Emotion Wheel: How Does An Emotion Wheel Work
Emotion Wheel: How Does An Emotion Wheel Work. Feelings are complicated in nature. It is possible to feel two things at once, but it’s also possible to not understand how we’re feeling or what to do about it. Perhaps you were recently laid off at work and are having trouble processing the mixture of anger, grief, sadness, and other emotions you are experiencing.
Some emotions may be impossible to identify. Or maybe you’re excited about the possibility of something new like a new job, for example, but are experiencing something else in addition to the excitement, something you can’t quite articulate out loud. You’re not alone. Describing emotions is a complex and often extremely challenging not to mention sometimes undesirable task that leaves many people overwhelmed and even more confused than the feelings themselves.
To understand what’s happening beneath the surface, psychologist Robert Plutchik, Ph.D., simplified the range of human feeling into the emotion wheel or wheel of emotions. Displaying the varying degrees and complexities of different feelings.. You can use this wheel as a starting point to dissect why you feel the way you feel, what your feelings are trying to tell you, and what to do about it.
What is the Emotion Wheel?
Created by the late psychologist Robert Plutchik, the emotion wheel describes eight basic emotions: anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise and trust. The wheel is arranged in a circular shape with each section containing three different degrees of each emotion, with the central emotion in the middle. The wheel also contains eight dyad combinations of behaviors associated with emotions.
Each emotion is color-coded, with the different degrees represented by darker and lighter colors. In the case of anger, for instance, rage is dark red, while anger is a lighter shade of red and annoyance is more of a pink tone.
What are the 8 basic emotions according to Robert Plutchik??
- Disgust (opposite of trust): degrees are boredom and loathing.
- Fear (opposite of anger): degrees are apprehension and terror
- Anger (opposite of fear): degrees are annoyance and rage.
- Surprise (opposite of anticipation): degrees are distraction and amazement.
- Trust (opposite of disgust): degrees are acceptance and admiration.
- Anticipation (opposite of surprise): degrees are interest and vigilance.
- Joy (opposite of sadness): degrees are serenity and ecstasy
- Sadness (opposite of joy): degrees are pensiveness and grief.
What is eight dyad combinations of emotions?
- Joy + trust: love
- Trust + fear: submission
- Fear + surprise: awe.
- Anger + anticipation: aggressiveness.
- Sadness + disgust: remorse
- Disgust + anger: contempt.
- Anticipation + joy: optimism.
- Surprise + sadness: disapproval.
How to use the Emotion Wheel
People can use the wheel to identify their emotions and come to terms with how they are feeling, make informed decisions, seek resolution, gain closure, and, ultimately, become more self-aware and self-compassionate.
The wheel can also be helpful to use when attempting to explain your emotions to other people, such as in therapy. The ability to put a name to what we are feeling can give individuals a greater sense of control and help them develop a plan for moving forward and coping.
When Plutchik created the emotion wheel, he noted that all animals exhibit a range of emotions. Feeling is a complex process, and coming to terms with how we are feeling can sometimes be overwhelming. The emotion wheel gives us explanations and enables us to explore why we feel the way we do, as well as how we manifest those sentiments.
The emotion wheel is a tool people can use in many areas of their lives, from relationships to work to coming to terms with the things that affect them and moving forward. Ultimately, it promotes greater self-awareness and understanding.
Another look at primary and secondary emotions:
Anticipation: includes interest, vigilance, excitement, awareness, impatience, expectant, harried, and cautious.
Joy: includes happiness, ecstasy, elation, pleasure, triumph, satisfaction, contentment, pride, and serenity.
Trust: includes safety, vulnerability, hopeful, positive, secure, supported, comfortable, and relaxed.
Fear: includes terror, caution, apprehension, concern, worry, anxiety, stressed, and nervous.
Sadness: includes grief, pensiveness, regret, hurt, rejection, melancholy, discouragement, and depressed.
Disgust: includes hatred, disinterest, disapproval, revulsion, dismissiveness, repulsion, and critical.
Anger: includes rage, irritation, frustration, insulted, bitterness, mocked, violated, jealous, offended, and provoked.
Surprise: includes amazement, distraction, wonder, awe, amusement, shock, speechlessness, and disbelief.
Benefits of the emotion wheel
When used as a way to check in with yourself, emotion wheels are useful tools for building self-awareness. There are two main ways that this develops emotional literacy.
- The first is that it makes it easier to understand and express how you’re feeling. There are times when our emotions are fairly straightforward. For example, we might feel gratitude when someone does something nice for us. Human emotions, however, aren’t just that mysterious force that makes us cry at car commercials. They — like most things that we experience — have been refined through evolution as a survival mechanism. According to Plutchik, when we experience a feeling it’s because a particular stimulus has triggered the urge to engage in specific behaviors.
- This is the second primary benefit of the emotion wheel — the understanding of emotion as a way of triggering survival-oriented behavior. When we think of emotions as an uncontrollable nuisance, we can’t do much about them.