Speisman et al (1964) Observational Study Cheat Sheet

Joseph Speisman, Richard Lazarus, Arnold Markoff, Les Davison

Partic­ipants’ emotional reactions will differ in the different stimulus

Emotional reactions will not differ

Trauma soundtrack increased stress compared to control. Denial and Intell­ect­ual­ization less stress than contro­l//­lower heart rate

Emotional trauma may be inflicted upon the partic­ipants Lots of deception Very little informed consent During a time when many unethical studies were conducted

The results suggest that cognitive appraisal can be modified to effect emotional stress Trauma track raised stress levels The ego track and the intell­ect­ual­ization track that focused on WHY this ritual was happening and what it did lowered the stress SUPPORTS HYPOTHESIS

To invest­igate how manipu­lating ones cognitive appraisal could affect emotional experi­ences, through measuring the stress levels

Indepe­ndent Variable: Soundtrack used

Indivi­duals interp­ret­ation affect emotional stress rather than the actual event

Based on Lazurus social appraisal theory A theory of emotion which implicates people’s personal interp­ret­ations of an event in determ­ining their emotional reaction Changing the music in this study changes how the partic­ipants perceive the event which alters their emotional response

a. Potential Confou­nding Variables : prior degree of comfort towards graphic images, demand charac­ter­istics of questi­onnaire b. Extraneous Variables :attention spent on film c. Controls : # partic­ipants in each stimulus, video, soundt­rack, method of conducting d. Blind Technique: Single (parti­cip­ants) e. Cultural Influences : non or fact all partic­ipants where American f. Influence of Gender: Both genders in study, males might have stronger connection

Research Method: Experi­mental

Procedure a. Partic­ipants split into 4 groups (students and execs) i. Control (No soundt­rack) ii. Trauma Condition (Emphasis on pain) iii. Denial Condition (Happy Music) iv. Intell­ect­ual­ization Condition (Narration of Surgery) b. After each group watched a video, they were given a psycho­log­ical/ self-r­eport questi­onn­aire.

Many studies conducted by Lazurus (Lazurus et al 1970, Lazurus and Launier 1978) show that cognitive appraisal is made up of learning, memory, percep­tion, and thought. These studies invest­igated other ways to change ones percep­tion.

Strengths

Weakness

Study is replicable

Results can only apply to males