Typical Emotional States
On the basis of K. Lewin's formula of behavior it is possible to formulate behavioral grammar of situations, i. e. to describe relations between typical human states, circumstances and patterns of behavior. But what are typical human states, and typical emotional states in particular? The goal of this research was to analyze the conceptual assumptions about existence of typical emotional states and to figure out what exactly can be considered them. Among different philosophical approaches to understand types, the semiotic account of types as social norms was chosen to be the methodological basis for comparative analysis of main contemporary theories of emotion: basic emotion theories, the semantic theory of emotional concepts, and the conceptual act theory. The conclusion was made that so called basic emotions cannot be considered as typical emotional states. Most typical emotional states must be culture-specific, however, some of their components could be universal. In fiction, the typical states are described in repeating terms which make these descriptions recognizable. An individual token state belongs to a type when is similar to its prototypical examples. What particular emotional states are typical of a culture cannot be decided a priori, an empirical research is needed to answer the question.