Emotions get a bad rap. Have you ever heard someone bragging on an out-of-control woman, a girly man, a whiny child? Heck no! Spouses, co workers, teachers, parents and friends conspire to help these wimps "Toughen up!" "Keep your chin up!" "Get a grip!"

More and more studies show that emotions are vital to our existence and contribute enormously to the quality of our lives. Without emotion, decisions cannot be made, as decisions are based to a large extent on the emotional outcome of past decisions. Childhood trauma, bad relationships, loss or lack of love- this is the matter that churns around our systems or lodges in some molecular structure and winds up influencing our health, our confidence, our ability to attach to others...

In fact, a recent study conducted by Professor Tim Spector, director of the Twin Research Department at King's College indicates that women with high Emotional IQs have better sex lives!

Is it any wonder that story, at its core, relies on emotional content?

In my last Hub, I discussed the importance of writing what you know. By this I meant, write what you have experienced in terms of human relationships and human emotion. I promised to write a Hub about emotions and discovered that the more I explore, the less I know! It's a wonder that I write at all, lol.

Evidently defining the basic emotions are as subjective as the emotions themselves. No one categorizes grief with the same company- nor joy. And emotions seem to be more negatively perceived than positively understood.

Examine these contrasting lists!

There are five emotions listed in the Reiki link above. These are: Anger, Worry, Grief, Joy/Sadness and Fear. The Reiki site combines joy and sadness as opposite sides of the same emotion. And it also lists two combination emotions: Guilt is anger combined with fear or worry. Jealousy combines anger with fear.

Plutchik includes: Acceptance, anger, anticipation, disgust, joy, fear, sadness, surprise.

Arnold says: Anger, aversion, courage, dejection, desire, despair, fear, hate, hope, love, sadness.

Ekman, Friesen, and Ellsworth claim: Anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise

Frijda's list is a bit more optimistic: Desire, happiness, interest, surprise, wonder, sorrow.

Mowrer says it's simply a matter of pleasure and pain.

The list goes on and on. But all agree that emotion plays an integral role in our quality of life.

Wikipedia's page on emotions suggests, "Most people believe that emotions give rise to emotion-specific actions: i.e. 'I'm crying because I'm sad,' or 'I ran away because I was scared." This isn't necessarily the correct pattern of events. When a fiction writer lays down a sequence of events, she must decide from observation- or from study- which comes first: emotion, thought, reaction, action? She wants the pattern to fall closest to reality, because this is what she is attempting to do: shape a reality in words.

There are many theories about this sequencing.

1. The James-Lange theory asserts that first we react to a situation and then we organize this reaction into what we understand to be an emotional response. "In this way, emotions serve to explain and organize our own actions to us." (wikipedia on emotions)

2. The Cannon-Bard theory believes reaction and emotion happen simultaneously. Emotion influences reaction and vice versa. The reaction can only occur after experiencing the emotion and the emotion can only occur as one reacts.

3. Schachter & Singer's Two factor theory of emotion. Here, emotion is considered the final cognitive act, following reasoning, which seems lacking in the other two theories. Thought and haphazardness of response patterns are accepted realities in this theory, I believe!

James says "the perception of bodily changes as they occur IS the emotion. James further claims that 'we feel sad because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and neither we cry, strike, nor tremble because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be." (Wikipedia, emotions)

I think the best way to try and figure this all out is to apply these concepts to an example. I am going to pick on myself for the benefit of all. Here is an analysis of a moment in my Potato Pickers story found at HubPages- this from Chapter 3.

According to my understanding of the James-Lange theory, emotion doesn't happen until a person is aware that change has occurred in the body. We don't define crying to be fear or anger. Crying is crying. We turn it into sadness or joy when we label it after the fact.

So first there is an event involving a body change (REACTION), them comes the emotion as perceived by organized thought (EMOTION).

She tugged at her scarf, making sure it covered her ear lids. Ear lids? She giggled. Lids to what? Ear wax? She covered her mouth as if she'd said a bad word.

First of all, I the writer have inadvertently inserted myself into the narrative. A girl tugging at her scarf is not thinking earlids, the writer is thinking earlids and hasn't had the consciousness to edit it out. Writer rule of thumb: do not insert your opinions into a story unless intentional.

So let's rewrite this:

She tugged at her scarf, making sure it covered her ears. Scarves were for old women. Especially scarves sewn from old pillowcases. Ugh. Make do and mend. Make do and mend. She covered her mouth. Thoughts were sinful, too. She broke a sweat..

Now let's diagram the paragraph...

EVENT She tugged at her scarf, making sure it covered her ears. (fear of sunburn)

THOUGHT Scarves were for old women. Especially scarves sewn from old pillowcases. (fear of looking silly)

REACTION TO FEAR Ugh.

INSERTION OF 1943 COMMON KNOWLEDGE Make do and mend. Make do and mend.

REACTION TO THIS She covered her mouth. Thoughts were sinful, too. (fear of sinning)

PHYSICAL RESPONSE She broke a sweat.

Oh dear. It's never as easy as it seems. I have a chain of events here that contains small emotional moments (fear of sunburn, fear of what other's think) and one larger emotional event (fear of sinning) that rides on the emotion of it all. It's complicated.

Elizabeth Towne in The Life Power and How to Use It said, "There comes to be a habitual waste of emotion over the most trivial things, and there is no reserve for the greater things which occasionally come. All due to excessive expression of emotion. People who have not learned to control their expressions of emotion have never even tasted full enjoyment."

My character is getting all caught up in the emotion of trivial things, worrying over nothing. If she didn't come to a realization of what is important in the end, i.e., if she hadn't changed, this story would be a lesson in futility.

This theory suggests that emotions and reactions go hand in hand and action follows. "These actions include changes in muscular tension, perspiration, etc " (wikipedia Cannon-Bard theory)

In the example above, our main character's sequence might be:

I fear getting a sunburn and I pull down my scarf. I grind my teeth. EMOTION/REACTION Physical ACTION

I worry about what others might think and I cover my mouth. I perspire. EMOTION/REACTION Physical ACTION

An emotion (fear) influences a person's reaction to stimulus (sunburn). Cannon and Bard believed a person could react to a stimulus only after experiencing its related emotion. Physical action followed all of this.

Well, I don't believe our character would break into a sweat first, before making all sorts of connections. I like this theory because it assumes physical responses come from inside a character. I don't believe external change can occur until internal change occurs. Emotion originates inside a person and is a completely individual response based on possibly something outside that tweaks an inner reality, but the external stimulus is not the cause.

Hmm.

The Two Factor Theory of Emotion attributes to emotion both physiological arousal and cognition. According to the theory, "cognitions are used to interpret the meaning of physiological reactions to outside events." Yay! Finally our thoughts come into play.

This theory asserts the following pattern: Event ==> arousal ==> reasoning ==> emotion

So an event that occurs outside a character's inner world causes a reaction. This arousal is followed by thinking... hmm, how does this fit into my world view, my understanding, my past experience, what I have been taught, what I believe. All of this combined causes the emotional outcome.

Let's look at our potato picker again.

Event: She tugged at her scarf, making sure it covered her ears.

Inserts Opinion: Scarves were for old women. Especially scarves sewn from old pillowcases.

Arousal: Ugh.

Reasoning: Make do and mend. Make do and mend. She covered her mouth. Thoughts were sinful, too.

Emotion: She broke a sweat.

Now this is really interesting. I changed my paragraph after laying down the first and the second theories but I hadn't examined the third theory. Somehow, syncing it with those two theories makes it fit this pattern nearly perfect.

Does this one work better for YOU? Thanks for adventuring with me in the world of emotion!!!