Interactional appraisal models for the anger appraisals of threatened self-esteem, other-blame, and frustration

Starting from the interactional assumption of appraisal theories, the present study aimed to identify situation-specific individual differences and their personality correlates for the anger-relevant appraisals of threat to self-esteem, other-blame, and frustration. Participants engaged in a directed imagery task of descriptions of unpleasant situations after which they reported on the appraisals, and were administered measures of potentially relevant dispositional characteristics. The results demonstrated situation-specific individual differences in threatened self-esteem and other-blame, which showed differential relationships with dispositional variables. Threat to self-esteem was related to an unstable self-esteem, neuroticism, and BIS sensitivity in unpleasant evaluative situations, whereas it was related to feeling lowlily valued by others in non-evaluative situations. Other-blame was found to be related to an unstable self-esteem, BIS sensitivity, and neuroticism when someone else is responsible, whereas it was related to interpersonal distrust and low perceived social esteem when oneself or the circumstances are responsible. Individual differences in frustration were found to generalise across contexts, and were primarily related to BIS sensitivity.