Appraisal components, core relational themes, and the emotions

TLDR

The study experimentally tests how specific appraisal components and core relational themes influence the experience of anger, guilt, fear/anxiety, and sadness through a two‑stage directed‑imagery task. Participants first imagined scenarios designed to evoke anger or sadness appraisals, then in a second stage the scenarios unfolded to systematically elicit appraisals for all four emotions. Results largely confirm the predicted appraisal‑emotion links for anger, guilt, and fear/anxiety, but provide weaker evidence for sadness due to manipulation issues, highlighting implications for refining emotion theory.

Abstract

Abstract This study experimentally tests the contributions of specific appraisals, considered at both molecular (appraisal components) and molar (core relational themes) levels of analysis, to the experience of four emotions (anger, guilt, fear/anxiety, and sadness) using a two-stage directed imagery task. In Stage 1, subjects imagined themselves in scenarios designed to evoke appraisals hypothesised to produce either anger or sadness. In Stage 2, the scenarios unfolded in time to produce a second manipulation designed to systematically evoke the appraisals hypothesised to produce each of the four emotions under study. The results provided substantial support for the theoretically specified appraisal-emotion relationships for anger, guilt, and fear/ anxiety. However, support for the predictions for sadness was weaker, partially due to ineffective manipulation of the relevant appraisals. Implications for the further development and testing of emotion theory are discussed.