Which Emotions Last the Longest?

Which Emotions Last the Longest and Why?

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The Cannon-Bard Theory

Why does Joy Last Long?

• Interactions with others

• Interactions with other people causes joy to last longer. People are more likely to laugh and enjoy their time when interacting with others, prolonging their joy (Vlahovic, Roberts, & Dunbar, 2012).

• Memories

• A theory about emotions that explains the physical and psychological experience of emotions happening at the same time, and one does not cause the other (Cannon, 1927).
• Experiencing emotion-related reactions without feeling a specific emotions.
• Example: yelling

• People partake in activities in which they find pleasurable for them. These activities allow them to create joyful memories.
• People can control which memories they want to remember, hence their joyfulness is extended.

Figure 5. Joy (Disney.Wikia, 2015).

Emotion 2: Joy

What is an Emotion?

Why does Anger Last Long?

Figure 4. Joy (Mayo, 2015).

Emotion 1: Anger

• Anger is an emotion triggered in response to objects that are perceived as threatening, harmful, or unfair (Reeve, 2009).
• Anger occurs because of negative evaluation of self and others.
• Anger is triggered by multiple things such as annoyances, stress, and also verbal abuse.
• Feeling angry can last up to multiple days.

• Joy is an emotion described as a great feeling of pleasure or delight and is considered to be a positive emotion.
• Joy is also known as happiness, and can occurs multiple times throughout a day for hours at a time.
• Joy occurs at random moments of playfulness and amusement (Fredrickson B. L., 1998).
• To feel joyful, very low effort is required.

• Feelings that result in changes which influence thoughts and behaviors (Reeve, 2009).
• Emotions are influenced by external stimuli that result in internal reactions.
• Basic, self-conscience and also cognitively complex emotions are categories of emotions.
• Anger, Joy and Sadness are three long lasting emotions.

Figure 2. Anger-Inside-Out (Robledo, 2015).

• Adrenaline- caused arousal
• Becoming angry causes the body to release hormones and adrenaline resulting in the body taking anywhere between hours to days to get back to its equilibrium state, which allows a person to get mad again before reaching their equilibrium state, which extends the duration of anger .
• Psychological Self- Control
• Not learning how to control anger, leads to longer durations of being angry.
• Not controlling anger can lead to anger repression which can result in heart problems such as heart disease and also heart attacks.

Figure 1. Emotions (Morrison, 2014).

Figure 3. Anger (Disney.Wikia, 2015).

Conclusions

Emotion 3: Sadness

Why does Sadness Last Long?

• Major Life Events

Figure 7. Sadness (Unknown, 2015).

• The three emotions that last the longest are Anger, Joy and Sadness.
• Anger is prolonged due to adrenaline-caused arousal and psychological self-control.
• Joy is prolonged due to interactions with others and memories.
• Sadness is considered the long lasting emotion due to rumination and also major life events.

Figure 6.Sadness (Disney. Wikia, 2015).

• Sadness is described as an emotional hurt resulting from disappointment, heartbreak, and sorrow etc.
• Sadness corresponds with crying and depression.
• It is often avoided by people and is triggered by major life events such as death, being unhappy, lonely, suffering, and also feeling uncomfortable.
• Sadness is considered the longest lasting emotion.
• Sadness can last up to multiple months at a time.

• Sadness is centered on major life concerns which guides behavior to prolong for a longer period of time.

References

• Experiencing a loss of a loved one for example can lead a person to be sad for multiple months.

• Cannon, W. B. (1927). The James-Lange Theory of Emotions: A Critical Examination and an Alternative Theory. The American Journal of Psychology, 39(1), 106-124.
• Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What Good Are Positive Emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 300-319.
• Nolen-Hoelsema, S., Wisco, B. E., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking Rumination. Perpectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 400-424.
• Reeve, J. (2009). Understanding Motivation and Emotion. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
• Vlahovic, T. A., Roberts, S., & Dunbar, R. (2012). Effects of Duration and Laughter on Subjective Happiness Within Different Modes of Communication. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(4), 436-450.

Images:

• Mayo, M. (2015). Joy. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/08/anger-sadness-the-inside-out-of-bank-stocks-commentary.html
• Morrison, K. (2014). Emotions. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/going-viral-tapping-human-emotion/146184
• Robledo, M. (2015). Anger-Inside-Out. Retrieved from http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/File:Anger-inside-out.png
• Unknown Author (2015). Anger. Retrieved from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Anger.
• Unknown Author (2015). Joy. Retrieved from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Joy_(Inside_Out)
• Unknown Author (2015). Sadness. Retrieved from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Sadness
• Unknown Author (2015). Sadnessgip. Retrieved from http://giphy.com/gifs/inside-out-gif-10tIjpzIu8fe0

• Rumination

• Excess levels of rumination contribute to the prolongation of sadness.
• Rumination is described as focused attention on the symptoms of a person’s suffering and problems.
• People who focus on their suffering prolong their sadness, and also are more likely to develop depression (Nolen-Hoelsema, Wisco, & Lyubomirsky, 2008).