Studies // Cited work
An argument for basic emotions
Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions.
Level D Theory doi:10.1080/02699939208411068
What this study supports
Supports the claim that basic emotion theory treats emotions as evolved responses, each with distinctive signal, physiology and antecedent events and sharing features such as rapid onset and brief duration. A theoretical argument.
- Who was studied
- Not applicable: a theoretical article.
- Design
- Theory
- Level of evidence
- Cross-sectional, observational, qualitative work and narrative reviews.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
TheoreticalLevel DConfidence HIGH
Basic emotion theory holds that a set of emotions evolved as distinct families with characteristic signals, physiology and antecedent events; recent versions describe more than 20 emotions expressed in multimodal, dynamic patterns and acknowledge contextual influence.
- Scope
- The position as stated by its proponents.
- Caveat
- The theory has changed over time, so criticisms of early versions do not always apply to current ones.
Last reviewed · Review due · basic-emotion-theory-position