From a strongly realistic point of view, I imagine, that while humiliation is a strong emotion, that physical pain would be an overriding feeling, especially if it's a bun roasting spanking, and not some pithy butt patting. (note: a pithy butt patting might cause greater humiliation because either by sheer strength or by an act of coersion, someone has gained the upper hand over another, but then choses to use a weak form of punishment, which belies their true control over another).
So, in my mind, the order of least to worse would be: embarrassment, humiliation, physical pain. The first two are logical/internal and the last emotion/external. The first two are derived from THINKING, which are higher brain functions which go out the door for the most part when the primative brain takes over. When you are young and you stick your finger in a fire, you don't THINK "pull my finger out and stick it in my mouth" you just do it, thereby the primative mind, which seeks to protect your body at all costs,and it does it in sometimes IRRATIONAL ways. From that, the logical brain kicks in and you might feel embarrassed for doing something foolish, and thereby feel humiliation if someone saw you do it, like a parent, especially if they say "I TOLD you not to do that! Maybe next time you'll listen to me when I warn you."
In my mind, that form of correction (in general) linked with a rationalization that you put yourself into that situation, and "owning the situation" (something adults SHOULD do), would mitigate any humilation to bearable levels.
Humilation at unbearable levels would be where you either childishly, or righteously feel the cause of the humiliation was unfair, unjust, and unwarranted. A rationalization for those thoughts, would be where you don't have any respect for the person who caused the humiliation.
Embarrassment is a simpler emotion that might be linked to the primative mind as it causes a physical response: blushing (which is caused by increased blood flow, which is caused by increased heartbeats. I say it might be linked to the primative mind because you don't think"this is embarrassing" then blush, you ate usually blushing prior to thinking it. And the heart is an autonomic body function; you don't control how fast or slow your heart beats. Your your cognitive thoughts can increase or decrease autonomic functions by, for instance, THINKING "I have to calm down" and taking deep breaths. Whereas humiliation is strictly a mental thought where you THINK in terms of perceptions.
There are three parts of the brain, basically. The cognitive or logic side, the creative side, and then the primitive side. The primative side is where emotions come from, althought some believe emotions are from the creative side, thus why they say it's the feminine side, whereas the logical side is the masculine side, based off that women are more ruled by emotions, while men purportedly are more logic driven. This is pure poppycock, as men are just as driven by emotions and women are just as capable of being pathological (truly unemotional).
It's just that women find certain things important which causes an emotional response, whereas men find different things important which causes an emotional response, but even that is arguable. But for the most part, that is stereotypically true. Whether those are preprogrammed responses or learned is hotly debated. |