Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Core emotions

Core emotions:
What are the core emotions and what is their function?

Multimedia presentation (3 min)

Overview

Figure 1. The phenomenon of emotion includes facial expressions aside form the cognitive aspect of emotion. Have you ever experienced feelings of joy, sadness, anger, or fear? Have certain events throughout your life ever left you surprised or even disgusted?

It is rare that an individual does not experience such emotions occasionally, and they can significantly influence our thoughts and actions more than we know. This fascinating aspect of human existence is referred to as the core emotions which will be explored in more depth throughout this chapter. The core emotions play a vital role in the function of human behaviour and serve an important purpose in ways we are not aware of.

Focus questions What is emotion? How are they categorised into core emotions? What role do the emotions fear, sadness, and joy play in the function of human behaviour? What are the limitations of the core emotion approach?

What is emotion?

There is no commonly agreed-upon definition of emotion in any disciplines that study this phenomenon (Mulligan & Scherer, 2012). Although, emotions are considered to be mental states generated by neurophysiological changes that are associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioural responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. Aside from the cognitive aspect of emotion, this phenomenon also includes behavioural, physiological changes and expressions such as facial expressions (see Figure 1), voice, and posture, as well as feelings, and the execution of emotions in the nervous system (Mordka, 2016).

Emotions are able to fulfil informative, calibrating, identifying, existential, and motivating functions (Mordka, 2016). Moreover, the emotions individuals feel are able to capture the world as either positive or negative, significant or insignificant, and are used to determine and assign weightings in order to set up a kind of hierarchy (Mordka, 2016). Mordka (2016) states that emotions emerge automatically (involuntarily), are difficult to control and to a degree are influenced by culture.

Utilitarian emotions such as anger, fear, joy, disgust, and sadness are considered utilitarian in the sense of facilitating one’s adaption to events that have important consequences for individuals well-being (Scherer, 2005). Adaptive functions involve the preparation of action tendencies such as fight or flight, recovery and reorientation (grief, work), motivational enhancement (joy, pride), or the creation of social obligations such as reparation (Scherer, 2005). Moreover, emotions prepare adaptive action tendencies and their motivational underpinnings whilst also having a strong effect on emotion consequent behaviour (Scherer, 2005). Such behaviour can often interrupt ongoing behaviour sequences and generate new goals and plans (Scherer, 2005). Furthermore, the motor expression component of emotion has a strong impact on communication which has important consequences for social interaction (Scherer, 2005).

Ekman's six basic emotions

Paul Ekman conducted seminal research on the specific biological correlations of specific emotions in order to demonstrate the universality and discreteness of emotions in a Darwinian approach. Ekman suggested that emotions are discrete, measurable, and physiologically distinct with his most influential work revolved around the finding that certain emotions appeared to be universally recognised (even amongst varying cultures). In terms of emotions being discrete, the discrete emotion theory claims that there is a small number of core emotions which are biologically determined emotional responses where expression and recognition is essentially the same for every individual regardless of cultural differences. The facial-expression research that Ekman conducted examined six basic emotions which was concluded to be anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise.

Core emotion	Explanation
Anger	Often referred to as wrath or rage, is a powerful emotional condition marked by a profound uneasy and resistant reaction to perceived offence, injury, or threat. Individuals who experience anger tend to experience physiological effects including increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. When an individual makes the conscious decision to actively stop a threatening behaviour of an external force, anger becomes the prominent feeling behaviourally, cognitively, and physiologically.
Surprise	A short-lived mental and physical reaction, seen in both animals and humans, due to an unforeseen event. This emotion can be neutral/moderate, pleasant, unpleasant, positive, or negative and can occur in varying levels of intensity where small amounts of surprise elicits a less intense response to the stimuli and high amounts of surprise may induce the flight-or-flight response.
Disgust	An emotional reaction of aversion or repulsion to something possibly contagious or deemed to be offensive, unpalatable, or displeasing. This emotion is primarily experienced in relation to the sense of taste (perceived or imagined), and to anything which causes a similar feeling such as a sense of smell, touch, or vision.
Joy	Often used interchangeably with happiness refers to evoked feelings by well-being, success or good fortune, and is associated with feelings of intense, long-lasting happiness (Fredrickson, 1998). This emotion derives from external stimuli that are appraised as safe and familiar (Fredrickson, 1998).
Fear	A strong negative emotion triggered by the perception or acknowledgment of a danger or threat. This emotion causes physiological changes producing behavioural reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or escaping a threat and arises from the perception of danger initiating the flight-or-flight response.
Sadness	An emotional discomfort linked with or characterised by, feelings of loss, despair, mourning, helplessness, letdown, and sorrow. Individuals who experience the emotion of sadness become quiet or lethargic leading to the withdrawal from those around them.

Plutchik's wheel of emotions

Robert Plutchik proposed a psychoevolutionary classification approach for general emotional responses where he considered there to be eight primary emotions. These emotions included the same as Ekman’s six core emotions with the addition of trust and anticipation. Following from Plutchik’s theory of basic emotions, he created a wheel of emotions that illustrated the different emotions and provides a simple logical way to make sense of them (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. There are eight sectors that align with the eight primary emotions where each primary emotion has a polar opposite (joy versus sadness)

Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions: Exploring the Emotion Wheel provides an interactive way of exploring the wheel of emotions where each primary emotion has a polar opposite (fear being the opposite of anger). These polar opposites of emotions are based on the physiological reaction each emotion creates in humans (and in animals) (Six Seconds, 2022). The emotions with no colour represent an emotion that is a mix of the two primary emotions (joy and anticipation combine to optimism) (Six Seconds, 2022).

1 What are emotions?

	Internal and external reactions to stimuli
	Rational thoughts, feelings, and cognitive processes
	Complex reactions to stimuli that combines physiological and physiological responses to various situations

2 What is the opposite of surprise in Plutchik's wheel of emotions?

	Distraction
	Anticipation
	Boredom

The functions of core emotions

Prof. Julian Deonna (2021) states that emotions serve two functions. There is a cognitive component which provides information to oneself about the world around them (Deonna, 2021). This information alarms aspects of surrounding environments about which we care or to which we are averse to. Therefore, emotions are triggered when good or bad things happen which may be important to us or that might affect our well-being (Deonna, 2021). For example:

• Joy derives from external stimuli that provides feelings of happiness,
• Sadness comes with the losses individuals suffer,
• Fear informs one about danger,

The first function of emotions is a signalling function; they signal to individuals that something imperative needs our attention (Deonna, 2021). The second function is interdependent to the first in the way that emotions engage humans to act (motivational function). Emotions not only inform individuals yet they focus one’s attention on important aspects of the environment and prepare them to act and respond in an appropriate way (Deonna, 2021). Moreover, emotions serve an important function is everyone’s day to day lives and perform these functions rapidly and without the need for thought (Deonna, 2021). The following sections focus on joy, fear, and sadness and their functions.

Joy and its function

Joy, which is rooted in our brain's reward system, not only fosters social bonds and amplifies our sociability but also offers tangible health benefits by enhancing longevity and overall well-being of individuals.

Reward system

The body, mind, and brain allows humans to cope with challenges by rewarding beneficial behaviours (Esch, 2022). As joy and happiness are used interchangeably, they both can be viewed as a highly relevant phenomenon (Esch, 2022). It is a feeling, not a thought, and is physical in the sense that it is based on the motivational and reward system within the brain (Esch, 2022). Joy provides inner guidelines such as directions and lets humans plan or implement behaviors in the hope of deriving a desired (beneficial) outcome (Esch, 2022). The feeling serves to memorise its initial occurrence and its antecedent (the context that led to it) where joyful events not only become conditioned and reinforced yet they become stored in memory with an emotional “tag” for enhanced and quicker retrieval later on (Esch, 2022).

Social bonding

Ahmed (2008) states how emotions are sociable, and humans are moved by the proximity of others by feeling with and for others. Sociability can also be a considered a feeling as when one feels sociable, they then want and feel the need to be surrounded by others (Ahmed, 2008). Individuals create social bonds if reoccurring situations and objects makes one happy (Ahmed, 2008). Ahmed (2008) suggests that the feeling of joy/happiness involves a specific kind of intentionality, called ‘end orientated’. This involves not just being happy about something, but some things become happy for oneself and by also imaging they will bring happiness to an individual (Ahmed, 2008). Moreover, sharing the feeling of joy with others creates social bonds which promotes being more cooperative and altruistic (Ahmed, 2008).

Health benefits

Willroth et al. (2020) states that happy people tend to live healthier, longer lives. It has been found that when people list the key characteristics of a good life it includes happiness, health, and longevity (Diener & Chan, 2011). It is the essential need of the individual and greater society to strengthen the dimension of happiness in human beings where this can lead to prosperity and growth (Dalili Saleh & Shah Badizadeh, 2021). Positive moods such as joy and characteristics such as life satisfaction, hopefulness, optimism, and sense of humour were found to be associated with reduced chance of mortality in healthy populations, predicted longevity, and controlling for negative states (Diener & Chan, 2011). The effects of joy include mental and physical health, the health and well-being of those around them, spiritual growth, and strength (Dalili Saleh & Shah Badizadeh, 2021). Moreover, studies have found that joyful emotions were found to boost people’s immune system and is related to lower pain and greater tolerance of the pain (Diener & Chan, 2011). Although, positive emotions like such are not likely to help individuals overcome illnesses, they enhance a person’s quality of life (Diener & Chan, 2011).

Case study Cooper recently moved to new city and had been invited to a small gathering from a friend he had met at his new job. During the night Cooper had shared moments of joy by interacting with the new people that he was surrounded by and by immersing himself in group activities (such as board games). This amplified sociality amongst those at the party and the shared joy led to cooperation, strengthening new connections and friendships, as Ahmed (2008) refers to as social bonds.

Fear and its function

Fear, which is integral to human survival, drives protective behaviours such as fight, flight, or freeze, underpins avoidance learning for discerning threats, and plays a vital role in assessing and responding to risks.

Survival

When humans express fear, it acts as a protection and or survival function that alerts individuals of danger (Maack et al., 2015). Fear itself functions to endorse avoidance goals by aiding in the escape from threats (flight) or defensive approach (fight) in situations where avoidance is not an option (Maack et al., 2015). It emerges from the potential threat of harm and signifies the anticipation of something aversive (Maack et al., 2015). Fear manifests as flight (if avoidance is available), freeze (which is a more passive type of avoidance, prompted by threats that don’t need to be confronted), or fight (if escape is not an option and defensive approach is necessary) (Maack et al., 2015).

Avoidance learning

Fear can serve as a function to avoid harmful situations or potential dangers in the future (Klein et al., 2021), It is essential for survival to understand what is safe and what is dangerous which is learnt through associative learning (Klein et al., 2021). Avoidance learning is an important process derived from fear that serves to minimise confrontation with potential danger (Klein et al., 2021). It is motivated by conditional fear and reinforced through instrumental learning allowing one to remember the situation which results in the individual remaining cautious or avoids similar circumstances in the future (Klein et al., 2021).

Risk assessment

Fear and anger are the most common negative emotional reactions experienced in daily life and have important implications on decision making under risk (She et al., 2017). Fear is a feeling of doom, unease, or apprehensiveness in response to immediate danger where experiencing such emotion can allow individuals to assess the level of risks associated with the situation and allows one to make informed decisions about their actions and behaviours (She et al., 2017). She et al. (2017) found that fearful people tend to avoid risks as fear is related to the sense of uncertainty, lack of control, and are inclined to overestimate risk/harm.

Case study Sally, while on a walk encountered a snake and triggered by fear, she froze as Sally's fear mechanisms were triggered. The recognition of danger (a product of avoidance learning) made Sally retreat without alarming the snake. The following week, Sally decided to take a different, safer route after her encounter with the snake as a product of risk assessment which was noted by She et al. (2017).

Sadness and their function

Sadness, which often signals a need for support differently amongst genders, plays a pivotal role in emotional processing, fostering empathy, and promoting social bonding.

Signal for help and support

Sadness can act as a signal to others that one needs support, although varies between men and women (Fivush, 2000). Sadness in response to a specific event or circumstance is responded to differently between men and women, where women are more likely to seek support than males (Fivush, 2000). Fivush (2000) suggests the females tend to seek out to others when feeling sad for additional support and to further discuss their sad feelings. They focus on the emotional experience and recognise and discuss such feelings more openly (Fivush, 2000). On the contrary, instead of using sadness to signal for support, males tend to use adopt a distracting style where men evade the feelings of sadness by diverting themselves with thinking about and doing other things (Fivush, 2000).

Emotional processing

The sadness that individuals experience can be therapeutic and can allow individuals to process traumas, losses, and negative experiences (Hunt, 1998). Emotional processing is suggested to be a crucial component of successfully coping with such emotion (Hunt, 1998). This involves getting individuals to ponder the cause of their distress and any negative implications that has caused feeling deep sadness (Hunt, 1998). When individuals feel sad, emotional processing allows the improvement of mood than either pleasure and mastery oriented distraction or unemotional cognitive restructuring and problem solving and in the long-term individuals report better mood (Hunt, 1988).

Empathy and social bonding

Experiencing sadness can increase empathy as when individuals are feeling sad or distressed, others are likely to assist them with their distress (Eisengberg et al., 1994). The phenomenon of empathy involves the capability to share the affective experiences of others (Singer & Lamm, 2009). The ability to share other’s feelings results in an enhanced understanding of the present and future mental states and actions of the people around us and essentially encourages prosocial behaviour (Singer & Lamm, 2009). Eisengberg et al. (1994) states that recognising facial sadness when exposed to others in sad situations also marks empathy. Studies using facial electromyography found that when an observer perceives another person’s affective facial expressions (a smile or a frown) corresponding affective expressions result in the observer (Singer & Lamm, 2009). Moreover, empathy in response to sadness promotes affiliation and social bonding amongst individuals (Seyfarth & Cheney, 2013).

Case study John and his sister Rachel suddenly lost their father and were both overwhelmed with sadness. As time passed, Rachel sought comfort in sharing her feelings with friends and family, while John distracted himself through immersing himself in work to avoid discussing their loss, reflecting the gender differences noted by Fivush (2000).

1 Based on Esch (2022), how is joy primarily classified?

	Joy is a manifestation of long-term memories without significance
	It is a thought and feeling based on life experiences
	Joy is a physical feeling rooted in the brain's reward system

2 In the context of risk assessment, how do fearful individuals tend to perceive situations according to She et al. (2017)?

	Individuals underestimate the risk of the situation and go forward with confidence
	Individuals are more likely to avoid risks and tend to overestimate risks/harm
	Individuals are more inclined to take risks

3 How does sadness function in terms of gender?

	Both men and women use sadness to seek external support
	Women tend to seek out support and openly discuss their feelings when sad, while men divert themselves
	Men are more likely than women to discuss their sad feelings openly and seek support

Limitations of the core emotions

Emotion theorists such as Ekman and Plutchik advocate the view that there is a small set of emotions that contain special status (Ortony, 2022). These basic emotions are generally supported to be universal, innate, and hardwired (Ortony, 2022). Emotions are difficult to study, they are unobservable, subjective, and ill-defined, although there are some measurable and observable phenomena including prototypical behavioural expressions (facial expressions) (Ortony, 2022). Emotions have been found to be oversimplified representations of a complex phenomenon which can lead to invalid interpretations amongst the population (Williams et al., 2019). Moreover, there is a vagueness that is associated with the concept of emotions especially between emotions and language where there has been less cross-cultural and cross-linguistic findings (Ortony, 2022). This cultural variation depicts that no language has or can have a word for every experienceable emotion, where isolated cultures in which the language lacks words that translate into the English words (Ortony, 2022).

Conclusion

Emotions are an integral component to human behaviour, decision-making, and social bonds. Ekman’s research illustrates six core emotions such as as anger, joy, fear, disgust, surprise, and sadness which are found to be universal and biologically distinct (Ortony, 2022). On the contrary, Plutchik added trust and anticipation to the basic emotions where both these perspectives suggest that said emotions are crucial for human survival, interaction, and decision making. The emotions discussed in this chapter serve vital functions in human behaviour, where joy acts as a reward system, enhances social bonds, and has numerous health benefits, sadness signals a need for support, emotional processing, and empathy, and fear is vital for survival, avoidance learning, and risk assessment. However, factors regarding language and cultural variations add a complicating layer to how basic the emotions really are and should be continually articulated in terms of these factors (Ortony, 2022; Williams et al., 2019).

See also

• Ekman's basic emotions (Book chapter, 2010)
• Emotions (Wikipedia)
• Robert Plutchik (Wikipedia)
• Emotion Classification (Wikipedia)
• Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions (Book chapter, 2014)
• Facial expressions and the emotions of others (Book chapter, 2013)

References

Ahmed, S. (2008). Sociable happiness. Emotion, Space and Society, 1(1), 10–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2008.07.003

Dalili Saleh, A., & Shah Badizadeh, M. (2021). The basic function of happiness and vivacity from Rumi’s point of view. Propósitos y Representaciones, 8(SPE3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.20511/pyr2021.v9nSPE3.1110

Diener, E., & Chan, M. Y. (2011). Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to health and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 3(1), 1–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01045.x

Eisenberg, Fabes, R. A., Murphy, B., Karbon, M., Maszk, P., Smith, M., O’Boyle, C., & Suh, K. (1994). The relations of emotionality and regulation to dispositional and situational empathy-related responding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(4), 776–797. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.66.4.776

Esch, T. (2022). The ABC model of happiness—neurobiological aspects of motivation and positive mood, and their dynamic changes through practice, the course of life. Biology, 11(6), 843–. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11060843

Fivush, R., & Buckner, J. P. (2000). Gender, sadness, and depression: The development of emotional focus through gendered discourse. Gender and Emotion: Social Psychological Perspectives, 232-253.

Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions?. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 300-319. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.300.

Hunt, M. (1998). The only way out is through: Emotional processing and recovery after a depressing life event. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36(4), 361–384. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(98)00017-5

Klein, Z., Berger, S., Vervliet, B., & Shechner, T. (2021). Fear learning, avoidance, and generalization are more context-dependent for adults than adolescents. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 147, 103993–103993. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2021.103993

Maack, D., Buchanan, E., & Young, J. (2015). Development and psychometric investigation of an inventory to assess fight, flight, and freeze tendencies: The fight, flight, freeze questionnaire. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 44(2), 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2014.972443

Mordka, C. (2016). What are emotions? Structure and function of emotions. Studia Humana, 5(3), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.1515/sh-2016-0013

Mulligan, & Scherer, K. R. (2012). Toward a working definition of emotion. Emotion Review, 4(4), 345–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073912445818

Ortony, A. (2022). Are all “basic emotions” emotions? A problem for the (basic) emotions construct. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(1), 41–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620985415

Scherer, K. (2005). What are emotions? And how can they be measured? Social Science Information, 44(4), 695–729. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018405058216

Seyfarth, R., & Cheney, D. L. (2013). Affiliation, empathy, and the origins of theory of mind. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 110(Supplement 2), 10349–10356. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1301223110

She, S., Eimontaite, I., Zhang, D., & Sun, Y. (2017). Fear, anger, and risk preference reversals: An experimental study on a Chinese sample. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1371–1371. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01371

Singer, T., & Lamm, C. (2009). The Social Neuroscience of Empathy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156(1), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04418.x

Williams, L., Arribas-Ayllon, M., Artemiou, A., & Spasić, I. (2019). Comparing the utility of different classification schemes for emotive language analysis. Journal of Classification, 36(3), 619–648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00357-019-9307-0

Willroth, E. C., Ong, A. D., Graham, E. K., & Mroczek, D. K. (2020). Being happy and becoming happier are independent predictors of physical health and mortality. Psychosomatic Medicine, 82(7), 650. doi:10.1097/PSY.0000000000000832.

External links

• What function do emotions serve? Prof. Julien Deonna (Youtube)
• Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions: Exploring the Emotion Wheel (Sixseconds the emotional intelligence network)