From Appraisal to Emotion: Differences Among Unpleasant Feelings

Recent research has indicated strong relations between people's appraisals o f their circumstances and their emotional states. The present study examined these relations across a range o f unpleasant situations in which subjects experienced complex emotional blends. Subjects recalled unpleasant experiences from their pasts that were associated with particular appraisals and described their appraisals and emotions during these experiences. Situations defined by particular appraisals along the human agency or situational control dimensions were reliably associated with different levels o f anger, sadness, and guilt, as predicted. However, predicted differences in emotion were not observed for situations selected for appraisals along the certainty or attention dimensions. Most subjects reported experiencing blends o f two or more emotions, and correlation/regression analyses indicated that even in the context o f these blends, patterns o f appraisal similar to those observed previously (Smith & Etlsworth, 1985, 1987) characterized the experience o f the individual emotions. The regressions further indicated that appraisals along some dimensions were more important to the experience o f particular emotions than were appraisals along other dimensions. These central appraisals are compared with the adaptive functions their associated emotions are believed to serve, and the implications o f these findings are discussed.