Cognitive and physiological antecedents of threat and challenge appraisal.

Cognitive appraisal theories of stress and emotion propose that cognitive appraisals precede physiological responses, whereas peripheralist theories propose that physiological arousal precedes cognitive processes. Three studies examined this issue regarding threat and challenge responses to potential stress. Study 1 supported cognitive appraisal theory by demonstrating that threat and challenge cognitive appraisals and physiological responses could be elicited experimentally by manipulating instructional set. Studies 2 and 3, in contrast, found that manipulations of physiological response patterns consistent with challenge and threat did not result in corresponding changes in cognitive appraisal. Appraisals in Study 3, however, were related to subjective pain independent of the physiological manipulation. These studies suggest a central role for cognitive appraisal processes in elicitation of threat and challenge responses to potentially stressful situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In search of the "hot" cognitions: Attributions, appraisals, and their relation to emotion.

Two studies examined the hypothesized status of appraisals, relative to attributions, as proximal antecedents of emotion. In Study 1, which looked at 6 emotions (happiness, hope-challenge, anger, guilt, fear-anxiety, and sadness), 136 undergraduates reported on their attributions, appraisals, and emotions during past encounters associated with a variety of situations. In Study 2, which focused on anger and guilt, 120 undergraduates reported on these same variables in response to experimenter-supplied vignettes that systematically manipulated theoretically relevant attributions. The results of both studies indicated that the emotions were more directly related to appraisals than they were to attributions, and Study 2 provided evidence that appraisal serves as a mediator between attribution and emotional response. These findings lend support to the hypothesized status of appraisal as the most proximal cognitive antecedent of emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of talking about a stressful event on arousal: Does what we talk about make a difference?

In Study 1, 30 male and 30 female undergraduates viewed an affect-neutral stimulus and a stress-inducing stimulus. Ss then talked about either their emotional reactions to the stressful stimulus (emotion condition), the sequence of events within it (fact condition), or the sequence of events within the neutral stimulus (distraction condition). Emotion-condition Ss were more autonomically aroused during a 2nd exposure to the stressful stimulus than were fact-condition Ss. In Study 2, 48 hrs separated Ss' talking about their 1st exposure to the stressful stimulus from their 2nd exposure to it. Emotion-condition Ss had lower levels of autonomic arousal while viewing the stimulus again and reported more positive affect after watching it than did fact-condition Ss. These results are discussed in the context of cognitive appraisal, perceptual-motor, and self-disclosure views of emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective, physiological, and behavioral effects of threat and challenge appraisal.

The applicability of R. S. Lazarus and S. Folkman's (1984) cognitive appraisal model of stress was examined in 3 laboratory experiments involving the repeated performance of active (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and passive (Study 3) coping stress tasks (P. A. Obrist, 1981). Threat appraisals of upcoming coping tasks were positively related to Ss' self-reported task stress. Cardiac reactivity during active coping stressors was related positively to challenge appraisals and negatively to threat appraisals. Vascular reactivity, however, was related positively to threat appraisals and negatively to challenge appraisals. During passive coping stressors, cardiac and skin conductance reactivity were related positively to threat appraisals. The fractionation of self-report and physiological measures during active coping was interpreted in terms of energy mobilization and effort. The implications for the use of physiological measures as indicators of stress are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring abuse stress and negative cognitive appraisals in child sexual abuse: validity data on two new scales

The validity of two measures assessing degree of stress associated with sexual abuse was examined in a sample of 48 girls who had been sexually abused. The Checklist of Sexual Abuse and Related Stressors (C-SARS) assessed negative life events that were part of or were related to the abuse, and the Negative Appraisals of Sexual Abuse Scale (NASAS) assessed negative cognitive appraisals of threat, harm, or loss associated with the abuse. Total scores for victim reports of both stressful events and negative appraisals were positively and significantly related to two other measures of abuse severity: therapist ratings of abuse stress and the number of types of sexual abuse reported. Stressful event scores were also related to aggressive behavior problems, sexual concerns, and total symptom scores on the Child Behavior Checklist. Negative cognitive appraisal scores were related to victims' self-reports of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and to parents reports of child depression and total symptoms. Regression analyses indicated that there were significant effects of negative appraisals on internalizing symptoms when controlling for the level of stressful events experienced. The results suggest that negative life events and negative appraisals associated with sexual abuse are valid constructs that help account for variability in mental health outcomes among child victims. The implications of these results and future research directions in examining variable outcomes among sexual abuse victims are discussed.     

Patterns of appraisal and emotion related to taking an exam.

Recent research has suggested strong relations between characteristic patterns of appraisal along emotionally relevant dimensions and the experience of specific emotions. However, this work has relied primarily upon ratings of remembered or imagined past events associated with the experience of relatively pure emotions. The present investigation is an attempt to examine cognitive appraisals and emotions during an emotional event in which subjects experience complex emotional blends. Subjects described both their cognitive appraisals and their emotional states just before taking a college midterm examination and, again, immediately after receiving their grades on the exam. Analysis of the ratings revealed that at both times the majority of subjects who felt emotion experienced complex blends of two or more emotions. Correlation and regression analyses indicated that even in the context of these blends, patterns of appraisal, highly similar to those discovered in our earlier research on remembered emotions (Smith & Ellsworth, 1985), characterized the experience of emotions as they were actually felt. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping humour, stress, and cognitive appraisals.

Investigated relationships between sense of humor and cognitive appraisals (CAs) and reappraisals of a potentially stressful event. CAs by 44 female university students for an academic examination were obtained at several points in time. Ss with high scores on the Coping Humor scale by R. A. Martin and H. M. Lefcourt (see record 1984-15058-001) appraised the exam as more of a positive challenge. In their reappraisals, high humor Ss' ratings of importance and positive challenge were positively related to performance on the exam, whereas for low humor Ss this relationship was negative. High humor Ss adjusted their expectations on the next exam on the basis of performance on the previous exam, whereas low humor Ss did not. Sense of humor was negatively related to both perceived stress and dysfunctional standards for self-evaluation. Results support the proposal that a sense of humor may facilitate coping and adjustment. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of justice beliefs on cognitive appraisal of and subjective physiological, and behavioral responses to potential stress.

Investigated the moderating role of just world beliefs on stress and coping processes. Ss high and low in belief in a just world were asked to perform a potentially stressful laboratory task, which was repeated once. Cognitive appraisals and subjective, autonomic, and behavioral responses were recorded for each of the 2 tasks. The results supported a stress-moderating effect for just world beliefs. lndividuals high in just world beliefs had more benign cognitive appraisals of the stress tasks, rated the tasks as less stressful post hoc, had autonomic reactions consistent with challenge (vs threat), and outperformed Ss low in just world beliefs. Discussion centers on factors that moderate the experiences of challenge and threat in potentially stressful situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between appraisals and coping schemas: Support for the congruence model.

Determined whether relations between appraisal and 5 coping schemata were consistent with predictions from the congruence model (CM) of effective coping. Participants were 185 undergraduates in search of employment. Multiple regression analyses revealed that appraisals of challenge and controllability significantly predicted strategies representative of the problem-focused schema, whereas threat appraisals significantly predicted emotion-focused coping. The existential coping schema was positively associated with appraisals of challenge and low threat. Spiritual coping was also significantly predicted by appraised uncontrollability. Results extend evidence of appraisal-coping relations to a broader range of coping strategies and demonstrate the heuristic value of the cognitive schema approach to coping and of the CM in predicting appraisal–coping relations. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personalized inferences of emotions and appraisals: Component processes and correlates.

Examined children's abilities to consider other people's personal history when inferring their cognitive appraisals and probable emotional reactions. Study 1 explored the sources of children's difficulty in making personalized inferences of emotion. Interviewed children averaging 6, 8, and 11 years of age about a series of stories describing a person's behavior or experience in one situation, followed by a second, related situation, or about partial stories. The youngest children had trouble figuring out mental appraisals from personal history information. Older children were capable of inferring appraisals but had trouble applying them to later situations when both steps were required to infer the person's emotion. Study 2 examined the extent to which social and cognitive factors are associated with the ability to make personalized inferences among 8-year-olds. The tendency to make personalized inferences of appraisals was more clearly associated with sociometric status than with cognitive capacity measures, suggesting that this may be an important element of children's social competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Occupational stress: Its causes and consequences for job performance.

Examined occupational stress and its relation with individual characteristics, job conditions, stressful events, affect, and job performance. Study 1, in which 104 nurses participated in group discussions and 96 nurses (mean age 36 yrs) completed a questionnaire, identified 45 stressful events (appended) for nurses. In Study 2, 171 nurses (mean age 34.6 yrs) completed another questionnaire and were rated by a supervisor and/or a coworker. Findings show that ratings of interpersonal aspects of job performance (i.e., sensitivity, warmth, consideration, tolerance) and cognitive/motivational aspects (i.e., concentration, composure, perseverance, adaptability) correlated significantly with self-reported perceptions of stressful events, subjective stress, depression, and hostility. Models developed through path analysis suggest that the frequency and subjective intensity of the 45 events identified in Study 1 caused feelings of stress, leading to depression and causing decrements in interpersonal and cognitive/motivational aspects of job performance. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive appraisals and problem-directed coping: A prospective study of stress.

Information-seeking and problem-directed coping behaviors following a stressful event were observed as a function of cognitive appraisals of the coping resources of 138 undergraduates. Subjectively defined failure on a college exam served as an example of a mild stressor. Prior to the 1st midterm exam, Ss generated alternative strategies that could be used in the event of dissatisfaction with performance and rated the feasibility of using these strategies. Academic coping behaviors were measured by self-report and direct observation during the 3 wks prior to the next exam. Results show that coping cognitions predicted academic behaviors but not exam scores. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Appraisals of emotion-eliciting events: Testing a theory of discrete emotions.

A recent theory by I. J. Roseman (1979, 1984) attempts to specify the particular appraisals of events that elicit 16 discrete emotions. This study tested hypotheses from the latest version of the theory and compared them with hypotheses derived from appraisal theories proposed by M. B. Arnold (1960) and by K. R. Scherer (1988), using procedures designed to address some prior methodological problems. Results provided empirical support for numerous hypotheses linking particular appraisals of situational state (motive-inconsistent/motive-consistent), motivational state (punishment/reward), probability (uncertain/certain), power (weak/strong), legitimacy (negative outcome deserved/positive outcome deserved), and agency (circumstances/other person/self) to particular emotions. Where hypotheses were not supported, new appraisal–emotion relationships that revise the theory were proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem and threats to self: Implications for self-construals and interpersonal perceptions.

In 4 studies, the authors examined interpersonal perceptions as a function of self-construals and ego threats for those with high and low self-esteem. Previous research (T. F. Heatherton & K. D. Vohs, 2000a) found that after threat, high self-esteem people were rated as less likable by an unacquainted dyad partner, whereas low self-esteem people were rated as more likable. Study 1 showed that after threat, high self-esteem people seek competency feedback, whereas low self-esteem people seek interpersonal feedback. Study 2 showed that high self-esteem people become more independent after threat, whereas low self-esteem people become more interdependent. Study 3 linked differences in independence versus interdependence to interpersonal evaluations. Study 4 found that differences in independent and interdependent self-construals statistically accounted for differences in likability and personality perceptions of high and low self-esteem people after threat. Thus, the combination of threat and self-esteem alters people's focus on different self-aspects, which consequently leads to different interpersonal appraisals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal resilience, cognitive appraisals, and coping: an integrative model of adjustment to abortion

We hypothesized that the effects of personality (self-esteem, control, and optimism) on postabortion adaptation (distress, well-being, and decision satisfaction) would be fully mediated by preabortion cognitive appraisals (stress appraisals and self-efficacy appraisals) and postabortion coping. We further proposed that the effects of preabortion appraisals on adaptation would be fully mediated by postabortion coping. Results of a longitudinal study of 527 women who had first-trimester abortions supported our hypotheses. Women with more resilient personalities appraised their abortion as less stressful and had higher self-efficacy for coping with the abortion. More positive appraisals predicted greater acceptance/reframing coping and lesser avoidance/denial, venting, support seeking, and religious coping. Acceptance-reframing predicted better adjustment on all measures, whereas avoidance-denial and venting related to poorer adjustment on all measures. Greater support seeking was associated with reduced distress, and greater religious coping was associated with less decision satisfaction.     

The role of neuroticism in daily stress and coping.

The authors examined the influence of neuroticism (N) on the occurrence of different types of daily events, primary and secondary appraisals of those events, use of specific coping strategies, and end-of-day negative mood. College students completed questionnaires at the end of every day for 14 consecutive days. When reporting their most stressful event of each day, high-N individuals, compared with low-N individuals, reported more interpersonal stressors and had more negative primary and secondary appraisals and reacted with more distress in response to increasingly negative primary and secondary appraisals. Compared with low-N individuals, high-N individuals used less-adaptive coping strategies (e.g., hostile reaction) and reacted with more distress in response to some types of coping strategies. The appraisal findings, in particular, help to explain the chronic negative affectivity associated with neuroticism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A social-cognitive model of trait and state levels of gratitude.

Three studies tested a new model of gratitude, which specified the generative mechanisms linking individual differences (trait gratitude) and objective situations with the amount of gratitude people experience after receiving aid (state gratitude). In Study 1, all participants (N = 253) read identical vignettes describing a situation in which they received help. People higher in trait gratitude made more positive beneficial appraisals (seeing the help as more valuable, more costly to provide, and more altruistically intended), which fully mediated the relationship between trait and state levels of gratitude. Study 2 (N = 113) replicated the findings using a daily process study in which participants reported on real events each day for up to14 days. In Study 3, participants (N = 200) read vignettes experimentally manipulating objective situations to be either high or low in benefit. Benefit appraisals were shown to have a causal effect on state gratitude and to mediate the relationship between different prosocial situations and state gratitude. The 3 studies demonstrate the critical role of benefit appraisals in linking state gratitude with trait gratitude and the objective situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of appraisal in human emotions: A cross-cultural study.

Several theories of emotion propose that emotional responses are largely determined by the way events are appraised. To determine whether the proposed dimensions of appraisal are consistent across cultures, 973 Ss from the US, Japan, Hong Kong, and the People's Republic of China were asked to describe emotional experiences. Few differences between the 3 cultures were observed on the more primitive dimensions (pleasantness, attentional activity, certainty, coping ability, and goal/need conduciveness) and on 2 of the more cognitively complex dimensions (legitimacy and norm/self compatibility). More substantial differences were observed on 3 other complex dimensions (control, responsibility, and anticipated effort). Considerable pan-cultural consistency was also observed in the dimensions of subjective experience of emotion and in the relations between these dimensions and cognitive appraisals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)