Ｑ29.What sort of things are included in emotion?

Ａ.There are 38 emotions and four categories; urges, responses, attitudes, and feelings.

　　To begin with, what is it we call "emotion?"
　　Emotion is sometimes very complicated and unclear. How can you identify the difference between similar words such as shame and abashment, which are very difficult to distinguish? Are there not emotions which depend on the individual or ethnicity? For example, some people say the emotion called "amae," meaning a dependence on others, is peculiar to Japan, however "amae" actually is also be found in Korea and some eastern counties.
　　The best way to organize without confusion is to classify by the viewpoint of behavior, because the meaning of words develops from what sort of behavior is connected to them.
　　Therefore, some counties which have many names for cuts of meat, for example France and Korea, also have many words for ways of cooking. In the same way Japanese has many names for fish, which sometimes changes depending on the stage of development. The most famous example is Inuits using different words to express states of snow.
　　This shows that the complexity of the behavior corresponds to the complexity of the word. The words expressing emotions are nouns, so if you consider what kind of behavior is connected to the word, you can make clear the difference of emotions.
　　To think about what emotion is I started by thoroughly enumerating the words expressing emotions in the dictionary. I classified emotions by the action or behavior which they are connected to, and gathered similar emotions into a group.
　　Next, I classified the emotions by where it's directed and whether the effect is continuous or instant, and this made four types. The four types of emotions are response, urge, feeling, and attitude. For example:
　　
1. Urge: actions caused by these emotions are directed at the other person, and the effect is instant.
　　sadness, humor, anger, indignation, embarrassment, delight
2. Response: actions caused by these emotions are directed at one's self, and the effect is instant.
　　surprise, shame, mortification, relief, bafflement, fright, awe, disappointment
3. Attitude: the behavior caused by these emotions are directed at the other person, and the effect is continuous.
　　love, hate, jealousy, pity, guilt, curiosity, infatuation, contempt, grudge, aversion, gratitude, envy
4. Feeling: the behavior caused by these emotions are directed at one's self, and the effect is continuous.
　　happiness, honor, loneliness, fun, boredom, frustration, impatience, depression, anxiety, hope, confidence, helplessness.
　　
　　How should the relationship between the four types and 38 emotions be analyzed? Some emotions are easy, but some emotions have only subtle differences. It is difficult to know where to start to analyze them.
　　The key is to follow how emotions changed throughout the history of evolution.
　　If one thinks about the evolution of life, the actions of ancient life are very simple, but human beings are very complicated. Most simple life has only two actions which are to approach and to move away, and this is the beginning of emotions.
　　An ameba will approach the food it finds and escape when it finds something poisonous. It's very simple. Birds will not only approach food and escape from predators, but also dance to approach a mate and fight off rivals. Humans will approach food and escape from something poisonous too, but also make strange art, write literature, and play sports. These acts are complicated and innumerable.
　　Emotions are classified on the basis of the resulting action. So we can assume that in the process of life's evolution emotions become further complicated with the complication of the action. This is illustrated in the first diagram, and the detailed explanation of this is in chapters 2, 3, and 4.