During the course of a day, there are many emotions that we can experience. Emotions are part of the natural condition of the person and these can be classified as positive emotions or negative emotions. The “negative” connotation does not imply that they are emotions that we should not have or that they are bad for us, all emotions, whether positive or negative, help us in our development and shape us as people.
It is normal that we all prefer that there be a prevalence of positive emotions in our lives, however the most important thing for people’s functioning is that a balance is established between these two classifications of emotion.
If you are interested in knowing what emotions are and which ones would be considered positive or negative emotions, continue reading this Psychology-Online article, where we will explain the positive and negative emotions: definition and list.
What are emotions?
What are emotions? Emotions are considered a affective state that produces a set of organic changes at a physiological and endocrine level. The emotion is experienced instantly, appearing at a certain time and with the tendency to act in positive or negative polarities. On the other hand, it maintains a short duration in time and its origin is normally influenced by an external experience, on which a valuation process is established, which is reproduced automatically influenced by our past evolutionary and personal experiences. The functions of emotions can respond in an adaptive, motivational or social way.
- Adaptive: prepares the organism to adapt to the action that precedes it, that is, it adapts the behavior to the action that must be carried out according to the environmental conditions.
- Motivational: stimulates or decreases motivation to move toward a specific goal.
- Social: maintains a predictive component, causing outsiders to minimally intuit how we are going to act and oneself to be able to see it in others, which contributes to interpersonal relationships.
Types of emotions: positive and negative
As we have previously established, emotions can be presented under two different classifications: positive and negative emotions. What are positive and negative emotions?
positive emotions
Positive emotions refer to the set of emotions that are related to pleasant feelings, who understand the situation as beneficial and maintain it in a short period of time. Examples of positive emotions are happiness or joy, among others. The positive emotions help increase attention, memory, awareness, the retention of information and allow us to maintain several concepts at the same time and how these relate to each other. Against this, it should be noted that positive emotions are mobilizing, that is, when we experience them we have more desire to do things and we perform better.
Negative emotions
Negative emotions refer to the set of emotions that stimulate unpleasant feelings and they consider the situation that is presented as harmful, which allows the person to activate their coping resources. Negative emotions they warn us of certain circumstances considered a threat or challenge. Examples of negative emotions are fear, anger or sadness, among others. Negative emotions increase our awareness, helping us to focus attention on the problem that is presented to us, also being mobilizers.
Both types of emotions are normal and necessary. However, the predominance of positive emotions leads to a healthier and happier life, while the presence of more negative emotions than positive ones leads to stress and overwhelm, which can cause problems to intensify.
List of positive and negative emotions
There is a large number of emotions that can be classified into the connotation of positive emotions or negative emotions. What are positive and negative emotions? Below is a list of the most frequent positive and negative emotions.
List of positive emotions
- Acceptance: availability to approve a specific situation.
- Keen: to feel love for someone or something.
- Gratitude: feeling of esteem towards someone who has done something for us and we get the feeling of wanting to give it back.
- : feeling that manifests itself from a good state of mind, involves satisfaction and is accompanied by a smile or laughter.
- Love: feeling of affection towards someone or something, which brings us closer to happiness.
- Welfare: state in which the person is in balance in the proper functioning of their somatic and psychic life.
- Fun: focus attention on entertainment that generates a feeling of well-being.
- Enthusiasm: born from passion for something or someone.
- Hope: confidence in achieving what you want.
- : feeling of absolute satisfaction.
- Joy: very intense emotion generated by something that is very popular.
- Humor: state that allows us to focus attention on the comic side of what happens to us.
- Delusion: to be hopeful about something or excited about it.
- : reaction to what we have to do that encourages us to do it with more enthusiasm and energy.
- Passion: comes from love and tends to manifest itself in the sexual sphere.
- Satisfaction: effect that arises from the fulfillment of something, done well and that helps to increase confidence and self-assurance.
List of negative emotions
- Boredom: state of mind that arises from the lack of distraction or stimuli.
- Burden: sensation that implies an emotional charge which produces fatigue.
- Distress: state of mind that involves restlessness, which arises as a result of worry or suffering.
- : state of restlessness, which involves high physical and mental excitement.
- Disgust: feeling of displeasure related to something or someone, which produces rejection.
- Blame: feeling of responsibility for an event or action, of a negative nature.
- Disappointment: feeling of disappointment. It arises in a situation that does not turn out as the person expected.
- Despair: arises due to the loss of patience, when it is considered that what the person is facing is irreparable or due to the impotence of being able to overcome it successfully.
- Dislike: feeling produced by a result that was not expected or desired.
- : feeling overwhelmed in a certain situation, due to the demand for performance.
- Frustration: impossibility of satisfying a goal or desire.
- Indignation: anger against a person or action for being considered unfair.
- Gonna: primary emotion that indicates great anger against a person or situation.
- : anxiety due to the perception of danger
- Worry: state of concern regarding a problem or situation.
- Rage: feeling of anger that tends to be accompanied by the expression of this anger: shouting, sudden actions, violent behavior, etc.
- Remorse: feeling of guilt for an action taken.
- Resentment: hostility towards someone, due to some previous cause with said person that may have harmed or offended you.
- : feeling of emotional pain, caused by a triggering factor and involving thoughts with a pessimistic, vulnerable tone and a tendency to cry.
- Shame: discomfort due to an action in which the person has felt humiliated or due to the fear of being made a fool of or that a stranger will do so.
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
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- Royal Spanish Academy (2001). Spanish dictionary (22nd ed.). Madrid Spain.
- Tapia, M & Labino, L. (2004). Negative and positive emotions. Its relationship with essential hypertension. XI Research Conference. Faculty of Psychology – University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires.
- Tomás, P. (2014). Recognition of emotions, what are they and what are they for? UNED. Balearic Islands.
- Vivas, M., Gallego, D & González, B. (2014). The different types of emotions. Thematic contents.