Chapter 5 - Reactions to Events: I

Summary

The way in which distinct emotions are characterized in terms of their cognitive underpinnings is established using the example of the two Well-being emotions, “Joy” and “Distress” emotions, which are the cognitively least complex Event-based emotions. The notion of type specification is introduced and described as incorporating both the valence of the feeling and the necessary conditions – the emergence conditions – for emotions of the type in question to arise, yielding, as an example, the specification of “Joy” emotions as a positive feeling about a desirable event. The type identifier, “Joy” emotion, is explained as being merely a convenient label for the associated emotion specification, rather than a definition of the emotion commonly referred to as “joy,” thus emphasizing the general point that emotion types can be characterized without depending on common emotion words. Other parts of emotion characterizations are discussed, including the applicable central and local intensity variables. After a discussion of the Well-being emotions, the emotion types comprising a group called Fortunes-of-others emotions are formulated and discussed in detail.