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2001, Number 4

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Salud Mental 2001; 24 (4)

La estructura de la emoción humana: Un modelo cromático del sistema afectivo

Díaz JL, Flores EO

Language: Spanish
References: 28
Page: 20-35
PDF size: 261.44 Kb.


ABSTRACT

There are two distinct approaches in the modeling and classification of human emotions. One is the identification of the fundamental variables or dimensions of the affective system, and the other is the recognition of primary emotions by the analysis of universal facial expressions. In this paper a system of classification of the human affective system is proposed which integrates the foundations of both approaches using a method derived from the Munsell color system. The resulting architecture is a topological model based upon a methodic, constructive and progressively empirical analysis of the emotional vocabulary in Spanish. Since the words used to designate particular emotions in natural languages seek to express discrete affective states and effectively serve as communication devices among individuals, we ascertain that the identification of such words and their mutual meaning relationships constitutes a valid route to understand the structure of the affective system. The exercise consists of six consecu tive stages: 1) The compilation of a vocabulary of words in Spanish which designate particular emotions (n=328); 2) The grouping of these terms in 28 clusters or “semantic fields” of 6 to 17 related ideas (mean = 12); 3) The selection of a representative term for each cluster or set of kindred words; 4) The ordering of the words within each set in a sequence according to the intensity of the designed emotion; 5) The identification of pairs of antonymous sets (pleasant and unpleasant) and, thereby, the establishment of 14 bipolar axis of human emotion (calm-tension, certainty-uncertainty, compassion-anger, fun-boredom, pleasantnessunpleasantness, happiness-sadness, pleasure-pain, satisfaction-frustration, desirereject, love-hate, courage-fear, strength-tiredness, enthusiasm-aparthy, arrogancehumiliation); 6) The elaboration of the final model of the human affective system as an circle or wheel where the 14 axis are located in reference to an orthogonal two-dimensional system. A vertical dimension of hed onic value (pleasant above and unpleasant below) and a horizontal dimension of activation (excitation to the right and relaxation to the left) constitutes the two reference variables. In this way each one of the selected emotional terms falls within a specific space. Even though the model is preliminary and requires further empirical validation it is presented as plausible, particularly concerning the theoretical and practical strategy used to obtain it. Moreover, the model suggests the existence of specific bipolar and mutually inhibitory neural systems involved in the expression of each identified axis of human emotion.


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