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Date of Graduation

5-2026

Description

Research on cognitive appraisals, empathy, and prosocial behavior is prevalent in the literature, but these three domains have seldom intertwined in a meaningful way despite apparent conceptual overlap. Findings suggest that causal attributions of controllability (which are similar to cognitive appraisals of control and responsibility) predict sympathy and helping behavior, but no work has been done on how cognitive appraisals fit into the mix. Thus, the purpose of the present research was to investigate which cognitive appraisals predict empathy and whether empathy subsequently predicts helping intentions through a sequential process. Research on this topic is significant because there are always people in need, but the level of their needs may differ as well as the empathy levels of individuals when a situation arises. The present research was a between-subjects design on how appraisals, empathy, and helping differ between need vs. no need scenarios, which was inspired by work by Coke et al. (1978). We found that appraisals of attentional activity, situational control, uncertainty, other-responsibility, anticipated effort, goal congruence, goal relevance, and empathy and helping intentions were significantly higher in the need condition than the no-need condition, and that appraisals of pleasantness were lower.  The results suggest that individuals evaluate a need-based scenario in ways beyond merely control and responsibility, and that it impacts how they feel and act. The results collected within these studies can contribute to future research by manipulating the demographics of the person in need. This would show if participants were still willing to help even if they are different from the one in need. If we manipulated the demographics of the person in need, this could be used to further study in-group bias and out-group bias.

Publication Date

2026

Document Type

Book

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Psychology

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Vance, Emily

Disciplines

Psychology

Keywords

Social Science

Cognitive Appraisals, Empathy, and Helping Behavior: Toward an Integrated Model

Included in

Psychology Commons

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