Schachter, S  & Singer, J.E. (1962)

Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of emotional state.  Psychological Review, 69, 379-99.

 Schachter and Singer’s TWO-FACTOR THEORY of emotion proposes that emotion comes from a combination of:

____________________      and       ____________________

This leads to THREE propositions, which are tested in this study. Complete the table below:

1

If a person experiences a state of arousal for which they have no immediate explanation, they will label this state and describe their feelings in terms of the                                    __________________available to them. The same state of arousal could be labelled as ‘joy’ or ‘anger’ or ‘jealousy’ depending on the_____________________ the person is in.

2

If a person experiences a state of arousal for which they have an appropriate explanation, they will be _________________ to label their feelings in terms of the alternative cognitions available.

3

In a situation which contains ‘emotional cues’, a person will react emotionally or experience emotions only if they are in a state of ________________________

There are TWO INDEPENDENT VARIABLES in this study.  The first one was the STATE OF PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL and the second one was the EXPLANATION (or cognition) that an individual will give to this arousal.

All the subjects were given an injection that they were told was a vitamin called suproxin so that the researchers could look at its effect on visual skills. The explanation for their state of physiological arousal was manipulated by the information they were given at this time. There were four conditions. Read the descriptions below and label each one:

Description of condition

Label?

Subjects were given an adrenalin injection and not told of any effects of the drug

  

Subjects were given an adrenalin injection and warned of the ‘side-effects’ (hands shaking, heart pounding, dry mouth).

  

Subjects were given an adrenalin injection and told to expect side effects of numb feet and headache.

  

Subjects were given an injection that would have no effect and were given no information about what to expect.

  

What do Schachter & Singer propose will be the difference between the ‘ignorant’ and the ‘informed’ groups?

Explanations for their state of physiological arousal was further manipulated by assigning subjects to one of TWO conditions: Explain what happened in each condition.

ANGER CONDITION

EUPHORIA CONDITION
   

Emotional response was measured by OBSERVATION and SELF REPORT.

Give one weakness with the use of observation in this study.

What were the two ‘critical’ self-report questions?

Give one weakness with the use of self report in this study.

The results graph looks very complicated!  The data in the graph is a ‘happiness minus anger’ score.  Answer the following questions about the results.

EUPHORIA SITUATIONS

Which groups show the greatest happiness?  

Which groups show the least happiness?

This SUPPORTS / DOES NOT SUPPORT Proposition 1.

This SUPPORTS / DOES NOT SUPPORT Proposition 2.

The difference between the Ignorant and the Misinformed groups was not significant.

This SUPPORTS / DOES NOT SUPPORT Proposition 3.

ANGER SITUATIONS (note: results refer to observers ratings due to concern that subjects would not give truthful responses about anger as taking part in study earned them course credits)

Which group showed the most anger?

Which Proposition does this support? Explain your answer.