---
abstract: 'In the past few decades, research in the psychology of emotion has benefited greatly from being located in a firm evolutionary framework. It is argued that research in the psychology of mood might attain equal rigour by taking a similar approach. An evolutionary framework for mood research would be based on evolutionary psychology, the main thesis of which is the Massive Modularity Hypothesis. Translating the folk-psychological language of moods into the scientific language of modules might clarify many theoretical questions and provide a sound basis for empirical research. It is argued that such an evolutionary approach would reveal mood to be a much more heterogeneous category than emotion. While the six basic emotions identified by Paul Ekman are probably each subserved by a single module, prototypical moods such as elation, depression, anxiety and irritability are likely to be subserved by a wide range of modules. An evolutionary approach to mood might therefore lead to the elimination of the concept of mood from scientific psychology altogether.'
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chapter: ~
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confdates: 'July 14-17, 1999'
conference: 'Naturalism, Evolution and Mind'
confloc: Edinburgh
contact_email: ~
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creators_name:
  - family: Evans
    given: Dylan
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
date: 1999
date_type: published
datestamp: 1999-06-28
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dir: disk0/00/00/08/14
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eprintid: 814
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keywords: 'emotion, mood, modularity, depression, euphoria, anxiety, irritability, automatic appraisal mechanism, adaptation'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:18
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rev_number: 8
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status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:34:40
subjects:
  - bio-socio
  - evol-psy
  - phil-mind
  - soc-psy
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title: 'From moods to modules: preliminary remarks for an evolutionary theory of mood phenomena'
type: confpaper
userid: 31
volume: ~
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