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The evolutions of Berlyne's theoretical contributions are traced by contrasting his particular developments with seven characteristics of Hullian theory. Berlyne is seen to have dismantled each element and replaced it with a vastly different theoretical position and structure. Berlyne developed a truly general theory, which was then differentiated with special concepts in specific areas as diverse as thinking and aesthetics.

This study investigated proposed paths of the affective events theory (AET; H. M. Weiss & R. Cropanzano, 1996), with part-time employees completing surveys at 2 points in time and completing an event-contingent diary over 2 weeks. In support of AET, negative affectivity (Time 1) related to negative emotional reactions at work. Negative emotional reactions were associated with intention to leave the job (Time 2). This relationship was especially strong for the sadness emotions (disappointed, depressed, unhappy). Positive affectivity (Time 1) directly related to job satisfaction (Time 2), but only weakly predicted positive emotional reactions at work (aggregated over 2 weeks). Qualitative data provided information about work affective events and affect-driven behaviors. Interpersonal mistreatment from customers were the most frequent cause of anger and resulted in faking expressions about 50% of the time. Recognition from supervisors for work performance was the main cause of pride.

Although conscientiousness predicts many aspects of motivation, from delay of gratification to higher achievement, its relationship to responses to monetary incentives is surprisingly inconsistent. Several studies have found null or negative relationships between conscientiousness and behavioral performance in piece-rate, pay-for-performance tasks, in which people earn money for each unit of work completed. In the present study, we examined the role of conscientiousness in effort-related cardiac activity and behavioral performance during a pay-for-performance task. People worked on a self-paced, piece-rate cognitive task in which they earned 1 cent or 5 cents, manipulated within-person, for each correct response. Conscientiousness predicted greater physiological effort (i.e., shorter pre-ejection period [PEP] reactivity) as incentives increased but had no effect on behavioral performance. The findings suggest that conscientiousness is significantly related to effort for piece-rate tasks, and they reinforce a core idea in motivational intensity theory: effort, performance, and persistence are distinct outcomes that often diverge, so drawing conclusions about effort from performance can be complex.

The claim of Ekman and Friesen (1986, “A New Pan- Cultural Facial Expression of Emotion,”Motivation and Emotion, 10, 159–168) that they have found the first empirical support for the existence of a pancultural expression of contempt is challenged on three grounds. First, the claim that no one else had ever attempted to describe an expression unique to contempt in any culture neglects a tradition of research dating back to Darwin. Second, the data presented by Ekman and Friesen were derived using stimuli that are ambiguous representations of their intended expressions. Finally, there are earlier data for the universality of contempt expressions. Ekman and Friesen's contempt expression may best be viewed as a learned modification of a prototypical expression evolved from the infrahuman snarl.

Research suggests that when predicting our future emotions, affective forecasting errors are frequent (Wilson and Gilbert in Adv Exp Soc Psychol 35:345–411, 2003), influence motivation (Wilson and Gilbert in Curr Dir Psychol Sci 14:131–134, 2005), and drive decisions and behaviors (Dunn and Laham Affective forecasting: a user’s guide to emotional time travel, Psychology Press, London, 2006). Regret can fall prey to these same errors (Gilbert et al., in Psychol Sci 15:346–350, 2004). Recent research characterizes two distinct components of regret: an affective element and cognitive element associated with maladaptive and functional outcomes, respectively (Buchanan et al., in Judgment and Decision Making 11:275–286, 2006). We explored forecasting of these elements across two studies. In Study 1, we investigated how accurately individuals forecast each component of regret, and how this relates to well-being. Participants forecasted experiencing a greater amount of regret (including affective and cognitive components) than they actually experienced. Additionally, forecasted (compared to experienced) components of regret uniquely predicted well-being outcomes, suggesting that predicting more affective regret coincides with lower well-being. In Study 2, forecasting errors in overall regret were eliminated by asking participants to focus on cognitive elements of regret prior to forecasting.

This investigation examined the influence of negative affective reactions on the perceived likelihood of experiencing a health risk. Concepts related to formaldehyde exposure were paired with negative stimuli to create affective reactions. In Study 1, perceived risk was reduced when the thought of formaldehyde exposure elicited negative affective reactions compared to a control condition and participants were less interested in information on the risk and recommended spending less money to alleviate the hazard. The potential boundary condition of emotional states was examined in Study 2. Sad or neutral emotion was elicited before learning about the hazard, which was again paired with negative stimuli or no affective stimuli. Sadness increased perceived risk; negative affective reactions reduced perceived risk only when participants were in a neutral incidental state. These findings suggest that negative affective reactions reduce the perceived likelihood of risk, but only in the absence of alternative emotional information.

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that a positive mood can increase attendance to, and systematic processing of, threatening health information, particularly when the information is self-relevant. In Study 1, a positive mood increased differentiation between strong and weak arguments in a threatening health message about RSI only for participants who had received false feedback regarding their high vulnerability to RSI. Mood had no effects under conditions of low vulnerability. In Study 2, a positive mood speeded up responses to self-threatening words—compared with neutral words—for smokers who had just read a threatening health message about smoking. The authors conclude that fostering a positive mood may promote attendance to and systematic processing of information that threatens the self, and hence contribute to the success of health campaigns targeted at individuals who are vulnerable to specific health risks.

Interpersonal transgressions, subsequent apologies, and offered (or withheld) forgiveness hold important consequences for both perpetrators and victims. Research has focused largely on the perceptions of victims and processes that promote forgiveness in relation to transgressions of low severity. In order to extend this domain of inquiry we examined the emotional substrates that facilitate and constrain apologies for severe transgressions (i.e., murder). We collected data on the final statements from incarcerated persons on death row and applied a sentiment analysis to obtain estimates of the emotions expressed in them (i.e., anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, and trust). We manually coded each statement to indicate whether it exhibited some form of apology and compared the emotions expressed in apologetic statements versus non-apologetic statements. Results indicated that overall, final statements reflected high levels of joy and trust. Similar to studies of less severe transgressions, we found that 33.50% of statements contained some form of apology. Our comparative analyses revealed that apologetic statements reflected significantly greater sadness and less anger. In regression and subsequent dominance analyses we found that sadness and anger were the most important emotions to apologizing. We also found that anger moderated the association between sadness and the likelihood of apologizing such that as anger increased the effect of sadness decreased. Taken together these findings suggest that apologies for severe transgressions involve a delicate balance between sadness and anger rather than either emotion in isolation.

The present experiments investigated the mechanism(s) that produce the false feedback effect. Although the present studies replicated the basic phenomenon, previously proposed mediators of attention and arousal did not appear related to the effects obtained. In Experiment 1, change feedback slides were rated significantly higher than no-change feedback slides (F(1, 39)=11.88,p<.01). Correlations showed that both arousal and nonarousal feedback cues produced active search and influenced stimulus ratings. Attention or arousal differences between change and no-change feedback should not result in equal cue effects. In Experiment 2, feedback rating differences were eliminated by presenting less differentially ambiguous situational stimuli. These findings suggested that important factors in the emotion attribution process may be the relative ambiguity and subjective salience of both situational and physiological cues.