Lay Theories of Emotion: 1. Conceptualization and Measurement

The eight studies reported on here examine the attributes lay persons attach to emotional experiences and develop a self-report scale for assessing individual differences in these attributes. Lay persons were asked to freely report attributes of emotions and their answers were content analyzed. Thus, a self-report scale was developed and its internal structure, reliability over time, and associations with meta-mood, Eysenck's personality dimensions, negative affectivity, and control and attentional focus variables were examined. Findings showed that persons spontaneously appraise emotions in terms of eight categorical attributes, which are structured around two orthogonal theories: a threat appraisal and a benefit appraisal of emotions. In addition, the self-report measure that was developed for assessing the superordinate theories, was found to be internally valid, reliable over time, concurrently valid, and significantly related to other affective and personality constructs.