A multiple‐method analysis of appraisal–emotion relationships: The case of the prosocial intergroup emotions

Despite its status as a prominent set of theories for explaining the elicitation and differentiation of emotions, much appraisal theory and research offer little indication of the nature of the relationship expected between appraisals and emotions. Here, we present a three‐study, multiple‐method analysis in which we examine numerous ways of testing appraisal–emotion relationships using the “prosocial” intergroup emotions—sympathy, anger, and guilt—as an example. Results show that the set of appraisal dimensions that appears strongly characteristic of an emotion varies depending on the kind of appraisal—emotion relationship hypothesised and the experimental methodology/statistical analysis used. These findings demonstrate the utility of explicit theorising about the nature of the relationship between emotions and appraisals, and show how the hypothesised appraisal–emotion relationship and choice of methodology can affect the structure of appraisal theories. We recommend an analysis across multiple methods to provide a more complete picture of a given set of appraisal–emotion relationships.     

Subject-centred reasons and bestowal love

Speaking roughly, there are two competing accounts of the basis of love. First, the appraisal view: love is based in reasons derived from the valuable properties of the beloved. Second, the bestowal view: love is not based in reasons derived from the valuable properties of the beloved, but love is based in the lover, who then bestows value onto the beloved. While both models deserve due attention, the bestowal model is of present concern. Despite numerous virtues, the bestowal model faces trenchant objections. In this paper, I outline and defend a version of bestowal love, according to which bestowal love is based in the lover’s motivating reasons, and which preserves the virtues while overcoming the difficulties facing bestowal love.     

Age-related differences in emotion matching are limited to low intensity expressions

Multi-label tasks confound age differences in perceptual and cognitive processes. We examined age differences in emotion perception with a technique that did not require verbal labels. Participants matched the emotion expressed by a target to two comparison stimuli, one neutral and one emotional. Angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, and sad facial expressions of varying intensity were used. Although older adults took longer to respond than younger adults, younger adults only outmatched older adults for the lowest intensity disgust and fear expressions. Some participants also completed an identity matching task in which target stimuli were matched on personal identity instead of emotion. Although irrelevant to the judgment, expressed emotion still created interference. All participants were less accurate when the apparent difference in expressive intensity of the matched stimuli was large, suggesting that salient emotion cues increased difficulty of identity matching. Age differences in emotion perception were limited to very low intensity expressions.     

Spontaneous response to and expressive regulation of mirth elicited by humorous cartoons in younger and older adults

Many studies have examined the effect of aging on the ability to regulate negative emotions but less is known about the way the elderly people control their positive affects. Thirty-eight younger and 38 older adults were compared on their affective, expressive, physiological, and behavioral spontaneous responses to and in expressive regulation of mirth elicited by humorous cartoons. Compared to younger adults, older adults were equally amused and aroused but showed lower expressivity in their spontaneous reaction. They were similarly successful in implementing expressive regulation but they had lower physiological activation under amplification condition and more gaze avoidance from the key areas of the cartoons under suppression condition. This indicates that in older, amplification skills are disjointed from the physiological responses and suppression skills seem supplanted by a less costly strategy of attention redeployment. This also suggests that older adults’ behavior is not driven by a greater preference for positive information.     

Recognising the role of emotion in the classroom; an examination of how the psychoanalytic theory of containment influences learning capacity

This paper begins with personal reflections about my work in school which began over forty years ago, outlining how the different roles of teacher and therapeutic practitioner have contributed to my interest in the role of emotion for children’s capacity for learning in the classroom. I suggest that focusing too heavily on achievement risks losing sight of the experience of the individual child and argue that a psychoanalytic framework informs us of the significance of relational aspects of teaching and learning. My aim is to alert educationalists to the complexities of the classroom context, particularly the conscious and unconscious elements at work there. I have chosen to examine containment, as one aspect of the psychoanalytic, developmental framework, as a way of thinking about relational influences in the classroom and the importance of the relational context of learning. These case studies relate to my workplace, an Infant and Nursery school with a high British multi-ethnic population, where I am employed as a teacher/therapeutic practitioner. Two brief child studies are included to illustrate this examination. The first, Hamzah, concerns a young child entering formal learning without the expected relational skills and therefore unable to connect with staff and children in any meaningful way. The second, Isa, demonstrated well developed relational skills but at times found it difficult to manage his feelings when his needs took second place to the requirements of the curriculum.     

Replication of the Self-Concept and Identity Measure (SCIM) Among a Treatment-Seeking Sample

Identity distress occurs within a variety of psychiatric conditions. Reliable tools for assessing identity-related functioning among clinical populations are greatly needed. The Self-Concept and Identity Measure (SCIM) is a brief self-report scale designed to assess healthy and disturbed identity dimensions. This measure has been validated within normative but not treatment-seeking samples. The present study used an a priori confirmatory approach to replicate the SCIM’s factor structure among disadvantaged women enrolled in treatment for chemical dependence (N = 216). The original three-factor structure and item loadings generally replicated within this diagnostically diverse, significantly impaired sample. Higher SCIM scores were also associated with other problems, such as emotion dysregulation and depression. Results support the SCIM’s use and scoring with clinical populations.     

Improved Perceptions of Emotion Regulation and Reflective Functioning in Parents: Two Additional Positive Outcomes of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

The purpose of this study was to test whether Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a widely used effective therapy for children’s externalizing behaviors and parenting problems, was associated with improvements in parents’ emotion regulation and reflective functioning. We also investigated whether these improvements had unique associations with children’s improvements in externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Participants were 139 Australian children aged 29 to 83 months and their caregivers; all were referred for child externalizing behavior problems coupled with parenting skill deficits or high parent stress. All data were gathered via a questionnaire completed prior to and after completion of PCIT. Significant improvements were found in parents’ self-reported emotion dysregulation and capacity to use cognitive reappraisal for emotion regulation. There was also improvement in parents’ self-report of children’s symptoms, parenting practices, and reflective functioning in the form of prementalizing, which measured a low capacity to understand the emotional world of the child. Multiple regression showed that improvements in cognitive reappraisal, prementalizing, and negative parenting practices were associated with improvement in children’s symptoms. The findings extend the existing evidence for PCIT as an effective parenting intervention, adding parents’ perceived emotion regulation and reflective functioning to the list of positive outcomes from PCIT. Improved emotion regulation and reflective functioning, unique from changes in parenting practices, could be mechanisms that help explain why PCIT has been associated with improvements in children’s externalizing behaviors.     

A Nonverbal Mission

Popularly, theology and mission are understood as the works of words and language. Starting from the perspective of women with intellectual disabilities who experience trauma, this paper proposes an apophatic approach for theology and mission that gives the primacy of nonverbal self‐expression over verbal logocentrism. Such a proposal places vulnerability at the heart of the Christian mission.     

Effects of Mentally Subtracting Positive Events on Affective Status in Japanese College Students

This study examined the effect on positive and negative emotions in Japanese college students of mentally subtracting grateful events. Participants (N = 62) were randomly assigned to one of the following three conditions: (a) writing with surprise the ways that a positive thing or event might never have happened or might never have been part of life (the mentally subtracting a present good [MS] group), (b) writing without surprise the ways in which a positive thing or event happened easily or was certain to become a part of life (the counting gratitude group), and (c) no writing control. The results of analysis of variance showed that the MS group experienced significantly increased positive emotion and decreased negative emotion between pre‐test and post‐test. Furthermore, the MS group showed significantly greater positive emotion than the control group at post‐test. Surprise mediated the effects of the MS group intervention on positive emotion but not on negative emotion. Issues related to gratitude induction and mediation of surprise are discussed.     

Frequency and Intensity of Emotional Expressiveness and Preschool Children’s Peer Competence

Children’s emotional expressiveness with peers was examined as a predictor of social competence. Data were collected from 122 preschool children (57 boys, 65 girls; 86 European American, 9 African American, 17 Hispanic, and 10 other ethnicity) over a period of two?years. Observations of children’s peer interactions in Year 1 were coded for frequency and intensity of happiness, anger, sadness, and fear. Sociometric interviews and teacher ratings provided assessments of children’s peer competence in both Years 1 and 2. Frequent expression of happiness in Year 1 predicted higher social competence scores in Year 2, whereas frequent anger in Year 1 predicted lower peer competence Year 2. More intense anger and sadness in Year 1 predicted lower peer social competence scores in Year 2. Frequency and intensity of emotional expressiveness in Year 1 accounted for unique variance in peer competence in Year 2.