Which of the following individuals is not expressing a basic emotion?

• A. A person who feels sadness after losing a pet
• B. A person who feels surprise after receiving unexpected news
• C. A person who feels jealousy when seeing a friend succeed
• D. A person who feels fear when walking alone at night

Answer: (C)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand the concept of basic emotions. Basic emotions are universal, biologically hardwired emotions that are typically recognized across cultures. Commonly accepted basic emotions include happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.
2. Step 2: Identify the emotions listed in the problem and classify each as either a basic emotion or a more complex emotion. For example, sadness, surprise, and fear are considered basic emotions.
3. Step 3: Analyze the emotion of jealousy. Jealousy is generally considered a complex emotion because it involves a combination of feelings such as fear, anger, and sadness, and it requires social cognition and comparison with others.
4. Step 4: Compare each individual's emotion to the list of basic emotions. The person feeling sadness, surprise, and fear are expressing basic emotions, while the person feeling jealousy is expressing a complex emotion.
5. Step 5: Conclude that the individual expressing jealousy is not expressing a basic emotion, which aligns with the correct answer provided.