The Emotion Appraisal Project (EAP) (2011)

Undergraduates: Samuel Smith, Kiersten Jeske Lindsay Kennedy

Faculty Advisor: Barbara Fredrickson
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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One view concerning the scientific study of emotion is founded upon the assumption that emotions have biologically innate categorizations – in other words, specific emotions should be physiologically distinctive from one another. However, some researchers are beginning to challenge that notion, believing instead that a person's unique categorization of emotional experience may shape their physiological response. This study examines how differing categorizations of the same event alter physiological and self-reported reactions. Undergraduates at UNC-CH completed a questionnaire in which they were asked about 14 different experiences, asked if they considered each an emotion, and indicated their perceived response to each experience (in terms of change in heart rate, breathing, facial temperature, body temperature, and sweating). The results indicated that participants believed that events considered to be emotions are more likely to be accompanied by bodily reactions than those considered to be non-emotions. The follow-up to this study includes the addition of objective psychophysiological measurements and is currently being conducted in the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology (PEP) Lab at UNC-CH.