There is no such person in the world who does not show basic emotions and feelings. Everyone is able to rejoice and be sad, laugh and cry, this is the main difference between people and other living things on the planet. Each person reacts differently to the environment, someone is happy when it rains, and the other is depressed.
But all people are united by the basic human emotions. What are they like? How many of them? What is the theory of basic emotions? We will answer these and other questions related to this topic in our article.
What are emotions? And why are they called basic?
Emotions are understood to mean any expressive movements of the face, changes in the timbre of the voice, emotional experiences that occur due to the influence of external factors or the internal state of a person. The second definition of this concept is people's feelings for something.
Basic emotions (their pictures are presented below) are those external manifestations of feelings that can occur in absolutely all healthy people, regardless of place of residence, nationality, language barrier and other factors. The main criterion for the presence of this trait is physiological usefulness, namely, normally functioning brain structures that are responsible for any human movements and similar facial expressions.
Theory
Let's look at the theory of basic emotions. There is an assumption that emotions arose from the inborn needs of a person, such as thirst, hunger, protection from pain, going to the toilet, the need for procreation. But over time, this manifestation began to develop into feelings. And together with emotions, they perform the same functions. As a result of human inherent needs and communication with the outside world, the first emotions appeared, which were called basic emotions. They underlie the modern interpretation of this feature.
There are many different theories of the origin of feelings and classifications of emotions. But among them there are common ones, there are only seven of them.
List of basic emotions
All thinkers agree that there are only 7 basic emotions. These include: aggression or anger, fear, surprise, interest, sadness, happiness or joy, aversion to anything.
All these manifestations of emotions are inextricably linked with the adaptation of a person to the factors surrounding him. Let us consider each of them in more detail.
The basic emotions include:
1. Expression of interest in something. It helps in exploring the world. Even children, showing interest, learn about simple things. Also, this emotion is born due to the search for pleasure or for the manifestation of activity. Children and adolescents have much more interest than adults, because they know the world and do not know much.
2. The second common emotion is joy. It is shown even with food or water. Joy is associated with getting pleasure from any action, even from everyday things. For example, a person did not drink water for a very long time, he is very thirsty, and when he manages to get a glass with the desired liquid, then his emotions become positive.
3. The opposite emotion of joy is sadness. If the first is manifested when receiving pleasure, then grief arises in connection with its loss or absence. Also tragic events in life contribute to the emergence of sadness.
4. Another negative emotion is anger or anger. It arises when obstacles arise on the path to pleasure, and a person refuses to take it for granted and by all means exerts internal resistance.
5. The emotion that serves to protect a person from negative influences is fear. He warns of a possible threat to life or health, getting physical or mental pain.
6. Disgust is an emotion with which a person refuses to perceive anything, rejects ordinary things that are unpleasant to him.
7. The list of basic human emotions completes the surprise. It appears at the sight of something new and unusual. Surprise is the fastest of emotions, which leads to the appearance of another, depending on the current situation. It can be joy, or anger, or fear.
Basic human emotions rarely occur one at a time. Most often, they either reinforce each other, or repay the next. Joy arises from an interest in something, and anger can be associated with disgust and fear.
The relationship of emotions and feelings
Over time, emotions became much more, they went through the stages of modification and became more complicated. There was a close relationship with the senses. And the main one is love, which can give all kinds of emotions. Besides her, there are still feelings of shame, hope, hatred, justice, and others. All of them lead the lives of people, one love can push a person to exploits or to cruel actions. One feeling can please one, but anger another.
A person shows feelings starting from birth and throughout life. But their primary source is basic human emotions that can merge into something more complex and ambiguous. Feelings can be supplemented by experiences.
From two emotions, one feeling is formed, or several at once. For example, a guy fell in love with a girl, but there is no response from her, he will at the same time be happy that he can see his chosen one, communicate with her, but at the same time he will glow with anger, because he does not receive reciprocity.
Emotions can be combined with each other, like notes to create a new melody, and the result will be a new human reaction to the same thing.
Emotion Components
The emotional part of a person’s life consists of four components:
- Tone - a manifestation of a reaction to any external factor in the form of experiences that come from the state of the body at a given time. If a person is angry or annoyed, then his emotions will be violent and manifest themselves with loud screams and waved hands, sometimes throwing things at hand, insulting the people around him.
- The emotions themselves, which manifest themselves in the form of experiences for any reason.
- Feelings - people's attitude to something else, such as things. Appear when communicating with the outside world.
- State - differs from previous components by longer duration, weak attachment to the object, but very good stability. It can be formed due to the manifestation of various feelings or emotions. You can be in a state of anger, depression or euphoria.
All four components are closely interconnected and form the emotional part of each person’s life.
The difference between the emotions of children and adults
Any adult had the most violent emotions, and he had to learn to control anger or anger in order to avoid negative consequences. Thanks to knowledge about the world and the experience gained, people pacify their feelings. But it’s difficult for children to show emotions correctly, because they don’t know enough about it. Therefore, adults should provide all possible assistance in this matter. In this case, the children will learn to correctly express their emotions and will be able to avoid many life problems.
It is important to set the right example for your sons and daughters, showing how you can restrain your embracing feelings.
Basic human emotions that are associated with negative factors require special attention. They can create additional problems. The most important of these is anger. It is sometimes difficult to control even for adults. They feel anger because of overwork, failure at work or even dismissal, if the children do not obey or a series of bad events followed, and the cup of patience was full. But most often, adults find ways to restrain their emotions and are able to take them under control.
But the children are much more difficult. Therefore, their manifestation of anger is usually uncontrollable. Regardless of the causes of this emotion in little men, adults should help them calm down and teach them how to react normally to ordinary things.
You need to have a conversation with the children, preferably in a playful way, and explain that anger is not a good feature, and also show how to behave properly. And the best option is to show by your own example how to own your own emotions. After all, children often copy the behavior of adults. Also, to improve the behavior of the child and create discipline standards, you can record him in the sports section.
The second emotion in children is tears. If they are associated with physical discomfort, then the cause must be eliminated, and if whims are at the core, then educational conversation cannot be avoided. If children can explain everything in a playful way, then with teenagers it is much more difficult. They are possessed by emotions that come from the raging hormones of adolescence. Here you need to proceed from a specific situation.
Basic emotions in adolescents. How are they manifested?
Emotions are manifested in a frequent change of mood, the appearance of aggression, anger, it seems to them that the whole world is against them, adults do not understand them, and everything is very bad in life, fear prevails, and sometimes unreasonable outbursts of joy. Of course, after some time all these manifestations will subside, the child will grow up. But while a teenager is in this state, he can commit rash acts and even harm his health. At this age, children run away from home or try to commit suicide under the influence of emotions.
How to help a teenager cope with emotions?
It is important for adults to notice the unusual behavior of a teenager in time, help him cope with anger, show maximum understanding and show that he can fully trust them, and his parents support and support, and not enemies. Therefore, it is worth talking more often with the child and helping him survive the difficult period.
Conclusion
In this article, we examined the basic emotions of a person. There are seven of them. We named and described them. It is important to learn to control your emotions and help children and adolescents in this.