Darwin and Plutichik’s EMOTIONS

Plutchik proposed that ‘basic’ emotions of anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy. are biologically primitive and have evolved in order to increase the reproductive fitness of the animal. Plutchik argues each of these emotions are a trigger to behaviour with high survival value, such as the way fear inspires the fight-or-flight response.

Plutchik’s psychoevolutionary theory of basic emotions has ten postulates.

– The concept of emotion is applicable to all evolutionary levels and applies to all animals including humans.

– Emotions have an evolutionary history and have evolved various forms of expression in different species.

– Emotions served an adaptive role in helping organisms deal with key survival issues posed by the environment.

– Despite different forms of expression of emotions in different species, there are certain common elements, or prototype patterns, that can be identified.

– There is a small number of basic, primary, or prototype emotions.

– All other emotions are mixed or derivative states; that is, they occur as combinations, mixtures, or compounds of the primary emotions.

– Primary emotions are hypothetical constructs or idealized states whose properties and characteristics can only be inferred from various kinds of evidence.

– Primary emotions can be conceptualized in terms of pairs of polar opposites.

– All emotions vary in their degree of similarity to one another.

– Each emotion can exist in varying degrees of intensity or levels of arousal.

“Basic Emotions–Plutchik”. Personalityresearch.org. Retrieved 1 September 2017.

Darwins The expressions of the emotions in man and animals was a landmark work which is still used as a source.[2] The following list is taken from the chapter-headings in the book.

• Suffering and weeping
• Low spirits, anxiety, grief, dejection, despair
• Joy, high spirits, love, tender feelings, devotion
• Reflection, meditation, ill-temper, sulkiness, determination
• Hatred and anger
• Disdain, contempt, disgust, guilt, pride, helplessness, patience, affirmation and negation
• Surprise, astonishment, fear, horror
• Self-attention, shame, shyness, modesty, blushing.

The book is famous as being the first scientific book which used photographs as a major part of the evidence. Emotions, he decided, were behavioural traits which evolved. Darwin pointed out how the human face is adapted to show many of these emotions: it has muscles for facial movements which are not possible in other mammals. On the other hand, other mammals do have ways of showing many of these emotions.

Retrieved from https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emotions March 18, 2018