The experiential loci and sensory qualities of various emotions

Abstract

Sixty-nine university students were asked to describe the sensations and to identify the loci of those sensations for 34 emotions. The methods of reporting were introspection, retrospection, and recollection. There was no evidence that any method was consistently better than the others. Also, there was no evidence that the reports given were the result of social or linguistic convention rather than reports of actual sensory experience. Cochran's Q test showed that, within each emotion, the kinds of loci cited differed significantly, and that for all but one locus, the frequencies for the emotions differed significantly. Principal component analysis showed six locus factors clustered on stomach, face, head, heart, hands-heart, and eyes. Although not distinctive for all emotions, there were characteristic patterns of sensory loci and sensory qualities as shown by high frequencies of citation. It is suggested that these loci and qualities are one of several components of experienced emotion. The results are seen as supporting "subjective" or phenomenological studies of emotion, and are discussed with special reference to facial feedback theories of emotion.