Agnes Moors

KU Leuven, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Faculty Member

Université de Genève, Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Faculty Member

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Ghent University

Kyoto University

University of Michigan

Brian Parkinson

University of Oxford

Robert Lowe

Paschal Sheeran

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Carien van Reekum

University of Reading

Javad Salehi Fadardi

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

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Papers by Agnes Moors

The integrated theory of emotional behavior follows a radically goal-directed approach

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Emotional episodes are action episodes

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The power of goal-directed processes in the causation of emotional and other actions

by Agnes Moors and Yannick Boddez

Standard dual process models in the action domain postulate that stimulus-driven processes are re... more Standard dual process models in the action domain postulate that stimulus-driven processes are responsible for suboptimal behavior because they take them to be rigid and automatic and therefore the default. We propose an alternative dual process model in which goal-directed processes are the default instead. We then transfer the dual process logic from the action domain to the emotion domain. This reveals that emotional behavior is often attributed to stimulus-driven processes. Our alternative model submits that goal-directed processes could be the primary determinant of emotional behavior instead. We evaluate the type of empirical evidence required for validating our model and we consider implications of our model for behavior change, encouraging strategies focused on the expectancies and values of action outcomes.

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Integration of Two Skeptical Emotion Theories: Dimensional Appraisal Theory and Russell's Psychological Construction Theory

This inquiry attempts to integrate two skeptical emotion theories: dimensional appraisal theory a... more This inquiry attempts to integrate two skeptical emotion theories: dimensional appraisal theory and Russell’s (2003) psychological construction theory. To bring out the skeptical elements of these theories, I compare them first with two classical theories: affect program theory and discrete appraisal theory. The skeptical theories are similar to each other in that they replace the concept of emotion with the concept of emotional episode, and that they organize the variety within the set of emotional episodes according to dimensions instead of vernacular emotion subsets. Their differences concern the strength of the relations among the components in emotional episodes and the scientific status of the set of emotional episodes. To make an informed decision about the elements to keep and to revise from both theories, I engage in a separate analysis of the behavior-related components and the experience component, guided by insights from general behavior theories and general theories of consciousness. The analysis of the behavior-related components suggests the relatively uncharted idea that the so-called emotional aspect of behavior can be caused by a goal-directed mechanism. The analysis of the experience component reveals that different theories have emphasized different aspects of experience and hence different paths toward experience. The inquiry ends with an integrated theory that rejects the scientific status of emotions or emotional episodes, but accepts the scientific status of the components and sees strong causal relations among them.

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Goal relevance influences performance monitoring at the level of the FRN and P3 components

Psychophysiology, 2016

The feedback-related negativity (FRN) provides a reliable ERP marker of performance monitoring (P... more The feedback-related negativity (FRN) provides a reliable ERP marker of performance monitoring (PM). It is usually larger for negative compared to positive feedback, and for unexpected relative to expected feedback. In two experiments, we assessed whether these effects could be modulated by goal relevance, defined as feedback informativeness (reliability) and/or impact on a person&#39;s goals. EEG (64-channel) was recorded while 30 participants (in each experiment) performed a speeded go/no-go task across blocks in which the feedback on task performance was deemed either relevant or not. At the ERP level, the FRN component was larger for (frequent) negative compared to (deviant) positive feedback exclusively when the feedback was relevant (Experiment 1). When the probability of positive and negative feedback was balanced (Experiment 2), this valence-driven FRN effect was absent. However, across these two experiments, the FRN was always larger for irrelevant than relevant feedback. Moreover, the subsequent P300 component was larger for feedback in the relevant than the irrelevant blocks. This effect was valence unspecific in Experiment 1, while in Experiment 2 larger P3 amplitudes were recorded for negative than positive (relevant) feedback. Across the two experiments, a larger correct-related negativity in the irrelevant than relevant context was also observed, suggesting that PM is flexible. These ERP findings indicate that goal relevance influences feedback (and response) processing during PM, with two nonoverlapping neurophysiological effects: It gates reward prediction error brain mechanisms (FRN effect), before enhancing subsequent motivational processes (P300 effect).

Examining the mapping problem in dual process models

The role of appraisal in emotion

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Levels of analysis in social psychology

Like many aspects of human behavior, scientific research is a goal-directed activity.

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Comparison of affect program theories, appraisal theories, and psychological construction theories

Levels of Analysis in Social Psychology

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

Like many aspects of human behavior, scientific research is a goal-directed activity.

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Examining the Mapping Problem in Multimode Models

Exploring the Relations between Regret, Self-agency, and the Tendency to Repair Using Experimental Methods and Structural Equation Modeling

The Psychological Record, 2014

Previous studies suggest that feelings of regret are elicited by events appraised as goal incongr... more

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How to explain emotions caused by fictional stimuli: A research program

Four emotion theories on four topics: Definition, causation, regulation, and fiction

Author Reply: Appraisal is Transactional, Not All-Inclusive, and Cognitive in a Broad Sense

Unexpected and just missed: The influence of expectancy and proximity on negative emotions

Psychological emotion theories

Understanding emotion change requires an understanding of emotion causation

Two flavors of appraisal theory

Implicit Measures

Handbook of Implicit Social Cognition: Measurement, Theory, and Applications, Jul 6, 2011

Task (Bar-Anan, Nosek, & Vianello, 2009), and the brief IAT (Sriram & Greenwald, 2009). Several o... more Task (Bar-Anan, Nosek, & Vianello, 2009), and the brief IAT (Sriram & Greenwald, 2009). Several of these implicit measures are described in other chapters of this volume (see Sekaquaptewa, Vargas, & von Hippel, Chapter 8, Teige-Mocigemba, Klauer, & Sherman, Chapter 7, and Wentura & Degner, Chapter 6). At present, so many implicit measures are available that it becomes difficult to come to grips with why a particular procedure or effect qualifies as an implicit measure and how it differs from other (implicit) measures. Recently, ...

The integrated theory of emotional behavior follows a radically goal-directed approach

Download

Emotional episodes are action episodes

Download

The power of goal-directed processes in the causation of emotional and other actions

by Agnes Moors and Yannick Boddez

Download

Integration of Two Skeptical Emotion Theories: Dimensional Appraisal Theory and Russell's Psychological Construction Theory

Download

Goal relevance influences performance monitoring at the level of the FRN and P3 components

Psychophysiology, 2016