What is an Emotion?
Emotions are mental states that arise spontaneously in response to certain stimuli. They are often accompanied by physiological changes, such as increased heart rate or sweating. Emotions can be positive or negative, and they can vary in intensity. The six most commonly recognized emotions are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. There is much debate over what constitutes an emotion, and how many there are. Some argue that the word emotion should only refer to feelings with a primarily social function (i.e., feelings which exist only because others need them), while others claim that all emotional states constitute a form of emotion.
Science of Emotion: Mechanism, Types and Importance
Emotions are complex, and it can be hard to pin down exactly what they are. Often, the easiest way to define something is by saying what it’s not, so let’s get that out of the way first: emotions are not thoughts, emotions are not feelings, and emotions are not actions. Emotions do have some things in common with these other concepts — they all have components of how we think, how we feel and how we act — but if you look closely at each one on its own, it becomes clear that there’s a lot more to them than just those three characteristics.