwhile, his girlfriend who can't say no to other men has gotten herself engaged to a peddler who only just flirted with her.

I think a page like this would be a great idea. I hope you agree. Darlinginmyfashion 07:38, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A semantic atlas of emotional concepts

The paper by Averill, J.R. (1975) “A semantic atlas of emotional concepts”, JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, Vol. 5, No. 330, pp.1-64 (Ms No. 1103) analyzes 558 terms referring to emotional concepts. Appendix “B” of the paper lists these terms in decreasing order of emotional relevance. This paper may provide a valuable resource for this page. I have a copy of it (from the author) but I don not know the release status of the paper. There are some extracts from it are on-line at: http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/mood.htm --Lbeaumont 02:36, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Original research and notability

I just wanted to offer my opinion that having people come up with their own lists of emotions looks to me like original research. I sort of like the way the article doesn't try to give an exhaustive list of emotions, but merely records what various psychologists have listed. I think this is the proper way to go as long as the criteria of notability is held in check. So yes, Aristotle and the Stoics are notable enough to be included, even if people believe that they have been scientifically superceded (this should be mentioned if it can be verified). I'd also include Spinoza for that matter and any other notable psychologists (does Freud list emotions at some point?).

Also, emotions that have been significantly studied or critiqued should be listed in a separate list, again keeping in mind the criteria of no original research and notability. For instance, pity should be included as many different and notable philosophers have written about pity, even if it didn't show up on anyone's list of emotions (which it does, so this probably isn't the best example).

And at the end, perhaps in a list of "Other emotions", links should be given to emotions that Wikipedia has full (non-stub) articles on that aren't in the rest of the list.

You guys really shouldn't be arguing about what is or isn't an emotion as such arguments really have nothing to do with what should be in this article. Do your armchair philosophy/psychology elsewhere :)

Kevin (talk) 23:58, 22 December 2007 (UTC)