Is it what we feel that makes a difference?

Abstract Four of the basic emotions described are fear, happiness, anger, and sadness. Emotions have important functions—they provide information about ourselves and our environment. Emotions are neither right nor wrong—they just are. Emotions are one part of ourselves—they are not the total of us. A primary emotion is an emotion that we experience in response to an internal or external event. A secondary emotion is an emotion we can have about the primary emotion on the basis of our self-critical beliefs about the primary emotion. Secondary emotions are often more problematic than are primary emotions. The way to deal with distressing secondary emotions is to accept our primary emotions.