The fuzzy term “mood” may not mean much. Perhaps, mood refers to sustained feelings or to an assortment of related feelings that tend to recur or are prevalent. The term “happy” does not refer to an emotion or to a single feeling but to a recurring feeling state and associated thoughts that are optimistic. Recurrent positive feelings merge into a nonspecific sense of pleasure and well being that we call “happiness.”  The term “sad” refers to similar but negative feelings that are associated with pessimistic thoughts and withdrawal from world events. Sad is usually a response to loss or impending loss.

Humans have a range of attachments to others, animals, objects and even ideas. The risk of attachment is the possibility of loss. The degree of sadness is a measure of the relative importance of a loss. Rejection by others is common causes of sadness and social withdrawal.

The death of a loved one causes grief, the most intense feeling response to loss. Young humans will grieve over losses which more experienced adults would consider minor or even trivial. Loss of social status for some, especially adolescents, is a disaster that triggers death thoughts and suicide attempts and/ or aggression against others. 

Thinking (selftalk) shifts as feelings shift. People notice different feelings and thoughts when they move through different eigenstates. They notice that their feelings are linked to their selftalk subjects. The description “depressed mood” refers to persistent sad feelings and irritability, associated with gloomy and pessimistic thoughts. A happy person has good feelings associated productive and optimistic thoughts. 

When thoughts shift to negative themes, critical evaluations of oneself and others dominate selftalk and repeat like endless-loop tapes. The cognitive styles and structures attached to different feelings may be so distinct and dissociated from other cognitive structures that different “personalities” emerge in the same person. 

Order Books: We offer two sources of our books. Persona Digital offers downloads of eBooks, music and other digital documents available to customers all over the world. Click the download button on the right to download PDF files from this website.

Click the green order button on the left to order printed book from Alpha Online.

Emotions and Feelings

A Psychology & Philosophy series of books was developed by Persona Digital. The books are copyright and all rights to reproduction by any means are reserved. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from Emotions and Feelings 2011, published online, and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Digital Books, Sechelt, B.C. Canada.