Do you remember the movie titled “Inside Out”? Five characters appeared in it and each one represented an emotion: anger, joy, fear, disgust and sadness. These are 5 of the basic emotions that exist in human beings. The pioneering psychologist in the study of emotions, Paul Ekman, added a sixth to these five: surprise.
Eckman, in addition to providing a definition for each of these emotions, associated the different facial expressions with them. He also took into consideration microexpressions, which are small, automatic, brief and unconscious facial expressions that help to find out the person’s real mood.
Keep reading Psychology online to understand well the Paul’s theory of emotions EkmanWhat each of the emotions in the theory consists of, see the summary of the psychologist’s book “The Face of Emotions” and know what the different facial expressions are that could help us know what emotion the other person is feeling.
Paul Ekman’s 6 emotions
Paul Ekman’s theory of emotions includes 6 universal emotions. Next, we will see what they are:
- Gonna: arises in aversive situations or situations that generate frustration. It is an activation of the body in preparation for the fight against the threatening situation or the escape from it. However, on many occasions it appears constantly, causing problems on a social, work, relationship and even physical health level. According to Paul Ekman’s theory of basic emotions, anger is associated with heart problems. In this article, we tell you.
- Disgust: the origin of the feeling of disgust is to protect ourselves from foods that could be toxic. However, on many occasions, we have that feeling of rejection of a food without it being bad for the body. Furthermore, not only can some foods disgust us, but also certain smells, tactile sensations or images can create this rejection in us.
- Fear: its origin is clearly our protection against dangers. It is an activation of the body that prepares us to flee from a potentially dangerous situation. However, as in the others, on many occasions we have irrational fears, as is the case with phobias, in which the danger is not real or is very unlikely. Discover .
- Happiness: another of Paul Ekman’s emotions. It is a pleasant emotional state in which the person evaluates a situation as positive. In addition, during this emotional state there is usually a low level of anxiety, good expectations about the future and high levels of energy and motivation.
- Sadness: one of Paul Ekman’s 6 emotions. Unlike joy, it is a decline in the general mood. Energy levels are low, motivation is low, and the outlook on the present and future is negative.
- Surprise: Paul Ekman’s atlas of emotions describes surprise as a physical and cognitive reaction one has to an unexpected event or one that did not fit into the person’s mental schemes.
Now we know what Paul Ekman’s emotions are. In this article, you will find more information about .
The face of emotions
The Face of Emotions by Paul Ekman is one of the books that explains the different facial expressions associated with an emotion. With this, what is intended is that the reader learns to distinguish the mood of others and, therefore, he adapts better and learns to better hide his emotional state.
The book of the face of emotions by Paul Ekman delves into the world of microexpressions and explains to us that these are universal, regardless of the time, country, culture, language, etc. We all have the same expressions for joy, and the rest of the emotions already mentioned. These barely last less than a second on many occasions.
Additionally, the book helps you analyze when you have a certain emotion and how you express it. Likewise, it also explains how emotions, according to Paul Ekman, help us quickly classify different vital events in our lives.
Finally, Paul Ekman’s theory of emotions explains to us how to make certain situations stop affecting us both emotionally. It is not about stopping feeling anything, since the author explains the importance of learning to live with our emotions. In short, it is about learning from an emotion for a certain situation in which our emotional reaction was being useless, for example, in the case of phobias. In the same way, it teaches us to have more temperance in different situations.
Facial expressions of emotions
According to Paul Ekman’s theory of emotions, different movements occur in our face in accordance with the emotion we are feeling. Let’s see what the facial expressions of primary emotions are according to Paul Ekman:
- Gonna: It is common to frown and purse your lips. Likewise, the eyes look brighter.
- Happiness: Wrinkles appear at the outer corner of the eye, known as crow’s feet, the cheeks rise and the corners of the lips too, which is reflected in more closed eyes.
- Sadness: The eyelid is more droopy, the mouth is straight or downturned and sometimes the brow is furrowed and raised.
- Disgust: The nose wrinkles and the upper lip rises.
- Surprise: the eyebrows are raised, the eyes open and the mouth too.
- Fear: the upper eyelids are raised to the maximum and the lower eyelids are tense. The eyebrows are raised and together. The lips are drawn back and the cheeks are drawn in.
These facial expressions of Paul Ekman’s basic emotions can be of longer or shorter duration. Thus, both in facial expressions and in microexpressions the same gestures would be produced and the only thing that would vary would be their duration.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Ekman, P. (2017). The face of emotions. Barcelona: RBA Pocket.