ABSTRACT
The hardest part of writing about emotion is explaining to other people what it is you are writing about. Emotion is a regular part of our daily lives and, consequently, something we very much take for granted. When pressed to explain what we mean when we say we are undergoing an emotion we are likely to refer to a number of apparently disconnected things. For a start, emotions are something that happen to us rather than something we bring about. They are usually strongly linked to circumstances in that particular emotions are generally believed to be appropriate to particular situations. Emotions exist in the plural, in that we are aware of a number of possible types of emotion, such as fear, joy, or anger. They usually involve some sort of bodily reaction, be it a churning in the abdominal region or involuntary tears in the eyes. Finally, there is usually a behavioural component: a strong urge to flee the situation, a refusal to enter another situation, or an overwhelming urge to approach somebody or something.
