Actually, it's somewhat more difficult than you think (if I interpret your
post correctly). There are many different classifications of emotions in
psychology. One classification is that there are five base-emotions (see if
I remember them all): anger, fear, happiness - all I can think of right now.
When these emotions are combined with empathy for other people, several new
emotions emerge. These more complex emotions are the result of thinking that
one caused an emotion in another person. When one makes another person
angry, one may be ashamed. Other combinations yield jealousy, indignation,
pride - again, I needed two more.
So emotions are actually (in this view) an interplay between lower and
higher brainstructures. Lower brainstructures providing the general feeling
that an emotion is present, higher structures interpreting these feelings as
more complex emotions. As such, many different emotions are possible, and
thus many classifications.
I probably didn't help you one bit. That's psychology though...
Filip van den Bergh
"Michael McGinnis (Volt Technical)" <a-micham at microsoft.com> wrote in
message
news:012E4D835491A2489BB3B9AD7F086FF25D0800 at red-msg-05.redmond.corp.microsof
t.com...
> How many emotions are there?
>> Is there a well-established discrete number? Maybe 7?
>> Is it thought that emotions are like colors; A full, multi-dimensional
> spectrum defined by mixing of a fixed number of component
> emotions?
>> It seems like there would be discrete brain structures associated with
each
> emotion... structures that would come into play when we emotionally
> categorize situations and experiences.
>>> Michael McGinnis
>Michael at michael-mcginnis.com>>> ---
