A Further Extension of the Extended Parallel Process Model (E-EPPM): Implications of Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Emotion and Dispositional Coping Style

Abstract

For two decades, the extended parallel process model (EPPM; Witte, 1992) has been one of the most widely used theoretical frameworks in health risk communication. The model has gained much popularity because it recognizes that, ironically, preceding fear appeal models do not incorporate the concept of fear as a legitimate and central part of them. As a remedy to this situation, the EPPM aims at “putting the fear back into fear appeals” (Witte, 1992, p. 330). Despite this attempt, however, this article argues that the EPPM still does not fully capture the essence of fear as an emotion. Specifically, drawing upon Lazarus's (1991) cognitive appraisal theory of emotion and the concept of dispositional coping style (Miller, 1995), this article seeks to further extend the EPPM. The revised EPPM incorporates a more comprehensive perspective on risk perceptions as a construct involving both cognitive and affective aspects (i.e., fear and anxiety) and integrates the concept of monitoring and blunting coping style as a moderator of further information seeking regarding a given risk topic.

Notes

¹ Lazarus (1991) uses an analogy of the germ theory of disease to elaborate on this idea further. He states, “If a disease-causing microbe is present in a vulnerable organism, there is a high probability that the disease will occur. The disease, which I am treating as analogous to emotion, also includes the microbe that, when overcome by the body's defenses, disappears or becomes dormant like a spore. In effect, one of the causes, the microbe (organismic vulnerability is another cause), must remain present during the disease just as the cognitive cause must remain present in the emotion as long as the emotion lasts; however, when the cognitive causes disappears, or is no longer salient, the emotion disappears, too” (pp. 173–174).