Cognitive appraisal (also called simply 'appraisal') is the subjective interpretation made by an individual to

stimuli A stimulus is something that causes a physiological response. It may refer to: *Stimulation **Stimulus (physiology), something external that influences an activity **Stimulus (psychology), a concept in behaviorism and perception *Stimulus (economi ...

in the environment. It is a component in a variety of theories relating to stress,

mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental healt ...

coping Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

, and

emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definitio ...

. It is most notably used in the transactional model of stress and coping, introduced in a 1984 publication by

Richard Lazarus Richard S. Lazarus (March 3, 1922 – November 24, 2002) was an American psychologist who began rising to prominence in the 1960s. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Lazarus as the 80th most cited psychologist of ...

and Susan Folkman. In this theory, cognitive appraisal is defined as the way in which an individual responds to and interprets stressors in life. A variety of

mental disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

s have been observed as having abnormal patterns of cognitive appraisal in those affected by the disorder. Other work has detailed how

personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mo ...

can influence the way in which individuals cognitively appraise a situation. The reframing of stimuli and experiences, called cognitive reappraisal, has been found "one of the most effective strategies for emotion regulation."

Conceptualizations and theories

Transactional_Model_of_Stress_and_Coping_-_Richard_Lazarus

Lazarus' transactional model of stress

This model uses cognitive appraisal as a way to explain responses to stressful events. According to this theory, two distinct forms of cognitive appraisal must occur in order for an individual to feel stress in response to an event; Lazarus called these stages "primary appraisal" and "secondary appraisal". During primary appraisal, an event is interpreted as dangerous to the individual or threatening to their personal goals. During the secondary appraisal, the individual evaluates their ability or resources to be able to cope with a specific situation .

Scherer's component process model

The component process model proposed by

Klaus Scherer Klaus Rainer Scherer (born 1943) is former Professor of Psychology and director of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences in Geneva. He is a specialist in the psychology of emotion. He is known for editing the ''Handbook of Affective Sciences'' ...

utilizes cognitive appraisal to explain an individual’s psychological and physiological response to situations. Scherer’s model makes additions to the Lazarus’ transactional model regarding how many appraisals occur. Rather than just two levels of appraisal in response to an event (primary and secondary), Scherer’s model suggests four distinct appraisals occur: (a) the direct effects or relevance that an individual perceives an event being to them (b) the consequences an event has both immediately and long-term to an individual and their

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or a ...

s (c) the ability an individual perceives they can cope with the consequences of an event (d) the ways in which the events are perceived to result from an individual’s values and

self-concept In the psychology of self, one's self-concept (also called self-construction, self-identity, self-perspective or self-structure) is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to the question ''"Who am I? ...

. This model and additional work by Scherer notably highlights not only psychological responses, but many physiological responses according to how events are appraised by an individual.

Roseman's appraisal theory of emotions

Ira Roseman utilized the concept of cognitive appraisal to build an explanatory theory that encompasses a wider range of emotions (when compared with Lazarus' transactional model). According to Roseman (1996), positive emotions result from events that an individual appraises as consistent with their motives, while negative emotions result from events that individuals appraise as inconsistent with their motives. More specific emotions are based on if the event is perceived to be as caused by others, the individual, or due to an uncontrollable circumstance.

Strategies

Cognitive reappraisal is one of the most studied mechanisms of the emotion regulation form referred to as cognitive change. It encompasses a variety of different strategies, such as positive reappraisal (creating and focusing on a positive aspect of the stimulus), decentering (reinterpreting an event by broadening one's perspective to see "the bigger picture"), or fictional reappraisal (adopting or emphasizing the belief that event is not real, that it is for instance "just a movie" or "just my imagination").

Practical applications

The way in which stress is cognitively appraised has been found to influence mental health.

Cognitive style Cognitive style or thinking style is a concept used in cognitive psychology to describe the way individuals think, perceive and remember information. Cognitive style differs from cognitive ability (or level), the latter being measured by aptitude ...

s of perceiving the world and interpreting events have been suggested as factors that may make certain individuals more prone to depression, such as

Aaron Beck Aaron Temkin Beck (July 18, 1921 – November 1, 2021) was an American psychiatrist who was a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

's cognitive theory (1967). A variety of studies have linked

panic disorder Panic disorder is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by reoccurring unexpected panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear that may include palpitations, sweating, shaking, sho ...

with attentional biases and catastrophic perceptions of events.{{Cite book, title=Psychopathology : history, diagnosis, and empirical foundations, date=2008, publisher=John Wiley & Sons, others=Craighead, W. Edward., Miklowitz, David Jay, 1957-, Craighead, Linda W., isbn=9780471768616, location=Hoboken, N.J., oclc=181903762

References

Psychological stress