The core emotions | INFJ Forum

The core emotions

P

Paladin-X

Permanent Fixture
May 2, 2012
1,091
248
163
MBTI
XXXX
In trying to research emotion, I've come across too many theories. I'd like to hear what you guys think the fundamental core emotions might be.

I am mostly interested in trying to distinguish the core, raw ones.

I like this idea - they have the core emotions in the middle of each leg, describing the more and lesser intense version of that emotion; On the outer ring, they combined core emotions to create secondary emotions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plutchik-wheel.svg

But I don't know if I agree with the core emotions or not.

Other interesting visualized theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lövheim_cube_of_emotion.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Emotions.gif

Sidenote: Dictionary.com defines fundament to mean 1. buttocks; 2. anus; 3. A base or basic principal; underlying part, foundation. (And in that order too no less! How strange?! Unless this is common knowledge and I'm just an idiot! Haha!)
 
Because we are unique individuals with unique experiences, you are better off trying to further your understanding in sociology ... we are a product of our environment. Why does the environment shape this person differently than this person? Why are our core needs/emotions different?

I've been able to understand quite a bit about myself by looking into Adult Attachment Theories. I think honestly, this is a great place to start. (Adult Attachment stemming from how you attached yourself to your caregivers during infancy/childhood ... how your needs were/were not met.)
 
Last edited:
I'm not looking so much for the subjective emotional experience and what feelings one believes are core to their existence. I'm looking almost for the simple, do you think there is happy, sad, anger, fear, etc Kind of thing. I don't really want to know what the official theories are. I would like to know what others' think the base emotions are.

Thanks for the info though. I will definitely look in Adult Attachment Theories. It sounds fascinating! :)

Some theories suggest Surprise as a feeling. Is it really a feeling? I know that there is a specific facial expression for surprise, but is it an actual feeling. Like if someone jumps out at you, one might say "You scared me, *expletive*" not "You surprised me!". Is surprise, surprise, or is it fear (at least within that context)? Hmm...

It is difficult to self-examine emotions, because I'm not sure if I actually experience them all. I think I have only ever felt happy briefly a couple times in my life. Though I'm not sure. I understand excited though! That one I know I feel. Anger and Fear are 2 others I know. I don't think I've experienced sadness, though I am not sure. I know I have felt depressed. Are they the same? Are they different?

Can anyone describe what happy feels like? I only ever feel Anger, Fear, Excited, Depressed, and for the most part, Indifferent (well I used to be extremely Apathetic. Now not as much but probably still near or at the top of the list of most common average feeling).
 
Last edited:
Feelings of pain and pleasure have always seemed the catalyst for mammalian action; everything else seems an off-shoot of these two, though I admit my brain's currently fogged by vodka. Physiologically speaking, what is good produces some varianced sensation of pleasure and what is bad produces varianced pain. I can't further discern between psychological and physiological expressions right now, unforately,
 
Haha fair enough! Thanks! I know there's a graph in Psychology with Valence as the X-axis and Arousal as the Y-Axis. I think that theory suggests something along those lines and the intensity is determined by arousal state.
 
I tend to think of emotion as being spread out on a continuum. One variable is affect and the other is energy, so you could make a rough Cartesian plane with the emotions. So for example, sadness and depressive emotions would fall into the low affect, low energy quadrant. Anger would be high energy, low affect. Relaxation is low energy high affect, and energetic happiness or exuberance is high energy, high affect.

This does kind of depict all emotional energy as being of one type or one basic emotional substance. You could also divide it further to distinguish between temporal and long-term feelings (your baseline versus what is happening in your life).

The Lovheim cube is interesting, but I think emotions are mediated by more than just neurochemical levels, or rather, I think that neurochemical levels are interdependent with other factors (i.e. soft and hard wiring of the brain) such that we can't predict emotional responses based on those neurochemicals alone. If we could, people would probably respond more uniformly to anti-depressants and such.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Radiantshadow
tumblr_leefailgOd1qa1iiqo1_500.jpg


"He asked me to forcibly insert the lifeline exercise card into my anus!"
 
I believe that the there are only two fundamental emotions,
which is: fear and love
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back