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,...

The cognitive appraisal of an event is crucial for the elicitation and differentiation of emotions. Similar appraisals will result in similar emotions, but the appraisal of one and the same event may depend on culturally defined concepts. Appraising an event as unjust, for instance, and its agent as responsible are cognitive determinants for anger. Justice, however, is defined through cultural ...

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...

This study examines the relationships between group faultlines, appraisals (evaluations) of group members, emotional responses, and performance in groups. The study uses a 2 by 2 experimental design, crossing demographic alignment (alignment vs. no alignment) and appraisals (instrumental vs. intrinsic) as between-subjects variables. Data from 5 types of measurement were used to analyze the effe...

The current longitudinal study examined the relative impact of symptoms and appraisals as well as contextual and demographic factors on women's subsequent readiness to leave a relationship following intimate partner abuse. An ethnically diverse sample of women (N = 177) completed measures assessing posttrauma appraisals, symptoms, dependence on the perpetrator, and abuse characteristics. One ye...