The placement of each emotion on this map is only approximate and very subjective. Each emotion can vary greatly in intensity. For example anger can range from mild irritation to intense rage. Clearly the energy level of those extremes vary greatly. You can improve your ability to recognize emotions in yourself by paying attention to how you are feeling on the good-bad axis and on the energy level axis as you go about your day. Click on each emotion name to learn more about that emotion.

Two other, more subtle dimensions also differentiate among emotions. The first dimension describes the “depth of experience” or “depth of emotional involvement” characteristic of the emotion. The second dimension describes the extent to which the emotion is either involuntary or deliberate. The major emotions are placed on a grid along these two dimensions below.

These charts are based on the following data obtained from Averill, J.R. (1975) “A semantic atlas of emotional concepts”, JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, Vol. 5, No. 330, pp.1-64 (Ms No. 1103). Each scale is centered on zero with a range of +3 to -3. The four factors are explained in detail below this table.

The “activation” dimension is labeled High/Low energy and the “evaluation” dimension is labeled “Feel good/Feel bad” on the upper chart. The “depth of experience” dimension is labeled Deep/Shallow and the “Uncontrol” dimension is labeled Involuntary/Deliberate on the lower chart.

To better understand each of the four factors used, the fifteen emotional concepts from the list of 558 terms with the highest and lowest scores on each of the four factors are listed in the following table. In each column the terms with the highest score (toward +3) for each factor are listed in the first group. Those with the lowest score (toward -3) are listed in the second group, below the break in the table. The “uncontrol” factor describes the extent of autonomous or involuntary response as opposed to deliberate intent associated with each concept.