An Examination of the Classes of Emotions in the Human Existential Structure Presented in the Quran and Comparing it with Plutchik's Psycho-evolutionary Theory of Emotions

The modern man is more than ever an emotional being. Emotions are introduced as an vital factor in human species’ survival and getting out of the natural emotional state causes a wide range of mental diseases. According to the studies, the number of these diseases is increasing. Different theories have proposed different definitions and classifications for emotions and the relationship between them. Many of them are the result of examining animals’ behavior and comparing it to that of human. One of the efficient and applied theories in this regard is Plutchik's Psycho-evolutionary Theory of Emotions. The question is whether these are all emotional classes of humans. Based on the Islamic and Quranic teachings, human is beyond animals and has a spiritual dimension as well. Therefore, different emotions can be conceived of for him/her. For this purpose, the present study is an attempt to compare Plutchik's classes of emotions with human existential structure as demonstrated in the Quran.

In the present study, content analysis was first used to prepare a coding form of the evaluation of Plutchik's classes of emotions and the image presented for human being in the Quran using Plutchik's books and sources and the Quran and its interpretations, which were then provided to two trained evaluators. In this study, all ethical considerations were observed and no conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

The results showed that Plutchik's emotional classes can be found in the Quranic human structure mainly in two aspects of “states” and “ability”. On this basis, 26 new emotional categories such as Zeigh, Farah, Ro'b, Rabt, A'ma and 20 other emotional combinations were suggested.

The results helped to introduce new emotions taking into account both material and non-material aspects of human existence and introduced heart as the position of emotions based on human existential structure and, naturally, it is the heart whose disease causes emotional disorders and whose health guarantees treatment.