Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts , feelings , behavioral responses , and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. Research on emotion has increased over the past two decades, [ when? The numerous attempts to explain the origin, function , and other aspects of emotions have fostered intense research on this topic. Theorizing about the evolutionary origin and possible purpose of emotion dates back to Charles Darwin.
Current areas of research include the neuroscience of emotion, using tools like PET and fMRI scans to study the affective picture processes in the brain. From a mechanistic perspective, emotions can be defined as "a positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity". More recently, emotion has been said to consist of all the components.
The different components of emotion are categorized somewhat differently depending on the academic discipline. In psychology and philosophy , emotion typically includes a subjective , conscious experience characterized primarily by psychophysiological expressions , biological reactions , and mental states. A similar multi-componential description of emotion is found in sociology. For example, Peggy Thoits described emotions as involving physiological components, cultural or emotional labels anger, surprise, etc.
However, not all theories of emotion regard this separation as valid. Nowadays, most research into emotions in the clinical and well-being context focuses on emotion dynamics in daily life, predominantly the intensity of specific emotions and their variability, instability, inertia, and differentiation, as well as whether and how emotions augment or blunt each other over time and differences in these dynamics between people and along the lifespan.
The term emotion was introduced into academic discussion as a catch-all term to passions , sentiments and affections. Instead they felt other things β 'passions', 'accidents of the soul', 'moral sentiments' β and explained them very differently from how we understand emotions today. Some cross-cultural studies indicate that the categorization of "emotion" and classification of basic emotions such as "anger" and "sadness" are not universal and that the boundaries and domains of these concepts are categorized differently by all cultures.
