Concept information
Preferred term
emotion
Definition
- "Emotions describe a complex set of interactions between subjective and objective variables that are mediated by neural and hormonal systems, which can (a) give rise to affective experiences of emotional valence (pleasure-displeasure) and emotional arousal (high-low activation/calming-arousing); (b) generate cognitive processes such as emotionally relevant perceptual affect, appraisals, labeling processes; (c) activate widespread psychological and physiological changes to the arousing conditions; and (d) motivate behavior that is often but not always expressive, goal-directed and adaptive." (Kleinginna & Kleinginna, 1981, p. 355).
Broader concept
Scope note
- There is no consensus on a definition of what an emotion is.
Belongs to group
Bibliographic citation(s)
-
• Carranza-Pinedo, V., Krohs, U., & Richter, S. H. (2025). Towards a scientific definition of animal emotions: Integrating innate, appraisal, and network mechanisms. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 175, 106127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106127
• Document type: conceptual analysis
, literature review• Access: open
- • Christophe, V. (2019). Les émotions : Tour d’horizon des principales théories. Presses universitaires du Septentrion. http://books.openedition.org/septentrion/50970
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Conty, L., & Dubal, S. (2018). Émotions. In T. Collins, D. Andler, & C. Tallon-Baudry (Éds.), La cognition : Du neurone à la société (p. 518‑562). Gallimard.
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Dixon, T. (2012). “Emotion”: The history of a keyword in crisis. Emotion Review, 4(4), 338–344. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073912445814
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Fiske, A. P. (2020). The lexical fallacy in emotion research: Mistaking vernacular words for psychological entities. Psychological Review, 1, 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000174
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Gendron, M. (2010). Defining emotion: A brief history. Emotion Review, 2(4), 371–372. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073910374669
• Document type: conceptual analysis
, historical study• Access: closed
- • Głomb, K. (2022). How to improve eyewitness testimony research: Theoretical and methodological concerns about experiments on the impact of emotions on memory performance. Psychological Research, 86(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01488-4
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Izard, C. E. (2010). The many meanings/aspects of emotion: Definitions, functions, activation, and regulation. Emotion Review, 2(4), 363–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073910374661
• Document type: conceptual analysis
• Access: closed
- • Kaplan, R. L., Van Damme, I., Levine, L. J., & Loftus, E. F. (2016). Emotion and false memory. Emotion Review, 8(1), 8–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601228
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Keltner, D. (2019). Toward a consensual taxonomy of emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 33(1), 14–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2019.1574397
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Kensinger, E. A., & Ford, J. H. (2020). Retrieval of emotional events from memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 71, 251‑272. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-051123
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Kleinginna, P. R., & Kleinginna, A. M. (1981). A categorized list of emotion definitions, with suggestions for a consensual definition. Motivation and Emotion, 5(4), 345–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00992553
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Lemaire, P. (2021). Émotion et cognition. De Boeck Supérieur.
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Malezieux, M., Klein, A. S., & Gogolla, N. (2023). Neural circuits for emotion. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 46, 211–231. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-111020-103314
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Mulligan, K., & Scherer, K. R. (2012). Toward a working definition of emotion. Emotion Review, 4(4), 345–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073912445818
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Paul, E. S., & Mendl, M. T. (2018). Animal emotion: Descriptive and prescriptive definitions and their implications for a comparative perspective. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 205, 202–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2018.01.008
• Document type: conceptual analysis
• Access: open
- • Paul, E. S., Sher, S., Tamietto, M., Winkielman, P., & Mendl, M. T. (2020). Towards a comparative science of emotion: Affect and consciousness in humans and animals. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 108, 749–770. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.11.014
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Retkoceri, U. (2022). Remembering emotions. Biology & Philosophy, 37(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09834-5
{{#each properties}}• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Sander, D., & Scherer, K. R. (Eds.). (2019). Traité de psychologie des émotions. Dunod.
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Sharma, P. R., Wade, K. A., & Jobson, L. (2023). A systematic review of the relationship between emotion and susceptibility to misinformation. Memory, 31(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2022.2120623
• Document type: literature review
• Access: closed
- • Tyng, C. M., Amin, H. U., Saad, M. N. M., & Malik, A. S. (2017). The influences of emotion on learning and memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01454
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Yin, H., Zhou, Y., & Li, Z. (2024). Contradictory findings in the study of emotional false memory: A review on the inadvisability of controlling valence and arousal. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1380742
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
Creator
- Frank Arnould
Has study method(s)
In other languages
-
French
URI
http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-J6P7BVWC-2{{/each}}{{label}}
{{#each values }} {{! loop through ConceptPropertyValue objects }} {{#if prefLabel }}{{/if}} {{/each}}{{#if notation }}{{ notation }} {{/if}}{{ prefLabel }} {{#ifDifferentLabelLang lang }} ({{ lang }}){{/ifDifferentLabelLang}}{{#if vocabName }} {{ vocabName }} {{/if}} - • Christophe, V. (2019). Les émotions : Tour d’horizon des principales théories. Presses universitaires du Septentrion. http://books.openedition.org/septentrion/50970