Abstract
One hundred twelve airline passengers reporting their luggage lost to the baggage retrieval service in a major international airport were interviewed after their interaction with an airline agent. Participants were asked to rate their emotional state before and after the interaction with the agent and to provide information on how they had appraised the situation. The data are interpreted with respect to (1) type and intensity of the emotions felt in this situation, (2) appraisal theory predictions of emotion elicitation and differentiation, and (3) emotional change in the course of the interaction following reappraisal of the situation.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Arnold, M. B. (1960). Emotion and personality. Vol. 1 and 2. New York: Columbia University Press.
Conway, M. A., & Bekerian, D. A. (1987). Situational knowledge and emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 1, 145–191.
De Rivera, J. (1977). A structural theory of the emotions. Psychological Issues, 10,No. 4, Monograph 40.
Edwards, P. (in preparation). Differenciation qualitative et quantitative des émotions. (Qualitative and quantitative differentiation of emotions). Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Geneva.
Ellsworth, P. C. (1991). Some implications of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion. In K. Strongman (ed.), International review of studies on emotion (pp. 143–161). New York: Wiley.
Ellsworth, P. C., & Smith, C. A. (1988a). From appraisal to emotion: Differences among unpleasant feelings. Motivation and Emotion, 12, 271–302.
Ellsworth, P. C., & Smith, C. A. (1988b). Shades of joy: Patterns of appraisal differentiating pleasant emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 2, 301–331.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R.S. (1985). If it changes it must be a process: Study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 150–170.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1988). Coping as a mediator of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 466–475.
Frijda, N. H. (1986). The emotions. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Frijda, N. H. (1987). Emotion, cognitive structure, and action tendency. Cognition and Emotion, 1, 115–143.
Frijda, N. H., Kuipers, P., & ter Schure, E. (1989). Relations among emotion, appraisal, and emotional action readiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(2), 212–228.
Gehm, Th., & Scherer, K. R. (1988). Relating situation evaluation to emotion differentiation: Nonmetric analysis of cross-cultural questionnaire data. In K. R. Scherer (ed.), Facets of emotion: Recent research. (pp. 61–78). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Keltner, D., Ellsworth, P. C., & Edwards, K. (1993). Beyond simple pessimism: Effects of sadness and anger on social perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 740–752.
Lazarus, R. S. (1968). Emotions and adaptation: Conceptual and empirical relations. In W. J. Arnold (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (Vol. 16, pp. 175–270). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lazarus, R. S., & Smith, C. A. (1988). Knowledge and appraisal in the cognition-emotion relationship. Cognition and Emotion, 2, 281–300.
Manstead, A. S. R., & Tetlock, P. E. (1989). Cognitive appraisals and emotional experience: Further evidence. Cognition and Emotion, 3, 225–240.
Mauro, R., Sato, K., & Tucker, J. (1992). The role of appraisal in human emotions: A cross-cultural study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 301–317.
McGraw, K. M. (1987). Guilt following transgression: An attribution of responsibility approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 247–256.
Oatley, K., & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1987). Towards a cognitive theory of emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 1, 29–50.
Ortony, A., Clore, G.L., & Collins, A. (1988). The cognitive structure of emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Parkinson, B. (1996). Emotions are social. British Journal of Psychology. 87, 663–683.
Parkinson, B. (1997). Untangling the appraisal-emotion connection. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 1. 62–79.
Parkinson, B., & Lea, M. F. (1991). Investigating personal constructs of emotion. British Journal of Psychology, 82, 73–86.
Parkinson, B., & Manstead, A. S. R., (1992). Appraisal as a cause of emotion. In M. S. Clark (ed.) Review of personality and social psychology, Vol. 13. (pp. 122–149). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Reisenzein, R., & Hofmann, T. (1990). An investigation of dimensions of cognitive appraisal in emotion using the repertory grid technique. Motivation and Emotion. 14, 1–26
Reisenzein, R., & Hofmann, T. (1993). Discriminating emotions from appraisal-relevant situational information: Baseline data for structural models of cognitive appraisals. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 325–355.
Reisenzein, R., & Spielhofer, C. (1994). Subjectively salient dimensions of emotional appraisal. Motivation and Emotion. 18, 31–77.
Roseman, I. J. (1984). Cognitive determinants of emotion: A structural theory. In P. Shaver (ed.), Review of personality and social psychology (pp. 11–36). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Roseman, I. J. (1991). Appraisal determinants of discrete emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 5, 161–200.
Roseman, I. J., Spindel, M. S., & Jose, P. E. (1990). Appraisals of emotion eliciting events: Testing a theory of discrete emotions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 899–915.
Russel, D., & McAuley, E. (1986). Causal attributions, causal dimensions, and affective reactions to success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 1174–1185.
Scherer, K. R. (1982). Emotion as a process: Function, origin, and regulation. Social Science Information, 21, 555–570.
Scherer, K. R. (1984). On the nature and function of emotion: A component process approach. In K. R. Scherer and P. Ekman (eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 293–317). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Scherer, K. R. (1986). Vocal affect expression: A review and a model for future research. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 143–165.
Scherer, K. R. (1988). Criteria for emotion-antecedent appraisal: A review. In V. Hamilton, G. H. Bower, & N. H. Frijda (eds.), Cognitive perspectives on emotion and motivation (pp. 89–126). Dordrecht: Nijhoff.
Scherer, K. R. (1992). Social psychology evolving. A progress report. In M. Dierkes, & B. Biervert (Eds.), European social science in transition: Assessment and outlook (pp. 178–243). Frankfurt/Boulder: Campus/Westview.
Scherer, K. R. (1993). Studying the emotion-antecedent appraisal process: An expert system approach. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 325–355.
Scherer, K. R. (1997). Profiles of emotion-antecedent appraisal: Testing theoretical predictions across cultures. Cognition and Emotion. 11, 113–150.
Scherer, K. R. (in press). Appraisal theories. In T. Dalgleish, & M. Power (Eds.), Handbook of Cognition and Emotion. Chichester: Wiley.
Scherer, K. R., & Ceschi, G. (submitted). Affective communication in the airport: A field study of affective communication.
Scherer, K. R., & Tannenbaum, P. H. (1986). Emotional experiences in everyday life: A survey approach. Motivation and Emotion, 10, 295–314.
Scherer, K. R., Wallbott, H. G., & Summerfield, A. B. (1986). Experiencing emotion: A cross-cultural study. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, C. A. (1989). Dimensions of appraisal and physiological response in emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 339–353.
Smith, C. A., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1985). Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 813–838.
Smith, C. A., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1987). Patterns of appraisal and emotion related to taking an exam. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 475–488.
Smith, C. A., & Lazarus, R. S. (1993). Appraisal components, core relational themes, and the emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 223–269.
Smolenaars, A. J., & Schutzelaars, A. J. H. (1986/87). On ‘cognitive’ semantics of emotion words: Solomon quasi ecologically tested. Journal of Semantics, 5, 207–231.
Solomon, R. C. (1976). The passions. The myth and nature of human emotion. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Sonnemans, J., & Frijda, N. H. (1995). The determinants of subjective emotional intensity. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 483–506
Stein, N. L., & Trabasso, T. (1992). The organisation of emotional experience: Creating links among emotion, thinking, language, and intentional action. Cognition and Emotion, 6, 225–244.
Stipek, D., Weiner, B., & Li, K. (1989). Testing some attribution-emotion relations in the People's Republic of China. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 109–116.
Tesser, A. (1990). Smith and Ellsworth's appraisal model of emotion: A replication, extension, and test. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 210–223.
Wallbott, H. G., & Scherer, K. R. (1989). Assessing emotion by questionnaire. In R. Plutchik, & H. Kellerman (eds.), Emotion: Theorv. research. and experience. Vol. 4. The measurement of emotion (pp. 55–82). New York: Academic Press.
Weiner, B. (1982). The emotional consequences of causal attributions. In M. S. Clark and S. T. Fiske (eds.), Affect and cognition (pp. 185–209). The 7th Annual Carnegie Symposium on Cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer.
Weiner, B., Amirkhan, J., Folkes, V. S., & Verette, J. A. (1987). An attributional analysis of excuse giving: Studies of a naive theory of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 316–324.
Weiner, B., Graham, S., & Chandler, C. (1982). Pity, anger, and guilt: An attributional analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 8, 226–232.
Weiner, B., Russel, D., & Lerman, D. (1979). The cognition-emotion process in achievement related contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1211–1220.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scherer, K.R., Ceschi, G. Lost Luggage: A Field Study of Emotion–Antecedent Appraisal. Motivation and Emotion 21, 211–235 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024498629430
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024498629430