The yin-yang symbol serves as a guide for interpreting emotional valence in this illustration. Concepts positioned in the lighter regions are generally experienced as positive, while those in darker areas tend to be perceived as negative. Elements located in the transitional zones between light and dark can be experienced as either positive or negative, depending on context and circumstances.

This negative-positive mapping does not imply that certain emotions are wrong, useless, or bad. Rather, emotions that feel uncomfortable or unpleasant evolved precisely because they helped our species survive and thrive. Their discomfort serves an important purpose – it motivates us to respond to difficultion in the environment, solve problems, and make beneficial changes. Even the most challenging emotions play vital roles in human adaptation and development.

The boundaries between emotional concepts are not rigidly defined – much like colors in a spectrum, they blend and flow into one another. These categories are intertwined and can only be separated theoretically for the purpose of discussion and analysis. The use of color gradients effectively illustrates this fluid nature, showing how emotions exist on a continuous spectrum rather than in discrete boxes.

As emotions rise into conscious awareness and situations become less complex, they become more distinct and easier to identify – similar to how we can more clearly distinguish between colors when they’re not blended together. However, this clarity doesn’t change the fundamentally interconnected nature of our emotional experience.

The relationship between emotions is reflected in both their spatial arrangement and color similarity in this model. Words placed closer together represent emotions that feel more similar in our actual experience, while those positioned farther apart feel increasingly different. At opposite ends, emotions are experienced as contrasting or opposing feelings.

These opposing emotions cannot merge into a single, stable feeling, but they can rapidly alternate in complex emotional states. For example, in jealousy or envy, our feelings toward the same object can swing between desire and love to disgust and hate. This oscillation between contrasting emotions helps explain why such complex emotional states can feel so turbulent and conflicting.

The white star-shaped flower at the center contains the building blocks that combine to create the emotions displayed around its perimeter. Each “leaf” within this star contains words that represent interconnected processes. These components interact in specific ways – for example, when appraisals and motivations within a leaf work together, they help form what we understand as dispositions. These dispositions then create a feedback loop by influencing future appraisals and motivations.

The processes within the central star-shaped flower generate the emotional experiences represented by the colorful lotus pattern surrounding it. The emotions positioned closest to the white star are the most fundamental and concrete – at least the most raw ones I was able to imagine. As the pattern expands outward, the emotions become increasingly shaped by social and cultural factors. These outer emotions are more complex, requiring greater contextual understanding and interpretation to grasp fully. Their meaning and expression depend more heavily on learned social constructs and situational context, unlike the more basic emotions near the center that are more universally experienced and recognized.

Similar appraisals and motivations that are close in the model merge harmoniously, while those with contrasting colors create cognitive dissonance. For example, a situation might trigger opposing appraisals of threat and allure, leading to conflicting motivations to approach or avoid. This results in competing emotions of attraction and repulsion. Like a mouse encountering food in a predator-rich environment, the strength of attraction (food allure triggering approach) must outweigh repulsion (predator threat triggering avoidance) before action occurs.

The moods are depicted along the outer circle, with their visual representation reflecting their nature: positive moods are shown with higher contrast and lighter colors, while negative moods are represented by darker, less contrasting shades. These moods spread around the circle’s perimeter, illustrating how they operate as a constant background influence on our emotional experience. Like a psychological atmosphere, moods persist in the background, both affecting and being affected by our immediate emotions in a continuous feedback loop.

The “tubes” visible at the outer edges of the circle represent attitudes that form through repeated emotional experiences. Where a tube contains only a single word, it represents a positive attitude. Multiple words within a tube indicate problematic attitudes that develop through unhealthy emotional processing. These attitudes are closely linked to their adjacent moods – when a particular mood is present, it increases the likelihood that its associated attitudes will emerge. The tubes appear as if passing through the circle, symbolizing how these attitudes create fixed patterns that bypass more adaptive emotional processing.

At the outermost of these tubes, we find character types that represent exaggerated forms of negative attitudes. These character types are constantly influenced by negative moods while simultaneously striving to achieve positive mood states. While these character patterns aren’t necessarily pathological, they do result in a restricted range of emotional responses. The individuals exhibiting these character types find themselves caught in repetitive patterns, with their emotional reactions limited to a narrow set of responses. These patterns restrict their emotional flexibility while reinforcing their established ways of reacting to situations.