What Are Emotions?

Psychopathology – Anxiety

In this course, Professor Femi Oyebode (University of Birmingham) explores anxiety and anxiety-related disorders. In the first lecture, we think about the general nature of emotions and how we experience them. In the second lecture, we think about anxiety and anxiety disorders more specifically. In the third lecture, we think about phobias, including specific phobia, social phobia and agoraphobia. Next, we think about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and its relation to anxiety. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about stress-related conditions such as acute stress disorder (ASD), adjustment disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

What Are Emotions?

In this lecture, we think about the nature of emotions and how we experience them, focusing in particular on: (i) a definition of the term ‘emotion’ as the positive or negative feelings we experience in relation to different contexts; (ii) the research of Paul Ekman who proposed the existence of six universally recognisable basic emotions as happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, disgust; (iii) what happens when we experience an emotion, examining our psychological, physiological and behavioural responses.