Browsing by Subject "Appraisal"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Beyond affective valence : the effect of different emotions on cognitive processing and persuasion from a certainty-congruent approach
(2014-12) Kwon, Ohyoon; Kahlor, LeeAnn
This research investigates the role of emotion in the persuasion process by establishing a novel relationship between emotion and construal level. Built on cognitive appraisal theories, this research proposes that the certainty appraisal components of emotions exert a direct influence on an individual’s representation of information at a high versus low construal level. The findings indicate that individuals primed to feel emotion low on certainty appraisals construe behaviors or events at a high level and estimate uncertain events as more likely to happen, while those primed to feel emotion high on certainty appraisals characterize behavior or events at a low level and evaluate uncertain events as less likely to occur (Study 1 & Study 2). Further, such a fit (vs. nonfit) between an individual’s emotional state and the construal level at which product benefits in an advertising message are represented lead to a more favorable evaluation of the message and product (Study 3). The findings from this dissertation study also illustrate that uncertainty-related emotion eliciting a high-level construal mindset leads to a cognitive shift toward relying more on nonalignable attribute differences and a greater preference for the nonalignable-better brand although individuals usually rely more on alignable attribute differences and favor the alignable-better brand (Study 4). Accordingly, these outcomes occur because the certainty appraisal components of emotions influence mental construal levels.
Considering social cognitive processes in trajectories of adolescent self-esteem development : lay theories of self-diagnostic salience
(2019-12-09) O'Brien, Joseph Michael; Yeager, David S.; Brummelman, Eddie; Echols, Catharine H.; Woolley, Jacqueline D.
Adolescents experience varying trajectories of self-esteem development. While self-esteem grows rapidly and stabilizes for most adolescents, around 1 in 5 show continued self-esteem lability and decline—a pattern that predicts enduring problems with mental health and life-course success. Unfortunately, theories to explain or predict these diverging self-esteem trajectories are lacking. This dissertation proposes and tests a novel theoretical framework of self-esteem development. Differing trajectories may be in part explained by variation in adolescents’ lay theories of self-diagnostic salience, defined as a belief that experiencing more salient thoughts and feelings—those that are more intense, frequent, spontaneous, or persistent—serve as evidence that experiences contain self-diagnostic information about “who they really are.” Normative biological changes from puberty provide highly salient experiences in abundance, and negative experiences tend overall to be more salient than positive ones. Thus, adolescents who more strongly endorse a self-diagnostic theory of salience may tend to attribute greater personal importance to negative experiences, leading to increased self-esteem contingency on those experiences. Over time, this pattern of response may tend to undermine healthy self-esteem development compared to those adolescents holding more non-diagnostic theories. To test this proposed account, Chapter 2 describes the construction and initial validation of a novel measure of the lay theory of self-diagnostic salience, also demonstrating wide variation in endorsement among adolescents. Chapter 3 demonstrates that, when faced with particularly intense and therefore salient negative daily events, adolescents with strongly self-diagnostic theories also appraise those events as having increased levels of personal importance and likely stability. Chapter 4 uses a moderated random-intercept cross-lag design to show that theory endorsement predicts both lasting harm to state self-esteem and greater emotional inertia on days following more intense experiences of sadness. Finally, Chapter 5 incorporates 9-month follow-up data to show that theory endorsement at the start of 9th grade predicts more negative self-esteem change at 9th grade’s end, as well as increases in depression symptoms indirectly through self-esteem decline. Chapter 6 reviews the findings in support of this novel account of self-esteem development, describes potential future work, and considers broader implications.
Experimental modification of appraisal style : benefits of seeing the big picture
(2014-05) Miller, Janna Virginia; Rude, Stephanie Sandra
The purpose of the present study was to determine whether computer-based cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures could alter appraisal style toward viewing events from a big picture perspective and thereby influence emotional reactivity. Big picture appraisal entails viewing difficult situations and one's reactions to them in terms of a larger context. Appraisal training was implicit in that participants completed a series of vignettes, framed as a reading comprehension task, which trained either a big picture perspective or a personal/evaluative focus. When subsequently confronted with novel vignettes, participants produced interpretations that were consistent with assigned training condition. In addition, participants trained in big picture as compared to personal/evaluative appraisal subsequently demonstrated less emotional reactivity to a stressful task.