Robert Plutchik

Plutchik was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 21, 1927, the son of Leon Plutchik (a tailor) and Libby (Solow) Plutchik. He earned a scholarship to City College of New York, graduating in 1949, and later completed his master’s (1950) and doctoral (1952) degrees at Columbia University.^[2][3]

During his career, Plutchik taught at several institutions, including Hofstra University (1951-1967), Columbia University (1967-1968), and Bronx State Hospital (1968-1971), eventually becoming a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1971 and later an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida. He was a fellow of the American Psychological Association and an active member of professional societies.^[2][3]

Plutchik published extensively, with an early book, The Emotions: Facts, Theories, and a New Model (1962), contributing significantly to the field when emotion research was still a niche interest. His later work, Emotions and Life: Perspectives From Psychology, Biology, and Evolution (2003), explored various aspects of emotions, from their expression and development to their neurological and social roles.^[3]

Among his major theoretical contributions, Plutchik proposed that emotions are evolutionary adaptations, serving essential survival functions and existing across species. He also introduced the idea that emotions form the basis of personality traits and psychiatric diagnoses. His model illustrated how primary emotions interact, influencing behavior and mental health.^[3]

Beyond academia, Plutchik was an artist, sculptor, and poet. His artistic works were compiled in World of Emotions: Poems, Etchings, and Sculptures by Robert Plutchik, published in 2006.^[3]

Plutchik proposed a psychoevolutionary classification approach for general emotional responses.^[4][5] He identified eight primary emotions—anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy. Plutchik argues for the primacy of these emotions by showing each to be the trigger of 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.

1. The concept of emotion is applicable to all evolutionary levels and applies to all animals including 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 hypothetical 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.^[6][7]

Plutchik's wheel of emotions

Plutchik also created a wheel of emotions to illustrate different emotions. Plutchik first proposed his cone-shaped model (3D) or the wheel model (2D) in 1980 to describe how emotions were related.

He suggested eight primary bipolar emotions: joy versus sadness; anger versus fear; trust versus disgust; and surprise versus anticipation. Additionally, his circumplex model makes connections between the idea of an emotion circle and a color wheel. Like colors, primary emotions can be expressed at different intensities and can mix with one another to form different emotions.

The theory was extended^{[by whom?]} to provide the basis for an explanation for psychological defence mechanisms; Plutchik proposed that eight defense mechanisms were manifestations of the eight core emotions.^{[citation needed]}

More information Stimulus event, Inferred cognition ...

The Complex, Probabilistic Sequence of Events Involved in the Development of an Emotion^[7]

	Stimulus event	Inferred cognition	Feeling	Behavior	Effect
	Threat	"Danger"	Fear, terror	Running, or flying away	Protection
	Obstacle	"Enemy"	Anger, rage	Biting, hitting	Destruction
	Potential mate	"Possess"	Joy, ecstasy	Courting, mating	Reproduction
	Loss of valued person	"Isolation"	Sadness, grief	Crying for help	Reintegration
	Group member	"Friend"	Acceptance, trust	Grooming, sharing	Affiliation
	Gruesome object	"Poison"	Disgust, Loathing	Vomiting, pushing away	Rejection
	New territory	"What's out there?"	Anticipation	Examining, mapping	Exploration
	Sudden novel object	"What is it?"	Surprise	Stopping, alerting	Orientation

Close

Plutchik's work on emotions, particularly his Wheel of Emotions, has had a significant impact on psychology and related disciplines. His model of emotions has been widely used in psychological research, therapy, marketing, artificial intelligence, and media studies.^[3][8]

• Small Group Discussion in Orientation and Teaching (Putnam, 1959).
• The Emotions: Facts, Theories, and a New Model (Random House, 1962).
• Theories of Emotion (Academic Press, 1980).
• Emotion: A Psychoevolutionary Synthesis (Harper and Row, 1980).
• Foundations of Experimental Research (Harper and Row, 1983).
• Emotions in Early Development (Elsevier Science and Technology, 1983).
• Biological Foundations of Emotion (Elsevier Science and Technology, 1985).
• Emotion, Psychopathology, and Psychotherapy (Academic Press, 1989).
• The Measurement of Emotions (Elsevier Science and Technology, 1989).
• The Emotions (University Press of American, 1991).
• The Psychology and Biology of Emotion (Harper Collins, 1994).
• Emotions in the Practice of Psychotherapy: Clinical Implications of Affect Theories (American Psychological Association, 2000).
• Emotions and Life: Perspectives from Psychology, Biology, and Evolution (American Psychological Association, 2003).

Plutchik married Anita Freyberg in 1962,^[19] and had three children. He died on April 29, 2006, in Sarasota, Florida, at age 78.^[2][3][20]