What are feelings and emotions?

Living beings receive stimuli with their senses. This gives rise to inner sensations. Their perception is either consciously or unconsciously transmitted to the brain. This process is called emotion.

The purpose behind it is to adapt behavior to restore balance. Regulatory processes serve this purpose. These subsequent reactions can be positive or negative and can take place consciously or subliminally. No mental interpretation takes place at this stage. If the emotional reactions are evaluated in the mind, a feeling is created.

In unconscious processes, emotions have an influence on behavior, but the cognitive interpretation remains hidden. Conscious perception and mental interpretation lead to intentional behavior. Feelings are therefore conscious expressions of emotions[1].

Emotions can be felt in certain areas of the body. Topographically, like a map, these sensations are culturally universal in humans. Most people perceive anger, an approach-oriented emotion, in the upper limbs. Sadness leads to diminished sensation in the limbs. Disgust is felt primarily in the digestive tract and throat area. Joy, on the other hand, is felt by the entire body[2].

Affect refers to an observed behavior as an expression of a subjectively perceived emotional state. This includes sadness, joy or anger. In contrast, an extended emotional climate that lasts over time is referred to as a mood. Affects tend to be fluctuating changes in the emotional weather. There are cultural differences as to what is considered a normal range of emotional expression. If the expression is diminished, it is called bluntedness. If there is a clear discrepancy between the affective expression and the content of what is said, the expression is inadequate. Rapid and abrupt changes are referred to as unstable[3].

[1] Vgl. Kret et al. (2022) My Fear Is Not, and Never Will Be, Your Fear: On Emotions and Feelings in Animals, Affect Sci 3(1):182-189., vgl. auch Volynets et al.(2020) Bodily maps of emotions are culturally universal, Emotion 20(7):1127-1136.

[2] Vgl. Sachs et al.(2019) Echoing the emotions of others: empathy is related to how adults and children map emotion onto the body, Cogn Emot 33(8):1639-1654.

[3] Vgl. Wittchen und Hoyer (2011) Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie