When the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), or the National Institute for Clinical Excellence as it was then known, was first established in 1999 its responsibilities were twofold. It was charged with providing guidance to the National Health Service (NHS) on the use of (mainly new) health technologies (so-called technology appraisals) on the basis of their clinical a...

Research on predictors of trauma-related distress in youth has tended to focus on trauma exposure and individual difference characteristics. This study extends previous research by examining the role of posttrauma appraisals in predicting trauma-related distress in a sample of female adolescents with current or prior involvement in the child welfare system and a history of maltreatment. Partici...

Moral judgment often requires making difficult tradeoffs (e.g., is it appropriate to torture to save the lives of innocents at risk?). Previous research suggests that both emotional appraisals and more deliberative utilitarian appraisals influence such judgments and that these appraisals often conflict. However, it is unclear how these different types of appraisals are represented in the brain,...

OBJECTIVE There is a growing body of evidence for the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy (TF-CBT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but few studies to date have investigated the mechanisms by which TF-CBT leads to therapeutic change. Models of PTSD suggest that a core treatment mechanism is the change in dysfunctional appraisals of the trauma and its aftermath. I...

Collaborative cognition research has demonstrated that social partners can positively impact individuals' thinking and problem-solving performance. Research in adulthood and aging has been less clear about dyadic effects, such as partner gender, on collaborative cognition. The current study examined the objective and subjective experiences of older men and women's collaboration on three everyda...

Despite the well-documented success of cognitive restructuring techniques in the treatment of anxiety disorders, there is still little clarity on which cognitions underpin fear and anxiety in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. This study examined whether certain cognitive appraisals, known to be associated with fear and anxiety in typically developing groups, may help expl...

The cognitive model posits that negative appraisals play an important role in posttraumatic stress disorder, in children as well as in adults. This study examined correlates of negative appraisals in relation to trauma exposure and their relationship to posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in 414 Sri Lankan adolescents, aged 12 to 16, living in areas impacted in varying degrees by the 2004 tsun...

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 appr...

The present study distinguishes between bothersome versus frightening sexual harassment appraisals and examines their relative strength as mediators of the relationship of sexual harassment intensity and perpetrator status with psychological distress. Using a sample of 6,304 men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces, the results indicated that sexual harassment intensity and perpetrator status wer...

Relative to other emotions, interest is poorly understood. On the basis of theories of appraisal process and structure, it was predicted that interest consists of appraisals of novelty (factors related to unfamiliarity and complexity) and appraisals of coping potential (the ability to understand the new, complex thing). Four experiments, using in vivo rather than retrospective methods, supporte...