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According to the '' APA Dictionary of Psychology'', a feeling is "a self-contained phenomenal
experience Experience refers to Consciousness, conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience i ...
"; feelings are "subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensations, thoughts, or images evoking them". The term ''feeling'' is closely related to, but not the same as,
emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...
. ''Feeling'' may, for instance, refer to the
conscious Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, a ...
subjective experience of emotions.VandenBos, Gary (2006) ''APA Dictionary of Psychology''. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association The study of subjective experiences is called ''
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...
''.
Psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...
generally involves a therapist helping a client understand, articulate, and learn to effectively regulate the client's own feelings, and ultimately to take responsibility for the client's experience of the world. Feelings are sometimes held to be characteristic of embodied
consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...
. The English noun ''feelings'' may generally refer to any degree of subjectivity in perception or sensation. However, feelings often refer to an individual sense of well-being (perhaps of wholeness, safety, or being loved). Feelings have a semantic field extending from the individual and spiritual to the social and political. The word ''feeling'' may refer to any of a number of psychological characteristics of experience, or even to reflect the entire inner life of the individual (see mood). As self-contained phenomenal experiences, evoked by sensations and perceptions, feelings can strongly influence the character of a person's subjective reality. Feelings can sometimes harbor bias or otherwise distort veridical perception, in particular through projection, wishful thinking, among many other such effects. Feeling may also describe the
sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditio ...
s, such as the physical sensation of touch.


Definitions and distinctions

In psychology and philosophy, ''feeling'' is commonly defined as the subjective experience of emotion or sensation. Although the terms ''feeling'', ''emotion'', ''affect'', and ''mood'' are sometimes used interchangeably in everyday language, they have distinct meanings in academic contexts. According to psychologist Carroll Izard, feelings are best understood as the conscious experience of
emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...
, arising when an affective state reaches
awareness In philosophy and psychology, awareness is the perception or knowledge of something. The concept is often synonymous with consciousness. However, one can be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it, such as in the case of bli ...
. William James similarly proposed that feelings result from the perception of bodily changes in response to external stimuli, thus forming part of the emotional process. More recently, affective neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp hypothesized the role of subcortical brain systems in generating ''core affects'' that underlie both feelings and emotions.
Lisa Feldman Barrett Lisa Feldman Barrett is a Canadian-American psychologist. She is a University Distinguished Professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where she focuses on affective science and co-directs the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Labora ...
argues that affect is most likely innate in mammals (and possibly all vertebrates), whereas
emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...
s are constructed
mental representation A mental representation (or cognitive representation), in philosophy of mind, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, is a hypothetical internal cognitive symbol that represents external reality or its abstractions. Mental re ...
s that emerge from the brain's interpretation of interoceptive prediction signals combined with past experience (organized as concepts) and signals from the outside world. In philosophical psychology, particularly in the work of Carl Jung, ''feeling'' is considered one of the four primary functions of consciousness, alongside thinking, sensation, and
intuition Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning or needing an explanation. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledg ...
. Unlike emotions, which are often reactive, Jung defined feeling as a rational function that evaluates and assigns value. ''Feeling'' also differs from sensation: while sensation refers to raw sensory input (such as touch, heat, or
pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...
), feelings involve evaluative or affective judgements about those sensations or experiences. Similarly, '' moods'' are typically more diffuse and long-lasting affective states, while feelings tend to be more transient and directly tied to particular events or thoughts. These distinctions are foundational in fields such as affective science,
philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...
, and
cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of human mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, whi ...
, where the term ''feeling'' plays a central role in understanding
consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...
, subjectivity, and emotional life. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio distinguishes between emotions and feelings: Emotions are mental images (i.e. representing either internal or external states of reality) and the bodily changes accompanying them, whereas feelings are the perception of bodily changes. In other words, emotions contain a subjective element and a third-person observable element, whereas feelings are subjective and private.


Historical and philosophical views

The English word ''feeling'' derives from Old English ''fēlan'', meaning "to touch or perceive through the senses", and later acquired the meaning of internal emotional experience. Early philosophical and psychological approaches to feeling laid the foundation for later distinctions between affect,
emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...
, and
cognition Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
. These perspectives treated feeling not merely as emotional fluctuation but as a central dimension of human experience, evaluative thought, and even moral judgement. The systematic study of affect and feeling () in psychology began in the late 19th century with the work of Wilhelm Wundt, often considered the founder of experimental psychology. Wundt proposed that affective experience could be described along three dimensions: pleasant–unpleasant, arousing–subduing, and strain–relaxation. These affective dimensions laid the groundwork for later theories of emotional valence and arousal. A decade later, William James proposed a physiological theory of emotion in which feelings are the perception of bodily changes caused by external stimuli. In his classic 1884 essay, he wrote: "we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble", arguing that feeling follows bodily reaction rather than preceding it. In the early 20th century, Carl Jung developed a typology in which feeling was one of the four fundamental functions of consciousness, alongside thinking, sensation, and
intuition Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning or needing an explanation. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledg ...
. Unlike emotion, which he considered reactive and affective, Jung defined feeling as a rational function that judges and evaluates rather than perceives or reacts. In this view, feeling can be used to assign value or make decisions, independent of sensory experience. Meanwhile, in phenomenological philosophy, Max Scheler emphasized that feeling is a unique mode of access to values. Rather than viewing feelings as subjective or irrational, Scheler argued that they are intentional acts that disclose the worth of things—what he called "value-feelings" (). This idea positioned feeling not only as affective but also as
epistemological Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowled ...
. Contemporary philosopher Martha Nussbaum has continued the philosophical development of feeling by arguing that emotions are a form of evaluative judgement. Drawing from classical philosophy, she suggests that emotions are not opposed to rationality but are instead shaped by beliefs about what is valuable and significant. In her account, feelings are deeply intertwined with ethical reasoning and human flourishing.


Cross-cultural and contemplative views

Conceptions of feeling vary widely across cultures and philosophical traditions. In many non-Western frameworks, feeling is not merely a passive or internal state, but a central mode of perceiving, valuing, and engaging with the world. In Buddhist psychology, particularly in the Abhidharma and
Mahayana Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...
traditions, feelings (Sanskrit: '' vedanā'') are classified into three primary types: pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. These are not emotions per se, but rather the basic hedonic tone that arises with every moment of experience. The recognition and mindfulness of feeling tones is foundational in the Satipatthana system of meditation, particularly in the practice of ''vedanānupassanā''—the contemplation of feelings as transient phenomena. In Tibetan Buddhist systems, these basic feeling tones are further elaborated into a structured typology known as the 51 mental factors, which include both innate and cultivated emotional and cognitive states. Feeling in this context is interwoven with attentional processes, ethical evaluation, and the potential for
insight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...
. These frameworks regard feeling as a dynamic event in the continuum of mind, with implications for both enlightenment and
suffering Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence (psyc ...
.
Hindu philosophy Hindu philosophy or Vedic philosophy is the set of philosophical systems that developed in tandem with the first Hinduism, Hindu religious traditions during the Iron Age in India, iron and Classical India, classical ages of India. In Indian ...
, particularly in the context of rasa theory, offers another model in which feelings are treated not as inner states alone but as ''aesthetic-emotional essences'' (''rasa'') that are evoked and shared through performance, poetry, and religious experience. Classical Indian aesthetics identifies nine primary ''rasas'', such as love (''śṛṅgāra''), sorrow (''karuṇa''), and wonder (''adbhuta''), each associated with a specific emotional flavor that is both individually felt and socially mediated.


Scientific theories and models

A number of experiments have been conducted in the study of social and psychological affective preferences (i.e., what people like or dislike). Specific research has been done on preferences, attitudes, impression formation, and
decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...
. This research contrasts findings with recognition memory (old-new judgments), allowing researchers to demonstrate reliable distinctions between the two. Affect-based judgments and cognitive processes have been examined with noted differences indicated. Some argue affect and cognition are under the control of separate and partially independent systems that can influence each other in a variety of ways. Both affect and cognition may constitute independent sources of effects within systems of information processing. Others suggest emotion is a result of an anticipated, experienced, or imagined outcome of an adaptational transaction between organism and environment, therefore cognitive appraisal processes are keys to the development and expression of an emotion.


Sensations

Sensation occurs when sense organs collect various stimuli (such as a sound or smell) for transduction, meaning transformation into a form that can be understood by the nervous system.


Interoception


Gut

A gut feeling, or gut reaction, is a visceral emotional reaction to something. It may be negative, such as a feeling of uneasiness, or positive, such as a feeling of trust. Gut feelings are generally regarded as not modulated by conscious thought, but sometimes as a feature of
intuition Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning or needing an explanation. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledg ...
rather than
rationality Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reason. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do, or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an ab ...
. The idea that emotions are experienced in the gut has a long historical legacy, and many nineteenth-century doctors considered the origins of mental illness to derive from the intestines. The phrase "gut feeling" may also be used as a shorthand term for an individual's "common sense" perception of what is considered "the right thing to do", such as helping an injured passerby, avoiding dark alleys and generally acting in accordance with instinctive feelings about a given situation. It can also refer to simple common knowledge phrases which are true no matter when said, such as "Fire is hot", or to ideas that an individual intuitively regards as true (see " truthiness" for examples).


Heart

The heart has a collection of
ganglia A ganglion (: ganglia) is a group of neuron cell bodies in the peripheral nervous system. In the somatic nervous system, this includes dorsal root ganglia and trigeminal ganglia among a few others. In the autonomic nervous system, there a ...
that is called the " intrinsic cardiac nervous system". The feelings of affiliation, love, attachment, anger, hurt are usually associated with the heart, especially the feeling of love.


Needs

A need is something required to sustain a healthy life (e.g. air,
water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
,
food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...
). A (need) deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. Abraham H. Maslow, pointed out that satisfying (i.e., gratification of) a need, is just as important as deprivation (i.e., motivation to satisfy), for it releases the focus of the satisfied need, to other emergent needs.


Motivation

Motivation is what explains why people or animals initiate, continue or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often held that different mental states compete with each other and that only the strongest state determines behavior.


Valence

Valence tells organisms (e.g., humans) how well or how bad an organism is doing (in relation to the environment), for meeting the organism's needs.


Perception


Feelings of certainty

The way that we see other people express their emotions or feelings determines how we respond. The way an individual responds to a situation is based on feeling rules. If an individual is uninformed about a situation the way they respond would be in a completely different demeanor than if they were informed about a situation. For example, if a tragic event had occurred and they had knowledge of it, their response would be sympathetic to that situation. If they had no knowledge of the situation, then their response may be indifference. A lack of knowledge or information about an event can shape the way an individual sees things and the way they respond. Timothy D. Wilson, a psychology professor, tested this theory of the feeling of uncertainty along with his colleague Yoav Bar-Anan, a social psychologist. Wilson and Bar-Anan found that the more uncertain or unclear an individual is about a situation, the more invested they are. Since an individual does not know the background or the ending of a story they are constantly replaying an event in their mind which is causing them to have mixed feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, and et cetera. If there is any difference between feelings and emotions, the feeling of uncertainty is less sure than the emotion of ambivalence: the former is precarious, the latter is not yet acted upon or decided upon. The neurologist Robert Burton, writes in his book ''On Being Certain'', that feelings of certainty may stem from involuntary mental sensations, much like emotions or perceptual recognition (another example might be the tip of the tongue phenomenon). Individuals in society want to know every detail about something in hopes to maximize the feeling for that moment, but Wilson found that feeling uncertain can lead to something being more enjoyable because it has a sense of mystery. In fact, the feeling of not knowing can lead them to constantly think and feel about what could have been.


Sense of agency and sense of ownership


Feelings about feelings

Individuals in society predict that something will give them a certain desired outcome or feeling. Indulging in what one might have thought would've made them happy or excited might only cause a temporary thrill, or it might result in the opposite of what was expected and wanted. Events and experiences are done and relived to satisfy one's feelings. Details and information about the past are used to make decisions, as past experiences of feelings tend to influence current
decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...
, how people will feel in the future, and if they want to feel that way again. Gilbert and Wilson conducted a study to show how pleased a person would feel if they purchased flowers for themselves for no specific reason (birthday, anniversary, or promotion etc.) and how long they thought that feeling would last. People who had no experience of purchasing flowers for themselves and those who had experienced buying flowers for themselves were tested. Results showed that those who had purchased flowers in the past for themselves felt happier and that feeling lasted longer for them than for a person who had never experienced purchasing flowers for themselves. Arlie Russell Hochschild, a sociologist, depicted two accounts of emotion. The organismic emotion is the outburst of emotions and feelings. In organismic emotion, emotions/feelings are instantly expressed. Social and other factors do not influence how the emotion is perceived, so these factors have no control on how or if the emotion is suppressed or expressed. In interactive emotion, emotions and feelings are controlled. The individual is constantly considering how to react or what to suppress. In interactive emotion, unlike in organismic emotion, the individual is aware of their decision on how they feel and how they show it. Erving Goffman, a sociologist and writer, compared how actors withheld their emotions to the everyday individual. Like actors, individuals can control how emotions are expressed, but they cannot control their inner emotions or feelings. Inner feelings can only be suppressed in order to achieve the expression one wants people to see on the outside. Goffman explains that emotions and emotional experience are an ongoing thing that an individual is consciously and actively working through. Individuals want to conform to society with their inner and outer feelings.
Anger Anger, also known as wrath ( ; ) or rage (emotion), rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong, uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt, or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experie ...
, happiness, joy, stress, and excitement are some of the feelings that can be experienced in life. In response to these emotions, our bodies react as well. For example, nervousness can lead to the sensation of having "
knot A knot is an intentional complication in Rope, cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including List of hitch knots, hitches, List of bend knots, bends, List of loop knots, loop knots, ...
s in the stomach" or "butterflies in the stomach".


Self-harm

Negative feelings can lead to harm. When an individual is dealing with an overwhelming amount of stress and problems in their lives, there is the possibility that they might consider self-harm. When one is in a good state of feeling, they never want it to end; conversely, when someone is in a bad state of mind, they want that feeling to disappear. Inflicting harm or
pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...
to oneself is sometimes the answer for many individuals because they want something to keep their mind off the real problem. These individuals cut, stab, and starve themselves in an effort to feel something other than what they currently feel, as they believe the pain to be not as bad as their actual problem. Distraction is not the only reason why many individuals choose to inflict self-harm. Some people inflict self-harm to punish themselves for feeling a certain way. Other psychological factors could be low self-esteem, the need to be perfect, or social anxiety.


See also

* Affective science * Alexithymia * Cognitive neuroscience * Hard problem of consciousness *
Mind–body problem The mind–body problem is a List_of_philosophical_problems#Mind–body_problem, philosophical problem concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind and Human body, body. It addresses the nature of consciousness ...
*
Qualia In philosophy of mind, qualia (; singular: quale ) are defined as instances of subjective, conscious experience. The term ''qualia'' derives from the Latin neuter plural form (''qualia'') of the Latin adjective '' quālis'' () meaning "of what ...


Notes


References


Works cited

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Further reading

* *


External links

* {{Authority control Concepts in the philosophy of mind Emotion Mental factors in Buddhism Mental processes Phenomenology Psychological concepts Subjective experience