Positive and Negative Emotions: Definition and List

  • Jul 26, 2021
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Positive and negative emotions: definition and list

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 into positive emotions or negative emotions. The connotation "negative”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 in our lives there is a prevalence of positive emotions, despite the most important for the functioning of people is that a balance is established between these two classifications of emotion.

If you are interested in knowing what emotions are and which would be considered positive or negative emotions, keep reading this Psychology-Online article, where we will expose the positive and negative emotions: definition and list.

What are emotions? Emotions are considered a affective state that produces a set of organic changes at the 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 normally comes influenced by an external experience, on which a valuation process, which is reproduced automatically influenced by our past evolutionary experiences and personal. Emotion functions can respond in an adaptive, motivational, or social way.

  1. Adaptive: prepares the body to adapt to the action that precedes, that is, it adapts the behavior to the action that must be carried out according to environmental conditions.
  2. Motivational: stimulates or diminishes the motivation to go towards a certain objective.
  3. Social: maintains a predictive component, allowing outsiders to be able to minimally intuit how we are going to act and that oneself can see it in others, which contributes to relationships interpersonal.

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 are maintained in a short space of time. Examples of positive emotions are happiness or joy, among others. Positive emotions help increase attention, memory, awareness, the retention of information and allow us to maintain several concepts at the same time and how they relate to each other. Faced with 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 a challenge. Examples of negative emotions are fear, anger or sadness, among others. Negative emotions increase our consciousness helping us to focus attention on the problem that is presented to us, being also 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, leads to stress and overwhelm, which can cause problems to be step up.

There are a large number of emotions that can be classified under the connotation of positive emotions or negative emotions. What are the positive and negative emotions? Below is a list of the most common positive and negative emotions.

List of positive emotions

  • Acceptance: availability to approve a specific situation.
  • Affected: feel love for someone or something.
  • Appreciation: feeling of esteem for someone who has done something for us and we get the feeling of wanting to return it.
  • Joy: feeling that manifests itself from a good state of mind, involves satisfaction and is accompanied by a smile or laugh.
  • Love: feeling of affection towards someone or something, which brings us closer to happiness.
  • Wellness: state in which the person is in a balance in the proper functioning between his somatic and psychic life.
  • Fun: focus attention on entertainment that generates a feeling of well-being.
  • Enthusiasm: born from passion towards something or someone.
  • Hope: confidence in achieving what you want.
  • Happiness: feeling of absolute satisfaction.
  • Joy: very intense emotion generated by something that you really like.
  • Humor: state that allows to focus attention on the comic side of what happens to us.
  • Delusion: being hopeful about something or excited about it.
  • Motivation: reaction to what we have to do that encourages us to do it with more enthusiasm and energy.
  • Passion: it comes from love and it tends to manifest itself in the sexual sphere.
  • Satisfaction: effect that is born from the accomplishment of something, well done and that helps to increase the confidence and the security in oneself.

List of negative emotions

  • Boredom: state of mind that arises in the face of lack of distraction or stimuli.
  • Burden: feeling that implies an emotional load which produces fatigue.
  • Anguish: state of mind that involves restlessness, which arises as a result of worry or suffering.
  • Anxiety: state of restlessness, which involves high physical and mental excitement.
  • Disgust: feeling of dislike related to something or someone, which produces rejection.
  • Guilt: feeling of responsibility about 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: It arises from the loss of patience, when it is considered that what the person faces is irreparable or due to the impotence of being able to overcome it successfully.
  • Dislike: feeling produced before a result that was not expected or desired.
  • Stress: feeling overcome in a certain situation, due to the demand for performance.
  • Frustration: inability to please a goal or desire.
  • Indignation: anger against a person or action for being considered as unfair.
  • Go to: primary emotion that indicates a very great anger against a person or situation.
  • Afraid: anguish due to the perception of danger
  • Worry: state of concern about a problem or situation.
  • Rage: feeling of anger that tends to be accompanied by the expression of this anger: shouting, abrupt actions, violent behavior, etc.
  • Remorse: feeling of guilt for an action carried out.
  • Resentment: hostility towards someone, due to some previous cause with said person that could harm or offend you.
  • Sadness: feeling of emotional pain, caused by a trigger and that involves thoughts with a pessimistic tone, vulnerable and with a tendency to cry.
  • Shame: discomfort due to an action in which the person has felt humiliated or because of the fear of being ridiculous or that someone else will do it.

This article is merely informative, in 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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