Contrasting and categorization of emotions

The contrasting and categorisation of emotions describes how emotions are thought to relate to each other. Various recent proposals of such groupings are described in the following sections.

Contrasting basic emotions

The following table, based on a wide review of current theories, identifies and contrasts the fundamental emotions according to a set of definite criteria. The three key criteria used include mental experiences that:

1. have a strongly motivating subjective quality like pleasure or pain;
2. are in response to some event or object that is either real or imagined;
3. motivate particular kinds of behaviour.

The combination of these attributes distinguish the emotions from sensations, feelings and moods.

Kind of Emotion	Positive Emotions	Negative Emotions
Related to Object Properties	Interest, curiosity	Alarm, panic
	Attraction, desire, admiration	Aversion, disgust, revulsion
	Surprise, amusement	Indifference, familiarity, habituation
Future Appraisal	Hope	Fear
Event-Related	Gratitude, thankfulness	Anger, rage
	Joy, elation, triumph, jubilation	Sorrow, grief
	Relief	Frustration, disappointment
Self-Appraisal	Pride in achievement, self-confidence, sociability	Embarrassment, shame, guilt, remorse
Social	Generosity	Avarice, greed, miserliness, envy, jealousy
	Sympathy	Cruelty
Cathected	Love	Hate

HUMAINE's proposal for EARL (Emotion Annotation and Representation Language)

The emotion annotation and representation language (EARL) proposed by the Human-Machine Interaction Network on Emotion (HUMAINE) classifies 48 emotions.

• Negative and forceful
  • Anger
  • Annoyance
  • Contempt
  • Disgust
  • Irritation
• Negative and not in control
  • Anxiety
  • Embarrassment
  • Fear
  • Helplessness
  • Powerlessness
  • Worry
• Negative thoughts
  • Doubt
  • Envy
  • Frustration
  • Guilt
  • Shame

• Negative and passive
  • Boredom
  • Despair
  • Disappointment
  • Hurt
  • Sadness
• Agitation
  • Stress
  • Shock
  • Tension
• Positive and lively
  • Amusement
  • Delight
  • Elation
  • Excitement
  • Happiness
  • Joy
  • Pleasure
• Caring
  • Affection
  • Empathy
  • Friendliness
  • Love

• Positive thoughts
  • Courage
  • Hope
  • Pride
  • Satisfaction
  • Trust
• Quiet positive
  • Calmness
  • Contentment
  • Relaxation
  • Relief
  • Serenity
• Reactive
  • Interest
  • Politeness
  • Surprise

Parrott's emotions by groups

A tree-structured list of emotions was described in Shaver et al. (1987), and also featured in Parrott (2001).

Plutchik's wheel of emotions

Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions

In 1980 Robert Plutchik constructed a wheel-like diagram of emotions visualising eight basic emotions, plus eight derivative emotions each composed of two basic ones.

Basic emotion	Basic opposite
Joy	Sadness
Trust	Disgust
Fear	Anger
Surprise	Anticipation

Human feelings (results of emotions)	Emotions	Opposite
Optimism	Anticipation + Joy	Disapproval
Love	Joy + Trust	Remorse
Submission	Trust + Fear	Contempt
Awe	Fear + Surprise	Aggression
Disapproval	Surprise + Sadness	Optimism
Remorse	Sadness + Disgust	Love
Contempt	Disgust + Anger	Submission
Aggressiveness	Anger + Anticipation	Awe

See also

• List of virtues
• Affect (psychology)
• Emotion
• Emotion classification
• Emotional mood
• Emotion and memory
• Empathy
• Basic emotions

External links

• That page presents lists from Ekman, Lazarus, Ortony et al., and Goleman
• A table of basic emotions according to a variety of authors
• An organized list of over 800 English emotion words, maintained by Steven DeRose
• Jessica Hagy, Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions emotions in Venn format]