Basic emotions – emotions that are common to all healthy people and which are equally manifested in different cultures living on different continents. Emotions are common to all. Attempts to identify a set of “fundamental” or “basic” emotions have a long tradition in the West. Many psychologists have done this.
One of them is Carroll Ellis Izard, an American research psychologist known for his contributions to the theory of differential emotions (DET) and the most discriminatory system of influence coding (MAX), which he worked on with Paul Ekman. In addition, Izard developed a multidimensional indicator of self-report – a scale of differential emotions.
Carroll Izard singled out ten main emotions:
Fear, anger, shame, contempt, disgust, guilt, suffering, interest, surprise, and joy are emotions that cannot be reduced to more basic emotions, but that can be combined to evoke other emotions.
He also suggested that each emotion has its neural basis and pattern of expression (usually indicated by facial expressions) and that each emotion is experienced uniquely.
All other emotional states, according to Izard, are derivatives or components, ie arise based on several fundamentals. Izard claimed that even babies as young as 10 weeks old are capable of several basic emotions. He also defined personality as an interconnected system, and that emotions are a major component, which also includes the homeostatic, motor, perceptual, and cognitive systems.
Carroll Izard is the author of many books, our recommended are “Psychology of Emotions” and “Human Emotions”.
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