– How are you? - Normal. A typical conversation about mood Most often we divide emotions into positive and negative, which allows us to determine whether we are feeling good or not so good now. Of course, this is great for survival, but it does not at all reflect the variety of emotional states that we actually experience. Understanding emotions allows us not only to understand our needs and assessments, but also to successfully communicate with other people. And life becomes much brighter when you begin to see different emotional shades. Since the time of Darwin, people have sought to describe and define basic emotions, to find their behavioral and physiological basis. Research is still being carried out widely and there is no final answer yet. New discoveries in neuroscience challenge classical assumptions about emotions. But there are a number of interesting developments that will be useful for everyone to understand this topic. In the middle of the 20th century, Paul Ekman, based on the results of a large-scale study, identified 6 (7) basic emotions that formed the basis of his theory. IT technologies for recognizing emotions are built on this theory and training of intelligence agents is carried out. The series “Lie to Me” with Tim Roth is also built around Ekman’s theory of emotions. Another interesting model for understanding emotions was developed by Robert Plutchik. He also identified basic emotions, distributed them according to their degree of expression, and identified areas where different emotions intersect with each other. This model is used for psychodiagnostics in psychological counseling. It can also be a visual atlas for determining one’s own emotions. Another researcher, Carroll Izard, identified 11 types of emotions Joy Surprise Sadness Anger Disgust Contempt Grief-suffering Shame Interest-excitement Guilt Embarrassment Unfortunately, today there is no single fundamental concept for the classification of emotions that all researchers would adhere to. However, you can already notice that many basic concepts in the three presented models overlap. And this gives us a working toolkit to begin to understand our emotions. When we expand our understanding of emotions, we gain a better understanding of our own internal processes. This allows us to more easily navigate what is happening to us, respond more adequately to the surrounding reality and better understand other people..