How teachers' appraisals predict their emotional experience: Identifying protective and risk structures in natural appraisals

Abstract

This paper studies the narratives of 73 teachers and analyzes how different narrative structures predict teachers' emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment, well-being, and resilience. We found that 'they know how'-, 'they can'-, and 'I do'-type narrative structures were protective for emotional exhaustion and well-being, while 'they don't want'-, 'they can't'-, 'they don't do'-, and 'I don't do'-type structures were risky for emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, resilience and well-being. These results provide evidence of the differential role of appraisal in teachers' emotions, as well as the types of narrative structures that should be promoted in the construction and reconstruction of teachers' appraisals.