The colourful spectrum of emotions, empathy and self-care

How are we able to define our emotions?

It has been proposed that we are able to experience 34 000 distinct emotions. No wonder, we have difficulties in putting specific labels on our feelings. That said, there is no one accurate way of evaluating our emotional state. Researchers from Robert Plutchik to James Russell have all tried to find the most optimal way but all theoretical concepts have their strengths and weaknesses. Here, we are introducing our approach at Triumf Health - a combination of various theories of emotion to introduce the spectrum of emotions to children. We give this simplified toolkit for children to express themselves because it is impossible to understand all the possible emotions, but we can learn how to identify the primary or basic ones. It is especially valuable because sometimes we all have those moments of intense feeling and then our mind cannot really remain objective as it operates from an impulsive “fight or flight” response. How to even act when the waves of emotions go well above your head?

Why is it important to evaluate our emotional state?

Being able to identify our emotions conceptually advances our ability to experience and express emotions. However, to be able to define the emotions correctly, we need to take into consideration a much larger scale of emotional processes including emotional relations, episodes, moods and affects. On a conceptual level, this is of course too difficult to achieve from the technological perspective and also for children to comprehend. But to simplify the process, we start from encouraging children to express how they are feeling. If we are not able to make sense of our own emotions, it makes it very difficult to identify and respond to emotions in others. This might lead to difficulties in social situations with interpersonal relationships.

Why does the evaluation of emotional state work on our mobile health platform?

We encourage children to observe the full spectrum of emotions that arise within them. While we are all used to the emojis on our devices, the majority of the emojis are yellow and only anger is distinctively coloured as red. This does not take the whole spectrum of emotions into account. It is not uncommon to link emotions with colour and we believe that showing distinct colours for each emotion also helps children to understand that all emotions and experiences are different. There aren’t only positive emotions versus anger - emotions come in all shapes and sizes but the most important part is to accept the emotions we are experiencing. And understand how different they are, assigning different colours in addition to facial expression might be helpful especially for younger children.

What is the aim of the emotion recognition section of our mobile health platform?

In our mobile health platform, children first learn to identify their emotions based on the circumplex model displayed above. This data is used to prompt psychoeducational content based on the current feelings children are experiencing with the aim of always validating the emotions.

Children also learn more about emotions in our educational component and the game encourages them further to identify emotional expressions in a cognitive game embedded in the overall gameplay. Children need to find pairs of the same emotion and each time they find a pair, they are they are reminded of the name of said emotion.

Of course, it is always important to apply the knowledge. In order to achieve this, children have daily missions in the Triumfland city. For example, they identify other children’s emotions to understand how they feel. And finally, there are a wide range of problem solving tasks. When trying to figure out the most effective strategy to cope with a certain situation, players also evaluate how people feel in specific situations. This also teaches children the concept of empathy, which is especially important because it helps us understand how others are feeling so they can respond appropriately to the situation. 

Step by step approach with the underlying algorithm:

Knowledge on emotions → Situation that causes emotional response → Experiencing emotion with the aim of validating the feeling → Naming the emotion → Acting on the information the emotion provides

Emotional health

The healthy management of emotion is an important aspect of mental health. But first, we need to have skills to experience our emotions. Of course, each emotion has its purpose and place, so having access to the full range of emotions is like having a gateway to a valuable source of information within us, aiding children to express themselves and their needs. Sometimes negative feelings tend to linger because they haven’t been given an open and safe space to be fully expressed within.

Thus, emotional health is achieved when we can properly identify our emotions, process them fully, and communicate them effectively. Our emotional health is a product of practicing healthy behaviors regularly. In order for this to become a habit for children, they need continuous support.