Amazing Mandala Maker Fun

how to draw MANDALA ART for beginners

Walking with Fear

Can Cultural and Linguistic Notions of Emotion Really Describe Our Inner Emotional Life?

The words we choose to use to describe the feelings we have inside come from the language we choose to use.  Why do people pick certain emotion words as important in their lexicon and not others?  ‘How are you feeling?’ we ask a child.  In the United States we give them choices such as (Angry , Bored confident, confused, disappointed, embarrassed, excited, frustrated, grumpy, guilty, happy, hopeful, hungry, sad, scared, shy sick, sleepy, stressed or worried.)  These choice from the My Moods, My Choices poster from www.mymoodsmychoices.com.  This is an excellent program I have compared to others and think it really helps children.  Another poster from a Spanish language class I found chose (feliz, triste, enojado, hambriento, avergonzado, somnoliento, inseguro, enfermo, orgulloso, solitario, celoso, sorprendido, enfadado, timido, asustado, aburrido nervioso, emocionado, culpable, chistoso)  These are great emotion words translating to (happy, sad, angry, hungry, embarrassed, sleepy, insecure, sick, proud, lonely, jealous, surprised, mad/annoyed, shy, scared, bored, nervous, excited, guilty, humorous/funny)

Why do these two lists differ?  Is it the language from which they came? Is it the author who wrote them? Does each Spanish word translate to mean the same thing in English?

I wonder why the Spanish poster picked these words as important.  Is there a reason?  So I looked up in Spanish what google would tell me the primary emotion words were.  This is what they said”

Alegría, tristeza, ira, aversión, miedo y sorpresa. Éstas son las seis emociones primarias más aceptadas y comunes a todos los seres humanos. Se heredan genéticamente y no se adquieren. Las emociones básicas o primarias son aquellas innatas en el ser humano.

Then I asked the same question in English.  I got this answer:

If we summarized all the research done toward labeling the basic human emotions we would generally conclude there are 5 basic emotions: joy, fear, sadness, disgust and anger.

There are hundreds if not thousands of phd’s out there telling me more.  I am not going to sift through them now, but if you want to you can go to http://atlasofemotions.org/ and explore a compendium of the research of over 100 researchers on emotion.  It was commissioned by the Dali Lama and built by a famous psychologist Paul Eckman.

Psychologist Robert Plutchik states that there are 8 basic emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust.

Thus new questions arise such as:

Does language really describe emotion?

Do different languages describe emotion differently?

Do all humans feel the same way?

Are emotions universal?

Are interpretations of emotion universal?

Or, is the fact that we all have emotion that is up for self interpretation universal?

If so, then, do we as independent individuals have the responsibility to know our own personal feelings and inner life so we can navigate the world around us to express our feelings?

Extending our Emotional Vocabulary

            How do we learn to have feelings?  We learn how to have feelings by labeling them in our own mind.  This label is taught much how language defines thought.  We really do not know if languages define thought, but we can examine language and compare languages from the culture from which they came.  It is important for children to conceptualize emotions.  It is valuable for their emotions to be contextualized too.   “You need an emotion concept in order to experience or perceive the associated emotion.  It’s a requirement.  Without a concept for “fear,” you cannot experience fear.  Without a concept for “sadness,” you cannot perceive sadness in another person.  You could learn the necessary concept, or you could construct it in the moment through conceptual combination, m but your brain must be able to make that concept and predict with it.  Otherwise you will be experientially blind to that emotion.” Says Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett in her book How Emotions are Made the Secret Life of the Brain. We must introduce children to literature that focuses what our emotions are, how we experience them, and why.  Then their emotional vocabulary will be extensive and they will be emotionally intelligent adults.