Evaluations of stressful transactions: what's in an appraisal?

Appraisals are the portal to emotional experience and action. Past research has demonstrated that challenge and threat appraisals have different implications for psychological, physiological, and behavioural responses, typically relying on two‐item assessments of appraisals. The present study investigated the predictive utility of a theoretically expanded appraisal measure. Both indexes were used to classify participants as either challenged (task demands were rated as commensurate with coping resources) or threatened (task demands were rated as exceeding resources). Group differences in stress responses were examined. The lengthened appraisal assessment was reliable. Furthermore, compared with the two‐item measure, the expanded measure better distinguished differences in emotional experience and performance. Similar findings were obtained for cardiovascular stress responses. Enhancing the assessment of individual differences in stressor appraisals facilitates our understanding their nature and potential for modification, and the nature of the stress process. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.