Control Appraisals Research Articles

Using emotion to evaluate our community: exploring the relationship between the affective appraisal of community residents and the community environment

ABSTRACTCommunities generate stimuli that elicit emotional reactions from residents. The purpose of this research is to elicit resident perceptions of their community environments and to identify the set of key factors that are perceived as constituting this environment. These factors mainly refer to the outdoor environment, as many studies have found that indoor living conditions do not factor significantly into resident perceptions of their community environment. The method comprised a survey and analysis of 473 residents based in 5 communities in southern Taiwan. The results indicated a positive effect of the community environment on the affective appraisal of community residents. The results also indicated that both the material and perceptive environments should be considered when planning and creating happy communities. Impact of the context aspect was found to predominate when the effect sizes for the physical environment and service function aspects were similar. Green space, layout, aesthetics, and streetscape in the aspect of physical environment; and transport service, social welfare service, and recreational service in the aspect of service function were all correlated with affective appraisal. Effect sizes ranged from small to medium. Similarly, physical environment evaluation, social environment, and time in the aspect of context were all correlated with affective appraisal, with medium effect sizes. Furthermore, the four factors of layout, traffic function, social environment, and time respectively influenced the participants’ affective appraisals of pleasure, arousal, and control. These findings provide important new insights that urban and architectural professionals may use to create communities that are more livable and attractive for their residents.

The relationship between peer victimization, cognitive appraisals, and adjustment: A systematic review

ABSTRACTUnderpinned by the transactional model of stress (TMS), this systematic review synthesizes research testing the role of primary and secondary appraisals in the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment. A comprehensive literature search was undertaken and 23 articles were included in the review. Primary appraisals of threat and control, but not blame, mediated the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment. Secondary appraisals of self-efficacy and perceived social support were found to mediate and moderate the relationship. The findings of the review highlight the utility of the TMS in developing our understanding of individual differences in the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment. The development of the TMS in a peer victimization context, and future areas of research are discussed.

「糖尿病患者の健康関連のコントロール感と医師-患者関係の代謝コントロールと治療の満足度に対する関係」, Auerbach SM, Clore JN, Kiesler DJ, et al, Relation of diabetic patients' health-related control appraisals and physician-patient interpersonal impacts to patients' metabolic control and satisfaction with treatment. J Behav Med 25 , 17-31, 2002

「糖尿病患者の健康関連のコントロール感と医師-患者関係の代謝コントロールと治療の満足度に対する関係」, Auerbach SM, Clore JN, Kiesler DJ, et al, Relation of diabetic patients' health-related control appraisals and physician-patient interpersonal impacts to patients' metabolic control and satisfaction with treatment. J Behav Med 25 , 17-31, 2002

Critical factors and pathways influencing genetically modified food risk perceptions

This study aims to identify the critical factors and paths that affect the Chinese public’s risk perceptions of genetically modified (GM) foods from an emotional appraisal perspective. Using an experiment conducted with university undergraduate business students in China, we examined the evaluative pathways of the Chinese public by manipulating fairness and controllability appraisals in scenarios constructed about GM foods risk. The experiment was designed around two evaluative pathways – consequentialist and deontological perspectives – focusing on controllability and fairness. This led to a distinct set of emotional responses. It was found that both consequence-based and morality-based emotions caused stronger perceived risks toward GM foods. Understanding these responses provides new insight into how scientists and experts in China might best frame their communications about GM foods.

Emotion Appraisals Driving the Formation of Opportunity Desirability and Feasibility Beliefs (WITHDRAWN)

Desirability and feasibility beliefs about an entrepreneurial opportunity are antecedents of entrepreneurial action, but the way such beliefs form and the distinctive cognitive–emotional mechanisms underlying their formation remain unclear. Using evidence about belief-specific cognitive contents from an entrepreneurial action model and belief-specific cognitive processes from construal-level theory, the current study empirically demonstrates the need to disentangle desirability and feasibility opportunity beliefs; it also investigates the indirect effects of three distinct emotions (anger, fear, and happiness) on the formation of both desirability and feasibility beliefs, through the cognitive appraisals of controllability. An experimental study (N = 191) affirms the distinctiveness and interconnectedness of desirability and feasibility beliefs and reveals a significant, positive, direct effect of anger on opportunity desirability belief. Anger, fear, and happiness have significant, negative, indirect effects on desirability belief through cognitive appraisals of controllability; however, no significant indirect effects emerge from these three emotions to feasibility belief. The results thus shed new light on entrepreneurs’ inner cognitive and emotional belief formation processes.

How does emotional exhaustion influence work stress? Relationships between stressor appraisals, hedonic tone, and fatigue in nurses’ daily tasks: A longitudinal cohort study

BackgroundWork-related stress is a prevalent condition in the nursing profession, and its influence may vary according to changeable individual and situational factors. It is, therefore, important to investigate the real-time momentary changes in these factors and their relationship to emotional exhaustion experienced by nurses. ObjectivesWe aim to analyse how their perceptions of demand, control, effort and reward change according to the task performed through real-time assessment and interact with the emotional exhaustion level of ward nurses. DesignThe research design was longitudinal. MethodA three-level hierarchical model with a repeated measures design was used to assess the momentary self-reports of 96 hospital ward nurses, completed using a smartphone programmed with random alarms. ResultsFindings show that demand, effort, and control appraisals depend on the task performed. The task appraised as most demanding, effortful, and controllable was direct care. Reward appraisal depends on the task performed and personal variables, i.e. emotional exhaustion. The situations perceived as more rewarding were rest and direct care. Momentary hedonic tone can be explained by the task performed, demand, reward, emotional exhaustion and by the interaction between emotional exhaustion and demand appraisal. Momentary fatigue can be explained by the task performed, demand, reward, and the emotional exhaustion. ConclusionsThis study highlights the importance of using momentary measures to understand complex and changeable inter-relationships. While also clarifying the targets of intervention programmes aimed at preventing burnout within the nursing profession.

Organizational stressors and basic psychological needs: The mediating role of athletes' appraisal mechanisms.

This article reports the first study to quantitatively examine the relationships between the demands encountered by athletes that are associated with the organization within which they are operating, cognitive appraisals, and basic psychological need experiences. Three hundred and fifteen high-level British athletes completed a multisection questionnaire which assessed each of the aforementioned constructs. A series of path analyses provided valuable insight into the way in which the three dimensions (ie, frequency, intensity, and duration) of five organizational stressor categories were evaluated by athletes and, in turn, how such threat or challenge appraisals predicted feelings of need satisfaction and need frustration. Moreover, cognitive stress appraisals were found to mediate the relationship between organizational stressors and psychological need experiences. The role of secondary control appraisals was also explored and found to mediate the relationship between primary cognitive appraisals and basic psychological need experiences. Study limitations, proposed future research directions, and the implications of the findings for applied practitioners are discussed.

Paradoxical Effects of Perceived Control on Survival.

Appraising health as controllable is typically thought to be adaptive, but recent evidence suggests the paradoxical possibility that perceived control (PC) can be detrimental. We considered the premise that high PC should have a survival benefit when it is part of an adaptive mindset involving high value (importance) for health, but it might be detrimental when it is part of a mindset comprised of low health value (HV). In addition, we examined whether the survival consequences of PC and HV vary with advancing age. Interviews were conducted with a heterogeneous sample of community-dwelling adults (n = 341; 72-99 years) to assess appraisals of control and value in the domain of health. Mortality data were obtained over 12 years from a provincial health registry. Both age and HV moderated the PC effect on mortality. The predicted beneficial and detrimental PC effects emerged at younger ages: higher PC predicted longer survival times when health was highly valued but shorter survival times when health was less highly valued. These findings deepen the knowledge regarding the conditions under which PC is or is not adaptive, suggesting the consequences depend on age and the extent to which health is valued.

The link between achievement emotions, appraisals, and task performance: pedagogical considerations for emotions in CBLEs

Achievement emotions have a powerful influence on how students interact with current and future learning and performance tasks. As such, pedagogical practices that support adaptive student emotions are critical for teaching and learning in computer-based learning environments (CBLEs). This research investigates the relationship between during-task achievement emotions and participants’ appraisals of task control, value, perceived performance, and actual performance outcomes on a diagnostic reasoning task with a CBLE, BioWorld. Based on the emotions participants reported experiencing during the task, we found that participants could be organized into three groups using a k-means cluster analysis: a positive, negative, and low emotion group. Participants assigned to the positive emotion group had the highest subjective appraisals of task value, task control, and the highest perceived performance; however, these participants had lower levels of actual performance when compared to learners assigned to the low emotion cluster and had actual performance levels comparable to learners in the negative emotion cluster. These results provide preliminary evidence for fostering low emotionality rather than positive emotionality with pedagogical interventions in order to support better performance outcomes, while learners engage in academic achievement tasks in CBLEs.

Extending the change–change model of achievement emotions: The inclusion of negative learning emotions

Drawing upon the Control Value Theory of Achievement Emotions (CVTAE), this study tests the assumption that antecedents of learning-related emotions (LREs) change over the duration of a mathematics and statistics course. Our study focused on academic control as an antecedent of LREs. We investigated enjoyment (the positive emotion) and three negative LREs: anxiety, boredom and hopelessness. Using a repeated measures design for first year university students (N=908), we found that academic control and the levels of LREs remain, on average, stable over the duration of the course. Second, changes in academic control were positively related to changes in the positive emotion enjoyment, and negatively related to changes in the three negative emotions. These findings offer evidence to confirm the CVTAE change–change assumption that changes in control appraisals go together with changes in positive, as well as negative, LREs.

The Influence of Emotion on Trust

Political scientists frequently wish to test hypotheses about the effects of specific emotions on political behavior. However, commonly used experimental manipulations tend to have collateral effects on emotions other than the targeted emotion, making it difficult to ascribe outcomes to any single emotion. In this letter, we propose to address this problem using causal mediation analysis. We illustrate this approach using an experiment examining the effect of emotion on dyadic trust, as measured by the trust game. Our findings suggest that negative emotions can decrease trust, but only if those negative emotions make people feel less certain about their current situation. Our results suggest that only anxiety, a low-certainty emotion, has a negative impact on trust, whereas anger and guilt, two emotions that differ in their control appraisals but induce the same high level of certainty, appear to have no effect on trusting behavior. Importantly, we find that failing to use causal mediation analysis would ascribe apositiveeffect of anxiety on trust, demonstrating the value of this approach.

Out of Control Central or Peripheral? Control, Personality, and Depression

Abstract Introduction: The following study was part of a larger study designed to try to determine causal mechanisms and to explore in greater detail why premature death due to natural and unnatural causes followed discharge from hospital in a cohort of depressed patients. In this particular report the aim is to examine the specific relationship between depression and control. Method: The association between perceptions of personal control, personality, and depression, was examined in a sample of 95 subjects. The test group consists of patients referred to a psychiatrist and diagnosed as depressed in an outpatient department. Results: Clinically depressed subjects had significantly higher ratings on the perceived control item, reflecting more negative appraisals of control. The discrepancy between ideal and perceived levels of control was also significantly higher for clinically depressed subjects. Clinically depressed and normal comparison subjects did not differ significantly with respect to ideal levels of personal control. Discussion: The more people perceive events as uncontrollable and unpredictable, the more stress they experience, and the less hope they feel able to make changes in their life. Furthermore, people with a pessimistic explanatory style tend to be poor at problem - solving and also tend to demonstrate poor job satisfaction and interpersonal relationship in the workplace. Those with a pessimistic explanatory style also tend to have weakened, and increased vulnerability to minor ailments (e.g. cold, fever) and major illness (e.g., heart attack, cancers), but also have a less effective recovery from health problems. The results suggest that there is an important connection between depression and control which needs to influence the understanding and therefore treatment of patients with depression.

Causal attributions following a cardiac event: Short- and long-term differences in health appraisals and outcomes.

This study examined attributions generated by cardiac rehabilitation patients shortly after experiencing a cardiovascular event, exploring whether attribution type was associated with health appraisals and outcomes concurrently and 21 months later. Attributions fell into three categories: controllable behavioral ones, uncontrollable biological ones, and stress-related causes. Linking attribution type to appraisals and outcomes showed that creating a behavioral attribution was beneficial in the short-term for control appraisals, but was associated with increased anxiety symptoms 21 months later. Thus, cardiac rehabilitation providers should encourage patients to maintain a future-focus that promotes perceived control over health promotion behaviors that reduce risk for recurrence.

Appraisals Generate Specific Configurations of Facial Muscle Movements in a Gambling Task: Evidence for the Component Process Model of Emotion.

Scherer’s Component Process Model provides a theoretical framework for research on the production mechanism of emotion and facial emotional expression. The model predicts that appraisal results drive facial expressions, which unfold sequentially and cumulatively over time. In two experiments, we examined facial muscle activity changes (via facial electromyography recordings over the corrugator, cheek, and frontalis regions) in response to events in a gambling task. These events were experimentally manipulated feedback stimuli which presented simultaneous information directly affecting goal conduciveness (gambling outcome: win, loss, or break-even) and power appraisals (Experiment 1 and 2), as well as control appraisal (Experiment 2). We repeatedly found main effects of goal conduciveness (starting ~600 ms), and power appraisals (starting ~800 ms after feedback onset). Control appraisal main effects were inconclusive. Interaction effects of goal conduciveness and power appraisals were obtained in both experiments (Experiment 1: over the corrugator and cheek regions; Experiment 2: over the frontalis region) suggesting amplified goal conduciveness effects when power was high in contrast to invariant goal conduciveness effects when power was low. Also an interaction of goal conduciveness and control appraisals was found over the cheek region, showing differential goal conduciveness effects when control was high and invariant effects when control was low. These interaction effects suggest that the appraisal of having sufficient control or power affects facial responses towards gambling outcomes. The result pattern suggests that corrugator and frontalis regions are primarily related to cognitive operations that process motivational pertinence, whereas the cheek region would be more influenced by coping implications. Our results provide first evidence demonstrating that cognitive-evaluative mechanisms related to goal conduciveness, control, and power appraisals affect facial expressions dynamically over time, immediately after an event is perceived. In addition, our results provide further indications for the chronography of appraisal-driven facial movements and the underlying cognitive processes.

Trajectories of psychological states of women elite fencers during the final stages of international matches

This study examined the trajectories and within-person synergies of psychological processes during the final stages of matches. A process-oriented approach was used with nine women elite fencers during an international competition. Multiple assessments of perceived control, threat and challenge appraisals, problem- and emotion-focused coping, positive and negative affects were completed after each touches using video recall method. Multilevel growth curve analyses (MGCAs) indicated that winning and losing matches were each characterised by distinct psychological processes. Specifically, perceived control, challenge appraisal, problem- and emotion-focused coping, and positive affects increased linearly and threat appraisal decreased linearly for wining matches, whereas negative affects increased linearly for losing matches. Regarding the within-person synergies of psychological processes, MGCAs indicated that (1) perceived control and challenge appraisal were significantly associated with problem- and emotion-focused coping for losing matches, the strength of these associations remaining consistent across touches; (2) problem-focused coping was significantly associated with negative affects whereas emotion-focused coping was significantly associated with positive affects for winning matches, the strength of these associations remaining consistent across touches; and (3) problem- and emotion-focused coping were significantly associated with negative affects for losing matches, the linear trajectory of negative affects accelerating at times when athletes had higher levels of emotion-focused coping. Overall, this study provided insights into transactional processes during competition.

The role of social factors in shaping students’ test emotions: a mediation analysis of cognitive appraisals

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between test emotions and their proximal and distal antecedents in the math domain as proposed by the control-value theory of achievement emotions, using structural equation modeling. More specifically, it investigates the mediating role of cognitive appraisals of control and value in the relationship between students’ social environment (teachers’ support and challenge in classroom interactions and parents’ attitudes towards learning and achievement) and test emotions of joy, hope, pride, relief, anger, anxiety, shame and hopelessness. The sample consisted of 365 high school students in Croatia (235 girls), with a mean age of 16 years. The study was conducted during regularly scheduled classes. The results of this study generally confirm the relationships and mediating mechanisms proposed by the control-value theory. Students’ cognitive control and value appraisals play a central and mediating role in the relationship between parents’ and teachers’ influences and test emotions.

Guilt enhances the sense of control and drives risky judgments.

In the present studies, we investigate the hypothesis that guilt influences risk taking by enhancing one's sense of control. Across multiple inductions of guilt, we demonstrate that experimentally induced guilt enhances optimism about risks for the self (Study 1), preferences for gambles versus guaranteed payoffs (Studies 2, 4, and 6), and the likelihood that one will engage in risk-taking behaviors (Study 5). In addition, we demonstrate that guilt enhances the sense of control over uncontrollable events, an illusory control (Studies 3, 4, and 5), and found that a model with illusory control as a mediator is consistent with the data (Studies 5 and 6). We also found that a model with feelings of guilt as a mediator but not generalized negative affect fits the data (Study 4). Finally, we examined the relative explanatory power of different appraisals and found that appraisals of illusory control best explain the influence of guilt on risk taking (Study 6). These results provide the first empirical demonstration of the influence of guilt on sense of control and risk taking, extend previous theorizing on guilt, and more generally contribute to the understanding of how specific emotions influence cognition and behavior.

Cognitive reappraisal increases neuroendocrine reactivity to acute social stress and physical pain.

Cognitive reappraisal can foster emotion regulation, yet less is known about whether cognitive reappraisal alters neuroendocrine stress reactivity. Some initial evidence suggests that although long-term training in cognitive behavioral therapy techniques (which include reappraisal as a primary training component) can reduce cortisol reactivity to stress, some studies also suggest that reappraisal is associated with heightened cortisol stress reactivity. To address this mixed evidence, the present report describes two experimental studies that randomly assigned young adult volunteers to use cognitive reappraisal while undergoing laboratory stressors. Relative to the control condition, participants in the reappraisal conditions showed greater peak cortisol reactivity in response to a socially evaluative speech task (Experiment 1, N=90) and to a physical pain cold pressor task (Experiment 2, N=94). Participants in the cognitive reappraisal group also reported enhanced anticipatory psychological appraisals of self-efficacy and control in Experiment 2 and greater post-stressor self-efficacy. There were no effects of the reappraisal manipulation on positive and negative subjective affect, pain, or heart rate in either experiment. These findings suggest that although cognitive reappraisal fosters psychological perceptions of self-efficacy and control under stress, this effortful emotion regulation strategy in the short-term may increase cortisol reactivity. Discussion focuses on promising psychological mechanisms for these cognitive reappraisal effects.

Threat of losing valued job features: The role of perceived control in mediating the effect of qualitative job insecurity on job strain and psychological withdrawal

Quantitative job insecurity, relating to threat of job loss, has received considerable research attention, but relatively little is known about qualitative job insecurity. The latter relates to uncertainty regarding valued job characteristics, such as career and wage progression. The aim of this study was to investigate whether situational appraisals of control may account for the relationship between qualitative job insecurity and both job strain (depressive symptoms and upper musculoskeletal complaints) and psychological withdrawal (affective organizational commitment and turnover intentions). The hypotheses were tested by means of two-wave longitudinal data (time lag of 14 months) from 722 Swedish white-collar workers in four samples. The results of cross-lagged structural equation modelling showed that qualitative job insecurity was negatively related to subsequent perceived control. Furthermore, perceptions of high control over the job situation were associated with decreased depressive symptoms and increased affective organizational commitment over time. Formal tests pointed at a significant indirect effect of qualitative job insecurity on affective organizational commitment through perceived control. No effects of perceived control on upper musculoskeletal complaints and turnover intentions were found. This study indicates the importance of qualitative job insecurity for employees’ functioning and highlights perceived control as an explanation of job insecurity outcomes.

운동선수의 목표성향과 정서의 관계: 지각된 통제력과 인지평가의 조절효과

운동선수의 목표성향과 정서의 관계: 지각된 통제력과 인지평가의 조절효과