The 8 types of emotions (classification and description)

What kinds of emotions can we humans express?

Psychology has always been interested in emotions because they influence our thinking, our behavior and even our mental health.because they influence our thinking, our behavior and even our mental health.

That is why the concept of emotional intelligence has been gaining ground in recent decades and words such as emotional validation, emotional regulation or emotional management are becoming more and more familiar to us. Emotional intelligence has been proven to improve our well-being and performance. In this article we will talk about emotions and how these human manifestations are classified.

What are emotions

There are many theorists who have tried to explain what emotions are.. For the psychologist David G. Meyers, emotions are composed of "physiological arousal, expressive behavior and conscious experience".

It is now accepted that emotions originate in the limbic system and that these complex states have these three components:

• PhysiologicalThey are the first reaction to a stimulus and are involuntary: breathing increases, hormonal changes, etc.
• CognitiveThe information is processed at the conscious and unconscious level. It influences our subjective experience.
• BehavioralCauses a change in behavior: facial gestures, body movement, etc....
• Over the years, there has been some debate between what is an emotion and what is a feeling. You can learn the difference in our article: "The 16 types of feelings and their psychological function".

Theories of emotion

In fact, different theories of emotion have been formulated for decades. The most important ones are classified in three ways: physiological, neurological and cognitive.

• Physiological theoriesphysiological theories: they affirm that intracorporal responses are responsible for emotions.
• Neurological theories: they state that activity in the brain leads to emotional responses.
• Cognitive theoriespropose that thoughts and other mental activities are responsible for the formation of emotions.
• You can learn more about these theoretical models in our post: "Emotional psychology: main theories of emotion".

Classification of emotions (types)

But, how are emotions classified? There are different types of emotions, below you can find a list with a brief explanation of each of them. Keep in mind, however, that this is not a definitive classification, as none will capture 100% of how emotions are grouped and related to each other; it is simply a useful classification.

1. Primary or basic emotions

Primary emotions are also known as basic emotions.and are the emotions we experience in response to a stimulus. For Paul Ekman, the basic emotions are 6: sadness, happiness, surprise, disgust, fear and anger. All of them are adaptive processes and, in theory, exist in all human beings, regardless of the culture in which they have developed.

On the other hand, we must bear in mind that the fact that a phenomenon or psychological trait is universal in all human societies does not mean that it is part of our instincts, nor that it is an expression of our genes. There are cultural universals that, although they have historically been present in all human groups, in certain contexts they disappear. For example, the tendency to believe in religions.

Returning to the types of basic emotions, we have seen that it is possible to describe about 6 from the behavioral patterns of people. However, recently, research carried out by the University of Glasgow, which was published in the journal Current Biologyconcludes that there are not six basic emotions, but four.

• You can learn more about this study in our article: "Study shows that there are four basic emotions, and not six as previously believed".

2. Secondary emotions

Secondary emotions are a group of emotions that follow the previous ones.. For example, when we experience the basic emotion of fear, we may later feel the secondary emotions of threat or anger, depending, of course, on the situation we are experiencing. Secondary emotions are caused by social norms and moral standards.

3. Positive emotions

Depending on the degree to which emotions affect the subject's behavior, they can be either positive or negative.. Positive emotions are also known as healthy emotions, because they positively affect the well-being of the individual who feels them. They favor the way people think, reason and act. For example, joy, satisfaction, gratitude do not cause a positive attitude towards life and make us feel experiences that help us to feel good.

4. Negative emotions

Negative emotions are the opposite of positive emotions, because they negatively affect people's well-being. They are also known as toxic emotions, and often lead to a desire to avoid or avoid them. Fear or sadness are some examples.

However, it should be noted that these types of emotions, in small quantities and relatively low intensity, are not harmful. In fact, they are part of the learning process, since thanks to them our emotional memory helps us to remember the consequences of certain behaviors (or exposure to certain contexts).

5. Ambiguous emotions

Ambiguous emotions are also known as neutral emotions, since they do not provoke they do not provoke either negative or positive emotions, neither healthy nor unhealthy.. For example, surprise makes us feel neither good nor bad.

The existence of these emotions makes it clear that we are complex animals, and that our experiences have many nuances.

6. Static emotions

Some authors have also made reference to static emotions.. They are those that are produced thanks to different artistic manifestations, for example: music or painting.

Thus, when listening to a song we can feel very happy or very sad, but that sensation would be qualitatively different from the happiness or sadness that is experienced before any other experience, since it is lived in an artistic context, mediated by symbols and attributions about the author's intentions.

7. Social emotions

Social emotions do not refer to culturally learned emotions.They are social emotions, but it is necessary that there is another person present or else they cannot emerge. For example, revenge, gratitude, pride or admiration are emotions that we feel towards other individuals.

8. Instrumental emotions

Instrumental emotions are those that have as an end or objective the manipulation or the purpose of achieving something..... They are difficult to recognize because they may appear to be natural. However, they are forced emotions and hide an intention. Sometimes, they are the result of auto-suggestion: submitting to certain contexts voluntarily to make a part of that emotion color the way we behave.

The importance of emotional education

We often do not realize the importance of emotional education.. In schools, for example, they are more concerned with teaching us how to be good professionals, and they neglect turning us into emotionally intelligent and emotionally healthy people. Emotional intelligence has proven to be a basic tool for our mental health and is undoubtedly a way to empower us in life, to make us much more prepared for the day to day, much happier!

Emotional intelligence is a term that became famous thanks to Daniel Goleman, and since then many investigations have affirmed that it is positive not only for our daily life, but in work, sport and even education, it is highly effective and brings many benefits for performance.

According to Goleman, the components of emotional intelligence are:

• Emotional self-knowledge
• Emotional self-control
• Self-motivation
• Recognition of others' emotions
• Interpersonal relationships
• You will probably want to know more about this theory. So you can visit our post: "What is Emotional Intelligence? Discovering the importance of emotions".