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Human emotions have deep evolutionary roots, a fact that may explain their complexity and provide tools for clinical practice
Almost everyone agrees that the study of emotion is one of the most confused (and still open) chapters in the history of psychology. By one estimate, more than 90 definitions of "emotion" were proposed over the course of the 20th century. If there is little consensus on the meaning of the term, it is no wonder that there is much disagreement among contemporary theoreticians concern-dring the best way to conceptualize emotion and interpret its role in life.
In everyday human existence we conceive of an emotion-anger, despair, joy, grief-as a feeling, an inner state. The internal experience of emotion is highly personal and often confusing, particularly because several emotions may be experienced at the same time. Imagine, then, how difficult the objective study of emotion must be. Most of us often censor our own thoughts and feelings, and we have learned to be cautious about accepting other people's comments about their feelings. The empirical study of a psychological phenomenon so complex and so elaborately cloaked cannot help but present a special challenge.
Compounding the distrust of verbal reports of emotion are the influences of behaviorism and psychoanalysis on psychological research. The behaviorists of the 20th century believed that the only truly reliable, objective information obtainable from living creatures was information about their behavior. A classical behaviorist would hold that emotion is an inner state and thus simply outside the realm of science. For their part, psychoanalysts have made us aware that emotions may be repressed, inhibited or unconscious, and thus unavailable to introspection. Finally, language itself introduces ambiguity and does not make it easy to describe mixed emotions in an unequivocal way. The meaning of emotion terms is often obscure. For example, many people are not sure about the differences between fear and anxiety, guilt and shame, or envy and jealousy. As a result, we often resort to metaphor to attempt to describe emotion. Think, for example, of such expressions as "blowing off steam," "hating someone's guts," "pain in the neck," "lump in the throat" and "a broken heart."
How, then, can emotion be studied and understood? The challenge of developing a theoretical approach is...