UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE
FACULTÉ DE PSYCHOLOGIE ET DES SCIENCES DE L'ÉDUCATION
Section de psychologie
Levels of processing in appraisal :
evidence from computer game generated emotions
Thèse
présentée à la Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education de l'Université de Genève
pour obtenir le grade de Docteur en Psychologie
par
Carien VAN REEKUM
(de Pays-Bas)
sous la direction de
Pr Klaus R. Scherer
Thèse n° FPE 289
Genève, 2000
Had I fully understood at the start that the topic I chose for my dissertation would be as much a conceptual as a methodological challenge, I would have probably opted out. In the end, I didn't, and that was mostly due to the great help and encouragement I received during the past five years. First of all, I'd like to thank Klaus Scherer, who provided me with ample opportunities to discover and experience the world of science, and who has encouraged me to keep pushing the "levels" issue during these five years. I thank the members of the Geneva Emotion Research Group, past and present, for discussions, support, and tolerance of my error-prone and often cryptic French. Janique Sangsue, Stéphanie Meylan and Tanja Bänziger have been very royal with their help, merci bien. I also thank in particular Patricia Garcia-Prieto, Marcel Zentner, Veronique Tran, and Susanne Schmidt for the lively discussions we shared over good meals, and their suggestions, moral support, and friendship. The inspirational skiing trips will be sorely missed! Thanks also goes to the members of my thesis committee, professors Arne Öhman, Nico Frijda and Anik de Ribaupierre, who have provided me with valuable feedback and comments during the past 5 years. I had the pleasure of meeting Craig Smith and Leslie Kirby in person during my visit to Craig's lab in 1996, where both spurred me to continue the work I was doing, and were always there to provide valuable insights and feedback when my brain started spinning from process models-issues. I hope the collaboration and the fun will continue. I also thank my late father Ton, my sisters Judith and Janine and brother Rik, for their support and warmth, and in particular my mother Gerda, who never ceased believing in me. I'm afraid that their belief and support resulted in these 200 or so pages which are ahead of the reader. Mostly, I owe Tom Johnstone. I don't think this thesis would be as is if it weren't for his input, support and caring both at work and at home. He encouraged and helped me for many hours learning how to program and to speak and write in English (with an Australian touch), to show the fun side of signals, to keep working on the experimental paradigm, to keep writing, so many things which are too numerous to name. I hope that we share work and home for a long time to come.