The Nature of Emotions: Clinical Implications

Robert Plutchik
Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
Bronx, New York

Psycho evolutionary Theory of Emotions

Regardless of how much or how little education we have on various subjects,

there is one topic on which each of us is the world's leading expert, and that subject
is ourselves. And just as we know a great deal about the public and private sides of
ourselves, we know a great deal about that part of ourselves called emotions. We all
believe that we know our own emotions and can recognize emotions in other people.
Yet, despite this belief, experts in this field seem to have a great deal of difficulty
coming to any agreement about what emotions really are. But one thing that
everyone does agree on is that emotions are the source of our greatest pleasures and
our greatest pains. And when we have problems in life we often refer to them as
emotional problems.
For the past twenty years or more I have been studying emotions and trying to
make sense of their bewildering manifestations. I have written about emotions in
animals, infants, mental patients, and normal individuals and have described
connections between emotions and motivations, cognitions, imagery, empathy,
personality, diagnoses and coping styles. Several new tests for measuring the
derivatives of emotion have resulted from this work as well as a general psychoevo-
lutionary theory (Plutchik, 1980). In the past three or four years, I have been
examining the usefulness of the theory as a guide to psychotherapy. An examination
of this issue is the purpose of the present chapter.
The psychoevolutionary theory is based upon seven fundamental postulates.
I will briefly describe all of them but will focus my attention on the two that I believe
to be most relevant to clinical issues.

Postulate 1. Emotions are communication and survival mechanisms based on

evolutionary adaptations.

The first postulate, that emotions are communication and survival mecha-
nisms, is a direct reflection of the Darwinian, ethological tradition. Darwin (1872/

M. Clynes et al. (eds.), Emotions and Psychopathology

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1988
2 R. PLUTCHIK

1965) pointed out that emotions have two functions for all animals. First they
increase the chances of individual survival through appropriate reactions to emer-
gency events in the environment (by fight or flight, for example). Second they act
as signals of intentions of future action through display behaviors of various kinds.

Postulate 2. Emotions have a genetic basis.

The second postulate, that emotions have a genetic basis stems directly from the
evolutionary context. Darwin pointed out that emotional expressions appear in
similar form in many lower animals, that they appear in infants in the same form as
in adults (e.g. smiling), that people born blind show the same emotions as normally
sighted ones, and that some emotional expressions appear in similar form in widely
separated groups of humans.
Recent genetic studies comparing monozygotic and dizygotic twins, cross-
adoption studies and other methods have revealed hereditary contributions to such
temperamental (emotional) qualities as aggressiveness (Fuller, 1986; Wimer and
Wimer, 1985) timidity or fearfulness (Goddard & Beilharz, 1985), assertiveness
(Loehlin, Hom and Willerman, 1981) and shyness (Stevenson-Hinde, and Simpson,
1982) as well as many others.

Postulate 3. Emotions are hypothetical constructs based on various classes of

evidence.

The third basic postulate of the psychoevolutionary theory of emotion is that

emotions are hypothetical constructs or inferences based on various classes of
evidence. We are never certain of exactly what emotion someone else has because
of the complex nature of emotion and because more than one emotion may occur at
the same time. Any given display of emotion may reflect such complex states as
approach and avoidance, attack and flight, sex and agression, or fear and pleasure
(Hinde,1965). We are often not even certain of our own emotions.

Postulate 4. Emotions are complex chains of events with stabilizing feedback loops
that produce some kind of behavioral homeostasis.

The fourth basic postulate of the theory is illustrated in Figure 1. Emotions are
triggered by various events. These events must be cognitively evaluated as being of
significance to the well-being or integrity of the individual. If such a determination
is made, various feelings will result as well as a pattern of physiological changes.
These physiological changes have the character of anticipatory reactions associated
with various types of exertions or impulses; such impulses, for example, as the urge
to explore, to attack, to retreat or to mate, among others. Depending on the relative
strengths of these various impulses, a final vectorial resultant will occur in the form
of overt action which is designed to have an effect on the stimulus that triggered this
chain of events in the first place. For example, distress signals by a puppy or the
crying of an infant will increase the probability that the mother or a mother substitute
will arrive on the scene. The overall effect of this complex feedback system is to
reduce the threat or change the emergency situation in such a way as to achieve a
temporary behavioral homeostatic balance.