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Negative emotions are high level cognitive states that feel bad. As emotions color all thoughts, negative emotions can greatly influence thinking and behavior. As with all emotions, negative emotions can serve a purpose by shifting your thinking to deal with things that are difficult, sad, insulting or conflicting. For example, negative emotions can help you to reflect on life or may signal a problem in your thinking or behavior. This being said, dwelling in negative emotions as a habit or character trait is a bad idea. The following are common negative emotions.
Anger | Angst | Anomie | Anxiety | Apathy | Apprehension | Confusion | Dejection | Desolation | Despair | Disgust | Distrust | Dread | Embarrassment | Emptiness | Envy | Fear | Fright | Frustration | Guilt | Guilt | Hate | Helplessness | Hubris | Impatience | Indignation | Insecurity | Intolerance | Isolation | Jealousy | Loathing | Loneliness | Malice | Melancholy | Nervousness | | Outrage | Rage | Regret | Remorse | Resentment | Restlessness | Sadness | Schadenfreude | Shame | Sorrow | Stress | Tension | Vanity | Wistfulness |
Purpose of Negative EmotionsIt is common to pathologize negative emotions with the assumption that they are a problem. This is portrayed in the Pixar animated film Inside Out whereby a character who represents sadness is assumed to be a problem until it is revealed that she plays a vital role in healthy thinking.Negative emotions may help us to process things that feel wrong. They are also part of the human experience whereby you wouldn't be getting the entire experience of being a person without them. For example, you can understand how characters in a film must feel as they navigate difficulty, disappointment and conflict because you've had analogous experiences.From a philosophical point of view, negative emotions can be viewed as complements of positive ones whereby happiness wouldn't be as sweet had you never experienced a negative emotion such as sadness.Mixed EmotionsSome emotions are arguably negative but generate positive feelings. For example, schadenfreude is joy at the misfortune of others. This is a strange kind of joy that can be reasonably viewed as negative. Nostalgia is another emotion that is viewed as a mix of negative and positive. It can be described as a gentle sadness for the past but is often experienced as a positive emotion.Emotional RegulationEmotional regulation is the ability to monitor, evaluate, and modify emotional reactions.Negative emotions can leave you open to manipulation. For example, if you easily become angry, others can try to trigger this to cause your thinking and behavior to falter. This can be prevented with emotional regulation and other techniques such as noticing that someone is just trying to draw a reaction from you.It should be noted here that positive emotions also need to be regulated and can also be used as a form of manipulation. For example, false praise designed to influence someone.Next read: Positive Emotions
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