EMOTIONS
The word "emotion" dates back to 1579, when it was adapted from the French word émouvoir, which means "to stir up". However, the earliest precursors of the word likely dates back to the very origins of language.
Emotions have been described as discrete and consistent responses to internal or external events which have a particular significance for the organism. Emotions are brief in duration and consist of a coordinated set of responses, which may include verbal, physiological, behavioural, and neural mechanisms. Emotions have also been described as biologically given and a result ofevolution because they provided good solutions to ancient and recurring problems that faced our ancestors.
Emotion can be differentiated from a number of similar constructs within the field of affective neuroscience:
- Feelings are best understood as a subjective representation of emotions, private to the individual experiencing them.
- Moods are diffuse affective states that generally last for much longer durations than emotions and are also usually less intense than emotions.
- Affect is an encompassing term, used to describe the topics of emotion, feelings, and moods together, even though it is commonly used interchangeably with emotion.
- ANGER is an emotion related to one's psychological interpretation of having been offended, wronged, or denied and a tendency to react through retaliation. Sheila Videbeck describes anger as a normal emotion that involves a strong uncomfortable and emotional response to a perceived provocation. Raymond Novaco of UC Irvine, who since 1975 has published a plethora of literature on the subject, stratified anger into three modalities: cognitive (appraisals), somatic-affective (tension and agitations), and behavioral (withdrawal and antagonism).William DeFoore, an anger-management writer, described anger as a pressure cooker: we can only apply pressure against our anger for a certain amount of time until it explodes.
- HAPPINESS is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources. Various research groups, including positive psychology, endeavor to apply the scientific method to answer questions about what "happiness" is, and how it might be attained. It's of such fundamental importance to the human condition that Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were deemed unalienable rights on the United States Declaration of Independence.Philosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion. Happiness in this sense was used to translate the Greek Eudaimonia, and is still used in virtue ethics. Happiness economics suggests that measures of public happiness should be used to supplement more traditional economic measures when evaluating the success of public policy.
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