Schachter Singer Theory Of Emotion

AS Psychology

Schachter & Singer (1962)

Jul 12, 2021 • 5 min read

Aim
To examination the Two Factor Theory of Emotion. To research whether given a state of physiological arousal with no caption, cognitive factors would aid in describing feelings.

Background

Noesis

– mental processes of acquiring and processing noesis.

Emotion

– the body'south adaptive response to a particular situation.

Metacognition

– thinking about thinking.

Cognition interprets our physiological state so that nosotros can label our emotional responses. During physiological arousal, your heart and respiration rate increases, pupils dilate, and adrenaline is released. Schachter & Vocalizer adult the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion. They advise that emotional experiences come up from a combination of physical arousal and cognition that makes the best sense of the person's situation.

Research Method, Blueprint and Variables
It was a highly standardised laboratory experiment. Participants were exposed to the same environs with scripted responses from the stooge.
The research design used was the independent measures pattern.

Independent variable:

1. Knowledge near the injection symptoms (informed, misinformed, or ignorant)
ii. The emotional situation following the injection (euphoria or anger). There was a control grouping that was injected with a saline solution rather than epinephrine.

Dependent variable:

1. Observational information was recorded by 2 observers through a one-way mirror during the emotional arousal. The observer had to measure out to what extent the participant acted in a euphoric or angry mode.
2. The self-report that participants completed post-obit the emotional arousal.

Schachter---Singer-conditions-2

Sample
The 185 participants were male person higher students taking introductory psychology at the University of Minnesota. They received fibroid credit. Their wellness records were checked in prior to ensure that no harmful effects would upshot from the injection. The sampling method employed was self-selecting sampling.

Procedure
When participants arrived at the lab, they were told that the aim was to test the effects of the vitamin supplement 'Suproxin' on vision. Participants were asked for informed consent to injecting the vitamin. Participants were actually injected with either adrenaline or a placebo (saline solution). They would experience side furnishings within 3 to five minutes which would last for an hr.

Participants in the informed weather were told the right-side furnishings of the injection, 'your mitt will start to shake'. Participants would accept an explanation for any feelings.
Participants in the misinformed condition were told the incorrect side furnishings of the injection, 'your feet will experience numb'. Participants would not have any caption for the actual side effects they would experience. This grouping was introduced as command.
Participants in the ignorant condition were told that they would experience no side effects. They would not accept an explanation for the actual side effects they would experience.

Right after the participants' injection, the doctor left, and the experimenter returned with a stooge who was introduced as another participant. The experimenter said that both had taken the Suproxin injection and would accept x minutes for absorption, subsequently which they would both be given the same tests of vision. Participants were then exposed to one of 2 emotional states: euphoria or anger. The stooge never knew which status any participant was in.

In the euphoria condition, the experimenter added that they could use the stationary if they needed to. The waiting room had been in a country of disarray and the stooge fabricated ice breaker comments and played with the items. The stooge suggested that the participant join in, and the stooge played with the things. In the euphoria condition, the category 'initiates new action' was operationalized past the criteria that a euphoric behaviour exterior the stooge's routine must be initiated. the behaviour had to be i the participant had never seen earlier. Examples of newly initiated activity: open the window, throw newspaper basketballs, hula hooped.

In the anger condition, the experimenter explained that they had to wait 20 minutes to absorb the Suproxin. Participants had to complete a questionnaire during this time. The stooge was instructed to create a feeling of anger in the room. Comment made: 'this really irritates me.' Comments increased in intensity as the questions became more personal. The stooge crumpled upward the questionnaire at the end and stomped out of the room.

The experimenter returned to the room and told them to consummate one last questionnaire relating to their physical responses to the Suproxin. They were debriefed and were told the reason for the deception. The experimenter swore participants to secrecy to protect hereafter runs.

Ethics:
All participants gave consent. The injection was administered past a trained doctor to protect participants. The participants were deceived, but this was necessary to prevent demand characteristics therefore, it improves the validity of the study.

Hypotheses

If a person is aroused with no firsthand explanation, they volition draw their feelings in terms of the cognitions available.
When an individual is aroused and has an explanation, they won't characterization their feelings in terms of the cognition bachelor.
If an aroused person is in a situation where in the past information technology would take made them emotional, they would again exist emotional.

Result
1 participant did not agree to the injection. 11 people had their data excluded due to suspicion. 5 had no physiological arousal to the injection so their data was excluded, and in the end, there were 169 participants left.

Participants who received adrenaline were significantly more sympathetically aroused (showed by pulse rate and self-rating) compared to the placebo participants. The misinformed status simply ran in the euphoria condition as it was a control, and the evaluation of the impact is possible from including the one condition.

In the adrenaline condition, the pulse rate increased, whereas the pulse charge per unit for the placebo group decreased.

From the self-report measure, euphoria misinformed condition was the happiest. Euphoria ignorant group was 2d happiest. The informed group was the to the lowest degree happy as they had an caption for what they were feeling. Anger ignorant was angriest and the placebo group was 2d angriest. They were susceptible to the stooge as they had no caption. Their behaviour was observed through a one-fashion mirror and the behaviour matched their self-report.

Conclusion
An aroused person with no caption for the arousal describes their feelings in terms of the knowledge's available. The study is useful in treating people with anxiety or panic attacks as they can place the environmental triggers that cause them to exist aroused.

Individuals do not explain arousal by only looking at the behaviour of those around them. They employ by experiences to explain arousal.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Information technology was a highly controlled laboratory experiment, equally the same experimental rooms were used, and the stooge had given scripted responses. Participants were randomly allocated to different conditions. All participants were deceived, and the double-blind technique was used.
The sample consisted of university students so participant variables may distort findings. This makes results less valid.
The sample only had male participants thus, the study is less generalisable as females may feel emotions differently.
Adrenalin does not impact everyone in the same manner due to private differences.
No assessment was made of the participant'due south mood before the injection; thus, it reduces validity.
Questionnaires helped operationalise the dependent variables, therefore the data is standardised. Quantitative information nerveless can exist hands analysed and used to compare results across ii conditions. Weakness – > questionnaire does non give participants the same freedom to limited feelings every bit discussions would. Nevertheless, other measures such every bit observation were useful as the results matched with the data in the self-reports.

Nature vs. Nurture
Our emotional responses can exist accounted for past both, differences in nature (hormone levels) and nurture (experiences).

Individual vs. Situational Explanations
Situational factors do matter in our expression of emotions although, individual differences are nowadays as well. For instance, the extent to which participants were afflicted past the mood of the stooge.