An Objective Approach to the Study of Certain Emotions

Last year a qualitative and quantitative study of the emotions was made, emphasizing those of fear and startle. On theoretical grounds the emotion which seemed naturally to follow these was surprise, for often the emotion of surprise was closely allied in the introspective reports and in the technical procedure of arousing the several emotions. In the literature little is said about surprise. Almost always it is described as a comparatively mild emotion. Watson does not mention it among his primary emotions and few other authors consider it among the important emotions. In popular literature, however, the word is frequently found and has many shades of meaning, from a very mild emotion to a very powerful one. In scientific literature on the emotions, on the other hand, the following distinctions were found