<p>Subjectively, some emotions have a sudden onset, while others build up slowly. For example, a text message from a loved one can <em>quickly</em> fill you with joy. Alternatively, frustration/annoyance at being stuck in traffic can build up over time or watching a funny video can help you transition from sadness to functional calm.</p>

<p>According to <a href="https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/16604/4397">various studies</a>, the perceived magnitude of an emotion changes as the time between evaluation and experience grows. Similarly, is there evidence that the onset or acceleration of a built-up emotion is perceived differently at the time between the evaluation and the onset grows?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-24T04:16:10.720Z
Hmmm, it's probably highly variable/idiosyncratic!  Since affect is a mental representation of your (predicted and actual) bodily activity (e.g., cardiac/respiratory activity, metabolic activity, immunologic activity), and since bodily activity changes over the course of an emotional episode, it's highly likely that this change in bodily activity (and thus affect) will be accompanied by changes in conceptualization of your affect (e.g., from concepts of frustration, to anger, to fear, to calm).  The main person I know who studies emotion dynamics like this is Peter Kuppens.
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-25T03:10:28.910Z
@mrt thank you so much for that reference, it's led me to the field of emotion dynamics and it's been super insightful!
Seanny123
<cognitive-psychology><emotion>
Subjective experience of emotional buildup
Seanny123
# Subjective experience of emotional buildup

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-01-23)

Subjectively, some emotions have a sudden onset, while others build up slowly. For example, a text message from a loved one can *quickly* fill you with joy. Alternatively, frustration/annoyance at being stuck in traffic can build up over time or watching a funny video can help you transition from sadness to functional calm.

According to [various studies](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/16604/4397), the perceived magnitude of an emotion changes as the time between evaluation and experience grows. Similarly, is there evidence that the onset or acceleration of a built-up emotion is perceived differently at the time between the evaluation and the onset grows?

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, emotion

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hmmm, it's probably highly variable/idiosyncratic!  Since affect is a mental representation of your (predicted and actual) bodily activity (e.g., cardiac/respiratory activity, metabolic activity, immunologic activity), and since bodily activity changes over the course of an emotional episode, it's highly likely that this change in bodily activity (and thus affect) will be accompanied by changes in conceptualization of your affect (e.g., from concepts of frustration, to anger, to fear, to calm).  The main person I know who studies emotion dynamics like this is Peter Kuppens.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 thank you so much for that reference, it's led me to the field of emotion dynamics and it's been super insightful!  

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