Appraisal Theories of Emotion: State of the Art and Future Development

Abstract

Appraisal theories of emotion: State of the art and future developmentAlthough a scholarly topic over the centuries, emotion was first scientifically approached by Darwin (1872), who advocated a functional approach.Soon after, James (1890) started a debate about the elicitation and differentiation of the emotions and even about the very definition of the term emotion, that still continues.There have been periods of dominance for certain theories, like Tomkins' (1962) revival of Darwin's ideas in the form of discrete or basic emotion theory, a revival of peripheral theories by Schachter (1964), and various revivals of Wundt's (1896) dimensional theory.In the 1960's, Arnold (1960) and Lazarus (1966) pioneered a new theoretical approach called appraisal theory, which is in essence a systematization of ancient ideas about emotion, reflecting the ideas of Aristotle, Hume (1739-40), Spinoza (1677), and Sartre (1939).In the 1980's this approach took on new vigor, with a number of theorists proposing variants of appraisal theory, developing concrete predictions, and testing them empirically.Since then, "appraisal" has become a household word in emotion research, but the term is used in widely different forms and different theoretical and atheoretical contexts.This special issue attempts to delineate the fundamental architecture of a family of theories that can be rightly called appraisal theories in a strict sense.In this issue we discuss the design features of these theories, their current development, and the empirical support for them, as well as unresolved issues, new developments, and critical objections.Four major contributions outline the scope of the current debate and a group of commentators provide a critical echo.In this special issue we will focus on the theories of Arnold (1960), Lazarus (1991), Scherer (1984, 2009), Smith and Ellsworth (1985, Ellsworth, 1991), Frijda (1986, 2007), Roseman (1984), andClore andOrtony (2000).The basic premise of appraisal theories is that emotions are adaptive responses, which reflect appraisals of features of the environment that are significant for the organism's well-being.Many other emotion theories also see emotions