Associative and spontaneous appraisal processes independently contribute to anger elicitation in daily life.

There has been a great deal of debate concerning the antecedents of anger, with appraisal theorists emphasizing the role of hostile interpretations and cognitive neo-associationistic theorists emphasizing the role of more basic associative processes. Recently, theorists have sought to reconcile these views by acknowledging the role of both associative and inferential processes, and the current investigation drew upon recent social-cognitive research to test this compromise. Individual differences in hostile inferences and associations were assessed in an implicit cognitive paradigm, and relevant outcomes were assessed in a daily diary protocol. Implicit hostile inferences predicted both anger and aggression in daily life, and such relationships were mediated by propensities toward hostile interpretations in daily life. Hostile associations also predicted anger in daily life, but this relationship proved to be independent of daily hostile interpretations. Results therefore support a model that acknowledges the role of both associative and appraisal processes in anger elicitation.