An Appraisal Theory of Empathy and Other Vicarious Emotional Experiences by Joshua Daniel Wondra A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology) in the University of Michigan 2017 Doctoral Committee: Professor Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Chair Professor Richard D. Gonzalez Professor Ethan F. Kross Assistant Professor Muniba Saleem Joshua Daniel Wondra
[email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8537-8894 © Joshua Daniel Wondra 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I can summarize my early academic career with one word: clueless. When I applied to college, I had no idea what I was doing. I chose Illinois State University because it was the only place I had visited for a full day, and the quad was beautiful. When I enrolled in Illinois State’s Master’s program, I was surprised to learn on my first day that I had to complete something called a “thesis”. Baffled and nervous, I chose a topic of research, and began my investigation of empathy. When I was planning to apply to a doctoral program, I was fortunate to overhear a professor say that for psychology, Michigan was the place to be, and so I applied. My stroke of good luck continued when I was accepted. Since then, I think I’ve become a little less clueless, which I owe to my mentors, the institutions that supported my research, and the friends and colleagues that I gained at Michigan. Let me begin with Phoebe Ellsworth, my dissertation advisor. When I began to study empathy, I read many papers on empathy, but I happily ignored whatever anyone had to say about emotions in general.