Affective Appraisal Research Articles

What constitutes a fulfilled life? A mixed methods study on lay perspectives across the lifespan.

Recently, we initiated a new research line on fulfillment in life by developing a conceptual framework and a self-report measure. To enhance conceptual clarity and complement theoretical considerations and empirical findings, we investigated lay conceptions of a fulfilled life in German-speaking participants at different life stages. First, we selected a qualitative approach using an open-ended question asking participants to describe a fulfilled life. Second, for a more comprehensive understanding, quantitative data were collected about the relevance of sources in providing fulfillment and ratings on a fulfilling life in the present and a fulfilled life in retrospect. Qualitative content analysis was used to assess the responses to the open-ended question. One-fifth of the data was double coded, and intercoder reliability was high (Kappa = 0.89). Responses comprised a variety of descriptions, and we grouped them into seven themes, three of which overlapped with the prior conceptualization, namely the core elements of (a) general description, (b) cognitive appraisals, and (c) affective appraisals. Cognitive evaluations related to intrapersonal aspects, particularly having lived life fully, attained personally significant goals, and developed oneself, as well as interpersonal, generative aspects, such as having made a contribution and been able to leave something of value. These categories are mostly in line with what the Fulfilled Life Scale (FLS) measures. Further themes referred to correlates—including (d) sources—and antecedents, including (e) resources, (f) personal characteristics, and (g) quality of life, all considered worthy to be the subject of empirical investigation but which were not included in the conceptual model. Qualitative and quantitative results suggest that individuals derive fulfillment from different sources. Fulfillment from a profession and having a life task was strongly associated with longer-term fulfillment. Only a few age and sex differences were found. The overarching framework developed from the qualitative results can stimulate further investigation. Our findings underscore that a fulfilled life as a distinct construct should be measured directly rather than via a proxy. Insights into the constituents, sources, and antecedents of a fulfilled life can inform practice to promote a life well lived.

Crossing the linguistic causeway: A binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu

Translation of perceptual descriptors such as the perceived affective quality attributes in the soundscape standard (ISO/TS 12913–2:2018) is an inherently intricate task, especially if the target language is used in multiple countries. Despite geographical proximity and a shared language of Bahasa Melayu (Standard Malay), differences in culture and language education policies between Singapore and Malaysia could invoke peculiarities in the affective appraisal of sounds. To generate provisional translations of the eight perceived affective attributes — eventful, vibrant, pleasant, calm, uneventful, monotonous, annoying, and chaotic — into Bahasa Melayu that is applicable in both Singapore and Malaysia, a binational expert-led approach supplemented by a quantitative evaluation framework was adopted. A set of preliminary translation candidates were developed via a four-stage process, firstly by a qualified translator, which was then vetted by linguistics experts, followed by examination via an experiential evaluation, and finally reviewed by the core research team. A total of 66 participants were then recruited cross-nationally to quantitatively evaluate the preliminary translation candidates. Of the eight attributes, cross-national differences were observed only in the translation of annoying. For instance, menjengkelkan was found to be significantly less understood in Singapore than in Malaysia, as well as less understandable than membingitkan within Singapore. Results of the quantitative evaluation also revealed the imperfect nature of foreign language translations for perceptual descriptors, which suggests a possibility for exploring corrective measures.

Understanding criminal decision-making: links between honesty-humility, perceived risk and negative affect

ABSTRACT The integrative model of criminal choice proposes that cognitive and/or affective appraisals partially mediate the personality-crime relationship. The current study tests the integrated model of criminal choice across three different levels of subjective apprehension risk. Participants made hypothetical criminal choices in response to three vignette scenarios presenting criminal opportunities varying in the implied risk of apprehension. Consistent with the integrated model of criminal choice, when risk of apprehension was not manipulated, cognitive and affective appraisals (perceived risk and negative affect) partially mediated the relationship between personality (honesty-humility) and criminal choice. Higher levels of honesty-humility predicted increased perceived risk and negative affect, which in turn predicted decreased intentions to offend. When risk of apprehension was experimentally increased, personality did not affect either variable. As predicted, in both baseline and increased levels of risk of apprehension, higher levels of honesty-humility, perceived risk, and negative affect were found to significantly predict lower intentions to offend. Additionally, decreased perceived risk predicted reduced negative affect. These findings suggest that the mediating relationship between personality and crime may be dependent on the level of subjective risk of apprehension. Future studies may investigate whether different levels of situational risk moderate the relationship between personality and cognitive/affective appraisals.

Student Teachers’ Use of Language: Discourse Functions in Teaching-Based Reflective Writing

The value of reflective writing in teacher education is widely accepted and research has focused increasingly on investigating the quality of students’ reflective texts by assessing their reflective depth or breadth. Studies on student teachers’ professional vision have looked at processes of noticing relevant classroom events and reasoning about them, emphasizingthat thinking about teaching and learning is a strongly knowledge-guided process. While much empirical attention has been given to assessing students’ writing, little insight has been gained into how reflective thinking actually unfolds. The aim of this study is to examine student teachers’ discursive practices as they engage in reflective writing in the context of a teaching practicum. Data consists of reflective essays which were analysed using linguistically based qualitative coding in order to identify discourse functions in students’ texts. Findings allow a detailed description of verbal actions carried out in guided reflective writing. They also indicate that due to the situated nature of their writing, student teachers engage in affective appraisal and reasoning processes which are verbalized by using everyday as well as academic language depending on students’ zone of proximal development and their developing pedagogical content knowledge.

The reduction of low-income housing stigma with facade features; low- and medium-sized cities

ABSTRACT One of the effective factors on low-income housing (LIH) stigma is the facade features. This study examines the effect of facade features (details, material, window size, balcony existence, and greenery) on three attitudinal aspects including affective appraisal, cognitive judgment, and behavioral tendencies and preferences. By reviewing the literature, facade attributes were extracted and the levels of each were categorized based on LIH cases of Iran. Then, 24 profiles were selected for evaluation using orthogonal design. The experimental method was used with the participation of 70 non-residents in LIH. The results of regression analysis showed that the facade protrusion, balcony existence, greenery, and window size have the highest effect on perceived stigma, respectively; the material with the lowest effect is only in the cognitive aspect and sense of safety in the last rank. The effect of familiarity on the attitudes of outsiders was also investigated and it was found that one’s ‘experience’ affects all aspects of attitudes and preferences and one’s ‘knowledge’ only affects the two emotional and behavioral aspects of attitudes and preferences. These findings can be taken into attention in LIH design and decrease its stigma, as well as in the planning and design of mixed-income communities.

More Than a Glance: Investigating the Differential Efficacy of Radicalizing Graphical Cues with Right-Wing Messages

In recent years, online radicalization has received increasing attention from researchers and policymakers, for instance, by analyzing online communication of radical groups and linking it to individual and collective pathways of radicalization into violent extremism. But these efforts often focus on radical individuals or groups as senders of radicalizing messages, while empirical research on the recipient is scarce. To study the impact of radicalized online content on vulnerable individuals, this study compared cognitive and affective appraisal and visual processing (via eye tracking) of three political Internet memes (empowering a right-wing group, inciting violence against out-groups, and emphasizing unity among human beings) between a right-wing group and a control group. We examined associations between socio-political attitudes, appraisal ratings, and visual attention metrics (total dwell time, number of fixations). The results show that right-wing participants perceived in-group memes (empowerment, violence) more positively and messages of overarching similarities much more negatively than controls. In addition, right-wing participants and participants in the control group with a high support for violence directed their attention towards graphical cues of violence (e.g., weapons), differentness, and right-wing groups (e.g., runes), regardless of the overall message of the meme. These findings point to selective exposure effects and have implications for the design and distribution of de-radicalizing messages and counter narratives to optimize the efficacy of prevention of online radicalization.

Pattern differentiation and tuning shift in human sensory cortex underlie long-term threat memory

The amygdala-prefrontal-cortex circuit has long occupied the center of the threat system,1 but new evidence has rapidly amassed to implicate threat processing outside this canonical circuit.2-4 Through nonhuman research, the sensory cortex has emerged as a critical substrate for long-term threat memory,5-9 underpinned by sensory cortical pattern separation/completion10,11 and tuning shift.12,13 In humans, research has begun to associate the human sensory cortex with long-term threat memory,14,15 but the lack of mechanistic insights obscures a direct linkage. Toward that end, we assessed human olfactory threat conditioning and long-term (9days) threat memory, combining affective appraisal, olfactory psychophysics, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) over a linear odor-morphing continuum (five levels of binary mixtures of the conditioned stimuli/CS+ and CS- odors). Affective ratings and olfactory perceptual discrimination confirmed (explicit) affective and perceptual learning and memory via conditioning. fMRI representational similarity analysis (RSA) and voxel-based tuning analysis further revealed associative plasticity in the human olfactory (piriform) cortex, including immediate and lasting pattern differentiation between CS and neighboring non-CS and a late onset, lasting tuning shift toward the CS. The two plastic processes were especially salient and lasting in anxious individuals, among whom they were further correlated. These findings thus support an evolutionarily conserved sensory cortical system of long-term threat representation, which can underpin threat perception and memory. Importantly, hyperfunctioning of this sensory mnemonic system of threat in anxiety further implicates a hitherto underappreciated sensory mechanism of anxiety.

Affect-Driven Learning of Robot Behaviour for Collaborative Human-Robot Interactions.

Collaborative interactions require social robots to share the users’ perspective on the interactions and adapt to the dynamics of their affective behaviour. Yet, current approaches for affective behaviour generation in robots focus on instantaneous perception to generate a one-to-one mapping between observed human expressions and static robot actions. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for affect-driven behaviour generation in social robots. The framework consists of (i) a hybrid neural model for evaluating facial expressions and speech of the users, forming intrinsic affective representations in the robot, (ii) an Affective Core, that employs self-organising neural models to embed behavioural traits like patience and emotional actuation that modulate the robot’s affective appraisal, and (iii) a Reinforcement Learning model that uses the robot’s appraisal to learn interaction behaviour. We investigate the effect of modelling different affective core dispositions on the affective appraisal and use this affective appraisal as the motivation to generate robot behaviours. For evaluation, we conduct a user study (n = 31) where the NICO robot acts as a proposer in the Ultimatum Game. The effect of the robot’s affective core on its negotiation strategy is witnessed by participants, who rank a patient robot with high emotional actuation higher on persistence, while an impatient robot with low emotional actuation is rated higher on its generosity and altruistic behaviour.

“They bought it, therefore I will buy it”: The effects of peer users' conversion as sales performance and entrepreneurial sellers' number of followers as relationship performance in mobile social commerce

Drawing from social learning theory and the mobile advertising literature on key performance indicators (KPIs), two experiments examined the influence of peer users' conversion in mobile social commerce. Experiment 1 (N = 211, between-subjects [high vs. low number of “sold items”]) tested the effects of peer users' conversion, operationalized as the number of “sold items” in the seller's profile, on the seller-and-profile-related outcomes. The main effect of peer users' conversion was found such that high conversion induced greater cognitive and affective appraisals, higher seller credibility, a more positive profile attitude, greater perceived entrepreneurial talent of the seller, and stronger social commerce conversion intentions. The mediating effect of social learning (mainly affective appraisal) was found. Experiment 2 (N = 348, 2 [high vs. low number of “sold items”] x 2 [high vs. low “followers”] between-subjects factorial design) showed the interaction effects of the number of “sold items” (seller's sales performance) and the number of “followers” (seller's relationship performance) on cognitive and affective appraisals, seller credibility, and profile attitude. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that peer users' conversion exerts a positive impact on the outcome variables through cognitive and affective appraisals when the number of followers is high but not when it is low.

Integrating Social Presence With Social Learning to Promote Purchase Intention: Based on Social Cognitive Theory.

Consumers mainly acquire information through social learning in online shopping environment, and social presence as a media attribute generated by real-time interactions in live streaming commerce is more conducive for consumers’ social learning. Therefore, it is worth investigating the roles of social presence and social learning on consumers’ purchase intention (PI) in the strong interactive environment. Based on social cognitive theory (SCT) framework and drawing on social presence theory and social learning theory, this study investigates the relationships among social presence, social learning process, and PI. Social presence is operationalized into social presence of others (SPO) and social presence of interactions (SPI), whereas social learning process contains external interaction process [exploitative learning (ETL) and exploratory learning (ERL)] and internal psychological process [cognitive appraisal (CAP) and affective appraisal AAP)]. The results from a survey of 372 consumers of live streaming commerce indicate that SPO and SPI positively affect ETL and ERL and then contribute significantly to the building of CAP and AAP, which can lead to PI. The findings also provide guidance for brand managers and retailers in building more effective interactive atmosphere and promoting consumers’ positive attitude toward brands in live streaming marketing.

The Nonvisual Legibility and the Coherence of Space: A New Theoretical Framework with Examples of Its Implementation in Empirical Research

The legibility and coherence of space are informative qualities as they facilitate the understanding and exploration of the environment. They also function as categories in architectural and urban design theory, as well as environmental psychology. The approaches of those disciplines, including their contemporary continuations, evolved from Lynch (1960) and are based solely on the visual qualities of the environment.In this article, I argue that relying only on the visual scope of human-environment relations is insufficient for inferring the user’s perception of the environment as legible and coherent and evaluating design solutions from the users’ perspectives. The proposed revised theoretical framework combines architecture and urbandesign perspectives with environmental psychology and broadens concepts of legibility and coherence. The revised framework combines the visual scope of the legibility and coherence with other aspects of human-environment relations by referring them to multisensory perspective, social and spatial functioning, levelsand characters of stimulation, and affective appraisal of the environment. To show how we can address this broadened approach to legibility and coherence in empirical research, I present two examples of experimental research using bimodal research materials. They present how nonvisual qualities contribute to legibility and coherence and how they can be measured (tested) during the data-driven evidence-based design process. The first experiment investigates the relationship between the qualities of soundscapes and the social functioning of users. The second covers the tactile and haptic dimensions and their connections with blind and visually impaired users’ spatial functioning.

Affective judgment in spatial context: Orienting within physical spaces containing people and things

AbstractThis article reviews our experimental work about affective judgment in spatial context. This type of judgment serves to regulate one's distance toward people and things in physical space. The main idea is that orienting within physical space requires not only knowing where places are but also how places feel. This, in turn, depends on the influence of people and things contained in space on one's affective appraisal of the surroundings. Based on fundamental principles of social cognition, affective judgment in spatial context combines people's beliefs about how influence unfolds into the surroundings with comparison, categorization and information integration processes. Out comes a subjective affective representation of physical space that is cognitively coherent within a given spatial frame of reference. I review our work according to main topics and discuss four possible directions for future research.

Intolerance of uncertainty and protective parenting: the mediating role of maternal appraisals and the moderating role of child health status

ABSTRACT This study examined how intolerance of uncertainty and having a child with food allergy relate to protective parenting. Eighty mothers of children with food allergy and 78 mothers of healthy children completed questionnaires assessing intolerance of uncertainty and parenting style. Mothers then rated vignettes of hypothetical parenting situations in terms of perceived uncertainty, threat, and negative affect and reported their likely parenting response. Results indicated that mothers’ affective and cognitive appraisals mediated the association between intolerance of uncertainty and protective parenting. Findings suggest that maternal intolerance of uncertainty and child health status may increase the risk of protective parenting.

Effects of a Novel, Transdiagnostic, Hybrid Ecological Momentary Intervention for Improving Resilience in Youth (EMIcompass): Protocol for an Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundMost mental disorders first emerge in youth and, in their early stages, surface as subthreshold expressions of symptoms comprising a transdiagnostic phenotype of psychosis, mania, depression, and anxiety. Elevated stress reactivity is one of the most widely studied mechanisms underlying psychotic and affective mental health problems. Thus, targeting stress reactivity in youth is a promising indicated and translational preventive strategy for adverse mental health outcomes that could develop later in life and for improving resilience. Compassion-focused interventions offer a wide range of innovative therapeutic techniques that are particularly amenable to being implemented as ecological momentary interventions (EMIs), a specific type of mobile health intervention, to enable youth to access interventions in a given moment and context in daily life. This approach may bridge the current gap in youth mental health care.ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate the clinical feasibility, candidate underlying mechanisms, and initial signals of the efficacy of a novel, transdiagnostic, hybrid EMI for improving resilience to stress in youth—EMIcompass.MethodsIn an exploratory randomized controlled trial, youth aged between 14 and 25 years with current distress, a broad Clinical High At-Risk Mental State, or the first episode of a severe mental disorder will be randomly allocated to the EMIcompass intervention (ie, EMI plus face-to-face training sessions) in addition to treatment as usual or a control condition of treatment as usual only. Primary (stress reactivity) and secondary candidate mechanisms (resilience, interpersonal sensitivity, threat anticipation, negative affective appraisals, and momentary physiological markers of stress reactivity), as well as primary (psychological distress) and secondary outcomes (primary psychiatric symptoms and general psychopathology), will be assessed at baseline, postintervention, and at the 4-week follow-up.ResultsThe first enrollment was in August 2019, and as of May 2021, enrollment and randomization was completed (N=92). We expect data collection to be completed by August 2021.ConclusionsThis study is the first to establish feasibility, evidence on underlying mechanisms, and preliminary signals of the efficacy of a compassion-focused EMI in youth. If successful, a confirmatory randomized controlled trial will be warranted. Overall, our approach has the potential to significantly advance preventive interventions in youth mental health provision.Trial RegistrationGerman Clinical Trials Register DRKS00017265; https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00017265International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/27462

The influences of different types of social media activities on ethnic minorities’ acculturation

Adopting the activity-audience framework, this study examined how different social media activities among a group of ethnic minority students associated with acculturation. It took a Qual-Quant sequential design by interviewing 44 secondary school ethnic minority students in Hong Kong first to conceptualize the potential relationships and then surveying 565 students to test the conceptual model. It found that different social media activities associated differently with acculturation; in contrast to the weak association of communication with friends and schoolmate, consuming mainstream culture-related information and interacting with strangers from the mainstream culture were the important determinators of the students’ bicultural competence and bicultural identity. Cognitive appraisal positively mediated the contribution of information consumption, whereas communication with strangers was mediated positively by behavioral appraisal but negatively by affective appraisal. The findings advocate a differentiated approach toward utilizing the affordances of social media activities for acculturation.

Sequential dependency for affective appraisal of food images

How we perceive the world is not solely determined by our experiences at a given moment in time, but also by what we have experienced in our immediate past. Here, we investigated whether such sequential effects influence the affective appraisal of food images. Participants from 16 different countries (N = 1278) watched a randomly presented sequence of 60 different food images and reported their affective appraisal of each image in terms of valence and arousal. For both measures, we conducted an inter-trial analysis, based on whether the rating on the preceding trial(s) was low or high. The analyses showed that valence and arousal ratings for a given food image are both assimilated towards the ratings on the previous trial (i.e., a positive serial dependence). For a given trial, the arousal rating depends on the arousal ratings up to three trials back. For valence, we observed a positive dependence for the immediately preceding trial only, while a negative (repulsive) dependence was present up to four trials back. These inter-trial effects were larger for males than for females, but independent of the participants’ BMI, age, and cultural background. The results of this exploratory study may be relevant for the design of websites of food delivery services and restaurant menus.

Affective Appraisal Mediates the Association between Mother–Child Boundary Dissolution and Emerging Adult Functioning across Nations

Parent-child boundary dissolution (PBD) has been found to negatively impact offspring well-being in Western cultures, although cross-cultural findings have been mixed. Given that Western measures of PBD may have a different meaning for different cultures, we examined emerging adults’ reports of maternal PBD (psychological control, infantilization, enmeshment, role reversal), their affective appraisal, and functioning in the United States (n = 119), India (n = 104), and South Korea (n = 101). Indians rated mothers as higher on all four PBD dimensions but felt more positive in response to three dimensions than Americans and South Koreans. Findings indicate that affective appraisal of maternal PBD mediated the relationship between dimensions of PBD and functioning. Results suggest that PBD may not be uniformly experienced as negative across cultures.

Impact of anthropomorphic features of artificially intelligent service robots on consumer acceptance: moderating role of sense of humor

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of both physical and personality-related anthropomorphic features of an artificial intelligence service robot on the cognitive and affective appraisals and acceptance of consumers during service delivery.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed hypotheses that investigate the effects of service robots’ physical appearance on the emphasis consumers place on each evaluation criteria they use in determining their willingness to accept the use of service robots in service delivery and the moderating role of sense of humor are tested by conducting two studies using scenario-based experiments.FindingsThe results show that humanlike appearance leads to higher performance expectancy, mascot-like appearance generates higher positive emotions and machine-like appearance results in higher effort expectancy. The effects of humanlike and mascot-like appearances on consumer acceptance are moderated by the sense of humor of service robots. However, the sense of humor effect is attenuated with a machine-like appearance owing to the lack of anthropomorphism.Practical implicationsThis study provides crucial insights for hospitality managers who plan to use service robots in service delivery. The findings highlight the key roles of appearance type and sense of humor of service robots in influencing the appraisals and acceptance of consumers regarding the use of service robots in service delivery.Originality/valueThis study focuses on comparing the effects of traditional and mascot-like appearances of service robots on consumer appraisals and identifies sense of humor as a cute anthropomorphized personality trait of service robots.

It Takes Two: An antenatal to postnatal RDoC framework for investigating the origins of maternal attachment and mother-infant social communication.

Transformation of the maternal-fetal relationship into the mother-infant relationship remains an enigmatic process. This progression is considered using an RDoC-informed approach centered on domains of Arousal/Regulation, Positive/Negative Valence, and Social Processes. 158 maternal-fetal dyads began participation during pregnancy, maternal-infant dyads were followed at 6-months postpartum. Women exhibited stability in feelings of attachment to the fetus and infant, and in positive/negative appraisal of pregnancy and motherhood. Elicited maternal physiological arousal to emotionally evocative videos generated fetal heart rate variability and motor activity responses. Parasympathetic (i.e., heart rate variability) suppression in the fetus was associated with more positive and regulated infant social communication in the Face-to-face Still Face protocol; suppression of maternal respiratory sinus arrhythmia was related to infant affect but in the opposite direction. Maternal ratings of infant temperament aligned with maternal antenatal affective valence. Attachment trajectories characterized by stability from antenatal to postnatal periods were most associated with maternal affective appraisal of pregnancy; shifts were influenced by infant characteristics and maternal sympathetic responsivity. Results illustrate how variation in arousal and regulatory systems of the pregnant woman and fetus operate within the context of maternal positive and negative valence systems to separately and jointly shape affiliation and temperament in early infancy.

Effects of Employee Sickness Presence on Customer Repurchase and Recommendation Intentions: The Role of Customer Affective Reactions

Sickness presence can have important individual and organizational consequences, such as health deterioration or productivity loss. Additional risks, such as negative customer reactions, may be particularly relevant in the service sector. Based on affective events theory and appraisal theories, we hypothesize that employee sickness presence negatively impacts customer repurchase and recommendation intentions. Furthermore, we explore potential affective mechanisms of these effects, including disease avoidance, personal anger, moral outrage, post-consumption guilt, and customer compassion for the employee. We conducted four studies, including three experimental vignette methodology studies (Ns = 227, 72, and 763) and a qualitative study (N = 54). In Study 1, employee sickness presence had negative effects on repurchase and recommendation intentions. Results of Study 2 show that customers experienced disgust, fear, anger, guilt, compassion, and indifference in response to sickness presence. In Study 3, anger explained the negative effects of employee sickness presence on repurchase and recommendation intentions, while appraisals of moral fairness were negatively related to both customer intentions. Finally, in Study 4, disgust and anger explained negative effects, while fear, guilt, and compassion explained positive effects of employee sickness presence on customer intentions. Appraisals of goal incongruence, reduced agency of the customer, and uncertainty were negatively related to customer intentions. The physical absence of the customer in the service encounter (phone call) mitigated the experience of disgust, fear, and anger, whereas it exacerbated feelings of compassion for the ill employee.