A Correlation Study between Tri-Guna and Emotional Style: A Theoretical Approach toward Developing a Working Model to Integrate Tri-Guna with Affective Neuroscience and Well-Being

BACKGROUND: Science of well-being is getting focused across all walks of life from health care to organizational behavior. Indian psychological principles of Tri-Guna offer a universal theoretical framework to understand the behavioral aspects of emotions and well-being, whereas affective neurosciences have explored neural circuits underlying few universal emotional styles. Both Tri-Guna and emotional styles are dynamic and vulnerable for modifications with training. Hence, establishing a relation between Tri-Guna and emotional style offers a novel insight to explore neural basis of Tri-Guna and its application in health and behavioral sciences. AIMS: To establish the correlation between Tri-Guna and emotional styles in healthy adult subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Healthy adults (n = 121, 18–21 years) of both genders were individually administered with questionnaires to assess Tri-Guna (Vedic personality inventory) and emotional style (emotional style questionnaire). The relationship between Tri Guna (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) and Six dimensions of emotional styles (attention, self awareness, outlook, resilience, social intuition and sensitivity to context) were assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: All the emotional styles showed a positive correlation with Sattva and negative with Rajas and Tamas, except resilience. Resilience showed a negative correlation with Sattva and positive with Rajas and Tamas. Further, between Rajas and Tamas, emotional styles showed a stronger correlation with Tamas. CONCLUSIONS: Sattva guna showed an association with emotional styles that favors to develop a positive emotional pattern. Having fairly understood neural circuitry of emotional styles, this first preliminary correlation data will provide a theoretical framework to explore neural circuitry involved in understanding emotional aspects of Tri-Guna.