ABSTRACT
During the last 10 years, we have examined the significance of the appraisal process during children’s and adults’ recall of emotional, traumatic, and stressful events. Our studies provide an assessment of the personal meaning and memory for emotional events, and the ways in which these events are encoded and recalled. Because the emotional appraisal process is not well understood or well documented, we have chosen to focus on describing the process of appraising and understanding events that specifically induce emotional reactions. We focus on the ways in which language, talk, and planning can be used to describe the types of appraisals that occur during the experience of an emotion, the ways in which memories for emotion are organized, and the predictive validity of appraisals in relationship to psychological well-being in both children and adults.
