Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The appraisal, or the process of judging the significance of an event for personal well-being, not only determines whether an emotion is felt, but also which specific emotion is experienced.A specific pattern of cognitive appraisals of the emotion-eliciting situation gives rise to a specific emotion (Ortony, Clore, & Collins, 1988;C. Smith & Lazarus, 1993).Different people can have Chapter 1 10 For this reason, I will adopt an approach based on specific emotions, namely the feeling-is-for-doing approach.The feeling-is-for-doing approach (Zeelenberg, Nelissen, & Pieters, 2007;Zeelenberg & Pieters, 2006) views emotions as motivational processes that are instrumental to the goal one is striving for.In the case of negative emotions, when a concern of a person is threatened, the emotion arises to signal this problem and then motivates behavior to close the gap between the present situation and the goal.Because different problems need different solutions, different emotions will arise and they will motivate different behaviors.The behavior depends on the accessibility and acceptability in that situation, and on the instrumentality to the overarching goal.Importantly, the feeling-is-for-doing approach not only makes a distinction between different emotions, but also between endogenous and exogenous influences of emotions (Zeelenberg, Nelissen, Breugelmans, & Pieters, 2008;Zeelenberg & Pieters, 2006).Emotions can influence behavior while they are related to the current goal (endogenous influences), but also while they are actually unrelated to the current goal (exogenous influences).The endogenous influence of an emotion is an integral part of the goal setting and the goal striving process and thus relevant for the decision at hand.This happens, for example, when feelings of guilt after having made your friend fall down motivate you to put all your effort into making the best of the remainder of the dance competition.The second influence, an exogenous influence of an emotion, is external to the goal setting and goal striving process and is not related to current decisions.This occurs, for example, when feelings of shame for having fallen over in the dance competition motivate you to act harshly towards people on the train back home.Most research on behavioral effects of emotions tend to ignore the distinction between exogenous and endogenous influences and study only exogenous influences.These studies give us many interesting insights in spill-over effects of emotions and show us how emotions influence behaviors in ways that
Author: Ilona E. de Hooge
Language: English
Topic: Emotions and Moral Behavior
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: University of Cambridge
OpenAlex ID: W1489354883