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The measurement of emotions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

R. Plutchik
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Extract

Most people usually think of emotion as a subjective feeling of a certain kind, the kind for which labels like happy, sad, and frightened are appropriate. However, there is much evidence to suggest that this is too narrow a way to define emotions, and that a different and broader conceptualization is needed. If we examine the history of theories of emotion we find a great diversity of views. For example, Darwin, in his 1872 book ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals’, conceived of emotions as expressive behaviors that had the function of communicating intentions from one animal to another in the presence of conflicts or emergencies. Emotional expressions, from this point of view, regulated interpersonal relations and increased the chances of individual survival.

Keywords

Emotionsmeasurement theorydepressionemotions profile indexself-report scales
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 1997 , pp. 58 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

Literature

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