Plutchik's (1980) psychoevolutionary theory of basic emotions has ten postulates.
 1. The concept of emotion is applicable to all evolutionary levels and applies to animals as well
as to humans.
 2. Emotions have an evolutionary history and have evolved various forms of expression in different
species.
 3. Emotions served an adaptive role in helping organisms deal with key survival issues posed by
the environment.
 4. Despite different forms of expression of emotions in different species, there are certain
common elements, or prototype patterns, that can be identified.
 5. There is a small number of basic, primary, or prototype emotions.
 6. All other emotions are mixed or derivative states; that is, they occur as combinations,
mixtures, or compounds of the primary emotions.
 7. Primary emotions are hypothethical constructs or idealized states whose properties and
characteristics can only be inferred from various kinds of evidence.
 8. Primary emotions can be conceptualized in terms of pairs of polar opposites.
 9. All emotions vary in their degree of similarity to one another.
10. Each emotion can exist in varying degrees of intensity or levels of arousal.
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Basic Emotions

Basis for Inclusion

Plutchik

Acceptance, anger, anticipation, disgust, joy, fear, sadness, surprise

Relation to adaptive biological processes

Arnold

Anger, aversion, courage, dejection, desire, despair, fear, hate, hope, love, sadness

Relation to action tendencies

Ekman, Friesen, and Ellsworth

Anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise

Universal facial expressions

Frijda

Desire, happiness, interest, surprise, wonder, sorrow

Forms of action readiness

Gray

Rage and terror, anxiety, joy

Hardwired

Izard

Anger, contempt, disgust, distress, fear, guilt, interest, joy, shame, surprise

Hardwired

James

Fear, grief, love, rage

Bodily involvement

McDougall

Anger, disgust, elation, fear, subjection, tender-emotion, wonder

Relation to instincts

Mowrer

Pain, pleasure

Unlearned emotional states

Oatley and Johnson-Laird

Anger, disgust, anxiety, happiness, sadness

Do not require propositional content

Panksepp

Expectancy, fear, rage, panic

Hardwired

Tomkins

Anger, interest, contempt, disgust, distress, fear, joy, shame, surprise

Density of neural firing

Watson

Fear, love, rage

Hardwired

Weiner and Graham

Happiness, sadness

Attribution independent


Basic Emotions

Basis for Inclusion




(This table is taken from Ortony and Turner, 1990.)
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                                            References

Ortony, A., & Turner, T. J. (1990). What's basic about basic emotions? Psychological Review, 97,
315-331.

Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman
(Eds.), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1. Theories of emotion (pp. 3-33). New
York: Academic.