A new experimental paradigm involving a computerised quiz was used to examine, on an intra-individual level, the strength of association between four components of the surprise syndrome: cognitive (degree of prospectively estimated unexpectedness), experiential (the feeling of surprise), behavioural (degree of response delay on a parallel task), and expressive (the facial expression of surprise). It is argued that this paradigm, together with associated methods of data analysis, effectively controls for most method factors that could in previous studies have lowered the correlations among the components of emotion syndromes. It was found that (a) the components of the surprise syndrome were all positively correlated; (b) strong association existed only between the cognitive and the experiential component of surprise; (c) the coherence between syndrome components did not increase with increasing intensity of surprise; and (d) there was also only moderate coherence between the components of the facial expression of surprise (eyebrow raising, eye widening, mouth opening), although in this case, coherence tended to increase with intensity. Taken together, the findings support only a weakly probabilistic version of a behavioural syndrome view of surprise. However, the component correlations seem strong enough to support the existence of strong associations among a subset of the mental or central neurophysiological processes engaged in surprise. 1 Considering the popularity of the syndrome view of emotions, it is surprising to learn that its empirical support is far from solid: Experimental 1 Apart from ``syndrome view' ' (e.g. Averill, 1980; Lazarus et al., 1970) the theory of the nature of emotions under discussion also goes by names such as the ``componential' ' , ``multicomponent ' ' , or ``component process' ' view of emotions (e.g. Frijda et al., 1992; Scherer, 1984), the view that emotions are ``organised response patterns' ' , and probably still others. I prefer the term ``syndrome view' ' because it points to, but does not enforce, a probabilistic perspective, and because it is neutral with respect to the nature of the syndrome components (they can be mental, behavioural, or both). studies of the degree of association among the components and subcomponents of presumed emotion syndromes (e.g. fear, happiness, anger, or surprise), particularly studies in which multiple syndrome components were measured, are comparatively rare; they exist only for few emotions; and they provide for the greater part at best limited support for the syndrome view. That is, these studies often found (a) non-significant or very weak, and occasionally even negative associations between syndrome components, as well as (b) context-(and participant-) dependence of these associations (for recent, partial reviews of the literature, see e.g. Meyer, Schützwohl, & Reisenzein, 1997a; Schmidt-Atzert, 1993). Although most of the more recent versions of syndrome theories of emotion are formulated probabilistically and do not even necessarily predi...

Eight experiments examined facial expressions of surprise in adults. Surprise was induced by disconfirming a previously established schema or expectancy. Self-reports and behavioral measures indicated the presence of surprise in most participants, but surprise expressions were observed only in 4%-25%, and most displays consisted of eyebrow raising only; the full, 3-component display was never seen. Experimental variations of surprise intensity, sociality, and duration/complexity of the surprising event did not change these results. Electromyographic measurement failed to detect notably more brow raisings and, in one study, revealed a decrease of frontalis muscle activity in the majority of the participants. Nonetheless, most participants believed that they had shown a strong surprise expression.

In this study, Weiner's (1980a, 1980b) attributional model of helping behavior, which holds that the effect of causal attributions of another's need on helping is mediated by the affective reactions of sympathy and anger, was analyzed via latent-variable structural modeling techniques. Weiner's model was initially tested in the context of a hypothetical subway emergency situation, and several controversial aspects of the model were clarified through a series of hierarchical model comparisons. The refined model resulting from these analyses was subsequently cross-validated with data from a different helping situation, which involved a student's request to borrow class notes. The findings are interpreted as being supportive of the attributional model of helping behavior proposed by Weiner and, more generally, as documenting the range of convenience of an attributional approach to social motivation. In addition, they attest to the potential power of latent-variable structural modeling as applied to experimental data.

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Evidence on the coherence between emotion and facial expression in adults from laboratory experiments is reviewed. High coherence has been found in several studies between amusement and smiling; low to moderate coherence between other positive emotions and smiling. The available evidence for surprise and disgust suggests that these emotions are accompanied by their “traditional” facial expressions, and even components of these expressions, only in a minority of cases. Evidence concerning sadness, anger, and fear is very limited. For sadness, one study suggests that high emotion–expression coherence may exist in specific situations, whereas for anger and fear, the evidence points to low coherence. Insufficient emotion intensity and inhibition of facial expressions seem unable to account for the observed dissociations between emotion and facial expression.