Emotions are great. People should try having them and learn there's more besides mad, happy, sad and bad.

I would agree.

Emotions are great. People should try having them and learn there's more besides mad, happy, sad and bad. — Benkei

Sad and mad are both kinds of bad (negative affect), and people always forget the second kind of good (positive affect):

@Benkei, @Pfhorrest, @creativesoul

Where does that picture come from? It's an interesting way of looking at it.

I would consider feeling sad, mad or bad are distinct feelings caused by underlying emotions. I see happy, sad, mad or bad as surface emotional expressions of underlying emotions. For instance, I'm mad because I'm hurt. I'm feeling hurt but I'm acting it out. I could also react by retracting from the world because hurting makes me feel sad. I think my point is that if all you can say "I feel sad/mad/bad/happy" you're actually not even remotely aware of your actual feelings.

That's my totally lay man opinion on the matter. Psychologists are welcome to explain how totally wrong I am!

Thanks!

Aren’t emotions just chemical changes in the brain and thus merely subjective experiences?

Where does that picture come from? It's an interesting way of looking at it. — Benkei

I created a predecessor of it for the purpose of explaining my own psychology as I perceive it to a therapist years ago, then realized the parallels to the classical Four Temperaments and the relationship between all of that and the feelings of existential dread and mystical elation (which I called "ontophobia" and "ontophilia"), and so polished it all up for an illustration in the last chapter of my book that’s largely about that kind of stuff.

Sad and mad are both kinds of bad (negative affect), and people always forget the second kind of good (positive affect): — Pfhorrest

I don't think sad and mad are bad emotions, though they can certainly arise where they are not helpful. It would be odd not to get angry in many situations and in those situations, anger is a motivator. We evolved or the trait evolved because it is useful in many situations, including many social ones where protection, appropriate relation, boudndary setting and other issues need to be addressed. As social mammals sadness is not simply inevitable - as a byproduct of valuing other people - but even has advantages in general....
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_ways_sadness_may_be_good_for_you

https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/is-crying-good-for-you#1

Aren’t emotions just chemical changes in the brain and thus merely subjective experiences? — Roy Davies

That would hold for thoughts also. Those would be just chemical changes in your brain. It should be noted also that these are changes that are parts of the processes of brains that took millions of years of survival to develop. These processes are part of things like 'motivation', which has its uses.

They are indeed subjective as in the intensity of the emotion felt and under which circumstances is the emotion being felt, but there is a baseline from which you can easily draw from. For example, while an injustice done to me differs from an injustice done to you, they are injustices altogether, so we will both feel anger and/or sadness. Our response to them also differs. You may seek revenge while I may seek to rebuild

Yeah you are right. Thiese emotions are way too general, but they are not worthless, since they at least guide us into the real emotion. That is why is important to learn about feelings and emotions, how do they feel and how to express them

I don't think sad and mad are bad emotions — Coben

I didn’t mean to say that they were, but that “feeling sad” and “feeling mad” are sub-types of “feeling bad”: they are both unpleasant emotions.

Pleasant, love and compassion
Unpleasant, anger, hate, envy and depression
Look around and it's clear to see
Much to anger, hate, and envy
Try hard and it's a rarity
Things to love, of compassion worthy
Thus, it must be so
Unpleasant emotions truth show
Thus, it must be so
Pleasant emotions are counterfeit dough
Better than one who laughs, the one who cries
What else when even a baby, innocent, dies?

The power of art.

From a biological points of view, the way I understand emotions is this:
1) An entity perceives something.
2) This activates parts of the brain.
3) Some parts of the brain are related to stimulating chemicals that further stimulate the brain in an 'emotional response'.
4) This in turn further activates parts of the brain associated with thinking and reasoning, and most importantly, action.
5) We react.

I see this in my cats. If I give one cat a treat, the other exhibits what I can best describe as jealous behaviour, and gets all antagonistic towards the other cat. I can therefore conclude that one cat is feeling an emotion of jealousy, perhaps not as clear-cut and thought-out as what we humans might say. What is the value in this? Well, I suppose from a survival point of view, a cat needs to eat, and some antagonistic behaviour will help them get their portion of food. So, emotions are vital to survival of the individual and thus species.

Emotions are part of your thinking brain. They are absolutely essential as you grow when you are just learning about the world. As you age emotions are still important, but they are no longer your sole motivator for action.

I view emotions as a digest or summary of your instincts and experience when you encounter a situation that is different from your current state. When a child first falls when trying to walk, they may cry out of fear. But after falling a few times, that fear goes away as they have new knowledge that a fall isn't damaging.

If you want to break down why you have a particular feeling, it requires rationality to get the full story. You might be angry at a person, but not know why. At that point you start breaking down the person's actions and mannerisms, and might be able to figure it out. Rationality is detective mode, while emotions are your daily impetus and first reactions. Sometimes emotions are all you need, especially if you've learned to temper and hone them with good experiences and a rational foundation over the years.

you are a group of social mammals. The jealousy can help reorder the group so all members thrive. There is motivation for you to all get along and so for food and social contact to be distributed fairly, benefitting, potentially, all of you.

That seems sensible. An evolutionary benefit.

All right. Emotions are evolutionarily beneficial. They provide some mechanisms for survival and adaptation to the environment. But they can also be harmful anthropologically or socially.
Emotions are the source of certain dysfunctions:

Wishful thinking.
Anxiety.
Unresolved fear (procastrination).
Aggression (sadism).
Addiction
.................

What about this ambiguity? How can we explain it? A failure of evolution?

Wishful thinking. — David Mo

Sounds at the very least a combinatin of emotions and thoughts.

Anxiety.

Ibid.

Unresolved fear (procastrination).

Ibid

Aggression (sadism).

Would as the others likely have non-emoitonal cognitive factors that set the emotions in this case aggression going.

Emotions are part of your thinking brain. They are absolutely essential as you grow when you are just learning about the world. As you age emotions are still important, but they are no longer your sole motivator for action. — Philosophim

Motivations are emotions. You may have reasoned ideas about why X is a good goal, but you are still motivated by the emotions and desires. These are now informed, by not motivated, by thoughts. Adults have more information, more types of goals and have more information including, for example, conclusions drawn from reasoning. But the motivation is still emotions/desire. You have to care and desire and dislike and want and hate and love to mobilize the body/self. Otherwise, however well reasoned, you just have thoughts moving through the screan of the mind.

There are no pure emotions. Emotions are not isolated processes, separate from the rest of mental activity. Their dynamics are intertwined with those of other psychological processes, among which those of a cognitive nature stand out.

Adults have more information, more types of goals and have more information including, for example, conclusions drawn from reasoning. But the motivation is still emotions/desire. — Coben

So this is a little personal, but I have had chronic depression since I was a teenager. Depression is not sadness, it is the absence of emotion. I have had to live my life despite this biweekly to monthly lack of emotion, and live my life by reason and a code.

While this is an extreme case, I have often faced great emotional frustration for a rational goal. I was a teacher for five years in inner city schools, and faced a lot of stresses and frustrations. If I were merely guided by my emotions, I would have quit in my first year.

You definitely can live your life by emotions alone. There are plenty of people who do. Plenty of us though realize that emotions alone do not always lead to the best outcome. This is not an emotional decision, but a rational one. We will forgo our emotions and power through them. Emotions stopped being my sole motivator for action a long time ago. They are still there, and I value them greatly when they are. But I have learned they are a fickle mistress, and cannot be relied on for any long term value.

So this is a little personal, but I have had chronic depression since I was a teenager. Depression is not sadness, it is the absence of emotion. I have had to live my life despite this biweekly to monthly lack of emotion, and live my life by reason and a code.

While this is an extreme case, I have often faced great emotional frustration for a rational goal. I was a teacher for five years in inner city schools, and faced a lot of stresses and frustrations. If I were merely guided by my emotions, I would have quit in my first year. — Philosophim

Sorry to hear about the depression, I do know how serious and unpleasant that can be. But you must have desired to accomplish certain things, been concerned emotionsally about what would happen if you could not work. I do know that depression puts a dark haze (my words that may not fit your experience) over everything, but still, even depressed, unless completely bedridden and frozen, one has desires and concerns, sometimes emotions in relation to others that motivate actions. Thoughts cannot motivate on their own.

You definitely can live your life by emotions alone. — Philosophim

I am not advocating this, and also I think there is a false dichotomy, the parts of the brain are all meshed together, the limbic system involved in all thinking and even necessary for rational thinking.

There are no pure emotions. The emotions are not isolated processes, separate from the rest of the mental activity. — David Mo

I agree.