Evans 1

Paper 1

Taylor Evans

Psych 440: Psychology of Emotion

October 6, 2019
 Evans 2

Taylor Evans

Professor Tabitha Kirkland

Psych 440

6 October 2019

Paper 1

Darwin’s three principles of emotions are 1. The Principle of Serviceable Habits, 2. The

Principle of Antithesis, and 3. The Principle of the Direct Action of the Excited Nervous System

on the Body.1 Based off of these principles, emotions had to have evolved and adapted over time

rather than have existed for any other reason.

Darwin’s first principle states that emotions evolved based out of serviceable habits. He

theorized that some emotional expressions exist out of necessity, whereas some were once

needed in animals, but not anymore.1 For example, when surprised, we raise our eyebrows.

Darwin wrote that this was most likely to increase the field of vision and make it easier for the

eyes to move in all directions.1 Often when we are surprised, we are startled by something. So

from an evolutionary standpoint, we would have needed to raise our eyebrows in order to see all

that is around us in order to protect ourselves and our packs. However, most human expressions

serve no function, and because of this, Darwin argued that these formerly useful expressions are

evidence of evolution since God-given expressions would have served more functionality than

they do1. For example, sneering was once needed by animals to show their anger and intent to

fight, whereas for humans who are more civilized, we do not need to sneer to tell our enemies to

beware an attack, yet we still sneer when we are angry.

Secondly, Darwin theorized the principle of antithesis, in which he suggested that

expressions communicate characteristics. For example, people who walk around with their
 Evans 3

mouth agape probably aren’t very determined.1 I think this holds true to other facial expressions,

such as people who tend to keep their lips pursed are probably angry or mean-spirited people.

Darwin’s third principle states that some expressions happen because the nervous system

is expelling excess excitement.1 His example was that of laughter. Darwin theorized that laughter

was a result of physical or psychological tension, and was analogous to being tickled1. When we

are tickled, we have a physical tension and release it through laughter. Similarly, when we hear

something funny, we have a psychological tension and release it through laughter. Another

example that corresponds with this theory would be when we scream. Imagine someone drops a

knife and it cuts your toe. You would scream to release the physical tension from the pain. On

the other spectrum, imagine you see something scary running towards you. The psychological

tension would cause you to scream in fear.

Based off of Darwin’s three principles, emotions and expressions evolved over millions

of years. Some expressions are used for our survival, such as raising our brows in shock, and

some are a leftover from our more primal years, such as sneering to ward off enemies.

Expressions could also be a designator of characteristics, such as being undetermined or mean-

spirited. Finally, expressions could have evolved as a way to release physical or psychological

tension, such as when we laugh when tickled or experience something funny, or when we scream

in pain or in fear. Because of these, Darwin’s principles of emotion demonstrate how emotions

have changed over time and evolved to what they are today.
 Evans 4

References

1. Ursula Hess and Pascal Thibault, Darwin and Emotion Expression, (American
Psychologist, 2009), 121