Love, Hate, Anger, and Jealousy in Close Relationships: A Prototype and Cognitive Appraisal Analysis

The aim of this research was to make a prototype and cognitive appraisal analysis of 4 emotions within marriage. In Study 1, 160 Ss recalled and wrote about a partner-related love, hate, anger, or jealousy incident. Distinct prototypes and appraisal patterns were obtained. In Study 2, 80 Ss wrote accounts of hypothetical love, hate, anger, and jealousy events in marriage. The results suggested both recalled and hypothetical accounts were derived from the same knowledge structures. In Study 3, Ss matched emotions to events described with varying amounts of prototypical and appraisal information, derived from Study 1. Adding such information significantly increased emotion-matching accuracy over the event-description-only condition. The results are discussed in relation to prototype and cognitive appraisal theories of emotion in close relationships.