How can emotion be defined?

Defining emotion as one’s feelings captures the essence of what emotions really are. Emotions encompass the complex experience of feelings such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and love. These feelings often arise in response to internal thoughts or external stimuli and are essential to human experiences, influencing behavior, decision-making, and interactions with others.

Understanding emotions as feelings also highlights their subjective nature—they vary widely from person to person based on individual experiences, beliefs, and cultural contexts. This definition lays the foundation for understanding emotional responses and their impact on mental health and well-being, an important consideration in health care.

In contrast to the other options, which refer to unrelated concepts—physical health, medical treatments, or psychological disorders—focusing on feelings is directly aligned with the fundamental understanding of what emotions are and how they function in everyday life.