My Perceptions are not your Perceptions
The Mediating Role of Cognitive Appraisal on the Association between the Big Five Personality Traits and Emotional Reactivity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13658602 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Livia Sacchi (0000-0002-6428-3789, University of Lausanne, corresponding author), Elise Dan‐glauser (0000-0002-1715-4650, University of Lausanne), Elise Dan-Glauser (University of Lausanne) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 332941251335575-332941251335575 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Reports (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-2941 • E-ISSN: 1558-691X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00332941251335575 |
| PMID | 40340647 |
| OpenAlex | W4410246220 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 90 |
Personality, the enduring pattern of affect, behaviors, cognitions, and desires, strongly predicts important outcomes, such as mental and physical health, and specific emotional reactions. However, the reasons behind these associations are still unclear, and explanatory processes are now being searched for. Appraisal theories of emotion, particularly the Component Process Model of emotion, can help to address this gap. In this model, an appraisal process , a situational cognitive evaluation, influences emotion unfolding by activating concomitant experiential, expressive, motivational and physiological responses. While evidence on the personality-appraisal relationship exists, specific knowledge about the potential mediatory role of appraisal in this relationship is very sparse, although it could explain how personality might shape emotional reactions. In a survey, we evaluated the personality of 500 participants ( M Age = 22.41; Females = 83.2%) and confronted them with two emotional scenarios of different valences. Leveraging exploratory mediation analysis (EMA), we found that, in the Negative Scenario, the appraisals of negative consequences, powerlessness, and future consequences adjustment emerged as the most influential mediators, being differentially implicated in the relationship between Neuroticism, on the one hand, and the Feeling and Autonomic Arousal components, on the other hand. Mediation pathways in the Positive Scenario were more diverse, with the appraisal of powerlessness again emerging as a relevant mediator in the relationship between traits and emotional outcomes. This study highlights appraisal as a fundamental explanatory mechanism linking individual differences to emotional responses. Appraisal could be thus leveraged in interventions to allow certain personality to take the path of specific, healthier affective outcomes
Association (psychology · Big Five personality traits · Cognition · Cognitive appraisal · Coping (psychology · Developmental psychology · Explanatory model · Explanatory power · Feeling · Mediation · Neuroticism · Personality · Psychotherapist · Situational ethics · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Clinical Psychology · Mental Health Research Topics · Personality Traits and Psychology · Psychology · Social Psychology
Handbook of personality theory and research
Resampling and Distribution of the Product Methods for Testing Indirect Effects in Complex Models
Likelihood Ratio Tests for Model Selection and Non-Nested Hypotheses
The Causal Mediation Formula—A Guide to the Assessment of Pathways and Mechanisms
Testing whether the DSM-5 personality disorder trait model can be measured with a reduced set of items
The dynamic architecture of emotion
The Emotion Process
Public health significance of neuroticism.
An Ultra-Brief Screening Scale for Anxiety and Depression
Trait Activation Theory
The Origins of Neuroticism
Appraisal Considered as a Process of Multilevel Sequential Checking
An Ultra-Brief Screening Scale for Anxiety and Depression
The Nature, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Neuroticism
Measures of emotion
Appraisal components, core relational themes, and the emotions
Regression-based statistical mediation and moderation analysis in clinical research
The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia scale—I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure
Reporting Structural Equation Modeling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results
Stress, appraisal, and coping
Regression Shrinkage and Selection Via the Lasso
A general approach to causal mediation analysis.
SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models
A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects.
Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies
Using Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory to Explain Individual Differences in the Appraisal of Problem-Focused Coping Potential
Understanding the Relationship Between the Big Five Personality Traits and the Cognitive Appraisals Leading to Emotions
Network analyses of emotion components
What You See May Not Be What You Get
Anxious and Angry Rejection Sensitivity, Social Withdrawal, and Retribution in High and Low Ambiguous Situations
Personality Influences in Appraisal-Emotion Relationships
The Daily Life of the Garden‐Variety Neurotic
Toward Disentangling Sources of Individual Differences in Appraisal and Anger
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect
The mediating role of emotion regulation strategies on the association between rejection sensitivity, aggression, withdrawal, and prosociality
Interaction and threshold effects of appraisal on componential patterns of emotion
Evidence for the existence of emotion dispositions and the effects of appraisal bias
Integrating Mediators and Moderators in Research Design
The C-Word
Personality and stressor-related affect
Which emotion regulation strategy is efficient for whom? Reappraisal and suppression efficiency for adaptive and maladaptive personality profiles
The dynamics of threat and challenge appraisals prior to stressful achievement events
Revealing feelings
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |