Surely in the puberty stage we have blushed when the person we liked sat next to us. Or we have felt guilty for not having been able to fix an issue that we had pending. All these previous situations are related to secondary emotions. Do you know what secondary emotions are and what is their importance?
Today mental health is increasingly being given the importance and attention it needs. For this we must start working to know what and how we feel. If you want us to tell you a little more, keep reading.
What are primary or basic emotions?
Robert Plutchik, American psychologist, postulated that basic emotions are joy, confidence, fear, surprise, sadness, aversion, anger and anticipation. These emotions are what we have by nature, that is, innately. They are the first emotions that a baby begins to have as it grows.
Plutchik describes each of these emotions as follows:
- Joy: State of satisfaction and well-being with oneself and with the circumstances in which they live.
- Trust: Subjective position in which we are sure that no harm or prejudice is going to happen to us, in a given situation, or after we take an action.
- Fear: Unpleasant uncertainty, which is associated with expectations where we can suffer harm or harm.
- Surprise: Reaction to an action that happens in the environment that surrounds us. It is a basic neutral emotion.
- Sadness: Mood decline that usually needs social support.
- Aversion: Rejection or avoidance in front of something or someone.
- Go to: Responding to an offense
- Anticipation: Expectation that the human being creates from the experience and previous information that he has from previous circumstances.
On these emotions various combinations are created that give rise to the secondary emotions
What are secondary emotions?
Secondary emotions are those that develop from the basic ones. Being more complex, the person needs to have a degree of cognitive development to be able to be elaborated. These begin to develop around 2-3 years of age.
They are emotions that arise in a context of interpersonal relationship, that is, they are those that develop from experience. Consequently, they are conditioned by the processes of learning and socialization.
What are secondary emotions?
Simplified Wheel of Secondary Emotions by Robert Plutchik
Robert Plutchik represented how the combination of basic emotions generates secondary emotions. To do this, he made a fairly explanatory graph to which he called the wheel of emotions.
The secondary emotions according to the combinations are:
- Care (Joy + confidence)
- Optimism (Joy + Anticipation)
- Sumisión (Trust + Fear)
- Alarm (Fear + Surprise)
- Disappointment (Surprise + Sadness)
- Remorse (Sadness + Aversion)
- Contempt (Aversion + Anger)
- Aggression (Anger + Anticipation)
- Guilt (Joy + Fear)
- Pride (Joy + Anger)
- Curiosity (Confidence + Surprise)
- Fatalism (Confidence + Anticipation)
- Despair (Fear + Sadness)
- Disbelief (Surprise + Aversion)
- Envy (Sadness + Anger)
- Cynicism (Aversion + Anticipation)
- Delight (Joy + Surprise)
- Morbidity (Joy + Aversion)
- Sentimentality (Trust + Sadness)
- Domination (Confidence + Anger)
- Shame (Fear + Disgust)
- Anxiety (Fear + Anticipation)
- Indignation (Surprise + Anger)
- Pessimism (Sadness + Anticipation)
Therefore, the secondary emotions that are more reinforced in the personality of each person will depend on the Self esteem, the self knowledge, and of the personal identity. In addition, these areas will be greatly influenced by the social values that have been instilled in him, both in the family and in the social sphere. Another great weight on secondary emotions is the circumstances experienced in the present moment.
Therefore, It is important that from a very young age we teach children to value themselves, to know each other, to instill in them social and environmental values based on respect and not on insane competition.
Summarizing the movie from Disney & Pixar titled «Del revés« it represents pretty well how emotions work. Therefore, we recommend it for the whole family to see. And we hope you liked this post.