Cognitive
Emotions result from cognitive interpretations (cognitive
appraisals) of situations.
Cognitive appraisal theories represent a dominant force in emotion
research in cognitive psychology. A number of researchers have developed
variations on the basic theme of cognitive appraisal theories and the primacy
of cognition, including Lazarus (1991; 1984), Ortony and colleagues (1988),
Frijda (1986), Scherer (1984), Mandler (1984). The underlying thesis of
the cognitive appraisal theories is as follows. Emotional responses represent
undifferentiated physiological states and cognition is therefore necessary
to provide an interpretation which a) provides the basis for the conscious
experience of a particular emotion, and b) can be used by the organism
in an adaptive manner to initiate or alter a particular behavior. Cognition
is necessary to disambiguate the vague emotional states and cognitive constructs
such as perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, and goals are brought to bear on
this process. The sequence of events involved in an emotional response
is thought to be as follows. A stimulus is detected, causing a state of
bodily arousal, which in turn is interpreted by the cognitive apparatus
to generate an appraisal, which takes into account the organism's goals,
plans, and beliefs. This appraisal has certain physiological consequences
(e.g., autonomous system reactions), which in turn have dispositional consequence
(e.g., motivation for particular behavior) (Frijda, 1986). Within the general
framework acknowledging the centrality of cognition in the emotional experience,
different researchers make distinctions among the cognitive processes involved.
Thus Lazarus distinguishes between conscious and "primitive evaluative"
processes (1991), and between knowledge and appraisal. Such subtle distinctions
provide the basis for a synthesis of these theories with recent findings
from neurophysiology.
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