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following section I briefly outline current perceptions about the concept "primary
emotions."
Primary Emotions
Happiness, Joy, Contentment
Sternberg (1998:542) describes happiness, joy or contentment as a fundamental
emotion although different people do not define it in the same way. To some it goes
hand in hand with pleasure no matter how much that would cost. To others happiness
means "the absence ofproblems."
Sternberg (1998) does not regard happiness as a temporary state since many
people give it a mean rating of about 6 on a lO-point scale, which normally remains
constant from one day to the next. He also notes that married people are generally
happier than never-married people and personal wealth, except in very poor countries,
does not predict happiness. He also mentions the results ofa study, which indicates that
the proportion of happy people in different cultures varies. A study done in 1982
showed that the percentage in South Korea was 34% compared to 52% in Italy.
Joy is caused by the achievement of a goal. The intensity of the emotion ofjoy
will depend upon the importance of the goal, the difficulty encountered in attaining it,
and the suddenness with which the goal is attained.
Fear andAnxiety
Sternberg (1998) defmes fear as an emotion of being afraid of a specific threat
or harm or danger and it causes us to flee or avoid that danger. Anxiety, on the other
hand, is a very pervasive and diffuse emotion because the source ofthe threat cannot be
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