Are emotions consequences of affective expectations? A commentary essay

Abstract

This issue contains a reinterpretation of the pleasure–arousal–dominance (PAD) model that states only pleasure is pertinent and that cognition precedes pleasure (see Massara et al., 2010). However, such a reinterpretation of the PAD model, in which emotion is a simple signal of the need for an adjustment, suffers from some serious challenges. According to appraisal tendency theory, the theoretical framework should include many more dimensions, as well as individual variables that moderate the link between arousal and pleasure. From a methodological perspective, the utilitarian scenario (grocery shopping in a virtual store) actually appears in an emotional framework, and the atmospherics are sufficiently invasive to stimulate a cognitive appraisal of the situation.