Abstract
Affective experiences can fluctuate, be combined, and fused, resulting in various phenomena labeled as being emotionally complex. Despite the lack of a common theoretical framework, several phenomena including mixed emotions, emodiversity, meta-emotions, awe, among several others, have been defined as being emotionally complex. In this conceptual analysis, I aim to integrate the diversity of emotional complexity by describing various phenomena associated with this construct. This integration offers a more comprehensive panorama of the current usage of the concept of emotional complexity compared to previous attempts to consolidate the field. Furthermore, this conceptual analysis intends to disentangle the emotional fingerprints of emotional complexity. In particular, I present evidence and arguments showing that complex emotions can be characterized as having specific facial expressions, appraisals, and functional significance. Finally, I suggest that it is possible to describe emotional complexity using concepts and properties from the complex systems theory. Concepts such as the hierarchical organization of the affect system and emergent self-organization are used to explain current evidence on emotional complexity. I explain that applying complex systems theory to emotional complexity is not only theoretically convenient, but that complex systems theory also serves to advance new forms to conceptualize the affect system. The current conceptual analysis can help to organize current research and theory in order to encourage new research endeavors in the field of emotional complexity and acknowledge the importance of emotional complexity in models of affect, for which I suggest some specific guidelines.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Emotion Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
These results suggest that it is reasonable to think that complex emotions are the result of new forms of organization of the affect system
Previous efforts to theorize on emotional complexity have tried to bond a standard definition (Lindquist and Barrett, 2010), but they have not considered several recent phenomena studied
Summary
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Emotion Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Despite the lack of a common theoretical framework, several phenomena including mixed emotions, emodiversity, meta-emotions, awe, among several others, have been defined as being emotionally complex. In this conceptual analysis, I aim to integrate the diversity of emotional complexity by describing various phenomena associated with this construct. I aim to integrate the diversity of emotional complexity by describing various phenomena associated with this construct This integration offers a more comprehensive panorama of the current usage of the concept of emotional complexity compared to previous attempts to consolidate the field. No theoretical contribution in the field has accounted for the emotional or complex features of emotional complexity
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