Positive and Negative Emotions

Abstract

We have an intuitive idea that emotions can be distinguished as positive or negative. Gladness and sadness, love and hate, pride and shame, hope and fear, for example, seem to fall rather neatly on either side of this distinction. In philosophy and psychology, however, various criteria are used in drawing the distinction between positive and negative emotions. It is suggested, for instance, that positive and negative emotions respectively involve a favorable or unfavorable assessment of the situation or else a propensity to approach or avoidance. It is obvious that with the application of the various criteria proposed the distinction will be drawn in different places.