Emotions

Emotion, in its most general definition, is an intense mental state that arises automatically in the nervous system rather than through conscious effort, and evokes either a positive or negative psychological response. An emotion is often differentiated from a feeling. Although a common word, it is not easy to come up with a very general acceptable definition of emotion. Growing consensus does agree that the distinction between emotion and feeling is quite important. According to Damasio, feeling can be viewed as the personal experience of an emotion that arises physiologically in the brain.

Many psychologists adopt the ABC model, which defines emotions in terms of three fundamental attributes: A. physiological stimulation, B. behavioral expression and C. mindful experience, the subjective feeling of an emotion. All three attributes are necessary for a full fledged emotional event, though the intensity of each may vary greatly.

Robert Masters makes the following distinctions between affect, feeling, and emotion: "As I define them, affect is a naturally structured, non-cognitive evaluative sensation that may or