St. Paul's Secondary School, Greenhills.



(4) (2) (3)Eight Primary Emotions (1)Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust, Trust, Anticipation, SurpriseSome of these emotions are the opposite of each other e.g Joy and Sadness, others are related or connected to each other e.g Fear may manifest in Anger. Differing Levels of EmotionsWe can feel each of these emotions to a greater or lesser extent. The inner circle (2) of the diagram is when we feel a more extreme level of one of the primary emotions e.g when fear becomes terror or joy becomes ecstasy. The outer circle (3) is when we feel a lesser level of the emotion such as being just annoyed rather than angry. The emotions in the white space (4) refer to combinations of emotions leading to another emotion e.g joy, serenity and trust could result in love.It is estimated that there are approximately 34,000 identifiable emotions. Robert Plutchik’s wheel exhibits a small number of them, but he proposes that all of them emerge from the 8 primary emotions listed on the previous page. His diagram can help us understand how our emotions might be connected and how we can accurately identify what we are feeling. This knowledge encourages us to respond appropriately in that moment The Purpose of Our EmotionsThe purpose of our emotions is to ‘tell’ us how to behave. If we are feeling terror, perhaps its time to run. Fear and terror are emotions to protect us. If we are feeling joy it tells us to appreciate the moment or event and increases our sense of wellbeing. The importance of understanding what level of emotion that we are feeling is so that we can respond accordingly and appropriately to the situation. Emotional LiteracyBeing able to identify and recognise our emotions is known as emotional literacy, where we understand what we are feeling, to what extent and what that feeling is about. This ability allows us also to become more aware of how our emotions manifest themselves and how one emotion may be outwardly expressed as another. When we are disappointed or hurt we may sometimes demonstrate this as anger or irritation with the person who has hurt us. Emotional literacy involves mindful awareness of our emotions so that we can recognise the feeling, identify the emotion and respond accordingly. Managing our emotionsWhen we involve our cognition we can identify the actual emotion we are feeling and this help us to express it appropriately or to control it. Our initial instinct may tell us we are angry, but by staying with the emotion and noticing the situation our cognition can tell us what level of emotion we need to feel. For example, if a driver pulls out in front of us in their car, our initial instinct may be anger. If we tune into our logical/cognitive thought, we can appreciate the driver may not have seen us and rather than the emotion escalating to rage we can settle at mild annoyance. Emotions are transient and can often be triggered by a situation or event, with one emotion replacing another quite quickly. If we ‘train’ ourselves to feel emotions and notice them as they happen, we can appreciate joyful and happy events which helps support our overall psychological wellbeing. Equally, by noticing when we are feeling unpleasant or negative emotions and allow ourselves to stay with them for a time, it shows us we can ‘survive’ them and that they too are transient. There are also emotions that can be referred to as ‘bland’ where we really feel little about the situation it just passes without great emotional attention. Sources of further learningRobert PlutchikBarbara FredricksonMartin Seligman ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download