Selections from Passion & Reason: Making Sense of Our Emotions By Richard & Bernice Lazarus (1994).
One of the books used in Psychology 352 Motivation and Emotion
1.	"In Elements of Emotion 2: The Mind," Wade and Tavris (2003) make the point that ". . .emotions are created or influenced by beliefs, perceptions of the situation, expectations, and attributions--the explanations that people make of their own and other people's behavior . . ." (p. 407). In articulating this theoretical position, the authors cite cognitive researcher Richard Lazarus several times (pages 409 and 410). The notes for this lecture were taken from his 1994 book with his wife. It is intended to supplement the theoretical point your authors are making.
	a.	What is meant by appraisal?
	b.	What is meant by reappraisal?
	c.	" . . .cognitions and physiology are inextricably linked in the experience of emotion" (p. 410). This theoretical statement was supplemented in class by an example from a Scientific American article on "male sexual circuitry" (Goldstein, 2000).
	d.	'. . . "An emotional encounter is not a single action or reaction, as in a still photo, but a continuous give and take between people'--a story as told in a movie" (p. 410).
	e.	"An individual's experience of emotion, then, combines mind and body" (p. 410).
2.	What the book is about.
	a.	Many myths exist about emotions.
		1.	One myth is that emotions are irrational and do not depend on thinking and reasoning. Actually, emotions and intelligence go hand in hand. Emotions are rational.
		2.	Another myth is that emotions get in the way of our adaptation. Though they often get us into trouble, emotions are a vital tool for getting along in the world.
	b.	Two interrelated themes echo in the pages of this book:
		1.	The emotions are products of personal meaning, which depends on what is important to us and the things we believe about ourselves and the world. We construct life meanings for the purpose of creating order where there would otherwise be chaos. When these meanings are threatened, we experience anxiety. And when these meanings are edifying, we experience happiness.
		2.	Each emotion has a distinctive dramatic plot we all can recognize. The plot defines what we believe is happening to us and its significance for our individual well-being. The plot reveals the personal meaning we have assigned to an event, which in turn arouses a particular emotion.
3.	Anger
	1.	What is the provoking event?
	2.	There must be a goal at stake for an emotion to be aroused. In the case of anger, the goal is to preserve one's ego.
	3.	What was the personal meaning that aroused the person's ire? Personal meaning is the product of an appraisal.. This means that they have to do with how relationships affect our well-being. (Lazarus & Lazarus, 1994, p. 145).
	4.	The dramatic plot is a demeaning offense against me or mine (p. 20).
	5.	Coping (Wade & Tavris, p. 560)
		a.	Appraisal is an evaluative judgment about the significance of an event (Lazarus & Lazarus, 1994, p. 143).
		b.	Reappraisal (Wade & Tavris, p. 563)
	6.	The example of the dynamic process of emotions described in Wade & Tavris over an angry incident was elaborated in class (see page 410).
4.	Envy
	a.	Difference from jealousy: Envy is a two-person emotion. Jealousy, in contrast, is a three-way triangle in which someone threatens or has taken what we consider ours, most often the affection of a third party. We envy the person who has a good job but are jealous of the person who got the good job to which we aspired.
	b.	The dramatic plot for envy is simply wanting what someone else has. The subjective state of a person who envies is one of yearning for what one feels unfairly deprived of, a painful hunger that is difficult to control.
	c.	The provocation for envy is the observation that another person has what we want, either actually or symbolically.
	d.	The personal meaning of envy is that someone has what one wants or needs, perhaps someone less deserving, which is construed as unfair, and so one yearns for it too.
5.	Jealousy
	a.	The personal meaning of jealousy is that one has lost or is threatened with loss of favor, usually another's affection. This meaning calls for coping with the harm or threat, either to prevent the loss, restore what is lost, or enact vengeance against the one who is held blameworthy for what has happened.
	b.	Jealousy is a more complex emotion than envy. Paraphrasing the dramatic plot of jealousy just a bit, it is resenting a third party for loss, or threat of loss, of another's favor. The favor might be affection, but can also be about something another person has gained at one's expense--for example, winning a job, a promotion, a prize or a high grade. The most common dramatic version of jealousy is the love triangle, which occurs when one is jealous of another person who has "stolen" a loved one's affection.
6.	Compassion
	a.	The personal meaning of compassion is that one understands that another human being, like oneself, is suffering and deserves help.
	b.	The provocation is the sight of such a person and the awareness of that person's plight and distress. Compassion may be made more likely and more intense by having had similar experiences of suffering ourselves, which leads us more readily to understand and appraise the problems of others compassionately.
	c.	The dramatic plot for compassion is being moved to distress by another person's suffering, and wanting to help.
7.	References
	Goldstein, Irwin. (Aug 2000). Male sexual circuitry. Scientific American, 282-8, 70-75.
	Lazarus, Richard S., & Lazarus, Bernice N. (1994). Passion & Reason: Making Sense of our Emotions. New York: Oxford Press.
	Lazarus, Richard S. (2000a, Spring). Reason and our emotions: A hard sell.The General Psychologist, 35, 16-20.
	Lazarus, Richard S. (2000b). Toward better research on stress and coping. American Psychologist, 55, 665-673.