my daughter deliver the valedictorian speech at her graduation brings me joy, because I value my daughter and am proud of her achievement. The power of the emotion is based on our own personal evaluation and valuing of the object. I would have a different emotional response seeing a car hit a jack-rabbit and a car hitting a child. Matthew Elliott summarizes this: Emotions are not primitive impulses to be controlled or ignored, but cognitive judgments or construals that tell us about ourselves and