Meta-emotion refers in accordance with the general definition of the preposition "meta-" to second-order feelings or emotions about first-order emotions.
Meta-emotions can be short-term or long-term. The latter can contribute to emotional repression, personality traits, psychodynamics, emotional disorders, but also emotional awareness, and emotional intelligence (popularized also as EQ).
Linkage to awareness and EQ
One of the meta-emotions, meta-interest, defined as being interested in what one feels at the moment can be the locus of emotional awareness, enabling one not to be slave to one's own emotions, nor reppressing them, but dealing with them both with intelligence and creativity.
References
- Jaeger, C., & Bartsch, A. (2006), Meta-emotions. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 73, 179–204.
- Jaeger, C., & Bartsch, A. (2000), Unconscious emotions – black holes in the Cartesian theatre? Consciousness and Cognition, 9, 54.