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Sorrow

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

  • 52 Accesses

Synonyms

Grief; Remorse; Sadness

Definition

A long-lasting negative emotion concerning a loss or regrettable action.

Introduction

Sorrow is a negative emotion that is elicited by perceived loss or regrettable past action. It therefore can resemble sadness, grief, or remorse, particularly when of high intensity and long duration. In studies of everyday English emotion terms, “sorrow” is rated among the most prototypical of emotions (Shaver et al. 1987). When compared with other English emotion words based on ratings of overall similarity, hierarchical cluster analysis reveals that sorrow’s greatest similarity is to the terms sadness, grief, woe, misery, melancholy, unhappiness, glumness, gloom, hopelessness, despair, and depression (Shaver et al. 1987).

Analysis

Semantic analysis of “sorrow” yields a more precise description of the term’s meaning. According to Wierzbicka (1999), sorrow is a form of intense, long-term personal distress that can be caused by a past event but is focused...

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References

  • Parrott, W. G. (2014). Feeling, function, and the place of negative emotions in a happy life. In W. G. Parrott (Ed.), The positive side of negative emotions (pp. 273–296). New York: Guilford.

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  • Shaver, P. R., Schwartz, J., Kirson, D., & O’Connor, C. (1987). Emotion knowledge: Further exploration of a prototype approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1061–1086.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (1999). Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    W. Gerrod Parrott

Authors
  1. W. Gerrod Parrott
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to W. Gerrod Parrott .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Institute of Psychology, University of Lodz, Smugowa 10/12, 91-433, Lodz, Poland

    Monika Wróbel

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Cite this entry

Gerrod Parrott, W. (2016). Sorrow. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_554-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_554-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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