| dc.description.abstract | Our understanding of emotion and coping is limited in that theorists and researchers have generally failed to observe the full adaptational process, from emotion elicitation to coping. Across three studies, I capitalized on the strengths of different research designs to investigate the relationships between appraisal, motivation, and coping among various negative and positive emotions. In Study 1, I conducted a retrospective survey of emotional experience and modeled the coherence between appraisal, motivation, and coping. By uncovering the patterns of appraisal, motivation, and coping for each emotion, I differentiated among 20 distinct emotions. In Study 2, I experimentally manipulated appraisals of problem-focused coping potential and observed the effects of this manipulation on coping during a difficult learning task. The appraisal of high problem-focused coping potential interacted with perceived competence to influence the use of various engagement-related coping strategies. Finally, in Study 3, I conducted a prospective survey of how undergraduate students experienced and coped with their emotions prior to, as well as after, taking two exams across a two-month period. Results supplement the findings from Studies 1 and 2, providing evidence of how prior appraisal and coping impact present emotional experience. Taken together, the three studies reveal the elegant coherence between appraisal, emotion, motivation, and coping. | |
