Junto Emotion Wheel
Learn
Long-form articles about emotional intelligence, the Junto Emotion Wheel, and the practice of naming what you feel. Written from The Junto Institute's own materials and the psychological research that underpins them.
Articles
Foundations
What is an emotion wheel? A guide from The Junto Institute — A complete answer in 2,000 words: what an emotion wheel actually is, how The Junto Institute built theirs after finding existing wheels incomplete, the six core emotions (joy, love, sadness, fear, anger, surprise), how they compare to Plutchik / Willcox / Geneva, common misconceptions, and the science of emotional granularity.
How to use an emotion wheel — a 60-second daily practice — The Junto Institute's recommended five-step practice for using the wheel: check in, choose a core emotion, walk outward to the more specific feeling, name it, notice the moment. Includes guidance for both personal and group use.
Feelings wheel vs. emotion wheel: are they the same thing? — A short, exact answer to the terminology question people search a lot. The two terms mean the same tool; the one technical distinction between an emotion and a feeling; and which named wheel is which.
The history of the emotion wheel: Plutchik, Willcox, Geneva and Junto — Where emotion wheels come from. Four lineages — an evolutionary psychologist (1980), a transactional-analysis therapist (1982), a Swiss affective-science lab, and a leadership institute (2016) — each solving a different problem.
Coming soon
- Emotion wheel for therapy — How clinicians use the wheel with clients.
- Emotion wheel for kids — Adapting the practice for younger users and classrooms.
- Emotion wheel for teams — Bringing the wheel into 1:1s, huddles and difficult conversations.
Emotion glossary
Looking for a specific emotion? The emotion glossary defines each of the six core families — joy, love, sadness, fear, anger and surprise — and the more specific feelings each one branches into.
About this site
The Junto Emotion Wheel is a free, interactive emotion wheel built around the 100+ named feelings developed by The Junto Institute. The interactive tool lives at juntoemotionwheel.com; the long-form articles in this section are written to accompany it.
For background on the Institute and the framework behind the wheel, see about, methodology and sources.