Mike Wheeler's Primary and Secondary Appraisals Explained

 

To avoid having to write a book length of information, we will be analyzing Mike Wheeler's primary and secondary appraisals from the 1st season. We will discuss Wheeler's primary appraisals or judgements about various situations and his secondary appraisals about ways to cope. 

Appraisal theories of emotion discuss that cognitions precede emotions. More specifically, people make appraisals or judgements about a situation, to determine firstly if the situation is relevant, interesting, dangerous, important for goals, etc. If the situation is relevant, the person then appraises if they have the resources to cope or handle the situation. Together, primary and secondary appraisals help to influence our emotional response.

In the beginning of the season, Will, Mike's best friend, goes missing after leaving his home after an intense Dungeon and Dragon's game. As the next day unfolds, Will is not seen at school which makes Michael and his two other friends, Dustin and Lucas, to appraise or make the judgement that something is wrong for Will not being at school out of the blue. As more days with Will not being seen, true concern starts to happen. Michael now thinks Will is in danger, and this primary appraisal is highly relevant to Michael and he cares a lot about this because Will is someone that is very close to him. Due to the threatening, relevant disappearance, Michael believes that Will is out there and that he needs to look for him and makes the secondary appraisal that he will find him if he just works hard. The secondary appraisal of realizing he has the resources to cope by just working hard to search leads Michael to have the emotions of less fear because he feels a sense of ownership in that if he takes action, he can find his friend.

Michael has another appraisal when it comes to the mysterious girl him and his friends encounter one night looking for Will, Eleven. After taking Eleven in and hiding her in his basement, Michael learns that Eleven has powers that might be able to locate Will. Michael's primary appraisal is that this is very relevant and important to him, as Eleven has powers like mind reading and telekenesis. His secondary appraisal arises that Eleven's supernatural powers might be able to help find Will, which makes Michael and his crew feel like they can cope with and manage the disappearance better. The fact of learning about Eleven's powers and her helping find Will with them ultimately causes Michael to have the emotion of less anxiety and fear where before he learned this, he was very scared that there was nothing they could do. 

A third instance of another appraisal comes at the end of the season when Michael and his crew faces off against the terrifying Demogorgon, an alien creature that resides in the Upside Down where Will was taken. When the crew lures the Demogorgon in an attempt to kill it, they initially struggle to fight it just using weapons. Michael appraises (primary) that the Demogorgon will actually kill them, so this is very relevant and threatening and something Michael obviously cares about. One of Michael's friends uses gasoline and fire to ignite the Demogorgon which then causes the Demogorgon to leave. With the Demogorgon injured and gone, at least for now, Michael's secondary appraisal is that the danger is now reduced which he finds that he can now easily handle and cope with. In the end, this reduced danger causes Michael to have the emotions of being content and less scared.