Sad Feelings Persist Much Longer than other Emotions

[Gaze]

Sad Feelings Persist Much Longer than other Emotions

psychcentral.comhttp://psychcentral.com/news/2014/1...st-much-longer-than-other-emotions/76795.html

[h=1]Sad Feelings Persist Much Longer than other Emotions[/h]Rick Nauert PhDBy Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 31, 2014
As humans we all have emotional responses to change and transition.
New research helps to explain the emotion of sadness and why sadness seems to last longer than other emotions.
In the study, investigators discovered a person can feel sad up to 240 times longer than they feel ashamed, surprised, irritated, or even bored.
The reason for this extended response is complex although one reason is logical – sadness often goes hand in hand with events of greater impact such as death or accidents.
“The extended duration of sadness allows one more time to mull over and cope with what happened to fully comprehend it,” say researchers Philippe Verduyn and Saskia Lavrijsen of the University of Leuven in Belgium.
Their research, published in the journal Motivation and Emotion, is the first to provide clear evidence to explain why some emotions last a longer time than others.
The Belgian researchers asked 233 high school students to recollect recent emotional episodes and report their duration.
The participants also had to answer questions about the strategies they use to appraise and deal with these emotions.
Researchers discovered various emotions have different duration’s – that is, some last longer than others.
Out of a set of 27 emotions, sadness lasted the longest, whereas shame, surprise, fear, disgust, boredom, being touched, irritated, or feeling relief were often over quickly.
The finding that boredom was among the shorter emotions experienced was surprising.
Verduyn and Lavrijsen believe this means that even though time seems to pass slowly when one is bored, an episode of boredom typically doesn’t last that long.
A key finding of the research was that emotions that last a shorter time are typically prompted by events that have relatively low importance attached to them.
On the other hand, long-lasting emotions tend to be caused by events that have strong implications for a person’s major concerns.
Verduyn says some of these implications may only become apparent over time. This delayed reaction can cause the emotion to be maintained or strengthened. The feeling therefore endures while a person rethinks the events and consequences over and over again.
Duration was found to be a dimension that can differentiate between otherwise very similar emotions.
For instance, Verduyn and Lavrijsen found that guilt is an emotion that persists much longer than shame, while anxiety lingers longer than fear.
The feeling (either a positive or negative emotion) associated with an event one thinks about over and over or on a persistent basis, is more likely to persist.
“Rumination is the central determinant of why some emotions last longer than others. Emotions associated with high levels of rumination will last longest,” says Verduyn,
“Emotions of shorter duration are typically – but, of course, not always – elicited by events of relatively low importance.
“On the other hand, long-lasting emotions tend to be about something highly important,” Lavrijsen explains further.
Source: Springer

Sad man hugging a pillow photo by shutterstock.

APA Reference
Nauert, R. (2014). Sad Feelings Persist Much Longer than other Emotions. Psych Central. Retrieved on October 31, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/1...st-much-longer-than-other-emotions/76795.html





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Site last updated: 31 Oct 2014

 

[Dave Fallon]

A key finding of the research was that emotions that last a shorter time are typically prompted by events that have relatively low importance attached to them.

This is very interesting. I think it also shows how overly dramatic people can often push the apparent depth of their feelings but not the length in time. They may treat an event as a major thing by bewailing it to anyone that would listen, but if you let it blow over it often disappears by morning, probably because the *real* importance of the event to their brains isn't as bad.

 

[Gaze]

This is very interesting. I think it also shows how overly dramatic people can often push the apparent depth of their feelings but not the length in time. They may treat an event as a major thing by bewailing it to anyone that would listen, but if you let it blow over it often disappears by morning, probably because the *real* importance of the event to their brains isn't as bad.

Yeah, I was thinking that too. It makes you wonder whether prolonging the emotion does more harm than good. But then it depends on why the emotion is being prolonged. If you keep ignoring it, and it builds up, then it can also become a long term emotion, such as slight discomfort over a period of time leading to fear and avoidance of a situation. What the study doesn't address the combined effect of more than one emotion. For example, if you experience fear and shame, then that can last a long time although both individual may not last very long on their own. We don't experience emotions individually. We often experience them in addition to other emotions.

 

[CogentPursuit]

I must be broken then.

 

[Gaze]

I must be broken then.

how so?

 

[Dave Fallon]

It makes you wonder whether prolonging the emotion does more harm than good.

Oh, that's a good point too! If you manually hang on to something, does that trick your brain into thinking it is more important than it otherwise would be?

What the study doesn't address the combined effect of more than one emotion. For example, if you experience fear and shame, then that can last a long time although both individual may not last very long on their own. We don't experience emotions individually. We often experience them in addition to other emotions.

Yeah, I agree that emotions are just not so cut-and-dry. Also, I strongly believe you can't *avoid* a feeling, it just comes as it comes, but you can change either the depth or length of a feeling through conscious and unconscious activity and decisions. So while this is really interesting, there's bound to be a lot more to it than that. You combine multiple emotions, some of which feed off of one another, plus conscious decisions, plus unconscious decisions, and the whole emotional event can be very difficult to account for.

 

[CogentPursuit]

how so?

I feel a general contentment for periods of months with periodic and extremely short additions of irritations to a specific instance.

I feel the sadness of others but this is not mine, it is identifiably separate from me.

In ten years I had one instance of sadness that lasted a week. It was the only time I truly experienced sadness. It wasn't until that moment that I realized that I didn't even know what sadness was.
This is all disregarding the time I experienced depression which was best described as the absence of emotion which put into perceptive the emotion I normally feel 'contentment' which I had no idea I was feeling until it was gone because it was always there.

 

[Kgal]

Given: All emotions are essentially based upon two feelings: Fear and Love.

Yes. Fear based emotions hang on forever in our experience due to many factors. There is a saying in the 'love your self' teachings that "We experience good events/things like teflon plastic - and bad events/things like velcroe".

It all starts in the brain. What fires together wires together. When we experience any kind of trauma whether it be physical or emotional the brain latches on to this for it's life. In fact that's precisely why it does....because it's trying to protect the human in fear for it's life. Our ego/mind says "mannn ....we don't want to ever experience THAT again...so we're going to look out for that potential scenario to happen with all of our vigilance to better our understanding and be able to avoid it in the future.

This is the job of the mind. Yes?

When these traumatic scenarious happen fear based chemicals come into play and the neurons used to transmit these chemical (messages) are deeply gooved into the brain tissue. Or another way to look at this is the neuron/chemical transmission pathways are strengthened for further use. Each time the human experiences any kind of trauma this neuron pathway is used and strengthened again. Hence the phrase "What fires together wires together"....as neurons fire when they're being used.

So taking a look at our Western societies and the way they raise their children one begins to wonder at all of our traumatic experiences. First we experience birth which is a kind of trauma in itself...Yes? We're all warm and cozy and floating in Mom's tummy and suddenly we burst forth into the cold - having to breathe Air for the first time - and depending upon other factors we could be partially drugged from what Mom took in - and then we're washed in chemical solutions - given shots - and maybe - if we're lucky - we can hang out with Mom soon.

Then you factor in Potty Training - Do Not Touch - No. No. No. - PreK - Sit Still - Don't do that. Don't talk back. ....and the list goes on and on and on as each negative situation gets imprimted into our Minds. I know you know what I'm talking about.

If you are among the Senstive Humans - which since you're here in this forum I bet a million bucks you are - these scenarios are all the more deeply grooved into your psyche due to the nature of being an INxx.

Logically the key to shifting our Minds neuronal pathways is to Not use them. Right? Since they wouldn't be strenthened by using them they would unwire and lessen their ability.

Nevetheless in our world today this is incredibly difficult to practice as we are constantly bombarded with Fear inducing situations ranging from the Media to our employment and family situations.

From my own experience it took some major life changes to practice this. I distanced myself from people who were awash in Fear. I quit seeking the news. I quit discussing the things I used to be passionate about with all the problems in the world.
At the same time I began seeking anything to help me evoke peace, calm, happiness, joy, and love within me - strenthen my Joy chemicals and neuronal pathways.

I sought out motivational messages, practicing being grateful, watching youtube videos that made me laugh my ass off, looking at beautiful pictures of nature from around the world, Loving Kindness meditations, and spiritual teachings... Each person's joy will come from a different place - so think about what makes You curious and Joyful - and follow your intuition.

During this process I found all kinds of helpful tools and practices which helped me not only retrain my Mind to look for happy - thereby strengthening my Joy neuronal pathways - but I also found a way to love myself.

 

[Suraj Z]

I interpret sadness in primarily two ways. One would be the more fleeting, "aw" feeling you get when you're in the temporarily-induced mode of pitying something-or-other--usually by way of an event which is experienced indirectly through media, or by someone else in one's immediate environment experiencing it. Then there's prolonged sadness, the kind that results from experiencing something both novel and less-reversibly unfortunate, either by oneself or vicariously through a loved one. The latter is the type that's being treated, here.

In my own mind, the latter isn't actually an emotion. Rather, it is best thought of as a mode-of-being--not, in that manner, unlike being on a positive 'growth' trajectory in life, where one is generally more upbeat, active, and open to exploring opportunities and willing to take risks. The prolonged state of sadness can serve functionally as a preparatory 'hibernation' period, in anticipation of a (hopefully subsequent) positive-growth trajectory; similarly, the positive growth pattern can lead one to become overly-confident and make too many unwise decisions, and could lead to a more depressed state of mind (where one reflects deeply on whatever negative thing they have experienced or brought upon themselves, and begins developing guilt and/or any of the other emotional states delineated in the Kubler-Ross grieving model). And as the OP's cited article notes, reflection and introspection can lead to further sadness, thereby exacerbating the prolonged sadness period.

Given the above, then, my point of disagreement with the way emotions were dealt with in this study is that prolonged depressive states shouldn't be treated as emotions--and therefore, there's no reason (going by the article's logic) to believe that they would last longer or be briefer than their polar opposite: the positive-growth 'happiness' trajectory.

 

[barbad0s]

Isn't it interesting? Environmental factors over millennia created the very way we feel emotions. They're nothing more than tools. And I think not realizing this causes more of us to disregard them and lose confidence in our own judgments a lot more than we really should.

 

[Erlian]

The feeling (either a positive or negative emotion) associated with an event one thinks about over and over or on a persistent basis, is more likely to persist.

“Rumination is the central determinant of why some emotions last longer than others. Emotions associated with high levels of rumination will last longest,” says Verduyn,

I find this bit interesting.
I ruminate a lot. A lot. But so far I feel it allows me to process the emotion quicker. I've been extremely sad for days, but ruminating and thinking in the end makes me realise everything will be ok and we're all just humans allowed to make mistakes. Also it helps in finding the cause.

I still agree that sad feelings last longer. My longest anger streak was less than a day. Actually that was the only time I was still angry after sleeping.

Edit: Nvm, just looked up 'rumination'. I do think in solutions, so I guess my overthinking doesn't qualify as rumination.