Some Types of emotions (I to P)
Types of Emotions (cont.)
NB Please modify as you see fit as the list is incomplete. Many of the emotions described below have evolved over time; with some meaning changing significantly. The table focuses on the current situation:
| Alphabet | Name (source*i) | Definition (including links) | Impacts & Examples*ii |
| I | Ijirashii (Japan)
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seeing the little guy overcome an obstacle or do something praiseworthy; it's a combination of pathos and vicarious pride, not sentimentality; witnessing the immense fortitude of those who at first seem weak and vulnerable | a small organisation taking on a large, powerful competitor |
| Iktsuarpok (Inuit)
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anticipation of waiting for somebody to arrive | ||
| Ilinx (Greek)
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strange excitement of wanton destruction; a feeling of excited disorientation; voluptuous panic, ie sensation of spinning, falling and losing control; hoping to glimpse alternative realities; | continually scanning your iPhone for messages, etc
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| Impatience
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it is an inevitable consequence of our time-poor, irritant-rich lifestyles; want instant gratification; linked with anticipation, etc | Type A personality (sense of time urgency and constantly under pressure; usually successful and ambitious; demand to use every moment productively; not good at ceding control to others, ie poor delegators, generally not good team players) | |
| Indignation
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shown by people who are protecting their position, ie status quo, or vice versa, ie challenging the status quo; can occur when somebody gains an unfair advantage, like contempt for justice and nepotism; linked with outrage, anger, excitement, triumph, contempt, etc | Australian ex-Prime Minister Julia Gillard (2012) misogynist speech
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| Inhabitiveness
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urge to settle permanently in one place; brings reassurance and stability to our lives; like nesting | staying in your zone of comfort; supporting the status quo | |
| Insulted
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can cause a sudden and bewildering drop in status, ie one moment you feel respected, then an object of ridicule and contempt; more powerful if insults are unexpected; linked with shock, etc | aim to dis-orientate someone else, ie put them off guard
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| Irritation | to stir or incite action; a vexed feeling usually brought on by someone else's contemptuous behaviour; is a state of friction, ie being rubbed up the wrong way; to push people out of their zone of comfort, ie stop complacency; linked with indignation, rage, stress, irrationality, etc | shows vulnerability and sensibility to more powerful emotions like remorse, shame and anger
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| J
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Jealousy
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suspicion of a rival; a dread of being supplanted; it is private agony; suspicious accusations; traditionally it was a linked with infidelity; linked with envy, humiliation, love, rage, hatred, vengefulness, insulted, etc | it can cloud a person's judgement
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| Joy | it occurs when something happens that is better than you could possibly hope for; breathing becomes shallow, your eyes gleam, cheek muscles stretch the face into a large smile; linked with surprise, serendipity, happiness, wonder, ecstasy, euphoria, etc | can improve performance
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| K
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Kaukokaipuu (Finland) | sometimes you just want to be anywhere but here; a craving for a distant land | daydreaming |
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Liget (Philippines)
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it is a state of torment caused by the sudden side of one's own misery; it excites and motivates; It is a mixture of pride and perversity; it is angry energy which makes tempers fly, drives people to work harder; linked with anger, optimism, vitality, the rage of grief, torment, revenge, vengefulness, etc | It is of utmost importance to focus on punishing your tormentor to make them as miserable as you
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| Loneliness
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lack of human contact, ie cutting off contact with people; linked with alienation; feeling of dejection and disconnection; physical solitude has given rise to transformative spiritual and emotional experiences; despite being surrounded by other people, you can still feel lonely and isolated; linked with anonymity, apathy, depression, anxiety, dementia, etc | rising divorce rates, people choosing to live alone, increased use of social media (replacing in-person interaction), lack of community identity; feeling alienated from your family's values or planned career paths; others not understanding you; it can occur when feeling hemmed in by your expectations and desires | |
| Love | creates a kind of paralysis, ie feeling of being lost in amazement or reduced to silence; able to survive quarrels and disconnections; we are often struck dumb by it; can be a feeling to a partner, loyal friend, pet, etc; strong psychological responses; linked with melancholy, speechlessness, desire, etc | it grabs all the attention; it is blind, ie only see the positives, not the negatives;
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| M
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Malu (Indonesia)
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feel constricted, inferior and awkward around people of higher status than yourself, ie feel flustered in the presence of someone we hold in high esteem or commands respect; oils the wheels of social life and reinforces hierarchies of power; linked with a sense of being overwhelmed, humiliation, shyness, 'star-struck', etc | can result in groupthink; reinforces the status quo; people not challenging authority even if you know that what has been said, or proposed, is incorrect or will not work
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| Man (India)
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experience a profound calling; a visceral yearning backed up by the recognition that what we desire reflects our innermost self; linked with desire, etc | this can give people focus or blind them to alternative possibilities | |
| Matutolypea (Greece/Italy) | morning sorrow, ie feeling overcome, miserable and bad tempered, especially in the morning when waking up | negative thoughts can dominate
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| Mehameha (Tahita)
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in addition to fear for your life, there is the fear of supernatural phenomena like spirits, ghosts, etc; 'getting spooked'; can develop in terror; linked with loneliness, terror, etc | need to be careful of irrational thoughts
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| Melancholy
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a deeper form of ordinary unhappiness, self-doubt and inexplicable feeling of sorrow, gloom and dread; linked with self-pity, nostalgia, regret, lethargy, solitude, sadness, depression, hypochondria, etc | negative thoughts will dominate
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| Miffed
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to be a little put out, somewhat offended; it happens when we temporarily lose our place in the pecking order; linked with being insulted, indignation, disappointed, etc | can lead to a vindictive response
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| Mono no Aware (Japan)
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awareness of lifes' transience, ie all living, and even inanimate, things fade and disappear, ie impermanence of life; inevitability of change; special beauty found only in unfinished or imperfect things | realising that change is inevitable and to resist it is futile
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| Morbid Curiosity
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It is a furtive, guilty pleasure, ie why do scenes of pain, mutilation, death and decay exert such an irresistible attraction; There are 3 hypotheses:
i) witnessing somebody else's suffering is cathartic, such as watching live executions; as a way of purging tense feelings of terror and pity ii) an inbuilt and innate reflex that serves a purpose, ie fostering bonds of empathy and sympathy, eg experiencing the same feelings that somebody else has felt; 'putting yourself in someone else's shoes' iii) you are drawn to and repelled by your 'darker instincts', like erotic desires, murderous rages, feelings of suicidal despair, etc; linked with relief, dismay, shame, bewilderment, etc |
Curiosity is a core part of imagination and creativity but morbid curiosity shows the dark side of human nature
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| Mudita (India) | an experience of joy, rather than envy or resentment, on finding out about someone else's good fortune; feeling someone else's pleasure doesn't diminish your own store, it increases in; linked with gladsomeness, empathy, etc | using somebody else's success to build on
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| N
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Nakhes (Jewish) | excessive parental pride in your children's achievements, however small; linked with delight, satisfaction, etc | sharing your siblings' successes and using them to inspire others |
| Nginyiwarrarringu
(Australian Indigenous)
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describes 15 kinds of fear, like revenge, physical threat, presence of bad spirits
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| Nostalgia | pleasures of reminiscing are both warm and melancholic; memories can be bittersweet, ie bring joy or sorrow; yearning of past things; making connections with a long lost memory creates warm feelings of belonging, identity and continuity; olfactory recall is powerful and immediate as odour passes directly from our nostrils to limbic system where emotions and memory reside; linked with regret, stability, anxiety, loneliness, rootlessness, melancholy, etc | need to be careful of living in the past; maintaining status quo; too much can leave you stuck between a dissatisfied present and alluringly unavailable past; perform nostalgic reflection or work-outs (reviewing the past increases your sense of existential meaning and social connectedness)
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| O
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Oime (Japan) | the pleasures of being cared for by others is celebrated | intense discomfort of being indebted |
| Overwhelmed | feeling out of one depths, ie sinking feeling; linked with loss of control, bewilderment, abundance, bafflement, etc | information overload from digital data; concerns about reliability of data; how to prioritise, ie what is important; invention of techniques for selecting, processing and storing ideas like alphabet, filing systems, notetaking techniques; computer search engines | |
| P
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Panic
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restraint and rationality disappear, replaced by wild instinct of self-preservation including actions like kicking and screaming; sudden, inexplicable terror that creates a contagious feeling; taken over by the force of dangerous collective irrationality, ie herd mentality dominates; linked with hard to explain feeling of dread, ecstasy, etc | panic freezes the rational part of the brain; individuals become part of the crowd, ie mob thinking; panic attack (common symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and experienced by people with extreme phobias; conspiracy theories, siege mentality and rumours can dominate |
| Paranoia
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reaction to being undermined, real or perceived; suspicion of everyone's motives, including your own; involves misperceptions and hallucinations of an alienated mind; regarded as a permanent psychotic disorder characterised by severe delusions like fantasies of persecution; could be an attempt to use past experiences to make sense of disorientating present ones; linked with melancholy, ingenious persecutory fantasies, depression, anxiety, claustrophobia, fear, loneliness, imagination, etc | those who are unduly suspicious or quick to assume others are trying to undermine or humiliate them; fear culture or paranoid fantasies (seeing them as a way of managing aspects of our lives we cannot tolerate); linked with schizophrenia (see the world in your own reality) and dementia (experience frequently alarming confusion like dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty)
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| Perversity
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perverse triumph; do self-sabotaging acts; ignore your responsibilities; tricked into confessing our crimes | go socialising before finishing assignment, eg go drinking when a deadline looms | |
| Peur Des Espaces (France)
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a fear brought on by open public spaces; agoraphobia (fear of the marketplace) is linked with the problems of the inner ear (vestibular system - controls our sense of spatial orientation and balance); evolved from our ancestors who were primed to avoid open spaces where they could not hide from predators; linked with disorientation (too many choices), loneliness, alienation, claustrophobia, etc | as around 85% of known sufferers are women, ie they feel public spaces are intimidating, eg people staring at you and making comments,
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| Philoprogenitiveness
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a desire - part emotion, part instinct - to nurture small and vulnerable creatures like babies, family pets | become a slave to maternal duties | |
| Pique (Spain)
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sharp anger caused by a wound to one's pride, leading swiftly to a dignified response; linked to being in a huff, insulted, vengefulness, etc | threatening to resign
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| Pity
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usually involves an asymmetrical power situation, ie a way of looking down on the needy, eg pinning a person into a position of inferiority; linked to compassion, remorse, contempt, desire, anger, etc | can become a way of protecting ourselves, kind of inhibition, releasing us from discomfort of the responsibility or the pain of a deeper emotional connection; can involve tears | |
| Postal | a fit of workplace rage based on mass shootings in America; 'running amok'; usually precipitated by some insult or humiliation, followed by a period of intense brooding, and finally erupting into a rage-filled rampage; linked with rage, disgruntlement, | afflicted person kills anyone in their path, then either kills themselves or has no recollection or understanding of what has happened | |
| Pride
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an unwavering sense of your own achievements; a strong sense of your own value; 2 types of pride, false (involves being defensive, ie you cannot admit a lack or loss) and true (blinds us to your limitations, makes us overreach and causes hubris); linked with indignation, etc | happens when you overcome an obstacle or master something difficult; endeavour to encourage pride in people's work
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| Pronoia | a strange, creepy feeling that everyone is out to help you | could be good for collaboration | |
| (sources: Tiffany Watt Smith, 2015 & Wikipedia) |
Notes
i) mentioned source(s) if non-English-speaking countries
ii) suggest that you complete this column with your own examples
