Emotions: Quick Educational Post

Emotions have 3 constituents: a Subjective component (how you experience the emotion), a Physiological component (how your body reacts to the emotion), and an Expressive component (how you behave in response to the emotion). Emotions can be further broke down into Primary vs Secondary Emotions.

The initial response you have to a pleasant or unpleasant event is a Primary Emotion. These feelings arise quickly. Primary emotions provide info about your current situation and prepare you to act in some way.

Secondary Emotions are an emotional reaction to your primary emotions; that is, they are feelings to response to feelings. The relationship between Primary and Secondary emotions can be quite complex.

Secondary emotions can arise in response to not recognizing or expressing a primary emotion ex. when an emotion is actively suppressed. A secondary emotion is likely to occur when you don't value, listen to, or respond to your primary emotions. When you ignore or suppress a primary emotion, it does not simply disappear. Instead, it is re-expressed in covert form. A classic case is the tendency for repressed anger to be "turned inward" and re-expressed as depression. Secondary emotions can also have a primarily defensive function ex. the use of anger to defend against feelings of hurt.

Many experts believe that most anger experienced in modern society is defensive and secondary in nature, protecting them against the experience of vulnerable emotions such as hurt, rejection, and shame.

6 Basic Emotions: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, and Surprise.