Appraisal of emotion.

Emotions are experienced rapidly and the antecedents are more or less automatically evaluated. Frijda (1993) found similar appraisal dimensions in the cultures investigated related to change or novelty, to experiencing control or lack of control, to whether the event was pleasant or unpleasant, and what or who was responsible. A high degree of similarity across cultures suggested similar appraisal processes occurs independent of culture. The basic emotions appear to be appraised the same way, an assertion also supported in other research (Roseman, Dhawan, Rettek, Nadidu, & Thapa, 1995).

The appraisal of emotions were closely examined in the Scherer (1997a) study where the respondents were asked to think about an emotional experience connected to the basic emotions and then asked to appraise it whether the event was pleasant, frustrated goal attainment, or otherwise affected their lives. Between the basic emotions strong differences in appraisals might be expected, but within each basic emotion the appraisal patterns were very similar. Overall there is strong support for the universality of the appraisal of emotion, but also room for cultural affects based on interpretations and possibly linguistic differences.

In one study Scherer and Walcott (1994) asked the participants to rate emotional components including feelings, physiological changes, motor reactions, and expressive behaviors that occurred when they experienced the basic emotions. The researchers observed major differences in subjective responses between the basic emotions that was not dependent on culture as there were more similarities than differences between cultural groups. The coherence in subjective responses offers strong support for universality. Coherent responses between various components including intonation and physiological responses show that they are related in meaningful ways (Matsumoto et al, 2006).

The appraisal of emotions is linked to causality. Cultural values interact so individuals from collectivistic cultures are more likely to attribute the cause for negative emotions to themselves, whereas individualistic respondents in the U.S. are more likely to attribute causality to others. When Japanese respondents are sad they are more likely to see the source within themselves, whereas Americans attribute causality to other people for a variety of emotions including sadness, joy and shame. Japanese attribute causality to fate that promote the acceptance that nothing can be done to improve the situation. Negative emotions for Americans (in particular fear) elicit behavior to correct or improve the situation (Matsumoto, Kudoh, Scherer, & Wallbott, 1988).

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 766