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ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to highlight the important role of individual difference factors in the experience of emotion We begin by describing several commonalties across two major approaches to the study of emotion, namely, the neuropsychological and cognitive perspectives Both approaches provide some degree of support for the role of individual differences and cognitive factors in the experience of emotion This paper builds on these commonalities by reviewing personality and psycho.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to highlight the important role of individual difference factors in the experience of emotion We begin by describing several

commonalties across two major approaches to the study of emotion, namely, the neuropsychological and cognitive perspectives Both approaches provide some degree

of support for the role of individual differences and cognitive factors in the experience

of emotion This paper builds on these commonalities by reviewing personality and psychopathology findings that indicate the contribution of both positive and negative personality characteristics (e.g., extraversion, optimism vs neuroticism, trait anxiety) to the types of cognitive appraisals and emotional responses exhibited by different

individuals A self-schema model of emotion is presented as a means of integrating more fully this individual differences perspective with a theory of emotion In this model, self-schema content provides the basis for individual differences in underlying core themes and self-evaluative beliefs The model describes how self-schema content distinctions across individuals may have a differential impact on the initial processing of

an event, evaluation of this event with respect to the self, and emotional and behavioral output Several examples are then presented to illustrate the increased predictability afforded by this individual differences-based self-schema model of emotion The

application of this model to treatment and prevention issues in clinical and health psychology is also briefly considered Finally, the model is integrated with other

theoretical perspectives on emotion by describing a number of additional research and theoretical implications Emphasis is placed on the need for further clarification of both cognitive and emotional components of an individual differences perspective on the study of emotions © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd THE PAST decade has witnessed a resurgence of interest in the study of emotions A wide variety of theoretical

perspectives have been advanced, ranging from neuropsychological approaches to cognitive-based theories of emotion (Izard, 1993; Parkinson, 1997) At the

neuropsychological level, researchers have typically attempted to identify various brain systems that may mediate the experience of emotions As one illustration, it has been proposed by several investigators that the two hemispheres of the Authorship is equal Correspondence should be addressed to Kathy A Winter, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2 791 792 K A Winter and ;\: A Kuiper brain are differentially related to emotion Activation of the left frontal

region is thought to be associated with positive affect or approach-related emotions, whereas activation of the right frontal region of the brain is associated with negative affect or withdrawal related emotions (Davidson, 1993; Zajonc & McIntosh, 1992) Congruent with this proposal, it has been found that right-hemisphere arousal and vigilance mechanisms are particularly sensitive to increased levels of negative affect (such as depression), resulting in impaired functioning (Liotti & Tucker, 1992) In a somewhat different vein, other neuropsychological investigators have focused on mapping out the biologically based motivational systems that may underlie different behaviors and emotions A prime illustration is provided by Gray's (1990)

neuropsychological model for the control of emotional behavior In his model, Gray has identified three fundamental neurologically based emotion systems, namely, the

behavioral approach system (BAS), the behavioral inhibition system (BIS), and the fight/flight system (F/FL S) The behavioral approach system regulates the individual's behavior in the presence of signals of reward, producing positive emotions and filrther approach behaviors The behavioral inhibition system regulates behaviors in the

presence of signals of punishment, leading to increases in anxiety, negative arousal, and the further inhibition of behavioral responses Finally, engagement of the fight/flight system may lead to escape behaviors and/or defensive aggression, coupled with the emotions of terror and rage Along with a neux'opsychological perspective, another approach to the study of emotions that has become increasingly prominent over the past decade involves a cognitive orientation This approach is based on the premise that emotional experience is contingent upon a person's evaluation and interpretation of the situation for his or her well-being (Frijda, 1993; Izard, 1993; Lazarus, 1993; Ortony, Clore, & Collins, 1988; Parkinson, 1997; Roseman, 1991; Scherer, 1993) This personal evaluation, known as cognitive appraisal, is conceptualized slightly differently by various cognitive emotion theorists Some of these theorists describe the emotional experience without attempting to detail the particular appraisals involved (Arnold, 1960; Epstein, 1983; Leventhal, 1984) Other theorists contend, however, that each emotion is

characterized by a specific and unique set of cognitive appraisals (Frijda, 1987; Lazarus, 1991a, 1993; Ortony et al., 1988; Scherer, 1988; Smith & Lazarus, 1993) Commonalties Across Different Theoretical Perspectives on Emotion Despite the apparent diversity across various theoretical perspectives on emotion, several commonalties exist To

begin, both the neuropsychological and cognitive approaches generally distinguish between emotional and cognitive components when describing their theoretical models (Izard, 1993; Parkinson, 1997) Considering the emotional components first, one

relatively common theme across both perspectives is that a basic set of emotions can be identified and classified For example, the four basic emotions proposed by Gray (1990) are hypothesized to correspond to each of his three neurologically based motivational systems That is, the behavioral approach system is hypothesized to correspond to reward, the behavioral inhibition system is hypothesized to correspond to anxiety, and the fight/flight system is hypothesized to correspond to rage and terror (Ortony & Turner, 1990) Other emotion researchers have advanced somewhat different sets, depending upon their theoretical perspectives Plutchik (1980) has proposed that eight primary emotions exist These are fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation, joy, and acceptance Oatley and Individual Differences and Emotion 793 Johnson-Laird (1987), in comparison, have proposed that the number of basic emotions totals five, and includes sadness, disgust, anger, anxiety, and happiness Although the exact number and identity of basic emotions may vary from one theoretical perspective to the next, a high degree of convergence is still evident in terms of positing a fundamental distinction between positive and negative emotions Past models in both domains have typically focused on negative emotions in greater detail This imbalance has been recognized in more recent theoretical approaches, which have also provided a more fine-grained analysis of positive emotions As one illustration, a recent cognitive theory of emotion

by Lazarus (1993) describes six positively valenced emotions (happiness, pride, relief, love, hope, and compassion), in addition to nine negatively valenced emotions (anger, anxiety, fright, guilt, shame, sadness, envy, jealousy, and disgust) Both the

neuropsychologicai and cognitive perspectives on the study of emotion have also acknowledged, to varying degrees, the important role that cognitions may play in the experience of emotion (Izard, 1993) In Gray's (1990) neuropsychological system, for example, information processing or computational functions of the brain are suggested

to underlie all psychological processes, including emotion Within current cognitive theories of emotion, cognitions are posited to play a central role (Lazarus, 1993;

Parkinson, 1997) As suggested earlier, these theories are governed by the proposition that the onset of emotional responses or affective states is dictated by the manner in

which an individual ascribes meaning to the environment That is, emotions are elicited and differentiated via the perception of the situation or event as appraised by the individual (Scherer, 1993) There is considerable debate among current cognitive

theorists, however, regarding the number and type of cognitive appraisals that are thought to differentiate the emotions (Parkinson, 1997) Lazarus (1993) has advanced a cognitive-motivationalrelational theory of emotion in which both positive and negative emotions are thought to be shaped by two cognitive mediators primary and

secondary appraisals According to Lazarus, primary appraisal is defined as an evaluation

of the personal relevance of an encounter for one's well-being, and consists of three well-defined cognitive dimensions: goal relevance, goal congruence, and type of ego involvement (Lazarus, 1991b, 1991c, 1993) Secondary appraisal, on the other hand, is defined as the evaluation of the person's options and resources for coping with the situation and future prospects, and includes three specific and detailed components: blame/credit, coping potential, and future expectancy In comparison to the set of appraisals specified by Lazarus, Roseman (1979) suggested that emotion is dependent upon a different set of cognitive attributes, including motivational state, situational state (presence/absence of reward/punishment), probability (certainty of outcome), legitimacy, and agency (responsibility) Adding to this list, Smith and Ellsworth (1987) have found evidence for three further appraisal dimensions, namely, attentional

activity, anticipated effort, and perceived obstacles Finally, Frijda and his colleagues (Frijda, 1987; Frijda, Kuipers, & ter Schure, 1989) conducted a meta-analysis of several proposed cognitive appraisals and concluded that support existed for the presence of five dimensions: valence, certainty, agency, interestingness, and globality While much

of current cognitive emotion theory focuses on appraisals as the primary means of eliciting emotions, attributions and construals have also been identified as antecedents

to emotions (Lazarus & Smith, 1988) Even more recently, however, cognitive theories of emotion have begun to incorporate discussions of 794 K A Winter and N A Kuiper relational meaning, dynamic systems, and cognitive schemata (e.g., Frijda, 1993;

Lazarus, 1993; Lewis, 1996) Thus, in addition to specifying the type of cognitive content that may be important in emotions (e.g., cognitive appraisals and attributions), more recent cognitive models of emotion have increasingly focused on the cognitive

processes that may pertain to the dynamic, unfolding nature of emotions As one

example, Lazarus (1993) has proposed that each emotion can be defined by a particular pattern of thought, known as a core relational theme These core themes are higher order cognitive constructs that are derived from particular combinations of primary and secondary appraisal components Fifteen core relational themes have been advanced by Lazarus (1993), with each representing a specific relationship between the person and environment With respect to anger, for example, the underlying core theme relates to

a demeaning offense against the individual and her possessions In contrast, the

emotion of happiness relates to a core theme of making reasonable progress toward a goal Sadness relates to the experience of an irrevocable loss, whereas pride is

associated with a core theme of enhancing one's ego-identity by taking credit for an achievement or valued object A second example of a recent cognitive process

orientation toward the study of emotion is provided by Lewis (1996) Building upon a dynamic systems approach, his model of emotion recognizes the importance of the ongoing interplay between cognitions and emotions In accord with current cognitive theories of emotion, Lewis (1996) incorporates the notion of a reciprocal relation between cognitive appraisals and emotions His model further proposes, however, that the feedback between cognition and emotion is the basis for self-organizing appraisals that are recurrent for an individual These appraisals assemble over time, and constitute global interpretations of situations that correspond with particular emotions Thus, for each individual, self-organizing appraisals help guide the direction and magnitude of an emotional response by shifting that person's attention to certain features of an event or situation, and also highlighting particular memories, associations, and scripts These cognitive processes elicit emotions In turn, these emotional changes provide further feedback that helps guide that individual's subsequent cognitive processing of other salient features of the situation and/or directs attention to other relevant memories, associations, and scripts Overall, Lewis' (1996) model clearly acknowledges the complex and ongoing interplay between appraisals, emotions, and cognitive processes, such as selective attention and memory A final common theme evident across both the

neuropsychological and cognitive perspectives on emotion relates to the role of

individual differences At a neuropsychological level, investigators have described various individual differences in neurological systems underlying the experience of emotion Davidson (1992), for example, has reported that individual differences in

measures of brain activation asymmetry are associated with substantial variations in dispositional mood, affective reactivity, and temperament In a similar fashion, Gray (1990) has acknowledged the existence of prominent individual difference factors relating to the degree of sensitivity associated with each of his neurologically based emotion systems As corroborated by a number of other investigators (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985; Larsen & Ketelaar, 1991; Watson, Clark, & Harkness, 1994; Watson & Tellegen, 1985), individuals high on the general personality dimension of extraversion exhibit heightened sensitivity to signals of reward (BAS), producing increased levels of positive affect In contrast, individuals high on the general personality dimension of neuroticism display heightened sensitivity to punishment (BIS), with subsequently enhanced levels of negative affect When Individual Differences and Emotion 7~5 taken together, this pattern suggests that individual difference factors mapping onto

underlying biologically based systems may play a prominent role in the differential experience of situations and emotions Current cognitive theories of emotion have also begun to consider the potential role of individual differences in the experience of emotion Roseman (1991) has hinted at the need for future research to investigate individual differences in cognitive appraisals, and their potential relation to emotional predispositions In turn, Lazarus' (1991c, 1993) model has introduced several person-mediated variables that readily lend themselves to further consideration from an individual difference perspective In discussing cognitive appraisals, for example, Lazarus has proposed that, beyond sharing certain common beliefs and goals, each person also has their own specific set of well-established and stable goal hierarchies, beliefs, and cognitive styles that influence how situations are appraised Thus, due to unique

learning and developmental experiences, individuals may vary significantly in the types

of cognitive appraisals that are made for similar situations Paralleling his views relating

to cognitive appraisals, Lazarus (1991c) has suggested that great variations in emotions are noted among individuals as well Although he proposes that general laws can be formulated about the emotion process, and that people share emotional experiences,

he believes that "an emotion happens to an individual with a distinctive history who wants, thinks, and confronts specific environments, evaluates their significance, and acts

as adaptively as possible" (Lazarus, 1991c, p 7) Moreover, according to Lazarus, when faced with a recurrent person-environment relationship, stable emotional patterns will

result in the individual Summary In addition to distinguishing between cognitive and emotional components, both the neuropsychological and cognitive perspectives have commented on the number of basic emotions, with a fundamental distinction being drawn between positive and negative emotions Furthermore, although current

cognitive theories of emotion are primarily dedicated to uncovering the role of

cognitions within the experience of emotion, neuropsychological perspectives have also acknowledged the contribution of cognitive elements as well For cognitive-based theories of emotion, this emphasis has recently resulted in more refined theoretical models that incorporate both cognitive content and processes In addition to

articulating various types of cognitive content (e.g., appraisals, core themes, and

attributions), cognitive-based emotion researchers have also begun to specify more fully the cognitive processes (e.g., selective attention and information processing effects) that may relate to emotion A final commonality, and one that forms the principal concern of the present article, pertains to the role of individual differences in emotion Across both perspectives there is now reasonable support for the proposal that various individual difference factors may bear importantly on the experience of emotion THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN EMOTION In this article, we propose that a detailed consideration of individual difference factors is integral to a more complete theory of emotion This proposal is quite congruent with a substantial body of literature that supports an integrative hierarchical model of personality and emotionality

advanced by Watson and Clark (1984, 1992a, 1992b, 1994) This hierarchical model consists of both a general and specific level The general level refers to broad

distinctions across personality attributes, namely extra- 796 K A Winter and N A Kuiper version versus neuroticism, that also map onto broad distinctions across

emotions, namely, positive versus negative affect Within each general level of this model there is also a lower order specific level As one example, the general level of neuroticism and negative affect can be further subdivided into different content

domains at the specific level, such as depression or anxiety (Watson et al., 1994) The hierarchical model was briefly alluded to in our previous discussion of individual

difference factors relating to Gray's (1990) emotion systems In particular, the general dimension of extraversion is characterized by a temperamental sensitivity to pleasurable stimuli (BAS); and is associated with the more frequent and intense expression of

positive affect, including the specific content emotions of joyfulness, enthusiasm, boldness, pride, and self-confidence Neuroticism, on the other hand, is thought to be characterized by a temperamental sensitivity to painful or negative stimuli (BIS)

Individuals scoring high on this general negative dimension of personality more

frequently and intensely experience negative affect, including such specific content emotions as fear anxiety, sadness, guilt, hostility, and self-dissatisfaction Considerable research findings now converge on the proposal that individuals scoring high on

neuroticism generally perceive their world in a negative manner, viewing their life experiences as threatening, problematic, and distressing In contrast, individuals with high levels of extraversion generally approach their environment in a positive and energetic manner, displaying a strong willingness and enthusiasm to seek out and actively engage in various life events (Watson & Clark, 1984, 1992a, 1992b, 1994) The Watson and Clark hierarchical model is relevant to our individual differences approach

to emotions in several ways First, the numerous findings associated with this model provide strong empirical support for the proposal that individual differences in

personality are of fundamental importance to the differential experience of emotions Second, the most general level of this hierarchical model (i.e., positive vs negative valence) provides a useful framework for organizing our presentation of additional findings that pertain directly to the cognitive and emotional components of theories of emotion Third, and as discussed in subsequent sections of the paper, the specific content level of the hierarchical model (e.g., depression vs anxiety; pride vs

enthusiasm) is of particular importance to the development and presentation of our individual differences-based self-schema model of emotion Finally, the last section of the paper indicates how both the specific and general levels of this hierarchical model might be integrated with other theoretical and research perspectives to further advance our understanding of individual difference factors pertaining to emotions Individual Differences in Personality and Psychopathology Congruent with the general level of the Watson and Clark hierarchical framework described above, this section of the paper reviews research findings from both the personality and psychopathology domains that are of direct relevance to an individual difference perspective on theories of emotion In particular, the impact of both positive and negative personality characteristics on cognition and emotion, the two central aspects of theories of emotion, is described

When considering cognition, this review focuses on a construct of primary interest to emotion theorists, namely, cognitive appraisals of events Following this, the review of emotion describes additional personality and psychopathology findings that highlight the important role of individual difference factors in emotional responses to events Individual Differences and Emotion 797 Cognition A review of the literature indicates that individual differences in personality mediate cognitive appraisals of both positive and negative life event.s To begin with negative personality characteristics, Gallagher (1990) found that individuals high in neuroticism were more likely to appraise academic events as more threatening and less challenging than those low in neuroticism In a similar fashion,Jerusalem (1990) discovered that individuals high in trait anxiety

appraised a series of difficult performance tasks as threatening and involving loss, whereas low trait anxiety individuals buffered the experience of stress by appraising these situations as less threatening In addition to the specific cognitive appraisals of loss, threat, and challenge described above, negative personality characteristics have also been found to be related to higher general stress appraisals for life events Olinger, Kuiper, and Shaw (1987), for example, found that individuals who endorsed a large number of rigid and dysfunctional self-evaluative standards were found to think about stressful events more often, and rate them as more displeasing, than individuals who displayed few dysfunctional self-evaluative standards This pattern of findings was evident even when these individuals were currently nondepressed, suggesting a

persistent depressive personality style related to negative cognitive attitudes or beliefs about self-evaluation Similarly, Westra and Kuiper (1992) found that Type A

dispositions were significantly related to increased perceived stress, with higher Type A individuals appraising an arithmetic task as more stressful than those lower in Type A attributes These heightened stress appraisals, however, were only found to be

correlated with increased Type A characteristics when the arithmetic task was

presented in a manner that maximized self-worth evaluations While negative

personality characteristics tend to be associated with increased appraisals of threat and loss, positive personality attributes have been shown to be related to more positive appraisals of challenge In terms of extraversion, for example, Gallagher (1990) found that extraverted individuals were more likely to appraise academic stressors as

challenging than were individuals low in extraversion A similar appraisal pattern has

been demonstrated for sense of humor, with Kuiper, Martin, and Olinger (1993)

reporting that individuals with a higher sense of humor viewed stressful events as more challenging than individuals with a lower sense of humor Other research has shown that positive personality characteristics are also associated with reduced negative appraisals of threat and loss regarding stressful life events In a sample of German migrants, for example,Jerusalem (1993) found that those individuals high in optimism and self-efficacy were less likely to appraise their current adaptational demands as threatening, and were less likely to consider that they had suffered a loss, when

compared with those who were low in optimism Furthermore, the relationship

between an individual's level of optimism and both challenge and threat appraisals has been examined in a sample of 73 dental patients presenting for wisdom-tooth

extraction under general anesthesia (Siim, 1994) In this study, higher levels of optimism were positively related to appraisals of challenge and negatively related to appraisals of threat That is, those people who had a positive outlook on life felt more confident and less afraid when it came to surgery than those people who have a negative outlook on life As well, optimists were more likely to appraise pain following surgery as more challenging, less threatening, and more controllable than pessimists A similar appraisal pattern has been demonstrated for individual differences in sense of humor In

particular, when faced with performing a novel task in a laboratory setting, Kuiper, McKenzie, and Belanger (1995) found that individuals with 798 K A Winter and N A K'uiper an increased level of humor provided higher challenge and lower threat

appraisals, compared with individuals displaying a lower sense of humor Emotion A review of the literature also indicates that individual differences in personality mediate affective responses to life events There is some agreement in the literature that a depressive personality style is associated with a variety of negative emotional features, including increased levels of dysphoric affect, sadness, anxiety, and guilt (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979; Kuiper, Olinger, & Martin, 1990; Segal & Swallow, 1993) As one example, Krantz and Hammen (1979) found that when faced with ambiguous

information, depressed individuals favored emotionally negative interpretations As a second illustration, Olinger et al (1987) found that individuals with a large number of dysfunctional self-evaluative standards rated negative life events as having a greater emotional impact, ruminated more often about these events, and displayed higher

perceived stress levels than individuals who were less cognitively vulnerable to

depression Consistent with a depressive personality style, these effects were also evident even when these individuals were nondepressed Congruent with the above findings, individuals high in Type A characteristics also perceive their lives as involving more stress, and consequently experience greater emotional distress than those individuals displaying few Type A characteristics (Kuiper & Martin, 1989) In two

separate studies, Westra and Kuiper (1992) found a positive relation between Type A characteristics and negative emotion That is, high Type A individuals were found to have increased depressive affect, and reported more anger and negative affect, than individuals who did not display Type A features While negative personality

characteristics tend to be related to emotional distress, positive personality

characteristics have been shown to be consistently related to positive emotion For example, Carver and Gaines (1987) explored the effects of trait optimism in a group of women during their transition from pregnancy to motherhood In this study, an

individual's level of optimism (measured in the third trimester of pregnancy) was found

to be inversely related to depressed mood, 3 weeks postpartum Similarly, Scheier and Carver (1991) found that higher levels of trait optimism were negatively related to the expression of depressive affect in adaptation to college life The association between trait optimism and affect is further illustrated in a study of individuals recovering from coronary artery bypass surgery (Scheier et al., 1989) Specifically, optimistic individuals were found to report lower levels of hostility and depressive affect prior to surgery, hnmediately postsurgery, more optimistic individuals were also found to report greater happiness, relief, and satisfaction than individuals low in optimism Individual

differences in sense of humor have also been found to moderate emotion in a positive fashion In addition to work that has shown that a greater sense of humor is inversely related to negative affect in response to negative life events (Lefcourt & Martin, 1986), other research has also found higher levels of humor to be related to more positive emotions surrounding positive life events (Martin, Kuiper, Olinger, & Dance, 1993) An increased sense of humor is also significantly related to greater positive emotion in novel situations In particular, following the completion of a novel drawing task, Kuiper

et al (1995) found that individuals with a greater sense of humor also displayed

significantly higher levels of positive affect Individual Differences and Emotion 799

Summary Our review of the personality and psychopathology literature points to the important role that individual differences play in cognition and emotion; the two

fundamental components of theories of emotion With regard to the cognitive

component, individuals who display negative or psychopathological personality

attributes, such as neuroticism or trait anxiety, often provide cognitive appraisals that construe their environments as more stressful and threatening In contrast, individuals displaying such positive personality characteristics as extraversion or optimism typically appraise their environments in a more favorable and challenging manner In terms of the emotional component, individuals who have more negative personality

characteristics, such as depressive or Type A dispositions, report heightened levels of emotional distress and negative emotions when faced with either stressful or

nonstressful life events, when compared with individuals displaying more positive personality characteristics, such as optimism or sense of humor COGNITION AND EMOTION IN THE SELF-SCHEMA Attention will now focus on a higher order construct, the self-schema, as a means of integrating cognition and emotion within the individual The self-schema construct was selected as it has a considerable theoretical and research base that encompasses both cognitive content and process from an individual difference perspective (Banaji & Prentice, 1994; Kuiper et al., 1990; Markus & Nurius, 1986; Segal

& Swallow, 1993) In this approach, the self-schema consists of the organized cognitive representations of one's own unique traits, attributes, abilities, opinions, and attitudes This constellation of self-referent information in the self-schema serves to guide the processing of personally relevant information Each individual has a self-schema that is unique or person-specific, and is responsible for influencing perception, attention, appraisal, and memory processes By filtering aspects of the external world, and thereby influencing what is attended to, self-schemata shape knowledge and behavior (Pace, 1988) This blending of content and process allows for a conceptual model that readily captures features of the ongoing interactions an individual has with the environment As such, a self-schema model is particularly sensitive to the dynamic unfolding nature of emotions, as it includes the application of motives and cognitive content to ongoing information processing and feedback Overall, our general aim in presenting this

integrative self-schema model is to illustrate how an individual difference perspective can be fully incorporated within a theory of emotion Prior to presenting this model we

first review findings from both the personality and psychopathology domains that demonstrate that individual differences in self: schemata exist, and that these

differences have important implications for both the cognitive and emotional

components of theories of emotion Congruent with the Watson and Clark (1992, 1994) hierarchical framework described earlier, this review begins by incorporating the

general level distinction between positive and negative personality characteristics As the review progresses, however, it becomes increasingly clear that the more specific content level of the hierarchical framework is of particular importance to our proposed self-schema model Within the general negative personality domain, for example, self-schema findings will be reviewed that indicate that specific content differences between depression and anxiety provide fundamental distinctions in patterns of self-

representation, and the experience of emotions Finally, this review further

demonstrates the important role of cognitive processes in the experience of emotion This processing element begins to emerge in the consider- 800 K A Winter and ~\ A Kuiper ation of cognition and self-schemata, and then assumes more central importance when commenting on the relationship between emotions and individual differences in self-schemata Self-schemata and cognition Considering first negative personality characteristics, a number of studies suggest that a unique self-schema with a specific cognitive profile exists for a depressive personality style Overall, the relevant cognitions are organized around broad themes of personal worthlessness and inadequacy (Clark & Beck, 1989; Kuiper et al., 1990; Segal & Swallow, 1993; Westra & Kuiper, 1996), and translate into a negative content schema with negatively biased information processing Clinically depressed individuals, for example, show greater self-referent endorsement and recall for negative content personal adjectives, such as inadequate, unlucky, weak, helpless, and inferior (Derry & Kuiper, 1981; Mineka & Sutton, 1992) In contrast, selfschemata for normal and nondepressed psychiatric controls shows a positive

content orientation, with much greater endorsement and recall of positive personality characteristics, such as achieving, capable, inquiring, helpful, and sociable Finally, additional research has shown that individual differences in self-schemata exist for individuals who are mildly depressed, Kuiper and Derry (1982), for example, found that mild depressives endorsed and subsequently recalled equal amounts of self-referent positive and negative personality, characteristics, whereas nondepressed individuals

primarily endorsed and recalled positive content material only Further research has demonstrated that a specific set of dysfunctional self-evaluative beliefs may also play an important role in a depressive personality self-schema (Kuiper et al., 1990; Olinger et al., 1987) Using the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), a self-report inventory designed to measure the dysfimctional sell-worth beliefs thought to predispose individuals to depression, Cane, Olinge~, Gotlib, and Kuiper (1986) found evidence for two distinct cognitive dimensions These were, respectively, performance evaluation (e.g., "If I do not do as well as other people, it means I am an inferior human being"), and approval of others (e.g., "What other people think of me is very important.") Empirically, the increased endorsement of these rigid self-evaluative standards has robust effects In addition to the Olinger et al (1987) findings reported earlier in this paper, Kuiper and Dance (1994) tound that dysfunctional self-evaluative standards were significant

predictors of increased depression levels and diminished self-esteem across time This effect remained significant even "after taking into account initial levels of depression and self-esteem at time 1 As such, this research highlights the utility of dysfunctional selfevaluative standards in terms of predicting subsequent levels of aftect and self-esteem Individual differences in cognitive self-representation can also be described for anxious individuals Although a variety' of cognitive structures account tor anxiety disorders, self-schema content is tL~cused on feelings of vulnerability and fragility (Segal

& Swallow, 1993), as well as themes of personal danger, threat, and uncertainty (Clark, Beck, & Stewart, 1990; Westra & Kuiper, 1996) In a sample of 470 patients, Clark et al (1990), for example, found evidence to support Beck's cognitive theory of

psychopathology That is, factor analytic findings revealed a two-factor solution, in which anxiety and depression formed separate dimensions While those who were clinically depressed were characterized by hopelessness, low self-worth and negative thoughts involving loss and past failure, clinically anxious individuals reported

significantly more thoughts of anticipated harm and danger Despite the fact that fewer empirical studies have examined the sell-schema of anxious individuals, the existing research has generally been supportive In particular, anxious individuals have been Individual Differences and Emotion 801 found to rate more negative traits as self-descriptive and display superior attention to and recall for fear relevant stimuli, as compared to those individuals who are nonanxious (Breck & Smith, 1983; Mineka &

Sutton, 1992) Individual differences in self-schemata have also been investigated for Type A persons Price (1982) postulated that three specific fears or irrational beliefs are characteristic of Type A individuals, namely, that self-worth is largely a function of personal achievements, that no universal moral principles exist, and that resources are

in scarce supply This Type A schema, which centers around achievement, competition, and negativity toward others, has generally received empirical support Westra and Kuiper (1992), for instance, reported that individuals high in Type A have dysfunctional cognitions concerning performance evaluation These individuals are also characterized

by numerous aberrant cognitions, including a need to seek revenge, a belief that

resources are in scarce supply and that one will not acquire one's share of desirable commodities, and the conviction that self-worth is contingent upon personal

accomplishments In a study that simultaneously examined dysfunctional self-schema content across four different maladjustment domains, Westra and Kuiper (1996) found further support for the proposed individual difference profiles for content-specificity These researchers demonstrated that for depression, Type A characteristics, anxiety, and bulimia, the expected self-schema content emerged, and was specific for each domain of maladjustment Anxiety, for example, was marked by a specific focus on interpersonal evaluative fears, whereas higher levels of depression were specifically associated with dysfunctional self-evaluative cognitions pertaining to failure and loss In addition, it was found that these individual differences in dysfunctional self-schema content were highly predictive of future levels of maladjustment in each domain, even after controlling for both initial maladjustment level and the endorsement of more general types of dysfunctional cognitions Given the relatively recent focus on

investigating self-schemata for positive personality dimensions, there is still somewhat limited empirical evidence in this area Hillson (1997), however, has found promising initial results pertaining to two distinct dimensions within positive personality In her work, she factor analyzed the Ryff (1989) scale, a broad-based measure of several positive personality characteristics Across several samples these analyses consistently revealed two underlying dimensions of positive personality, namely, Positive

Individualism (PI) and Positive Relations with Others (PR) Positive Individualism consists

of items relating to feelings of acceptance of oneself, feelings of independent or

autonomous functioning, having purpose or sense of meaning in one's life, and a sense

of success or mastery over one's environment Positive Relations with Others refers to the giving and receiving inherent in healthy adult relationships, including one's

interpretation of the appropriate use and availability of social support In addition to ascertaining that PI and PR are distinct from each other, Hillson (1997) also found that PI and PR are distinct from other positive personality dimensions, such as extraversion, optimism, and sense of humor Of particular relevance in the present context, Hillson (1997) has demonstrated that these two dimensions of positive personality show expected self-schema content effects, both in terms of self-descriptive adjectives and belief statements Her research demonstrated that unique sets of self-descriptive adjectives and belief statements (modeled after the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, but positive in nature) were each able to discriminate between the two positive personality dimensions of PI and PR Examples of self-descriptive adjectives for PI include aspiring and individualistic; 802 K A Winter and N A Kuiper whereas self-descriptive adjectives for PR include warm, companionable, and unselfish Similarly, an example of a belief statement for PI includes: "You should be confident in your own opinions and evaluate yourself by your own standards." In contrast, a belief statement reflecting the PR dimension includes: "It is important to have a sense of belonging with those around you." Self-schemata and emotion Over the past few years, the view that cognitive schematic processes are closely related to the experience of emotion has been steadily gaining ground (Mathews & MacLeod, 1994) Researchers are in general agreement with the notion that individual differences in attitudes, beliefs, and general cognitive selfrepresentations are associated with individual differences in emotions According to Segal and Swallow (1993), for instance, certain schemata are hypothesized to have concomitant emotional features Using depression as an example, these researchers suggested that the core schema of inadequacy and worthlessness that is characteristic

of depressives activates cognitive appraisals of uncontrollability, which subsequently triggers feelings of sadness Other studies have also highlighted the influence of

individual differences in cognitive schemata on emotional experiences In a sample of university students, Larsen, Diener, and Cropanzano (1987) found that cognitive

processes consistent with a schematic approach are positively related to more intense affective responses when certain individuals are exposed to either positive or negative emotional stimuli These researchers found that individuals scoring high on the

individual difference variable of affective reactivity engaged in more negative referencing and focusing on the specific emotion-provoking aspects of events than individuals scoring low on affective reactivity High scorers on this personality dimension also tended to overgeneralize the emotional implications of a single negative event, when compared to low scorers In addition to research that has demonstrated a link between cognitive schematic processes and the magnitude of emotional experience, there is some empirical support for a significant relation between individual differences

self-in cognitive style and the expression of different types of negative emotions As one illustration, Berenbaum, Fujita, and Pfennig (1995) found that general cognitive styles relating to attributional preferences are differentially associated with negative

emotions Those individuals displaying an increased general tendency to make internal and unstable causal attributions, for example, also displayed higher levels of fear In contrast, individuals with an increased general tendency to make global and stable attributions for various events displayed higher levels of sadness and anger Turning to the psychopathology literature, Mathews and MacLeod (1994) have carefully detailed empirical research affirming the link between schematic processes and emotion for depressed and anxious individuals Specifically, these investigators reviewed literature attesting to cognitive biases in information processing, selective interpretation, and selective memory With respect to cognitive processing, research shows that anxiety and depression are associated with an encoding bias favoring emotionally negative information For example, both anxious and depressed individuals were found to display disproportionately long color-naming latencies for threatrelated stimulus words

(indicating greater distraction by the semantic meaning of these words); as well as exhibiting speeded detection of a probe occurring in the spatial location of negative words Anxious and depressives also exhibited a selective bias favoring emotionally negative interpretations As one illustration, in a homophone spelling test, high anxious individuals provided more negative word spellings Individual Differences and Emotion

803 for ambiguous homophones than did low anxious individuals (e.g., pain for pane) Moreover, anxious individuals displayed a greater priming effect for target words that had a single spelling, but two meanings differing in emotional valence (e.g., stroke) Finally, depressed individuals were found to have short recall latency for negative memories and exhibited superior recall for emotionally negative stimulus words

Summary Research was presented suggesting that a coherent set of self-descriptive adjectives and belief statements exists for both positive and negative personality; and that further specific distinctions can then be made within each of these general

categories Examination of the cognitive profiles for several patterns of maladjustment (e.g., depression, anxiety, and Type A) revealed that pathological personality is

differentially related to negative content schemata, and that excessively rigid and inappropriate evaluative standards are used to guide the lives of those who have

negative personalities In contrast, preliminary research by Hillson (1997) suggests that there are at least two useful dimensions within positive personality; and that these two dimensions are differentially related to self-descriptive adjectives and positive belief statements that guide self-evaluations and behavior The preceding review also revealed that certain cognitive schemata are related to affect intensity, and that cognitive styles are differentially associated with negative emotions Finally, it was demonstrated that cognitive schemata of anxious and depressed individuals are differentially related to the encoding of emotionally negative information, the favoring of emotionally negative interpretations, and superior recall of emotionally negative memories A SELF-SCHEMA MODEL OF EMOTION This section of the paper presents a self-schema model of emotion that places individual differences in the forefront As shown in Figure 1, this will be done

by suggesting that the two major aspects of the self-schema consist of content and function The content aspect of the self-schema provides a means for detailing the precise role of specific individual differences in self-relevant content in theories of emotion The three functional aspects of the self-schema, namely, initial processing, evaluation, and output, provide a means for blending the content and process

components of the self, as the individual deals with environmental events Components

of a Self-Schema Model of Emotion Self-schema content As reviewed earlier, the content aspect of the self-schema includes traits, attributes, abilities, opinions, and attitudes that are unique to each individual In addition, self-schema content reflects an individual's self-descriptive adjectives, self-evaluative belief statements, and

attributions Although not addressed in the self-schema literature, it is our contention that Lazarus' notion of core relational themes, as outlined earlier in the paper, is also an important element of self-schema content In order for this element to be incorporated within self-schema content, however, some modification is required Specifically,

Lazarus (1993) has proposed that a universe of 15 core relational themes is available for each and every person to draw from In contrast, our model proposes that the general availability and applicability of core relational themes across all individuals may not be the case Instead, our examination of the self-schema literature suggests that only certain subsets of core relational themes are inherent in each individual Within our model, these themes then 804 K A Winter and N A Kuiper Self-Schema Content Self-Schema Functioning i Self-Schema trmts, attributes, abilities opinions, attitudes self-descriptive adjectives self-evaluative beliefs attributions core relational themes 4 perception 'niti positive self-relevant Ev u ti°n evaluative H - emotions Outpu' selective attention judgements behaviors (coping) encoding negative self-

relevant evaluative cognitive appraisal judgements core relational themes Life Events (stressful and non-stressful) FIGURE 1 A self-schema model of emotion depicting how individual differences in schema content influence initial processing, evaluation, and output of stressful and nonstressful llfe events uniquely guide that person's appraisal of and emotional reactions to his or her own life events As one illustration of guiding themes, a person with Type A characteristics may generally experience core themes centering around feeling cheated or being given a raw deal, when faced with life

situations In contrast, a person with depressive personality characteristics may

generally experience themes centering around feeling inadequate regarding progress toward desired goals Furthermore, our review of the self-schema literature suggests that for certain individuals, other sets of core themes above and beyond those

described by Lazarus in his model of emotion, may be particularly relevant and salient Recall that Hillson (1997) has identified a set of self-referent belief statements reflecting the content of at least two distinct dimensions of positive personality (i.e., positive individualism, positive relatedness) that are not redundant with those proposed by Lazarus Self-schema content components can impact on self-schema functioning in a variety of ways, including initial processing, evaluation, and the generation of output, when individuals are faced with either stressful or nonstressful life events During the initial processing stage, self-schema content guides what information is attended to by actively filtering out environmental stimuli deemed to be extraneous or irrelevant to the self A number of cognitive strategies employing self-schema content guide initial processing, and serve to maintain positive affect or favorable self-evaluations within the