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Posted

What exactly are emotions and can we quantify them ?

 

I would define emotion as the motor expression of nervous impulses.

 

eg) anger / mirth etc.

 

Scientists have tried to quanify emotions and while earlier it was thought that there were 3 different flavours,

now it has been revised to 7.

 

It this a realistic model ? :unsure:

 

 

Posted

In what way is anger/mirth the motor expression of nervous impulses?

 

Who said there were three different flavours of emotion? (Citation required)

 

Who amended it to seven. (Citation required)

Posted

In what way is anger/mirth the motor expression of nervous impulses?

 

Who said there were three different flavours of emotion? (Citation required)

 

Who amended it to seven. (Citation required)

 

http://www.humintell.com/2010/06/the-seven-basic-emotions-do-you-know-them/

 

As an illustration of motor response :

The clenched hands/fist is tension caused by anxiety and stress. It's the same if someone bites down hard on their teeth when their mouth is closed, or taps their feet etc.

 

 

Posted

So your citation for your assertion about the number of emotions is a commercial company that makes money out of teaching people to recognise emotion. Can you guess what emotion I am experiencing now? Can you hear the laughter?

 

The clenched hands/fist is tension caused by anxiety and stress. It's the same if someone bites down hard on their teeth when their mouth is closed, or taps their feet etc

But you said that emotion was the expression of motor expression of nervous impulses. Now you are saying that nervous impulses are the expression of emotions. Which is it? To help you out, keep in mind that cause typically precedes effect.

Posted

So your citation for your assertion about the number of emotions is a commercial company that makes money out of teaching people to recognise emotion. Can you guess what emotion I am experiencing now? Can you hear the laughter?

 

But you said that emotion was the expression of motor expression of nervous impulses. Now you are saying that nervous impulses are the expression of emotions. Which is it? To help you out, keep in mind that cause typically precedes effect.

 

It is more or less symbiotic...one triggers the other which accentuates the former.

 

 

 

You might want to read some science on the subject instead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion

 

To quote from your reference :

 

For more than 40 years, Paul Ekman has supported the view that emotions are discrete, measurable, and physiologically distinct. Ekman's most influential work revolved around the finding that certain emotions appeared to be universally recognized, even in cultures that were preliterate and could not have learned associations for facial expressions through media. Another classic study found that when participants contorted their facial muscles into distinct facial expressions (e.g. disgust), they reported subjective and physiological experiences that matched the distinct facial expressions. His research findings led him to classify six emotions as basic: anger, disgust,fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.

 

This is the gist of my assertion.....only the number of emotions enunciated by me differs.

Posted

This is the gist of my assertion.....only the number of emotions enunciated by me differs.

 

Well, not really. That work (and the other work mentioned that says there are 4, 8, 12, 64 or whatever "basic emotions) is based on science. There is no evidence that the business you link to has any science behind their money making scheme.

 

Also, the fact there is no rigorous way of defining what these basic emotions are makes it sound like pretty poor quality, "soft" science anyway. So perhaps you can just make up your own number after all.

Posted

Are all humans even capable of experiencing the same emotions? I have been angry but never to the point of wanting to kill. I have been sexually curious but never to the point of anything deviant. Emotions are chemical and not everyone has the same chemistry. So I suspect not everyone has the same experience of emotion. So while that act of smiling may trigger joy in some people that isn't compelling evidence it would in all people.

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