Situational Appraisal Research Articles

An appraisal-based chain-of-emotion architecture for affective language model game agents.

The development of believable, natural, and interactive digital artificial agents is a field of growing interest. Theoretical uncertainties and technical barriers present considerable challenges to the field, particularly with regards to developing agents that effectively simulate human emotions. Large language models (LLMs) might address these issues by tapping common patterns in situational appraisal. In three empirical experiments, this study tests the capabilities of LLMs to solve emotional intelligence tasks and to simulate emotions. It presents and evaluates a new Chain-of-Emotion architecture for emotion simulation within video games, based on psychological appraisal research. Results show that it outperforms control LLM architectures on a range of user experience and content analysis metrics. This study therefore provides early evidence of how to construct and test affective agents based on cognitive processes represented in language models.

Making Sense, Making Choices: How Civilians Choose Survival Strategies during Violence

How do ordinary people choose survival strategies during intense, surprising political violence? Why do some flee violence, while others fight back, adapt, or hide? Individual decision-making during violence has vast political consequences, but remains poorly understood. I develop a decision-making theory focused on individual appraisals of how controllable and predictable violent environments are. I apply my theory, situational appraisal theory, to explain the choices of Indian Sikhs during the 1980s–1990s Punjab crisis and 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms. In original interviews plus qualitative and machine learning analysis of 509 oral histories, I show that control and predictability appraisals influence strategy selection. People who perceive “low” control over threats often avoid threats rather than approach them. People who perceive “low” predictability in threat evolution prefer more-disruptive strategies over moderate, risk-monitoring options. Appraisals explain behavior variation even after accounting for individual demographics and conflict characteristics, and also account for survival strategy changes over time.

Looking for the Key to Winning: Psychophysiological Predicting Factors in Healthy University Students.

Performance in competitive situations has been linked to various psychobiological factors such as personality traits (e.g., competitiveness), situational appraisal (e.g., motivation), and cardiovascular response (e.g., heart rate). However, it remains unclear whether these factors can predict competitive success. This paper aims to assess, through discriminant analysis, the predictive capacity of these psychobiological variables regarding the likelihood of winning, ultimately delineating a psychophysiological profile associated with success. Across three distinct studies, a total of 154 participants (66 men) engaged in a face-to-face laboratory competition. Prior to the competition, assessments of competitiveness traits, anxiety, self-efficacy, and motivation were conducted, and heart rate reactivity during the competition was measured. These variables collectively formed the basis for constructing the predictive model. The results of the initial study demonstrated that our model accurately classified 68.8% of the cases. Specifically, high levels of competitiveness, self-efficacy, motivation, and heart rate reactivity, coupled with low anxiety, were predictive of winning. These findings were subsequently replicated in two independent validation samples involving both men and women (studies 2 and 3), thereby reinforcing the robustness of the earlier results. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the psychological state preceding competition, along with cardiovascular reactivity, may serve as predictors for the probability of winning.

Adaptation of a model for integration of interventions for alcohol use disorders in primary health care in Tanzania

BackgroundIntegrating evidence-based interventions for people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) into primary healthcare (PHC) can increase access to care and reduce morbidity, mortality, and population burden. However, for the integration to be feasible, acceptable, and sustainable, there is a need to contextualize the approach and involve stakeholders. Therefore, this study aimed to use participatory methods to adapt a model for integrating AUD interventions in Tanzania’s PHC system at the community, facility, and organizational levels.MethodsA mixed-methods study was used. Participants include key mental health stakeholders, experts, and PHC providers. We conducted a situational analysis to investigate opportunities and constraints in the existing systems of care, utilizing data available from the routine collection and/or in the public domain, individual semi-structured interviews (n = 11), and focus group discussions (3 groups; total n = 26 participants) and a series of theory of change (ToC) workshops (n = 32). Data from the three methods were triangulated to develop the adapted model for integrating interventions for AUD in PHC.ResultsA situational appraisal revealed limited community, facility, and organizational resources and infrastructures for supporting services delivery of integrated AUD interventions. Also, shortage of health workforce, inadequate health management information systems, and limited medical supply and financing. Nevertheless, the theory of change proposed integrated AUD intervention packages and strategies to facilitate integrated care for people with AUD. Additionally, the barriers and facilitators for implementing these integrated AUD interventions and how to overcome them were explored.ConclusionsThe adapted model for the integrated AUD intervention in Tanzanian PHC revealed limited resources and system functioning for facilitating integrated AUD services. Nevertheless, it proposes the needed integrated AUD interventions and its barriers, facilitators, and strategies for overcoming them. There is a need to pilot the adapted model to inform plans for more comprehensive implementation or scaling up.

Maturing the narrative sense through mixed reality games

This article explores the human ability to see meaningful narratives in the world and to invent fictional narratives as a sense. The senses allow us to pick up on patterns in the world and to coordinate our behaviour in relationship with those patterns. Sensing narratives plays an important role in situational appraisals and provides important context for what we see, hear, touch, etc. Drawing upon the predictive processing framework in cognitive science, this article will defend this thesis and explore how virtual and mixed reality technologies can contribute to new ways of making sense of the world. These new tools of situational appraisal will be understood in the context of a cultural and cognitive condition that media theories Douglas Rushkoff calls ‘present shock’.

Cognitive Evaluation of Conflict and Emotional Dimension of Adolescents’ Strategies for Coping With Social Conflict

The aim of the research was to cognitively appraise a conflict and provide an emotional reflection on the significance of the situation in triggering destructive and constructive coping strategies used by adolescents in a social conflict situation. The study used the Stress Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) by Włodarczyk and Wrześniewski, the Three-Factor Inventory of Personality States and Traits (TIPST) by Spielberger and Wrześniewski and the Questionnaire to study adolescents’ strategies of coping in a situation of social conflict (KSMK) by Borecka-Biernat. Empirical research was conducted in secondary schools and included 893 adolescents (468 girls and 425 boys) aged 13–15 years. Analysis of the research results shows that the situational appraisal of a conflict as a threat or the dispositional appraisal of a conflict as a harm/loss, as well as reacting to it with anger or fear, perceived as a temporary emotional state and as a learnt behavioural disposition, co-occurs with the tendency to react destructively to a conflict in adolescents.The research has also shown that an adolescent facing a conflict situation—but not appraising the situation dispositionally as a threat/loss and reacting to it with a learnt behavioural disposition to react with curiosity—will apply a constructive strategy to cope with the situation.

Situational appraisal and emotional responses of the public in the social movement

Situational appraisal and emotional responses of the public in the social movement

Job Meaningfulness as an Important Motivator during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Under the ongoing and unprecedented uncertainties of COVID-19 (i.e., C19), people constantly seek and appraise relevant information to make sense of the situation. Yet, little is known about how people connect the external situation to their feelings and behaviors, and reconcile the meaning of their work roles with the larger pandemic context. This gap in knowledge is aggravated by the fact that many past studies on large-scale crises or tragedies focused on between-person employee reactions after a singular incident, which would not apply to the current enduring pandemic. Our research addresses this by examining the within-person daily relations of an employee’s C19 situational appraisals with their job performance. Based on Lazarus’ (1991) cognitive-motivational-relational theory, we predict that unfavorable previous-day C19 situational appraisal will be more strongly related to current-day negative affective state for employees whose C19-induced workload is higher (vs. lower), because fluctuations in the pandemic situation would have greater personal relevance for them. We also contend that higher (vs. lower) perceived job meaningfulness in combating C19 can mitigate the negative relation of negative affective state on job performance, because it offers employees a sense of social duty and obligation to maintain their performance despite their negative emotions. The results from 848 daily responses from 118 full-time employees collected during the pandemic support our hypotheses, and we discuss the implications of these findings for the present and the future beyond the C19 pandemic.

Personality dynamics at work: The effects of form, time, and context of variability

The study aimed to investigate the status of within-person state variability in neuroticism and conscientiousness as individual differences constructs by exploring their (a) temporal stability, (b) cross-context consistency, (c) empirical links to selected antecedents, and (d) empirical links to longer term trait variability. Employing a sample of professionals ( N = 346) from Australian organisations, personality state data together with situation appraisals were collected using experience sampling methodology in field and repeatedly in lab-like settings. Data on personality traits, cognitive ability, and motivational mindsets were collected at baseline and after two years. Contingent (situation contingencies) and non-contingent (relative SD) state variability indices were relatively stable over time and across contexts. Only a small number of predictive effects of state variability were observed, and these differed across contexts. Cognitive ability appeared to be associated with state variability under lab-like conditions. There was limited evidence of links between short-term state and long-term trait variability, except for a small effect for neuroticism. Some evidence of positive manifold was found for non-contingent variability. Systematic efforts are required to further elucidate the complex pattern of results regarding the antecedents, correlates and outcomes of individual differences in state variability.

“It’s only one negative comment”: women instructors’ perceptions of (un)helpful support messages following hurtful course evaluations

ABSTRACTCourse evaluations can be an effective tool for students to appraise a course and instructor; however, they can also be a communicative space for students to write comments instructors perceive as hurtful, need to make sense of and reconcile with their instructional practice. Instructors turn to others to help make sense of and cope with comments. This study applies a message-centered approach to consider what social support is in a specific context, types and functions of social support in that situation, and effects of that support based on unique cultural and institutional macrostructures of the communication event. The study's purpose was to identify support providers and messages women instructors receive when coping with hurtful comments. Collegiate women instructors (N = 81) received support from friends, family, colleagues, and administrators, including traditional forms (informational, network, emotion, esteem) as well as social undermining messages such as minimization and negative appraisal. Participants found network, situational appraisal, and esteem to be the most helpful types of support, and minimization, teaching recommendations, and negative appraisal to be the least helpful. Findings offer implications for women instructors seeking support for hurtful course evaluation comments and recommendations for how to offer support to those instructors.

Social challenge and threat predict performance and cardiovascular responses during competitive video gaming

Individuals tend to compare themselves with others, and the results of these self-evaluations influence subsequent performance. When individuals perceive an advantage over their rivals (challenge-type response), they achieve higher levels of performance. According to the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, benefits of favourable appraisals are partly mediated by cardiovascular efficiency, which is increased by challenge and decreased by threat evaluations. In this study, we tested whether the biopsychosocial model can be extended to predict behavioural outcomes in esports. We expected that challenge-type evaluations would increase performance compared to threat-type evaluations. Eighty-two men were assigned to a challenge or threat group and completed three rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – a video game popular in esports. Individuals with the highest scores were awarded cash prizes. Cardiovascular markers of challenge and threat, cognitive appraisals, and game scores were recorded. We manipulated the social challenge and social threat evaluation by informing participants that their performance in the initial round was superior (challenge) or inferior (threat) compared with other gamers. We found that individuals with more gaming experience, believed they were better than other gamers, had higher heart rate and, in turn, achieved higher scores. These effects were related to initial situational appraisal at the baseline and were not boosted by feedback provided during the actual performance. These results are the first to document that social comparisons among gamers are accurate in the prediction of future physiological and behavioural outcomes. Furthermore, these findings emphasize that physiological responses mediate relationships between action-related cognitions and performance.

The Relationship between Situational Appraisal and Emotional Activity From the Perspective of Appraisal Theory

The Relationship between Situational Appraisal and Emotional Activity From the Perspective of Appraisal Theory

Beyond simple valence: Discrete emotions as mediators of political communication effects on trust in politicians

SCM Studies in Communication and Media , Seite 364 - 391

A Within-Family Examination of Interparental Conflict, Cognitive Appraisals, and Adolescent Mood and Well-Being.

Interparental conflict (IPC) is a well-established risk factor across child and adolescent development. This study disentangled situational (within-family) and global (between-family) appraisal processes to better map hypothesized processes to adolescents' experiences in the family. This 21-day daily dairy study sampled 151 caregivers and their adolescents (61.5% female). Using multilevel mediation analyses indicated that, on days when IPC was elevated, adolescents experienced more threat and self-blame. In turn, when adolescents experienced more threat appraisals, they experienced diminished positive well-being; whereas days when adolescents felt more self-blame, they experienced increased negative mood and diminished positive well-being. Statistically significant indirect effects were found for threat as a mediator of IPC and positive outcomes. Daily blame appraisals mediated IPC and adolescent angry mood.

Sex differences in autonomic response and situational appraisal of a competitive situation in young adults

Competition is a social stressor capable of eliciting physiological responses modulated by the outcome. The main objective of this study was to analyze the psychophysiological changes associated with competition and its outcome in men and women, taking into account the role of situational appraisal. To this end, 112 young people (46 men and 66 women) participated in a laboratory task in a competitive or non-competitive condition, while Blood Pressure (BP), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and Skin Conductance (SC) responses were measured. Our results indicate that competition elicits higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) than a non-competitive task; in addition, winners presented a greater R-R decrease from baseline to task, greater R-R Recovery, and lower frustration and external attribution than losers. Regarding sex, men perceived their opponent’s capacity to be lower and their own capacity to be greater than women did, and they also showed higher R-R decreases and lower SC increases. In conclusion, we found a complex pattern of different psychophysiological responses to competition associated with outcome and sex in a laboratory competition. This result could be related to the use of more passive or active coping strategies.

Optimism and pessimism are related to different components of the stress response in healthy older people

Some personality traits have key importance for health because they can affect the maintenance and evolution of different disorders with a high prevalence in older people, including stress pathologies and diseases. In this study we investigated how two relevant personality traits, optimism and pessimism, affect the psychophysiological response of 72 healthy participants (55 to 76years old) exposed to either a psychosocial stress task (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) or a control task; salivary cortisol, heart rate (HR) and situational appraisal were measured. Our results showed that optimism was related to faster cortisol recovery after exposure to stress. Pessimism was not related to the physiological stress response, but it was associated with the perception of the stress task as more difficult. Thus, higher optimism was associated with better physiological adjustment to a stressful situation, while higher pessimism was associated with worse psychological adjustment to stress. These results highlight different patterns of relationships, with optimism playing a more important role in the physiological component of the stress response, and pessimism having a greater effect on situational appraisal.

Influence of cognitive-emotional processing on pain and disability. A psychobiological perspective

In the context of the biopsychosocial pain concept and on the basis of empirical evidence those cognitive traits and mechanisms are described that have reliably been found to be potent moderators of pain and disability. Expectations of patients which result in placebo or nocebo effects as well as more complex belief patterns influence subjective pain severity as well as disability. Especially beliefs which relate to self-control, self-efficacy or its counterpart helplessness can distinctly moderate pain, lead to an increase or mitigation of pain intensity and associated disability. The impact of most of these cognitive factors, such as catastrophizing, low self-efficacy, certain pain beliefs, low acceptance or fear of pain can be integrated into the general stress coping model. It denominates situational appraisal and self-appraisal processes beside actual coping behaviors as the main psychological factors influencing severity of pain and related disability.

Implementation of healthy lifestyle promotion in primary care: Patients as coproducers

ObjectivesTo explore and theorize how patients perceive, interpret, and reactin healthy lifestyle promotion situations in primary care and to investigate patients’ role in implementation of lifestyle promotion illustrated by typologies. MethodsGrounded theory was used to assess qualitative interview data from 22 patients with varied experience of healthy lifestyle promotion. Data were analyzed by constant comparative analysis. ResultsA substantive theory of being healthy emerged from the data. The theory highlights the processes that are important for implementation before, during, and after lifestyle promotion. Three interconnected categories emerged from the data: conditions for being healthy, managing being healthy, and interactions about being healthy; these formed the core category: being healthy. A typology proposed four patient trajectories on being healthy: resigned, receivers, coworkers, and leaders. ConclusionPatients coproduced the implementation of lifestyle promotion through the degree of transparency, which was a result of patients’ expectations and situation appraisals. Practice implicationsDifferent approaches are needed during lifestyle promotion depending on a variety of patient-related factors. The typology could guide practitioners in their lifestyle promotion practice.

A Pragmatic Situational and Symbiotic Market Requirements Appraisal

African textile and clothing industry though has been in a state of instability, have undergone great transformation to fit in the international trade through implementing the World Trade Organization requirements of a liberalized market and promoting bilateral trade. However, little is known about the current market situation and regulation requirements being implemented. This article provides a comprehensive appraisal to enable understand the African business environment in ways useful in developing this sector, and guiding textile and clothing companies wishing to invest and trade in Africa. It focuses on the structure and characteristics of African four most active Regional Economic Communities (REC) pillars, consisting 42 of the 48 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. Through a situational comparative and symbiotic trade analysis of these integrated regional economic markets, this study assesses the current policies towards promoting internal and external trade. The analysis reveals that the integration of regional economic trading blocs has led to the development of more competitive and sustainable markets, and mitigating effects of trade liberalization.

A systematic review of psychosocial factors associated with emotional adjustment in in vitro fertilization patients

IVF treatment is usually stressful for patients, but individual differences in emotional response do exist. Differences in the stress response may be related to reproductive outcomes as well as to the development of psychiatric problems. This review collates research exploring which psychosocial factors (e.g. personality traits and coping strategies) are associated with the emotional adjustment of IVF patients. The aim is to reveal what is currently known about risk and protective factors for coping with the stress of IVF treatment and where further enquiry would be most beneficial. The databases, MEDLINE/PUBMED (US National Library of Medicine), PsycINFO (American Psychological Association), Web of Science (Social Sciences Citation Index) and EMbase, were searched from 1978 to September 2012 using relevant key words. All published peer-reviewed studies exploring associations between psychosocial factors and emotional adjustment outcomes were considered for inclusion. There were 23 studies identified for review. One-third of the psychosocial factors explored were found to be significantly related to emotional adjustment outcome measures. Neuroticism and the use of escapist coping strategies were positively associated with distress by multiple studies. Social support was negatively associated with distress by several studies. A number of other psychosocial variables appear to be associated with distress, including self-criticism, dependency, situation appraisals and attachment style, but these have only been explored by one or two studies at most. There is a paucity of research using positive emotional outcome measures (e.g. well-being, positive affect, happiness or life satisfaction) to quantify emotional adjustment. Whilst some psychosocial variables appear to be consistently associated with distress for IVF patients, two-thirds of the variables tested to date do not appear to be associated with emotional adjustment. This review highlights key psychosocial factors to assist the identification of patients at high risk of psychological distress. These findings highlight at least two psychological factors that may be amenable to alteration with psychological or educational interventions. Future work should explore whether experimental manipulation of such psychosocial factors can provide effective stress reduction in this clinical context.