A Moors
Biographic Data
| ID | 13163 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A Moors |
| GIVEN NAMES | A |
| FAMILY NAME | Moors |
| SIGNATURE | MOORS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5137-557X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 86 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Emotions as High-Impact Decisions: A Goal-Directed Theory
I defend the adequacy of the goal-directed theory (GDT) of emotion. After outlining the properties of emotions (mental and bodily aspects, valence, intensity, urgency, automaticity, and irrationality) and common emotion types that emotion theories seek to explain, I contrast the GDT with traditional emotion theories, portraying the former as proactive and the latter as reactive. The GDT proposes that most behavior and feelings, emotional or other…
Author Reply: Why goal-directed cycles still explain most phenomena called emotions
This reply engages with five commentaries on my target article advancing the goal-directed theory (GDT). Stussi et al. expand the discussion by emphasizing epistemic goals, whereas Scarantino, Bonard, Pacherie, and Prinz resist my eliminativist conclusion to varying degrees by raising objections in the form of counterexamples (e.g., decisional paralysis, emotional recalcitrance, responding with vs. without emotional heath) and other puzzles (e.g.…
Reasons to Remain Critical About the Literature on Habits: A Commentary on Wood et al. (2022)
Wood et al. (2022) reviewed arguments in support of the idea that much of human behavior is habitual. In this commentary, we first point at ambiguities in the way Wood et al. referred to habits. This allows us to clarify the question that lies at the core of the debate on habits: To what extent is habitual behavior mediated by stimulus–response associations or by goal representations? We then argue that Wood et al. dismissed goal-directed explana…
Varieties of instrumental theories of emotional action: Commentary on “a perceptual control theory of emotional action”
Eder proposes a theory of action causation based on Powers' control theory and Hommel's theory of event coding in which emotional feelings play a crucial role. After presenting a rough description of Eder's theory in which I try to spell out the various steps in the control cycle, I compare his theory to my own goal-directed theory. The two theories converge in that they (a) rely on a control cycle in which different states are compared and (b) e…
Commentary: Connecting Müller's Philosophical Position-Taking Theory of Emotional Feelings to Mechanistic Emotion Theories in Psychology
Müller proposes a position-taking theory to account for the manifest image of emotional feelings as “feelings towards”. He reduces the process of position-taking to goal-based construal, which is akin to the stimulus-goal comparison process central in appraisal theories. Although this reduction can account for the heat of emotional feelings and the intuition that non-linguistic organisms can also have feelings, it may fail to keep the position-ta…
Testing a computational model of subjective well-being: A preregistered replication of Rutledge et al. (2014)
Subjective well-being changes over time. While the causes of these changes have been investigated extensively, few attempts have been made to capture these changes through computational modelling. One notable exception is the study by Rutledge et al. [Rutledge, R. B., Skandali, N., Dayan, P., & Dolan, R. J. (2014). A computational and neural model of momentary subjective well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(33), 12252–…
The rise of affectivism
The Emotion Process: Event Appraisal and Component Differentiation
Much emotion research has focused on the end result of the emotion process, categorical emotions, as reported by the protagonist or diagnosed by the researcher, with the aim of differentiating these discrete states. In contrast, this review concentrates on the emotion process itself by examining how ( a) elicitation, or the appraisal of events, leads to ( b) differentiation, in particular, action tendencies accompanied by physiological responses …
Interaction and threshold effects of appraisal on componential patterns of emotion: A study using cross-cultural semantic data
Studies that investigated the relation between appraisal and emotion have largely focused on the linear effect of appraisal criteria on subjective feelings (e.g., the effect of appraised goal obstruction on anger). Emotional responding can be extended to include more than just feelings, however. Componential definitions of emotion also add motivation, physiology, and expression. Moreover, a linear model is not compatible with the idea held by man…
Appraisal Theories of Emotion: State of the Art and Future Development
Unexpected and just missed: The separate influence of the appraisals of expectancy and proximity on negative emotions
Previous research has suggested that a goal-incongruent outcome leads to more intense negative emotions when it is unexpected and close to a goal-congruent outcome. Until now, however, no studies have disentangled the influence of the appraisals of expectancy and proximity on emotions. We experimentally manipulated each of these variables in 3 slot machine experiments and measured emotions via differences in motivation (i.e., the tendency to repa…
On angry approach and fearful avoidance: The goal-dependent nature of emotional approach and avoidance tendencies
Unintended Allocation of Spatial Attention to Goal-Relevant but Not to Goal-Related Events
We investigated whether words relevant to a person's current goal and words related to that goal influence the orienting of attention even when an intention to attend to the goal-relevant and goal-related stimuli is not present. Participants performed a modified spatial cueing paradigm combined with a second task that induced a goal. The results showed that the induced goal led to the orienting of attention to goal-relevant words in the spatial c…
Implicit measures: A normative analysis and review
Implicit measures can be defined as outcomes of measurement procedures that are caused in an automatic manner by psychological attributes. To establish that a measurement outcome is an implicit measure, one should examine (a) whether the outcome is causally produced by the psychological attribute it was designed to measure, (b) the nature of the processes by which the attribute causes the outcome, and (c) whether these processes operate automatic…
Theoretical claims necessitate basic research: Reply to Gawronski, Lebel, Peters, and Banse (2009) and Nosek and Greenwald (2009)
The authors of this reply article note that B. Gawronski, E. P. LeBel, K. R. Peters, and R. Banse (a) expressed agreement in their comment with the analysis put forward in the target article (J. De Houwer, S. Teige-Mocigemba, A. Spruyt, & A. Moors) and (b) pointed to a further implication for the way in which the implicitness of a measure should be examined. The current authors note that B. A. Nosek and A. G. Greenwald, on the other hand, raised …
Novel attitudes can be faked on the Implicit Association Test
Automaticity: A Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis
Several theoretical views of automaticity are discussed. Most of these suggest that automaticity should be diagnosed by looking at the presence of features such as unintentional, uncontrolled/uncontrollable, goal independent, autonomous, purely stimulus driven, unconscious, efficient, and fast. Contemporary views further suggest that these features should be investigated separately. The authors examine whether features of automaticity can be dise…
Automaticity: A Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis
Several theoretical views of automaticity are discussed. Most of these suggest that automaticity should be diagnosed by looking at the presence of features such as unintentional, uncontrolled/uncontrollable, goal independent, autonomous, purely stimulus driven, unconscious, efficient, and fast. Contemporary views further suggest that these features should be investigated separately. The authors examine whether features of automaticity can be dise…
Novel attitudes can be faked on the Implicit Association Test
The rise of affectivism
On angry approach and fearful avoidance: The goal-dependent nature of emotional approach and avoidance tendencies
Unintended Allocation of Spatial Attention to Goal-Relevant but Not to Goal-Related Events
We investigated whether words relevant to a person's current goal and words related to that goal influence the orienting of attention even when an intention to attend to the goal-relevant and goal-related stimuli is not present. Participants performed a modified spatial cueing paradigm combined with a second task that induced a goal. The results showed that the induced goal led to the orienting of attention to goal-relevant words in the spatial c…
Novel attitudes can be faked on the Implicit Association Test
Automaticity: A Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis
Several theoretical views of automaticity are discussed. Most of these suggest that automaticity should be diagnosed by looking at the presence of features such as unintentional, uncontrolled/uncontrollable, goal independent, autonomous, purely stimulus driven, unconscious, efficient, and fast. Contemporary views further suggest that these features should be investigated separately. The authors examine whether features of automaticity can be dise…
Implicit measures: A normative analysis and review
Implicit measures can be defined as outcomes of measurement procedures that are caused in an automatic manner by psychological attributes. To establish that a measurement outcome is an implicit measure, one should examine (a) whether the outcome is causally produced by the psychological attribute it was designed to measure, (b) the nature of the processes by which the attribute causes the outcome, and (c) whether these processes operate automatic…
Theoretical claims necessitate basic research: Reply to Gawronski, Lebel, Peters, and Banse (2009) and Nosek and Greenwald (2009)
The authors of this reply article note that B. Gawronski, E. P. LeBel, K. R. Peters, and R. Banse (a) expressed agreement in their comment with the analysis put forward in the target article (J. De Houwer, S. Teige-Mocigemba, A. Spruyt, & A. Moors) and (b) pointed to a further implication for the way in which the implicitness of a measure should be examined. The current authors note that B. A. Nosek and A. G. Greenwald, on the other hand, raised …
Unintended Allocation of Spatial Attention to Goal-Relevant but Not to Goal-Related Events
We investigated whether words relevant to a person's current goal and words related to that goal influence the orienting of attention even when an intention to attend to the goal-relevant and goal-related stimuli is not present. Participants performed a modified spatial cueing paradigm combined with a second task that induced a goal. The results showed that the induced goal led to the orienting of attention to goal-relevant words in the spatial c…
Appraisal Theories of Emotion: State of the Art and Future Development
Unexpected and just missed: The separate influence of the appraisals of expectancy and proximity on negative emotions
Previous research has suggested that a goal-incongruent outcome leads to more intense negative emotions when it is unexpected and close to a goal-congruent outcome. Until now, however, no studies have disentangled the influence of the appraisals of expectancy and proximity on emotions. We experimentally manipulated each of these variables in 3 slot machine experiments and measured emotions via differences in motivation (i.e., the tendency to repa…
On angry approach and fearful avoidance: The goal-dependent nature of emotional approach and avoidance tendencies
Interaction and threshold effects of appraisal on componential patterns of emotion: A study using cross-cultural semantic data
Studies that investigated the relation between appraisal and emotion have largely focused on the linear effect of appraisal criteria on subjective feelings (e.g., the effect of appraised goal obstruction on anger). Emotional responding can be extended to include more than just feelings, however. Componential definitions of emotion also add motivation, physiology, and expression. Moreover, a linear model is not compatible with the idea held by man…
The Emotion Process: Event Appraisal and Component Differentiation
Much emotion research has focused on the end result of the emotion process, categorical emotions, as reported by the protagonist or diagnosed by the researcher, with the aim of differentiating these discrete states. In contrast, this review concentrates on the emotion process itself by examining how ( a) elicitation, or the appraisal of events, leads to ( b) differentiation, in particular, action tendencies accompanied by physiological responses …
Testing a computational model of subjective well-being: A preregistered replication of Rutledge et al. (2014)
Subjective well-being changes over time. While the causes of these changes have been investigated extensively, few attempts have been made to capture these changes through computational modelling. One notable exception is the study by Rutledge et al. [Rutledge, R. B., Skandali, N., Dayan, P., & Dolan, R. J. (2014). A computational and neural model of momentary subjective well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(33), 12252–…
The rise of affectivism
Commentary: Connecting Müller's Philosophical Position-Taking Theory of Emotional Feelings to Mechanistic Emotion Theories in Psychology
Müller proposes a position-taking theory to account for the manifest image of emotional feelings as “feelings towards”. He reduces the process of position-taking to goal-based construal, which is akin to the stimulus-goal comparison process central in appraisal theories. Although this reduction can account for the heat of emotional feelings and the intuition that non-linguistic organisms can also have feelings, it may fail to keep the position-ta…
Reasons to Remain Critical About the Literature on Habits: A Commentary on Wood et al. (2022)
Wood et al. (2022) reviewed arguments in support of the idea that much of human behavior is habitual. In this commentary, we first point at ambiguities in the way Wood et al. referred to habits. This allows us to clarify the question that lies at the core of the debate on habits: To what extent is habitual behavior mediated by stimulus–response associations or by goal representations? We then argue that Wood et al. dismissed goal-directed explana…
Varieties of instrumental theories of emotional action: Commentary on “a perceptual control theory of emotional action”
Eder proposes a theory of action causation based on Powers' control theory and Hommel's theory of event coding in which emotional feelings play a crucial role. After presenting a rough description of Eder's theory in which I try to spell out the various steps in the control cycle, I compare his theory to my own goal-directed theory. The two theories converge in that they (a) rely on a control cycle in which different states are compared and (b) e…
Emotions as High-Impact Decisions: A Goal-Directed Theory
I defend the adequacy of the goal-directed theory (GDT) of emotion. After outlining the properties of emotions (mental and bodily aspects, valence, intensity, urgency, automaticity, and irrationality) and common emotion types that emotion theories seek to explain, I contrast the GDT with traditional emotion theories, portraying the former as proactive and the latter as reactive. The GDT proposes that most behavior and feelings, emotional or other…
Author Reply: Why goal-directed cycles still explain most phenomena called emotions
This reply engages with five commentaries on my target article advancing the goal-directed theory (GDT). Stussi et al. expand the discussion by emphasizing epistemic goals, whereas Scarantino, Bonard, Pacherie, and Prinz resist my eliminativist conclusion to varying degrees by raising objections in the form of counterexamples (e.g., decisional paralysis, emotional recalcitrance, responding with vs. without emotional heath) and other puzzles (e.g.…
Psychology (15 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Cognitive psychology (13 works) · Emotions and Moral Behavior (10 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Feeling (7 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (7 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works)