The sufficiency and necessity of appraisals for negative emotions

Abstract

Past appraisal studies have shown that single appraisals are neither sufficient nor necessary for emotions but no study has examined the same issue with appraisal configurations (combinations of different single appraisals). Undergraduate participants repeatedly indicated their negative emotions (anger, sadness, fear, and guilt) and relevant appraisals as they occurred, or immediately after, in their everyday environments. The results not only replicated past findings on single appraisals but also suggested that appraisal configurations are neither sufficient nor necessary for these negative emotions.

Keywords:

• Appraisals
• Emotions
• Sufficiency
• Necessity

Notes

¹Because of the lack of space, the number of observations involving all appraisals are not presented but can be obtained upon request.

²Because emotion scores of 2 (a bit) might be too weak to reflect real emotional experiences, I repeated the analyses with the only change being that scores of 1 and 2 were used to indicate absence of the emotion. The results supported similar conclusions. The highest index was the necessity, P(A/E), value for the relationship between Fear and Obstacles (.85).