Appraisals, core relational themes, and emotions: A test of the consistency of reporting and their associations

Two studies are reported. In the first, 69 undergraduate students were asked to complete a questionnaire in which they reported one stressful incident they had experienced in the previous four weeks, and the appraisals, core relational themes, and emotions they experienced at the time. Without warning, one week later they were asked to consider the same incident and report their appraisals and emotions. Only scores on two of 41 variables differed across occasions. Data from the first time of completion were added to those of another group of students to form a total sample of 156 participants. These data were then used to test the model of appraisals, core relational themes, and emotion of Smith and colleagues (e.g. Smith and Lazarus, 1993). The model was tested on four emotions: anger, guilt, anxiety, and sadness, and accounted for between eighteen and forty eight percent of the explained variance of each measure. Contrary to the study's hypotheses, emotion-focussed coping potential added to the variance explained in measures of guilt and anger. The results are discussed in the context of the cognition-emotion literature.