Primary and Secondary Emotions

The Fight or Flight Response is the working title for my game about confronting emotion and how the player deals with it. I want this game to be unique, but I want to be smart and use real psychology to back it up. The game has non-violent combat, but the player will combat emotion and that can be tough combat. Something I have been researching are primary and secondary emotions.

Primary emotions are the emotions we feel first when we encounter a serious situation. Things like fear, anger, sadness, and happiness are usually primary emotions. These emotions are instinctive. They can be emotions experienced quickly which makes it difficult to really understand what is really going on.

Secondary emotions are those felt after the intense situation. For example, the player crashes unscathed onto an unknown planet. He is glad he survived almost certain death and without a scratch! After those initial feelings of happiness leave he will be sad that he is alone and without help.

Understanding these concepts will help me better understand the human condition during a traumatic event. This even could help me better write the episodes the character goes through in the underground. For example, the player will choose dialogue options or collect certain items during an episode. Depending on what the player chose, the game will decide how they dealt with the situation. Not everyone will choose the same thing. This will change the outcome of the game.

I am still working with this idea and other psychological issues the player could go through. If you have any suggestions, please comment!

I got my some of my research through this web page:

http://changingminds.org/explanations/emotions/primary_secondary.htm