Comments on: Do you think gratitude is a primary emotion?

By: mindless1eye

mindless1eye — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 09:15:04 +0000

If some one saved your life…. then you would
probably feel ‘gradtitude’ strongly.
‘Gradtitude’ is not a ‘primary’ emotion but rather
an affect of a situation……. and no, it isn’t ‘better’
than happiness !!

By: t5

t5 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:06:40 +0000

Graditude isn’t a primary emotion if it is an emotion at all. It is a learned response to a given set of situations. Real happiness is one of the results of graditude.

By: small

small — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:52:25 +0000

Gratitude is undoubtedly a secondary emotion… the primary emotion leading to this in most cases would be happiness for the favourable event that took place due to someone helping out or corroborating. The favourable event could be positive such as a success or evasion of a possible negative such as being saved from falling down…. therefore, in the latter type of cases, gratitude may look like a primary emotion, but strictly speaking, it arises only after a relief kind of emotion has first taken place and then our mind dwells on the fact that there was someone who helped or joined us in the aversion process.
Gratitude being secondary, no matter how much importance we give to it in our subsequent actions, the first feeling can never be as strong as the corresponding primary emotion that led to gratitude.

Does it feel good?…. I think in itself as such it feels more like a burden/bondage, however, its primary emotion of happiness feels so good that this feeling of burden from gratitude merely acts as the resistance of the filament of a bulb…. the net result is lighting up.

By: roy f

roy f — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:23:57 +0000

respecting others is the primary thing. each and every one is different from other. we have to learn to respect what others feel and think. if something is done for u, u dont have to do any thing for that person unless he needs it. at the same time do some thing for some one who needs some thing badly. dont feel committed. there is no commitment. just do what is necessary to b done. feel where u r needed. go there and do what u can.

By: Heath

Heath — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:04:50 +0000

I think that sometimes gratitude can be felt very strongly, but I think that it is both too inconsistant and too varying to be considered a primary emotion. Inconsistant because you normally only feel gratitude if someone just did something for you, like you wouldn’t walk around your house thinking about how greatful you were to someone who didn’t really do anything for you. Varying because there are many different types of gratitude. There is gratitude that is felt deeply, like the one has for one’s mother for raising them; there is temporary gratitude, like one feels toward the person that just let them out in traffic. There is also gratitude that is instigated by guilt. Imagine someone doing something for you that you know they did out of kindness, but you’d really rather them not had done it for you. You aren’t really that grateful at all to them, are you?

By: stevieray

stevieray — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:23:39 +0000

I don’t think graditude is an emotion at all. I would classify it more as a state of mind. And I’m not sure what you mean by ‘primary’ emotion but I am assuming you mean is it innate like our emotions of fear, sadness, happiness, frustration etc. I would have to say no. As a hungry baby who is finally fed, I don’t think he would ‘feel’ gratitude for someone giving him his bottle. He’s just glad he’s not hungry anymore regardless of how his hunger went away. Graditude is something that a person has to learn. I think I would classify it along with something like learning how to Respect. It seems whether graditude feels good or not is irrelevant, but that’s not to say that it isn’t ‘good for you’. I would rather say graditude is more of a humbling experience. And as humans, humility is good for us.
And as far as is graditude better than happiness? I would say yes, in fact, graditude can result in happiness.
Even though I didn’t agree with all of your questions, they were interesting and caused me to really have to think about my answer.

By: jovvijo

jovvijo — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:01:24 +0000

I think its a strong emotion but maybe not primary.
I’ve seen too many times when someone should feel gratitude towards someone else and they didnt.

I think its a good feeling, its warm and happy and lets you feel that there are people out there who really care for you.
I’d put it about a rung below happiness on the Good Emotions Ladder!