6 universal emotions

[simon]

So emotions, there are 6 universally agreed upon ones I hear. And those seem to be: fear, anger, sadness, happiness, suprise, and disgust. The only other two that might make the list, but don't quite are love and shame.
I suppose I am just enquiring as to what everyone here think about this. do you agree, disagree, have other emotions to add, or think emotions only entail the primal insticts like searching and finding or not finding food, shelter, sex, and the like?

[imthefoolonthehill]

I don't like to think of myself that way. It disgusts me.

heh...

I am deathly afraid that I have no choice over my actions and that my circumstances, motives, and values, all of which are hardly under my control, actually dictate the choice I will want to make.... and we cannot make a choose a choice without wanting to make that choice... even if our decision was based off us not wanting to make that choice, our choice was made to prove a point to ourselves.... or something.... I hope I make some sense... and I hope I'm wrong.

[ajoe]

I actually just learned this in my Psychology class. So far no one agrees on what the basic emotions are, cause there's an emotion in German that people in the U.S. don't have and stuff, you know?

[verybaddmom]

what is the emotion that Germans feel that Americans don't Joe? that's curious. i know that there are dutch words to express feelings that dont have an English equivalent, but i dont know if that means that English speaking people dont feel them, i think maybe we just dont know how to express them.
also, i think that love is one of the basic emotions that is felt...not necessarily romantic love, although anyone who has felt that will argue that it is perhaps one of the most intense emotions, but what about the love that a parent has for a child?
and i certainly dont think that emotions are only a simple instinctual phenomenon. emotions can be terribly complex and result not from the search for food or sex, or the feeling of being threatened in that search but also in the search for social acceptance.

[ajoe]

Originally posted by verybaddmom
i know that there are dutch words to express feelings that dont have an English equivalent

lol, yeah, actually that's what I meant
*wants to say something more but just woke up and can't think straight*

[emily655321]

I think she meant they have a word for an emotion that doesn't exist in English.

I find it comforting to think of my actions/emotions as being driven by evolutionary urges. That's not to say that I don't try to do what I think is best for the people around me, but I think when it comes down to it I only think it's the best thing because it makes me feel good to do it. And that feeling is driven by, embellishing on what VB said, a survival instinct for social acceptance. (If you can't coexist with the other monkeys, you get kicked out.)

Emotions are the result of electrical impulses in the brain, and it doesn't really make sense to me for them to be there without an evolutionary purpose. We all come from amoebas, after all; we're just very advanced amoebas -- eat, sleep, reproduce. It's not as if that invalidates the importance or enjoyment of our emotions, it just happens to be the reason they're there. (Should I start battening down the hatches, now? ;))

[verybaddmom]

if we are ruled by instinct and instinct is universal to a species, then how is it possible for different people to have such totally diverse emotional reactions to the same stimulus? im not entirely sure that the answer to emotional origins is so simple as all that. i believe that there is much to be said for individual personality types, environment and a personal history dictating how a person reacts emotionally to a given situation.
also some people are much more driven by emotional responses than others, that whole "logic versus feeling and how decision making stems from which type of person you are" thing. (i couldnt figure out how to word that more effectively, i hope you get my point there).
anyway, i just cant wrap my head around the idea that my emotions are driven by my desire to survive.

[simon]

I suppose shame isn't universal becuase the japanese used to be big on shame, like the samurai killing themselves after defeat, and Amercians don't seem to have any shame (that was uncalled for).
Emily I think that emotions come from instincts too, but I also have trouble seeing how in the evolution of the species an emotion like sadness could be felt when a homo sapien died. Like a female in a tribe of homosapiens developing, were they really sad at the loss of that reproduction ability? Does that mean that emotions are innate or learned, at one point did we change from sadness as in the loss of reproduction to sadness as the loss of a female person, or are we deluding ourselves thinking that we actually miss the person, and it's really instinct upset at a missed opportunity?

[emily655321]

No, I think what we think of as our "deeper" emotions, like sadness and concern and love, are there so that we care about those around us. If we didn't care whether someone died or not, we wouldn't take care of each other. And since we're social animals, we need each other to survive.

[IWilKikU]

My girlfriend has an emotion that I don't think I've ever known anyone else to have. It's like a little bit of pity + a pinch of humor X sympathy to the power of amusement. :confused:. I guess thats as close to a mathmatical equation as emotions can come. :D.

But I think Simon's original intention was to define UNIVERSAL emotions, that EVERYONE is capable of. There are people who are incapable of loving someone in the sexual/companion sense, some people won't ever have children and expirience that emotion, ect... But EVERYONE expiriences these 6.

[emily655321]

Hehe. Kik, I know what you're talking about. I always do that. Like, "Oh no!"--giggle--"that's so horrible!"--smile-- I think it's amusement peppered with guilt.
Like the "mommy, mommy" jokes ("Mommy, mommy, I can't stop running in circles!" "Quiet, kid, or I'll nail your other foot to the floor.") My math teacher always used to tell those.

But anyway...

Is the question "which emotions DO we all experience" or "which emotions do we all have the CAPACITY to experience"? Because, yeah, not everyone has kids, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't have the capacity to love them if they did. In another vein, sociopaths don't feel fear. But that doesn't mean fear isn't a basic, universal emotion.

Also, sort of playing devil's advocate on whether emotions are a result of instinct, or independent, spiritually motivated (if I understood right): Where exactly is the separation between "emotions" and "drives"? For instance, everyone has a sexual drive and a drive to eat, but "hungry" and "horny" wouldn't be defined as emotions. And yet, loneliness is a very strong emotion that often comes from not having a partner. Would this emotion be considered a continuation of the physical drive? Is it just coincidence that the person is emotionally and physically lonely at the same time? Are they just two facets of loneliness that both occur simultaneously? Or is the emotional loneliness actually the predominant need, and the physical aspect merely brought to awareness by the emotional need for a partner?

I tried to continue that train of thought with hunger as well, but found that it isn't nearly as emotional a thing. To me, that would suggest that reproduction is at the crux of both the physical and emotional needs of humans. The ultimate goal -- the promotion of the species and our genetic line -- is where the two meet. All other drives are there to insure we survive to successfully breed and raise offspring, and all other emotions are there to insure that we satisfy those drives.

(Ex: I'm HAPPY when I eat. I'm SCARED when I fall off a cliff --> Eating good, falling bad. --> I don't starve. I avoid cliffs. --> I survive to make offspring.)

Any thoughts?

[IWilKikU]

What about evil geniuses who are bent on destroying the world and the human race?

[emily655321]

Well, they have to survive long enough to do it, don't they?

[IWilKikU]

good point :confused:

[Koa]

Originally posted by ajoe
I actually just learned this in my Psychology class. So far no one agrees on what the basic emotions are, cause there's an emotion in German that people in the U.S. don't have and stuff, you know?

Sehnsucht... some sort of romantic nostalgia for something unreacheable...I think I'm able to feel it... but not to describe it in any other language than German...
Or in Portuguese, they have the 'saudade' thing, that is always expressed with the original word cos translations would change it slightly...
But this goes more on the topic of how stuff is expressed...

(sorry got carried away by the translation side...as for the rest, I'm to sleepy to try and think :D)

[emily655321]

Well, it seems more in keeping with the original topic, actually. :D

Sehnsucht... isn't that a song by Rammstein? I should find a translation and see how they try to explain it.