James Russell developed a circumplex model of emotion, not to be confused with the interpersonal circumplex. (There are a variety of circumplex models for various subjects, since they are merely circular and continuously scaled in nature.)

This model is also called Emotional Valence and Arousal, where Valence ranges from Negative to Positive (or Unpleasant to Pleasant) and Arousal ranges from Low to High (or Mild to Intense). We get the fourfold partitions of

• Mildly Unpleasant
• Mildly Pleasant
• Intensely Unpleasant
• Intensely Pleasant

or

• Low & Negative
• Low & Positive
• High & Negative
• High & Positive

There are several way to discretize this circumplex into eight parts, but here is one from Russell (1980).

• Aroused
• Excited
• Pleased
• Contented
• Sleepy
• Depressed
• Miserable
• Distressed

Compare with the concept of Flow, where the variables are challenge and skill, instead of arousal and valence.

Further Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_classification

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumplex_model_of_group_tasks

https://www.google.com/search?channel=cus5&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=circumplex

James Russell / A Circumplex Model of Affect, J. of Personality and Social Psychology 1980, Vol. 39, No. 6, 1161-1178

James A. Russell, Maria Lewicka, Toomas Niit / A Cross-Cultural Study of a Circumplex Model of Affect, J. of Personality and Social Psych. 1989, Vol. 57 No. 5, 848-856

Jonathan Posner, James A. Russell, Bradley S. Peterson / The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology
Dev. Psychopathol. 2005, 17(3), 715-734

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2367156/

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