A Wisdom Archive on Emotion

Emotions are essentially impulses that move an organism to action, originating automatic reaction behavior which has been adapted through evolution as a survival need. Davidoff (1980) defines emotion as a feeling that is expressed through physiological functions such as facial expressions, faster heartbeat, and behaviors such as aggression, crying, covering face with hands, and so on. Emotion is complex, and the term has no single universally accepted definition. Emotions are mental states that arise spontaneously, rather than ... Including:

• Emotion - Relation to cultural and social factors
• Emotion - Theoretical traditions
• Emotion - Etymology
• Emotion - Physical responses to emotion
• Emotion - Computer models of emotion
• Emotion - Emotion researchers

Read more here: » Emotion: Encyclopedia - Emotion

Acceptance Anger Anticipation Boredom Disgust Envy Fear Guilt Hate Hope Joy Jealousy Love Remorse Sadness Sorrow Surprise It is not clear whether emotion is a purely human phenomenon, since animals seem to exhibit conditions which resemble emotional responses such as anger, fear or sadness, and some animals also exhibit similar neu ...

Read more here: » Emotion: Encyclopedia II - Emotion - Relation to cultural and social factors

Emotions are given to us for our benefit. In fact, everything in this world is for our benefit. It is the use or misuse of worldly objects that brings about positive or negative results.
 
Emotions like fear and anxiety are meant to help us. We must fear certain things - like the misuse of weapons, and adharma or wrong action. Without fear we could act irresponsibly and end up hurting ourselves. This is the positive aspect of fear. But when fear becomes excessive or prolonged, or when we fear the wrong things, it can be harmful.

 
(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: You Can Refuse To Be Miserable

The Yerkes-Dodson law demonstrates an empirical relationship between arousal and performance. It dictates that performance increases with cognitive arousal but only to a certain point: when levels of arousal become too high, performance will decrease. A corollary is that there is an optimal level of arousal for a given task. It is a scientific principal developed by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and J. D. Dodson in 1908 and is grounded within the discourses of biopsychology and neuroscience. The process is often demonstrated graphically as an inverted U-shaped curve, incre ...

Read more here: » Yerkes-Dodson law: Encyclopedia - Yerkes-Dodson law

Love has several different meanings in English, from something that gives a little pleasure ("I loved that meal") to something one would die for (patriotism, pairbonding). It can describe an intense feeling of affection, an emotion or an emotional state. In ordinary use, it usually refers to interpersonal love. Probably due to its psychological relevance, love is one of the most common themes in art. Love might best be defined as acting intentionally, in sympathethic response to ot ... Including:

• Love - Impersonal love
• Love - Religious love
• Love - Scientific models
• Love - Attraction and attachment
• Love - Companionate vs. passionate
• Love - Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love
• Love - Love styles
• Love - Phases
• Love - Cultural views
• Love - Chinese
• Love - Japanese
• Love - Ancient Greek
• Love - Latin
• Love - Religious views
• Love - Christian
• Love - Buddhist
• Love - Hindu
• Love - Islamic
• Love - Jewish
• Love - Mythological
• Love - Theological
• Love - Human love
• Love - Other types of love philias

Read more here: » Love: Encyclopedia - Love

António R. Damásio, pron. IPA /ɐ̃.'tɔ.ni.u dɐ.'ma.zi.u/, (b. 1954, Lisbon, Portugal) physician and neurologist, is Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Neurology at the University of Southern California, where he heads USC's Institute for the Neurological Study of Emotion and Creativity. Prior to taking up his posts at USC, in 2005, Damasio was M.W. Van Allen Professor and Head of Neurology at the University of Iowa Medical Center. Iowa City, Iowa, United States. ... Including:

• Antonio Damasio - Bibliography
• Antonio Damasio - External link

Read more here: » Antonio Damasio: Encyclopedia - Antonio Damasio

Affective neuroscience is the study of the neural mechanisms of emotion. This interdisciplinary field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood. Affective neuroscience - Brain areas related to emotion. Emotions are thought to be related to activity in brain areas that direct our attention, motivate our behavior, and determine the significance of what is going on around us. Pioneering work by Broca (1878), Papez (1937), and MacLean (1952) suggested that emotion is r ... Including:

• Affective neuroscience - Brain areas related to emotion
• Affective neuroscience - Relationship to cognitive neuroscience

Read more here: » Affective neuroscience: Encyclopedia - Affective neuroscience

Acceptance Anger Anticipation Boredom Disgust Envy Fear Guilt Hate Hope Joy Jealousy Love Remorse Sadness Sorrow Surprise Happiness, pleasure or joy is an emotional or affective state in which we feel good or happy. Overlapping states or experiences include joy, exultation, delight, bliss, and love. Antonyms include suffering, sadness, grief, and pain. The term pleasure is sometimes used to ... Including:

• Happiness - Terminology
• Happiness - Psychological views
• Happiness - Positive psychology
• Happiness - Mechanistic view
• Happiness - Biological basis
• Happiness - Difficulties in defining internal experiences
• Happiness - In non-human animals
• Happiness - In humans
• Happiness - In Artificial intelligence
• Happiness - Positive effect study
• Happiness - Behaviors and emotions associated with happiness

Read more here: » Happiness: Encyclopedia - Happiness

Arousal is a physiological and psychological state involving the activation of the reticular activating system in the brain stem, the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system, leading to increased heart rate and blood pressure and a condition of alertness and readiness to respond. It is a crucial process in motivating certain behaviours, such as the fight or flight response and sexual activity (see Masters and Johnson's human sexual response cycle, w ...

Read more here: » Arousal: Encyclopedia - Arousal

The 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness is a heuristic model of consciousness proposed by Timothy Leary. Perhaps somehow reminiscing Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs, Leary believed the mind is best viewed as a collection of 8 "circuits", also called "gears" or "mini-brains". Each stage represents a higher stage of evolution than the one before it. The first four, which Leary presumed to reside in the left lobe of the cerebrum, are concerned with the survival of organisms on earth; the other four, which Leary suggested are found in the right lobe, are for use in the fu ... Including:

• 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness - Blibliography

Read more here: » 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness: Encyclopedia - 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness

Panic is a sudden fear which dominates or replaces thinking and often affects groups of people or animals. Panics typically occur in disaster situations, and may endanger the overall health of the affected group. The word panic derives from the name of the Greek god Pan, who strikes fear into the enemies of His subjects. Prehistoric man used mass panic as a weapon when hunting animals, especially ruminants. Herds reacting to unusually strong sounds or unfamiliar visual effects were directed towards cliffs, where they eve ... Including:

• Panic - Panic and the law

Read more here: » Panic: Encyclopedia - Panic

Love - Chinese. In contemporary Chinese language and culture, several terms or root words are used for the concept of "love": Ai (愛) is used as a verb (e.g. Wo ai ni, "I love you") or as a noun, especially in aiqing (愛情), "love" or "romance." In mainland China since 1949, airen (愛人, originally "lover," or more literally, "love person") is the dominant word for "spouse" (with separate terms for "wife" and "husband" originally being de-emphasized); the word once ha ...

Read more here: » Love: Encyclopedia II - Love - Cultural views

Happiness - Biological basis. While a person's overall happiness is not objectively measurable this does not mean it does not have a real physiological component. The neurotransmitter dopamine, perhaps especially in the mesolimbic pathway projecting from the midbrain to structures such as the nucleus accumbens, is involved in desire and seems often related to pleasure. Pleasure can be induced artificially with drugs, perhaps most directly with opiates such as morphine, with activity on mu-opioid receptors or invo ...

Read more here: » Happiness: Encyclopedia II - Happiness - Mechanistic view

Most jurisdictions limit the freedom of speech in order to deter people from creating potentially dangerous panic situations, especially a false alarm (the classic example is shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre when in fact nothing is burning). Some criminal defendants attempt to evade or reduce the severity of their conviction by claiming their violence was induced by a sense of panic. Certain jurisdiction may limit punishment in case one's actions for self-defence were exce ...

Read more here: » Panic: Encyclopedia II - Panic - Panic and the law

Biological models of love tend to see it as a mammalian drive, just like hunger or thirst. Psychology sees love as more of a social and cultural phenomenon. There are probably elements of truth in both views — certainly love is influenced by hormones (such as oxytocin) and pheromones, and how people think and behave in love is influenced by their conceptions of love. Love - Attraction and attachment. The conventional view in biology is that there are two major drives in love — sexual attraction and attachment. Attachment between adults is presumed to work on the same principles that lead an infan ...

Read more here: » Love: Encyclopedia II - Love - Scientific models

Love - Christian. There are several Greek words for Love that are regularly referred to in Christian circles. Agape - In the New Testament, agapē is charitable, selfless, altruistic, and unconditional. It is parental love seen as creating goodness in the world, it is the way God is seen to love humanity, and it is seen as the kind of love that Christians aspire to have for one another. Phileo - Also used in the New Testament, Phileo is a human response to something that is fou ...

Read more here: » Love: Encyclopedia II - Love - Religious views