On 12 Nov 2009 at 5:03, Bourgeois, Dr. Martin wrote[concerning Schachter and Singer's experiment]:
> They did, but they also had subjects fill out a questionnaire including > questions (not accusations) about > their mothers' sex lives. One question was something like "with how many men > besides your father has your > mother has sex?" and din't allow 'none' as a response option. I recall, "Check which members of your family the following apply to [no choice of "none']: "Seems to need psychiatric care"; "Doesn't wash or bath regularly". However, I don't recall that they provided the entire questionnaire, at least in their published article in Psychological Review, but just gave examples from it. It seemed to me that it was so over-the-top that I had difficulty believing it would make subjects angry. More likely, I would think it would elicit giggling. And, if I recall correctly, they did not get strong effects, and the subjects did not actually get angry (their ad hoc explanation being that they subjects really were angry but didn't want to show it for fearing of losing marks, or points, or something]. There was an even more over-the-top attempt to manipulate emotions some years earlier. Ax (1953) attempted to induce anger by having subjects who arrived for the experiment be verbally and physically abused by the (confederate) lab technician, berated for being late, and handled roughly. One of the subjects was reported to have said something like "I was so angry I wanted to punch him in the nose". Fear manipulation was even worse. The subjects were hooked up to a fake polygraph and given a small electric shock. When the subject reported this, the confederate flipped a switch which caused a shower of flying sparks, and shouted "Don't move! There's a dangerous short-circuit". One subjected reportedly said that he thought he was going to die. Ax obtained only minor physiological differences between anger and fear as a result of all this. The good old days indeed. Stephen Ax, AF(1953). The physiological differentiation between fear and anger in humans.Psychosom Med. 1953 Sep- Oct;15(5):433-4 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
