Essay. What are Emotions?

All of us can feel happiness, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise or anger at some time but what all these words mean? They are so-called six basic emotions and are specific reactions to particular events related to biochemical (internal) and environmental (external) influences. There are more than a half of thousand different words in English that can describe every emotion and we have over that 40 muscles in our face to express them.

We feel emotions by our brain and it is really difficult for scientists to give a single accurate definition for this process. However, experts say that emotions are our mental state along with facial expressions, actions or physical changes. They are related to our mood, but differ from it, as they are short lived feelings with a clear object and mood is a more general feeling and lasts longer. For example, one can be happy about something or angry with somebody – this is his emotion. But another one can have a general feeling of pleasure, anxiety or sadness – this is his mood.

It is easy for us to feel emotions but it is quite complicated to study them. According to many researches in this field, emotions have components of two types: physical and mental and consist of body responses, expressive behavior and subjective feelings.

The first component is the easiest for measuring because many special tools have been developed by experts to measure our body responses: blood rushing to the face, sweating, pounding heart, the release of adrenaline, and many others. For instance, when we are under stress, the hormone adrenaline is released by our bodies. By the way, this happens regardless of race, gender or age of people, as all we have very similar internal responses to the same feelings.

Expressive behavior is the outward sign of the experienced emotion and can include a flushed face, muscle tension, fainting, rapid breathing, restlessness, etc. Due to the outward expressions of our emotions we can feel each other better, and in this way social interactions are regulated.

And finally, subjective feelings are the most difficult to measure or describe as they refer to the special way each individual experiences emotions. This component can not be observed, only each person should describe it to others, and of course the interpretations of different persons may differ. For example, you and your friend are in love, on the one hand you experience the same emotion, but on the other, your descriptions of it may be slightly different.

For me these three parts of emotion flow together and I don’t pay much attention whether this is my expressive behavior or body responses. I just relax and enjoy much all my experiences of different feelings.