Journal of Personality and Social Psycholology, 1993 Nov;65(5):916-29

In search of the "hot" cognitions: attributions, appraisals, and their relation to emotion.*

Smith CA, Haynes KN, Lazarus RS, Pope LK
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203.

Two studies examined the hypothesized status of appraisals, relative to attributions, as proximal antecedents of emotion. In Study 1, which looked at 6 emotions (happiness, hope-challenge, anger, guilt, fear-anxiety, and sadness), undergraduates (N = 136) reported on their attributions, appraisals, and emotions during past encounters associated with a variety of situations. In Study 2, which was focused on anger and guilt, undergraduates (N = 120) reported on these same variables in response to experimenter-supplied vignettes that systematically manipulated theoretically relevant attributions. The results of both studies indicated that the emotions were more directly related to appraisals than they were to attributions, and Study 2 provided evidence that appraisal serves as a mediator between attribution and emotional response. These findings lend support to the hypothesized status of appraisal as the most proximal cognitive antecedent of emotion

* Reproduced with permission of the APA - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology