The Human World of Feeling - An Inventory
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Human feeling is described through a vocabulary that includes brief emotions, sustained moods,interpersonal appraisals, motivational states and extended processes. Treating all such words as equivalentunits obscures the subject of inquiry. This publication develops a critical, literature-informed inventory of112 entries organised into ten editorial families. It combines a targeted integrative review with a completeEnglish-language inventory, working definitions and notes on conceptual boundaries. The reviewedresearch addresses categorical, dimensional, appraisal, functional and constructionist accounts; bodily andneural evidence; language and culture; social and moral experience; development; measurement andregulation. The inventory yields a descriptive organisation of a vocabulary, not a discovery of 112 universalemotions. Bodily sensations, observable expressions and reported feelings are treated as related butdistinguishable observations. Particular attention is given to grief, apathy, mixed feelings, vulnerability andthe contextual meanings of closely related terms. A proposed validation programme involves qualitativeelicitation, cognitive interviewing, repeated sampling and tests of discriminant validity and interpretationacross social groups. The contribution is an explicit framework for using a rich vocabulary of feeling whilekeeping empirical findings, editorial definitions and research proposals separate.
Author: Kruse, Hans
Language: English
Topic: Emotions and Moral Behavior
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225465158