What is emotion?

Emotion is one of those terms we use so familiarly that we seldom ask what they really mean. Let the reader try to compose a definition which would help anyone to identify the phenomena referred to. Let him see how little help is to be found in a dictionary. The difficulty is not entirely due to ignorance. We now have an astonishing welter of detailed fact about emotional behavior, particularly in childhood and in many abnormal conditions. When, however, we try to organize these facts in a coherent pattern, we run into many perplexities. Indeed some psychologists believe that the kinds of behavior traditionally called emotional are so diverse that they cannot be usefully treated together. This article is an attempt, however, to classify these behaviors in a meaningful way and for the intelligent layman. A useful treatment of the subject must begin, however, by changing the form of question usually asked. The older psychology began by asking "what is in our consciousness or mind during emotion?" This approach has on the whole proved rather sterile, particularly in child psychology. Contemporary scientific psychology no longer asks about the "contents of consciousness" nor even about "what's in your mind" (though the Freudian movement unfortunately often uses such a phraseology). Instead, it asks what people do and why and how. We must ask, then, what it is that we do when we emote.