Mechanism of Emotion
Emotions are mental and physiological responses to stimuli that help us adapt to our environment. They motivate us to take action and can be either positive or negative. The four main emotions are happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. There are also secondary emotions like love, pride, shame, and jealousy. Emotions are universal across all cultures, although the degree to which they express themselves varies. For example, Americans show more intensity in their expression of certain emotions such as anger while Japanese people express embarrassment more intensely than Americans do.
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.