11/5/2026

As soon as we are born into this world, we cry. We do not yet have words to express our emotions. We are yet too young to understand our feelings. As children, we do not always know what our emotions mean.  We grow and learn what emotions and feelings are acceptable to express physically and outright.

Think about a time when your emotions were high and you felt confused and hurt. How did that impact your interactions with others in your life? If I feel hurt, I want to hide away. I want few interactions, if any at all. If there are others around me, I might be short of patience and snap at my husband. I want to find the quickest way to be myself.

Our emotions have played a role in human evolution. In the 1870’s, Charles Darwin developed an evolutionary psychology theory that there are primary emotions that are expressed by humans and animals. Emotions have evolved for the human species to survive and adapt. One hundred years later, in 1972, Psychologist Paul Ekman identified six innate universal basic emotions tied to distinct facial expressions. The facial expressions were anger, disgust, fear, happiness or joy, sadness, and surprise. Ekman’s 1970’s research became foundational. Ekman’s research included studies in Papua New Guinea; it demonstrated that specific expressions are biologically hardwired rather than culturally learned.

Ekman later expanded his framework to include states, like contempt, which he proposed as the seventh universal emotion. Ekman’s theory suggests that these core emotions are universal across cultures worldwide. Other theories and new research continue to explore many varied types of emotions.

“Emotions can dramatically help or hinder us in leading productive, purposeful, and compassionate lives, yet we are not born with clear instructions on how to collaborate with them,” wrote Eve Ekman (Paul Ekman’s daughter), Senior Fellow at the University of California Berkley, Greater Good Science Center.

Emotions are influenced by a network of interconnected structures in the brain forming the limbic system. According to the website VeryWellMind.com, key structures of the limbic system are the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and limbic cortex play a crucial role in emotions and behavioral responses.

Psychologists usually think of emotions as transient experiences (temporary episodes that come and go) rather than enduring states. This distinguishes emotions from moods, which tend to be longer-lasting but less intense noted clinical psychologist Matthew Pugh.

“Each emotion involves several components, including thoughts, physical changes, and behaviors,” wrote Kendra Cherry, MSEd for Verywellmind.com. Although emotions, feelings and moods are related, they differ in duration, intensity, and triggers that evoke them.

Emotions are complex, stated Cherry.  Emotions do not happen just in our minds, according to experts, emotions fundamentally alter our conscious experience and bodily states. Furthermore, every emotion has a physiological signature.  Anger triggers a rush of adrenaline and muscle tension, while joy promotes relaxation and endorphin release.  Over time, these emotional states accumulate into your baseline mood.

According to Eve Ekman, over the last forty years, emotion research has blossomed. New and multiple scientific journals and conferences dedicated to this area.

According to researchers Goran Simic, Mladenka Tkalcic, and Vana Vukic, emotions arise from activations of specialized neuronal populations in the cerebral cortex of our brains. Feelings are conscious, emotional experiences of these activations contribute to the neural networks related to thoughts, language, and behavior.

Emotions are categorized into primary emotions and secondary emotions. Primary emotions are basic, biologically driven emotional experiences that all humans share. For example, research suggests that these emotions are recognizable across cultures and they are associated with characteristic facial expressions, according to Pugh.

However, Pugh noted, secondary emotions are more complex and can be influenced by culture, beliefs, and personal experiences.

According to Cherry, there are three components of emotion as each play a role in the function and purpose of your emotional responses.

1. Subjective component: how you experience emotion.
2. Physiological component: how your body reacts to emotion.
3. Expressive component: how you behave to the emotion.

“Emotions played a major role in survival during human evolution and in effective psychological functioning in human societies,”  wrote Simic.  “Yet, unlike reflexes, automatic and uncontrollable narrowly tuned, emotions emerged and were selected in evolution because they better addressed problems of adapting to changing environments.”

“It is easy to think of emotions and thinking as two separate processes. They often work together,” according to the Source Code Academia website. Furthermore, our emotional state can influence what pays attention, how we remember an experience, and how we interpret a situation.

We as humans may experience hundreds of emotions. However, most of us can name only a few such as happy, sad, angry, afraid, or excited stated experts. Learning to identify these differences can help us improve our emotional awareness.

In a 2019 psychological study at Stanford University, psychologists examined why some people respond differently to an upsetting situation and learned that people’s motivations play a key role in how they react. They found that when a person wanted to stay calm, they remained unfazed by angry people, but they wanted to feel angry, then angry people highly influenced them. The studies findings were published on June 13, 2019, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Humans’ emotions are not passive or automatic, added Amit Goldberg, lead author of the study and doctoral candidate in psychology. Goldenberg found that further research needs to be done to understand the relationship between people and their emotions. Interestingly, the 2019 Stanford study’s findings challenged previous perspectives and assumptions.

Our emotions are a fundamental part of our lives. In future blog posts, I will share how feelings impact our moods, how our thoughts impact and activate our behaviors.

“We cannot be more connected to others than we are to ourselves.” – Brene Brown

Resources:

Image by studiogstock on Magnific. retrieved on 11/12/2026 from https://www.magnific.com/free-vector/emotions-intelligence-design_136471897.htm

Ashan, Dua. “Do My Feelings Matter? Exploring the Impact of Emotions on Others.” 10/19/2024. Retrieved on 11/5/2026 from https://medium.com/@dua2592ahsan/do-my-feelings-matter-exploring-the-impact-of-emotions-on-others-8fab646a02b3

Chan, MSc, BSc, PMP, Katherine. “Emotion Wheel: What it is and How to Use one.” 10/12/2026. Retrieved on 11/5/2026 from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-an-emotion-wheel-6500040

Cherry, MSEd, Kendra. “5 Reasons Emotions Are Important.” 9/1/2026. Retrieved on 11/5/2026 from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-purpose-of-emotions-2795181

Cherry, MSEd, Kendra. “Emotions and Types of Emotional Response.” 11/2/2026. Retrieved on https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-emotions-2795178.

Cherry, MSEd, Kendra. “The Six Types of Basic Emotions.” 6/3/2026. Retrieved on 11/5/2026 from https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-types-of-emotions-4163976

Ekman, PhD, Eve.” Understanding our Emotions Could cultivating emotional awareness help us align with greater purpose in life?”7/10/2023. Retrieved on 10/30/2026 from https://www.mindandlife.org/insight/understanding-our-emotions/

PeaceHealth.org. “What Does it Mean to Feel? How Emotions Can Work for Us?” 7/25/2023. https://www.peacehealth.org/healthy-you/what-does-it-mean-feel-how-emotions-can-work-us

Pugh, Matthew. “Emotions: What They Are and Why They Matter.” 9/1/2026. Retrieved on 10/30/2026 from https://www.psychologytools.com/articles/emotions-what-they-are-and-why-they-matter

Šimić G, Tkalčić M, Vukić V, Mulc D, Španić E, Šagud M, Olucha-Bordonau FE, Vukšić M, R Hof P. Understanding Emotions: Origins and Roles of the Amygdala. Biomolecules. 2021 May 31;11(6):823. doi: 10.3390/biom11060823. PMID: 34072960; PMCID: PMC8228195. Retrieved on 11/5/2026.

Stanford Report. “How People Want to Feel Determines Whether Others Can Influence Their emotions, Stanford Psychologists Find.” 6/13/2019. Retrieved on 11/5/2026 from https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2019/06/examining-peoples-emotions-influenced-others Source Code Academia. “The Psychology of Emotional Shifts.”10/11/2026. Retrieved on 11/5/2026 from https://sourcecode.academy/blogs/learn-psychology-of-emotions