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{{Short description|Conscious subjective experience of emotion}}
{{redirect|Feelings|other uses|Feelings (disambiguation)|and|Feeling (disambiguation)}}
{{Cleanup|date=July 2021|reason=This article is quite disorganized and does not cleanly move from general to more specific information.}}
According to the ''APA Dictionary of Psychology'', a '''feeling''' is "a self-contained phenomenal [[experience]]"; feelings are "subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensations, thoughts, or images evoking them."<ref>{{Cite web |title=APA Dictionary of Psychology |url=https://dictionary.apa.org/ |access-date=2022-03-24 |website=dictionary.apa.org |language=en}}</ref> The term ''feeling'' is closely related to, but not the same as, [[emotion]]. ''Feeling'' may, for instance, refer to the [[conscious]] [[Subjectivity|subjective]] experience of emotions.<ref>VandenBos, Gary (2006) ''APA Dictionary of Psychology''. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association</ref> The study of subjective experiences is called ''[[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]]''. [[Psychotherapy]] generally involves a therapist helping a client understand, articulate, and learn to effectively regulate the client's own feelings, and ultimately to take responsibility for the client's experience of the world. Feelings are sometimes held to be characteristic of embodied [[consciousness]].<ref name="Solms 2021">{{Cite book |last=Solms |first=Mark |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1190847187 |title=The hidden spring : a journey to the source of consciousness |date=2021 |isbn=978-1-78816-283-8 |location=London |oclc=1190847187}}</ref>
The English noun ''feelings'' may generally refer to any degree of subjectivity in perception or sensation. However, feelings often refer to an individual sense of well-being (perhaps of wholeness, safety, or being loved). Feelings have a semantic field extending from the individual and spiritual to the social and political. The word ''feeling'' may refer to any of a number of psychological characteristics of experience, or even to reflect the entire inner life of the individual (see [[Mood (psychology)|Mood]].) As self-contained phenomenal experiences, evoked by sensations and perceptions, feelings can strongly influence the character of a person's subjective reality. Feelings can sometimes harbor bias or otherwise distort veridical perception, in particular through [[Psychological projection|projection]], [[wishful thinking]], among many other such effects.
Feeling may also describe the [[sense]]s, such as the physical sensation of [[Somatosensory system|touch]].
== History ==
{{Expand section|date=November 2021}}
The modern conception of affect developed in the 19th century with [[Wilhelm Wundt]]. The word comes from the German ''Gefühl'', meaning "feeling."
A number of experiments have been conducted in the study of social and psychological affective preferences (i.e., what people like or dislike). Specific research has been done on [[preferences]], [[Attitude (psychology)|attitudes]], [[impression formation]], and [[decision-making]]. This research contrasts findings with [[recognition memory]] (old-new judgments), allowing researchers to demonstrate reliable distinctions between the two. Affect-based judgments and [[cognitive]] processes have been examined with noted differences indicated. Some argue affect and cognition are under the control of separate and partially independent systems that can influence each other in a variety of ways ([[Zajonc]], 1980). Both affect and cognition may constitute independent sources of effects within systems of information processing. Others suggest emotion is a result of an anticipated, experienced, or imagined outcome of an adaptational transaction between organism and environment, therefore cognitive appraisal processes are keys to the development and expression of an emotion (Lazarus, 1982).
== Emotions (in relation to feelings) ==
=== Difference between feeling and emotion ===
The neuroscientist [[Antonio Damasio]] distinguishes between emotions and feelings: Emotions are mental images (i.e. representing either internal or external states of reality) and the bodily changes accompanying them, whereas feelings are the perception of bodily changes. In other words, emotions contain a subjective element and a 3rd person observable element, whereas feelings are subjective and private.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Damasio|first=Antonio|author-link=Antonio Damasio | title=Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain|publisher=Putnam|date=1994|isbn=0-399-13894-3|location=New York |pages=}}</ref>{{Page needed | date = March 2023}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Domasio|first=Antonio|title=The Feeling of what Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness |publisher=Harcourt Brace |location=New York |date=1999 |isbn= 9780156010757 |pages=}}</ref>{{Page needed | date = March 2023}} In general usage, the terms emotion and feelings are used as synonyms or interchangeable, but actually, they are not. The feeling is a conscious experience created after the physical sensation or emotional experience, whereas emotions are felt through emotional experience. They are manifested in the unconscious mind and can be associated with thoughts, desires, and actions.
==Sensations==
{{Main article| Sense| Interoception}}
Sensation occurs when sense organs collect various [[Stimulus (physiology)|stimuli]] (such as a sound or smell) for [[Transduction (physiology)|transduction]], meaning transformation into a form that can be understood by the nervous system.
[[File:Interoception and the body.png|thumb]]
=== Interoception ===
{{see also| Autonomic nervous system}}
====Gut====
{{see also| Enteric nervous system|Gut-brain axis}}
[[File:Emotions - 3.png|thumb|Examples of six basic emotions]]
A gut feeling, or gut reaction, is a visceral emotional reaction to something. It may be negative, such as a feeling of uneasiness, or positive, such as a feeling of trust. Gut feelings are generally regarded as not modulated by conscious thought, but sometimes as a feature of [[intuition]] rather than [[rationality]]. The idea that emotions are experienced in the gut has a long historical legacy, and many nineteenth-century doctors considered the origins of mental illness to derive from the intestines.<ref>Manon Mathias and Alison M. Moore (eds), [https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030018566 Gut Feeling and Digestive Health in Nineteenth-Century Literature, History and Culture]. New York: Palgrave, 2018. {{ISBN|978-3-030-01857-3}}:</ref>
The phrase "gut feeling" may also be used as a shorthand term for an individual's "common sense" perception of what is considered "the right thing to do", such as helping an injured passerby, avoiding dark alleys and generally acting in accordance with instinctive feelings about a given situation. It can also refer to simple common knowledge phrases which are true no matter when said, such as "Fire is hot", or to ideas that an individual intuitively regards as true (see "[[truthiness]]" for examples).
====Heart====
{{see also| Circulatory system}}
The heart has a collection of [[ganglia]] that is called the "intrinsic cardiac nervous system".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Fedele|first1=Laura|last2=Brand|first2=Thomas|date=December 2020|title=The Intrinsic Cardiac Nervous System and Its Role in Cardiac Pacemaking and Conduction|journal=Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease|language=en|volume=7|issue=4|pages=54|doi=10.3390/jcdd7040054|pmid=33255284|pmc=7712215|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Our Heart Brain - Little Brain in the Heart|url=https://www.heartmath.org/our-heart-brain/|access-date=2021-01-29|website=HeartMath Institute|language=en-US}}</ref> The feelings of affiliation, love, attachment, anger, hurt are usually associated with the heart, especially the feeling of love.
== Needs ==
{{main article| needs}}
{{See also| homeostatic emotion| homeostasis}}
A need is something required to sustain a [[mental health|healthy]] life (e.g. [[air]], [[water]], [[food]]).<ref>{{Citation |title=How to Express Anger Compassionately {{!}} Nonviolent Communication Explained by Marshall Rosenberg |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li5glyu7HPQ |language=en |access-date=2022-06-12}}</ref> A (need) deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome:  a dysfunction or death. Abraham H. Maslow, pointed out that satisfying (i.e., gratification of) a need, is just as important as deprivation (i.e., motivation to satisfy), for it releases the focus of the satisfied need, to other [[Emergence|emergent]] needs<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maslow |first=Abraham H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/89585 |title=Motivation and personality |date=1970 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=0-06-044241-7 |edition=2 |location=New York |oclc=89585|pages=38}}</ref>
=== Motivation ===
{{main article| motivation}}
{{See also| Drive theory|Seeking system}}
Motivation is what explains why people or animals initiate, continue or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often held that different [[mental states]] compete with each other and that only the strongest state determines behavior.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Wasserman T, Wasserman L | chapter = Motivation: State, Trait, or Both | title = Motivation, Effort, and the Neural Network Model |date=2020 |pages=93–101 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-58724-6_8 | isbn = 978-3-030-58724-6 | s2cid = 229258237}}</ref>
=== Valence ===
{{main|Valence (psychology)}}
Valence tells [[organisms]] (e.g., humans) how well or how bad an organism is doing (in relation to the environment), for meeting the organism's needs.<ref name="Solms 2021"/>
== Perception ==
{{Main article| Perception}}
=== Feelings of certainty ===
{{see also| Deja vu|Perception#Familiarity}}
The way that we see other people express their emotions or feelings determines how we respond. The way an individual responds to a situation is based on [[feeling rules]]. If an individual is uninformed about a situation the way they respond would be in a completely different demeanor than if they were informed about a situation. For example, if a tragic event had occurred and they had knowledge of it, their response would be sympathetic to that situation. If they had no knowledge of the situation, then their response may be indifference.  A lack of knowledge or information about an event can shape the way an individual sees things and the way they respond.<ref name=":0" />
[[Timothy D. Wilson]], a psychology professor, tested this theory of the feeling of uncertainty along with his colleague Yoav Bar-Anan, a social psychologist. Wilson and Bar-Anan found that the more uncertain or unclear an individual is about a situation, the more invested they are. Since an individual does not know the background or the ending of a story they are constantly replaying an event in their mind which is causing them to have mixed feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, and et cetera.  If there is any difference between feelings and emotions, the feeling of uncertainty is less sure than the emotion of ambivalence: the former is precarious, the latter is not yet acted upon or decided upon.
The neurologist Robert Burton, writes in his book ''On Being Certain'', that feelings of certainty may stem from involuntary mental sensations, much like emotions or perceptual recognition (another example might be the [[tip of the tongue]] phenomenon).<ref>{{Cite web|date=2008-05-06|title=On Being Certain {{!}} Science-Based Medicine|url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/on-being-certain/|access-date=2021-02-03|website=sciencebasedmedicine.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
Individuals in society want to know every detail about something in hopes to maximize the feeling for that moment, but Wilson found that feeling uncertain can lead to something being more enjoyable because it has a sense of mystery. In fact, the feeling of not knowing can lead them to constantly think and feel about what could have been.<ref>{{cite journal | title=From Feeling Too Little and Too Much, to Feeling More and Less? A Nonparadoxical Theory of the Functions of Self-Harm | author=Outi Horne| author2=Emese Csipke | journal=Qualitative Health Research | year=2009 | volume=19 | issue=5 | pages=655–667 | doi=10.1177/1049732309334249| pmid=19380501 | s2cid=40361244}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
=== Sense of agency & sense of ownership ===
{{Main article| Sense of agency}}
== Feelings about feelings ==
{{See also| Affective forecasting}}
[[File:Sensitiva (Miquel Blay, MRABASF E-76) 01.jpg|thumb|260px|''Sensitive'', sculpture by [[Miguel Blay|M. Blay]] ({{Circa|1910}})]]
Individuals in society predict that something will give them a certain desired outcome or feeling. Indulging in what one might have thought would've made them happy or excited might only cause a temporary thrill, or it might result in the opposite of what was expected and wanted. Events and experiences are done and relived to satisfy one's feelings.
Details and information about the past are used to make decisions, as past experiences of feelings tend to influence current [[decision-making]], how people will feel in the future, and if they want to feel that way again. Gilbert and Wilson conducted a study to show how pleased a person would feel if they purchased flowers for themselves for no specific reason (birthday, anniversary, or promotion etc.) and how long they thought that feeling would last. People who had no experience of purchasing flowers for themselves and those who had experienced buying flowers for themselves were tested. Results showed that those who had purchased flowers in the past for themselves felt happier and that feeling lasted longer for them than for a person who had never experienced purchasing flowers for themselves.<ref name="Wood 188–201">{{Cite journal|last1=Wood|first1=Stacy L.|last2=Bettman|first2=James R.|date=2007-07-01|title=Predicting Happiness: How Normative Feeling Rules Influence (and Even Reverse) Durability Bias|journal=Journal of Consumer Psychology|volume=17|issue=3|pages=188–201|doi=10.1016/S1057-7408(07)70028-1}}</ref>
[[Arlie Russell Hochschild]], a [[sociologist]], depicted two accounts of emotion. The organismic emotion is the outburst of emotions and feelings. In organismic emotion, emotions/feelings are instantly expressed. Social and other factors do not influence how the emotion is perceived, so these factors have no control on how or if the emotion is suppressed or expressed.
In interactive emotion, emotions and feelings are controlled. The individual is constantly considering how to react or what to suppress. In interactive emotion, unlike in organismic emotion, the individual is aware of their decision on how they feel and how they show it.
[[Erving Goffman]], a sociologist and writer, compared how actors withheld their emotions to the everyday individual. Like actors, individuals can control how emotions are expressed, but they cannot control their inner emotions or feelings. Inner feelings can only be suppressed in order to achieve the expression one wants people to see on the outside. Goffman explains that emotions and emotional experience are an ongoing thing that an individual is consciously and actively working through. Individuals want to conform to society with their inner and outer feelings.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Hochschild|first=Arlie|date=1979|title=Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure|url=https://campus.fsu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/academic/social_sciences/sociology/Reading%20Lists/Social%20Psych%20Prelim%20Readings/II.%20Emotions/1979%20Hochschild%20-%20Emotion%20Work.pdf|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=85|issue=3|pages=551–575|doi=10.1086/227049|s2cid=143485249}}</ref>
[[Anger]], [[happiness]], [[joy]], [[stress (psychological)|stress]], and excitement are some of the feelings that can be experienced in life.<ref>{{cite web|title=Feelings and Emotions - where is the difference?|date=18 March 2019 |url=https://www.affektblog.de/emotionen-und-gefuehle-wo-ist-eigentlich-der-unterschied/|language=de}}</ref> In response to these emotions, our bodies react as well. For example, [[Anxiety|nervousness]] can lead to the sensation of having "[[knot]]s in the stomach" or "butterflies in the stomach".<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last=Hochschild|first=Arlie Russell|title=The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling|url=https://caringlabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/the-managed-heart-arlie-russell-hochschild.pdf}}</ref>
=== Self-harm ===
{{Main|Self-harm}}
Negative feelings can lead to harm. When an individual is dealing with an overwhelming amount of stress and problems in their lives, there is the possibility that they might consider self-harm. When one is in a good state of feeling, they never want it to end; conversely, when someone is in a bad state of mind, they want that feeling to disappear. Inflicting harm or pain to oneself is sometimes the answer for many individuals because they want something to keep their mind off the real problem.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Hawton |first1=Keith |last2=Saunders |first2=Kate EA |last3=O'Connor |first3=Rory C. |date=2012-06-23 |title=Self-harm and suicide in adolescents |url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)60322-5/abstract |journal=The Lancet |language=English |volume=379 |issue=9834 |pages=2373–2382 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60322-5 |issn=0140-6736 |pmid=22726518|s2cid=151486181 }}</ref> These individuals cut, stab, and starve themselves in an effort to feel something other than what they currently feel, as they believe the pain to be not as bad as their actual problem. Distraction is not the only reason why many individuals choose to inflict self-harm. Some people inflict self-harm to punish themselves for feeling a certain way.<ref>{{cite journal|pmid=19186925|year=2009|last1=Bar-Anan|first1=Y|title=The feeling of uncertainty intensifies affective reactions|journal=Emotion|volume=9|issue=1|pages=123–7|last2=Wilson|first2=T. D.|last3=Gilbert|first3=D. T.|doi=10.1037/a0014607|s2cid=10179263 |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3153298}}</ref> Other psychological factors could be low [[self-esteem]], the need to be perfect, [[social anxiety]], and so much more.<ref name=":2" />
== See also ==
{{Collier's poster}}
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Affect (psychology)|Affect]]
* [[Alexithymia]]
* [[Consciousness]]
* [[Cognitive neuroscience]]
* [[Emotion in animals]]
* [[Hard problem of consciousness]]
* [[Intuition]]
* [[Mind–body problem]]
* [[Mood (psychology)|Mood]]
* [[Myers–Briggs Type Indicator]]
* [[Needs]]
* [[Pain]]
* ''[[Psychological Types]]''
* [[Psychosomatic illness]]
* [[Qualia]]
* [[Sensation (psychology)]]
* [[Vedanā]], the Buddhist concept of feeling
{{div col end}}
==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{Wiktionary-inline}}
== Further reading ==
* Madge, N., Hewitt, A., Hawton, K., Wilde, E.J.D., Corcoran, P., Fekete, S., Heeringen, K.V., Leo, D.D. and Ystgaard, M., 2008. Deliberate self‐harm within an international community sample of young people: comparative findings from the Child & Adolescent Self‐harm in Europe (CASE) Study. ''Journal of child Psychology and Psychiatry'', ''49''(6), pp.&nbsp;667–677.
* Mruk, C. (2006). ''Self-Esteem research, theory, and practice: Toward a positive psychology of self-esteem'' (3rd ed.). New York: Springer.
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[[Category:Feeling| ]]
[[Category:Subjective experience]]