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"Animal Emotions: How They Drive Human Behavior" gives a concise overview of ancient mammalian emotions deeply rooted in the human brain. Jaak Panksepp, a world-renowned neuroscientist, dedicated his life career to the study of mammalian emotions and he carved out seven distinct emotional systems he called seeking, lust, care, and play (positive em...
Citations
... In addition, the present study makes a novel contribution to the literature, as to our knowledge for the first time both the five-factor model and primary emotional systems against the background of Pankseppian affective neuroscience theory were investigated in one study, providing also the chance to see if associations between both personality models can be transferred from the healthy state of mind to a depressed state of mind. argue that primary emotional systems might be the bottom-up drivers of the Big Five of Personality (here assessed with the five-factor model), because they originate in phylogenetically old brain areas (Montag & Davis, 2020). Indeed, we observed (as hypothesized) largely the same associations as observed in the meta-analysis by Marengo et al. (2021), 1 but we also observed very few differences in terms of effects sizes between NEO-ANPS associations in depressed and control persons. ...
This study investigates two concurrent personality theories in the context of depression: Pankseppian affective neuroscience theory (ANT) describes primary emotional systems related to depression, whereas in the five-factor model (FFM), neuroticism is most robustly related with depression. Of note, ANT has been established via neuroscientific cross-mammalian-research, while the FFM belongs to the realm of Big Five personality theory, which has been established by a lexical approach. This study aimed to investigate whether the previously suggested systems or factors in depression within each of these approaches would correspond with depression, and with each other across factors/systems, in a single large sample of patients with major depression (n = 184) and age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 183). Subjects filled in the NEO-FFI and the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) along with Beck’s Depression Inventory-II. In line with the literature, depressed patients demonstrated higher FEAR/SADNESS and lower SEEKING/PLAY scores when applying ANT. Also consistent with the literature, higher neuroticism scores could be observed in the depressed sample compared to the control sample. Against the background of ANT, we suggest that Panksepp’s FEAR/SADNESS might be the “bottom-up” drivers of the personality trait neuroticism. The present study shows that the observed differences in SEEKING, FEAR, and SADNESS between depressed and healthy control participants are in line with the literature and therefore can be seen as robust. The same is true for the differences in neuroticism between both samples. Finally, we discuss the applicability of the NEO-FFI and ANPS in depression research.
... In AN theory, bottom-up means that primary emotional systems are rooted in ancient subcortical brain areas influencing more recently evolved cortical brain layers . The seven primary emotional systems are called SEEKING, LUST, CARE, PLAY (positive emotional systems) and FEAR, ANGER/RAGE, SADNESS/PANIC (negative emotional systems; e.g., Panksepp, 2007Panksepp, , 2011 for an introduction see Montag and Davis, 2020). The primary emotional systems endow mammals with important tools for survival. ...
Scientific literature suggests that Neuroticism is an important predictor in understanding individual differences in anxiety-related coping styles such as vigilance (positive association) and cognitive avoidance (negative association). Considering Pankseppian Affective Neuroscience (AN) theory could contribute to understand these relationships more in-depth, because the evolutionary old subcortical brain systems of FEAR, SADNESS, and ANGER might represent brain-anatomical bottom-up drivers of Neuroticism. N = 594 German participants ( n = 170 males; mostly student background) and N = 332 Chinese participants ( n = 72 males; mostly student background) completed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) and the Mainz Coping Inventory (Angstbewältigungsinventar; ABI) to assess individual differences in primary emotional traits and anxiety-related coping styles, respectively. As hypothesized, associations between the three emotional systems and the two coping styles cognitive avoidance and vigilance were observed. There were some differences in correlations between the Chinese and German samples, mainly regarding associations between ANGER and cognitive avoidance. Moreover, linear regression analyses revealed FEAR as a main predictor of vigilance (positive) and cognitive avoidance (negative) in the German sample. In the Chinese sample, FEAR was the main predictor of cognitive avoidance (negative), only; for vigilance SADNESS (positive) was the main predictor. Theoretical assumptions behind primary emotional traits indicate that the brain systems underlying FEAR and SADNESS indeed influence anxiety-related coping styles in a bottom-up fashion.
... A more thorough introduction into Pankseppian ANT is beyond this review and we refer readers to Panksepp's "Affective Neuroscience" (1998), Panksepp and Biven's (2012) "The Archaeology of Mind" and Davis and Panksepp's (2018) "The Emotional Foundations of Personality". Moreover, the reader will find a popular science book called "Animal Emotions" as a lay introduction into ANT in the Brainstorm Series by Punctum Books (Montag, 2020). A shorter paper on selected Pankseppian principles can be found in Davis and Montag (2019). ...
Jaak Panksepp’s Affective Neuroscience Theory (ANT) belongs to the most prominent emotion theories in the psychological and psychiatric sciences. ANT proposes the existence of seven primary emotional systems deeply anchored in the mammalian brain. These emotional/motivational systems have been shaped by evolutionary processes and function as tools for survival in mammalian species. The systems are called SEEKING, LUST, CARE, and PLAY, as well as ANGER, FEAR, and SADNESS. Panksepp carved out these emotional systems via means of deep brain stimulation, brain lesion and pharmacological manipulation studies.
Davis et al. (2003) designed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) against the background of findings from ANT. This self-report inventory is meant to enable researchers to assess individual differences in primary emotional systems. Seventeen years have passed since the first version of the ANPS has been published. Therefore, we now provide a comprehensive overview on studies using the ANPS including work from personality science, psychiatry and the neurosciences.
... In sum, we believe that it is time to shift the focus of research and discussion a bit from just pointing to excessive screen-time as the problem behavior in childhood/adolescence, also being characterized by continued digital use despite detrimental effects on young lives. Instead, we must ask why too much screen-time occurs (in the pandemic due to parental neglect with a myriad of causes, and children coping with their negative affect) and we need to take into account the consequence of PLAY deprivation (an indirect media effect), which could itself cause manifold detrimental consequencesranging from ADHD to lower empathic skills (Lachmann et al., 2018;Melchers, Li, Chen, Zhang, & Montag, 2015;Sariyska et al., 2015); see for a detailed discussion in (Montag & Davis, 2020)). Of importance this area needs much work to establish causality between these variables and to obtain effect size estimates. ...
Introduction
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown/social distancing, many scientists pointed towards the problem of increased digital technology overuse in both children and adolescents.
Methods
Although a review of the literature shows that digital technology overuse in youth represents an important topic to be studied itself (during the pandemic and afterwards), the present work also takes into account findings from Affective Neuroscience Theory (ANT).
Results
An investigation of digital overuse while the COVID-19 pandemic (and beyond) against the background of ANT calls for a shift of perspective in research, at least as an important supplement to research efforts querying the actual nature of digital overuse. In the present work, we argue that it is high time to more comprehensively address why children spend too much time with screens and to also highlight the indirect media effects of screen time use (e.g. less mammalian rough and tumble PLAY time outside and elevated SADNESS due to parental neglect).
Conclusions
In sum, insights from ANT are put forward to guide research shedding light on detrimental aspects of too much screen time in youth.
The children fulfill various roles for parents, and their departure partially disrupts parental roles and identities. Animals can fulfill several of these roles. Humans often treat pets as if they were family members, seeking emotional support from them and viewing them as their “fur babies”. In this chapter, we explore how households without adult children are influenced by the presence of non-human actors, such as dogs and cats. Specifically, we investigate how pets can serve as functional equivalents of children for adults. We conducted an analysis of accounts provided by French (15) and Polish (28) parents whose children have moved out and who have pets at home. Our findings demonstrate that the role of the animal varies depending on the parental or couple “gaps”. The animal helps alleviate feelings of emptiness and serves as a conduit for parental emotions. Furthermore, pets regulate daily routines and serve as companions for various activities. Finally, animals can even become new objects of collaboration for couples.
The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) were designed to provide researchers in the mental sciences with an inventory to assess primary emotional systems according to Pankseppian Affective Neuroscience Theory (ANT). The original ANPS, providing researchers with such a tool, was published in 2003. In the present brief communication, about 20 years later, we reflect upon some pressing matters regarding the further development of the ANPS. We touch upon problems related to disentangling traits and states of the primary emotional systems with the currently available versions of the ANPS and upon its psychometric properties and its length. We reflect also on problems such as the large overlap between the SADNESS and FEAR dimensions, the disentangling of PANIC and GRIEF in the context of SADNESS, and the absence of a LUST scale. Lastly, we want to encourage scientists with the present brief communication to engage in further biological validation of the ANPS.
The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) were constructed as a self-report assessment to measure individual differences in Jaak Panksepp’s cross-species primary emotional systems: SEEKING, PLAY, CARE (positive emotions) and FEAR, SADNESS, ANGER (negative emotions). Beginning with the first published work on the ANPS in 2003, individual differences on the ANPS measures of these six primary emotional systems have been consistently linked to Big Five personality traits. From a theoretical perspective, these primary emotional systems arising from subcortical regions, shed light on the nature of the Big Five personality traits from an evolutionary perspective, because each of these primary emotional systems represent a tool for survival endowing mammalian species with inherited behavioral programs to react appropriately to complex environments. The present work revisited 21 available samples where both ANPS and Big Five measures have been administered. Our meta-analytical analysis provides solid evidence that high SEEKING relates to high Openness to Experience, high PLAY to high Extraversion, high CARE/low ANGER to high Agreeableness and high FEAR/SADNESS/ANGER to high Neuroticism. This seems to be true regardless of the ANPS inventory chosen, although much more work is needed in this area. Associations between primary emotional systems and Conscientiousness were in the lower effect size area across all six primary emotions, thereby supporting the idea that Conscientiousness rather seems to be less directly related with the subcortical primary emotions and likely is the most cognitive/cortical personality construct out of the Big Five. In sum, the present work underlines the idea that individual differences in primary emotional systems represent evolutionarily ancient foundations of human personality, given their a) meaningful links to the prominent Big Five model and b) their origins lying in subcortical areas of the human brain.
