ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an exploration of the relationships between cognitive appraisals and specific emotional states. The appraisals are examined by Klaus Scherer, Smith and Phoebe C. Ellsworth. The emotions selected were anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust, shame, and surprise. Within the area of cognitive appraisal theories, there is a need to explicate the appraisal patterns that lead to blends. In addition to exploring the predicted relationships between appraisals and emotional states, there are several other aspects of emotion research that warrant further descriptive research. One of these issues is the prevalence of emotion blends. The chapter presents the correlation coefficients that describe the observed relationships between the appraisals and specific emotional states. Flashbulb memories are associated with highly surprising events. When participants are asked to recall significant events, the heightened memories for surprising events may cause participants to select those memories more frequently than memories based on less surprising events.
