Lecture 1:
Inducing emotions:
Inducing emotion means trying to change the emotions of the person that you are studying.
We can induce emotions via five different ways:
1. Pictures
2. Movies
3. Music
4. Memories
5. Scripted social interactions
There is not a best method to induce emotions. It depends on the research question and a
host of other considerations (e.g: the research budget). Each method has its advantages
and drawbacks.
1. Pictures → validated stimulus sets are used. Validated pictures are used, which
have been shown to a large number of people and the people were then asked to
indicate which emotion they felt. An example is the International Affective Picture
System.
Emotional facial expressions are sometimes also used in images. These tend to be
expressions that are quite stylized. They can work as an emotion eliciter or they can
be used to look at emotion recognition.
Advantages:
- It is good for repeated measurements → the method is useful in tasks in which you
need to make many measures of what the emotion is affecting (e.g: seeing how
emotions influence a cognitive outcome such as how quick someone is at a math
task). It is also used a lot in brain studies.
Disadvantages:
- It induces weak, short-lived emotions
- It only works for some emotions (e.g: jealousy)
2. Movies → validated stimulus sets are used. Validated movie parts are used, which
have been shown to a large number of people and the people were then asked to
indicate which emotion they felt.
Advantages:
- It can elicit specific emotions
- It can elicit strong emotions
- Different cues can be used (e.g: visual information, talking, music).
Disadvantages:
- Only a few repetitions can be done (i.e. usually there is no repetition or other videos
are used that elicit the same emotion. There can be no switching between emotions
that the videos elicit).
- It only works for some emotions (e.g: not for embarrassment, shame or guilt)
3. Music → validated stimulus sets are used. Validated music parts are used, which
have been shown to a large number of people and the people were then asked to
indicate which emotion they felt.
Disadvantages:
- It works only for some emotions
, - Everyone has a few songs that have a very positive or negative feeling to them (but
this influence will wash out if you have a sufficient number of participants)
- It induces diffuse emotions or moods
4. Memories:
Advantages:
- It can elicit intense, durable emotions (i.e. the emotions last a bit longer)
- It can elicit specific emotions (note: there can, however, be quite a lot of variation in
how people react to a specific event)
- It works for most emotions
Disadvantages:
- Only a few repetitions can be done
- It is time consuming
- Ethical constraints
- People are not always open to share about specific memories
5. Scripted social interactions → examples are:
- In the study of Stemmler a rude and impatient experimenter repeatedly interrupted
participants during a difficult task.
- The study of Brock and Becker rigged an apparatus to break when the participant
touched it, after which they stated to the participant that they destroyed their change
of getting a diploma
- Singing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ in front of a video camera
There needs to be a plausible cover story when a study with scripted social interaction is
done.The experimenter behavior needs to be the same across participants. There also has
to be a debriefing.
Advantages:
- It can elicit intense emotions
- It can elicit specific emotions
Disadvantages:
- Typically only one trial per participant can be done
- It only works for some emotions
Designing a scripted social interaction, take the following into account:
Ethics for emotion manipulation:
- The induced emotion should not be too intense (i.e. they should not go beyond what
participants experience in real life) → if you do want to study emotions that go
beyond real-life intensity, you can study people who are having naturally occurring
emotional experience in their real life that are very intense (e.g: at a wedding)
Which method to use depends on:
- Experimental demand → to what extent can the participants not know the real motive
of the study
- Standardization → to what extent do you want participants to have the same
emotional experience (i.e intensity)
- Complexity
, - Ecological validity
- Specificity → how specific do you want the emotion to be
- Practical constraints
Measuring emotions:
1. Self-report
2. Nonverbal expressions (i.e. the face and the voice)
3. Biological measures
4. Behavior
1. Self-report → people can report either a specific emotion or they can rate how
strongly they feel specific emotions or they can indicate on an axis (e.g: x-axis pos to
neg, y-axis energetic to drowsy) how they feel.
People can answer using a lot of different formats (e.g: words, selecting pictures that match
how the person is feeling).
Advantage:
- It is a flexible tool
Disadvantage:
- Self-report assumes that participants have insight into their own emotions, which is
not always the case
- Self-report assumes that the participants wants to share all their feelings, which is not
always the case
- Self-report assumes that
2. Nonverbal expressions → this includes the face, the voice and olfactory cues (e.g:
sweat, which smell differs with the emotion that one feels)
3. Biological measures → neuroimaging, fMRI, heart rate, skin response, blushing
Advantages:
- These are objective measures
Disadvantage:
- They are difficult to interpret
- They can be quite noisy
4. Behavior → it is mainly used with people we can’t ask (i.e. infants and non-human
animals). We can measure for example eye movements
Advantages:
- These are objective measures
Disadvantage:
- They are difficult to interpret
There is not a best way, it depends on what the research question is.
Which methods to use is based on the following considerations:
1. Language-based → e.g: not with children or cross-cultural studies
2. Subjective vs objective
3. Discrete vs global emotion
4. Invasiveness
5. Practical constraints
, Chapter 2:
Manipulating emotions:
Reasons why a researcher would induce an emotion in the laboratory are:
1. To test predictions of a specific theory of emotion
2. To test whether that emotional state reliably causes a particular behavior
3. To test how emotions influence cognitive behaviors such as reasoning or decision
making
Ethical guidelines
In North America the ethical guidelines are specified by the APA. An examples of guidelines
are:
1. Scientists should not create a situation in which the intensity of participants’ emotions
surpasses those that they typically experience in daily life
2. Experimentally induced emotions should be prompted by experiences that are, or are
likely to be, encountered in everyday life rather than by very unusual interventions
3. The experimentally induced emotion should be extinguishable and alleviated before
the participant leaves the laboratory.
Ethical guidelines were not in place yet in the 1950s. Therefore studies were conducted
during these years that could not be conducted today (e.g: Ax measured 14 different
indicators of autonomic nervous system activity, such as heart rate and respiration. He told
participants the cover story that he tested the validity of lie detectors and hooked them up to
a number of devices such as an electric shock generator. For some participants Ax staged a
malfunction of the shock generator and the experimenter became overtly distressed and the
participants experienced high levels of fear. Participants in the anger condition were scolded
for five minutes).
Methods for manipulating emotions:
1. Affective images:
The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) is a set of emotion-inducing images. In
extensive development and validation research, the full set of images has been presented to
participants in different countries so that the norms exist that summarize the positivity and
arousal level of the typical self-reported affective reaction to each image.
The IAPs images allow researchers to reliably elicit affective responses. By using the exact
same images, researchers can then compare and even replicate each other’s work.
Use:
- Eliciting many brief emotional reactions in a single participant throughout an
experimental session
2. Recall of emotional memories:
In the recall method for inducing emotions, participants are instructed to retrieve memories
of events that they experienced personally and relive the emotion they felt. Participants are
asked to get active in the process of experiencing emotion.
One study investigated the retrieval of emotional memories to induce emotional states in the
laboratory. This showed that the way in which the memory is retrieved determines whether
an emotion is felt. The retrieval of emotional memories in a pallid way (i.e. a way that does
not focus on the emotional parts of the experience but still accurately describes the emotion)
does not reactivate the original emotion. A retrieval that involves attention to the vivid
emotional aspects of the situation does tend to reactivate the original emotion.
Inducing emotions:
Inducing emotion means trying to change the emotions of the person that you are studying.
We can induce emotions via five different ways:
1. Pictures
2. Movies
3. Music
4. Memories
5. Scripted social interactions
There is not a best method to induce emotions. It depends on the research question and a
host of other considerations (e.g: the research budget). Each method has its advantages
and drawbacks.
1. Pictures → validated stimulus sets are used. Validated pictures are used, which
have been shown to a large number of people and the people were then asked to
indicate which emotion they felt. An example is the International Affective Picture
System.
Emotional facial expressions are sometimes also used in images. These tend to be
expressions that are quite stylized. They can work as an emotion eliciter or they can
be used to look at emotion recognition.
Advantages:
- It is good for repeated measurements → the method is useful in tasks in which you
need to make many measures of what the emotion is affecting (e.g: seeing how
emotions influence a cognitive outcome such as how quick someone is at a math
task). It is also used a lot in brain studies.
Disadvantages:
- It induces weak, short-lived emotions
- It only works for some emotions (e.g: jealousy)
2. Movies → validated stimulus sets are used. Validated movie parts are used, which
have been shown to a large number of people and the people were then asked to
indicate which emotion they felt.
Advantages:
- It can elicit specific emotions
- It can elicit strong emotions
- Different cues can be used (e.g: visual information, talking, music).
Disadvantages:
- Only a few repetitions can be done (i.e. usually there is no repetition or other videos
are used that elicit the same emotion. There can be no switching between emotions
that the videos elicit).
- It only works for some emotions (e.g: not for embarrassment, shame or guilt)
3. Music → validated stimulus sets are used. Validated music parts are used, which
have been shown to a large number of people and the people were then asked to
indicate which emotion they felt.
Disadvantages:
- It works only for some emotions
, - Everyone has a few songs that have a very positive or negative feeling to them (but
this influence will wash out if you have a sufficient number of participants)
- It induces diffuse emotions or moods
4. Memories:
Advantages:
- It can elicit intense, durable emotions (i.e. the emotions last a bit longer)
- It can elicit specific emotions (note: there can, however, be quite a lot of variation in
how people react to a specific event)
- It works for most emotions
Disadvantages:
- Only a few repetitions can be done
- It is time consuming
- Ethical constraints
- People are not always open to share about specific memories
5. Scripted social interactions → examples are:
- In the study of Stemmler a rude and impatient experimenter repeatedly interrupted
participants during a difficult task.
- The study of Brock and Becker rigged an apparatus to break when the participant
touched it, after which they stated to the participant that they destroyed their change
of getting a diploma
- Singing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ in front of a video camera
There needs to be a plausible cover story when a study with scripted social interaction is
done.The experimenter behavior needs to be the same across participants. There also has
to be a debriefing.
Advantages:
- It can elicit intense emotions
- It can elicit specific emotions
Disadvantages:
- Typically only one trial per participant can be done
- It only works for some emotions
Designing a scripted social interaction, take the following into account:
Ethics for emotion manipulation:
- The induced emotion should not be too intense (i.e. they should not go beyond what
participants experience in real life) → if you do want to study emotions that go
beyond real-life intensity, you can study people who are having naturally occurring
emotional experience in their real life that are very intense (e.g: at a wedding)
Which method to use depends on:
- Experimental demand → to what extent can the participants not know the real motive
of the study
- Standardization → to what extent do you want participants to have the same
emotional experience (i.e intensity)
- Complexity
, - Ecological validity
- Specificity → how specific do you want the emotion to be
- Practical constraints
Measuring emotions:
1. Self-report
2. Nonverbal expressions (i.e. the face and the voice)
3. Biological measures
4. Behavior
1. Self-report → people can report either a specific emotion or they can rate how
strongly they feel specific emotions or they can indicate on an axis (e.g: x-axis pos to
neg, y-axis energetic to drowsy) how they feel.
People can answer using a lot of different formats (e.g: words, selecting pictures that match
how the person is feeling).
Advantage:
- It is a flexible tool
Disadvantage:
- Self-report assumes that participants have insight into their own emotions, which is
not always the case
- Self-report assumes that the participants wants to share all their feelings, which is not
always the case
- Self-report assumes that
2. Nonverbal expressions → this includes the face, the voice and olfactory cues (e.g:
sweat, which smell differs with the emotion that one feels)
3. Biological measures → neuroimaging, fMRI, heart rate, skin response, blushing
Advantages:
- These are objective measures
Disadvantage:
- They are difficult to interpret
- They can be quite noisy
4. Behavior → it is mainly used with people we can’t ask (i.e. infants and non-human
animals). We can measure for example eye movements
Advantages:
- These are objective measures
Disadvantage:
- They are difficult to interpret
There is not a best way, it depends on what the research question is.
Which methods to use is based on the following considerations:
1. Language-based → e.g: not with children or cross-cultural studies
2. Subjective vs objective
3. Discrete vs global emotion
4. Invasiveness
5. Practical constraints
, Chapter 2:
Manipulating emotions:
Reasons why a researcher would induce an emotion in the laboratory are:
1. To test predictions of a specific theory of emotion
2. To test whether that emotional state reliably causes a particular behavior
3. To test how emotions influence cognitive behaviors such as reasoning or decision
making
Ethical guidelines
In North America the ethical guidelines are specified by the APA. An examples of guidelines
are:
1. Scientists should not create a situation in which the intensity of participants’ emotions
surpasses those that they typically experience in daily life
2. Experimentally induced emotions should be prompted by experiences that are, or are
likely to be, encountered in everyday life rather than by very unusual interventions
3. The experimentally induced emotion should be extinguishable and alleviated before
the participant leaves the laboratory.
Ethical guidelines were not in place yet in the 1950s. Therefore studies were conducted
during these years that could not be conducted today (e.g: Ax measured 14 different
indicators of autonomic nervous system activity, such as heart rate and respiration. He told
participants the cover story that he tested the validity of lie detectors and hooked them up to
a number of devices such as an electric shock generator. For some participants Ax staged a
malfunction of the shock generator and the experimenter became overtly distressed and the
participants experienced high levels of fear. Participants in the anger condition were scolded
for five minutes).
Methods for manipulating emotions:
1. Affective images:
The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) is a set of emotion-inducing images. In
extensive development and validation research, the full set of images has been presented to
participants in different countries so that the norms exist that summarize the positivity and
arousal level of the typical self-reported affective reaction to each image.
The IAPs images allow researchers to reliably elicit affective responses. By using the exact
same images, researchers can then compare and even replicate each other’s work.
Use:
- Eliciting many brief emotional reactions in a single participant throughout an
experimental session
2. Recall of emotional memories:
In the recall method for inducing emotions, participants are instructed to retrieve memories
of events that they experienced personally and relive the emotion they felt. Participants are
asked to get active in the process of experiencing emotion.
One study investigated the retrieval of emotional memories to induce emotional states in the
laboratory. This showed that the way in which the memory is retrieved determines whether
an emotion is felt. The retrieval of emotional memories in a pallid way (i.e. a way that does
not focus on the emotional parts of the experience but still accurately describes the emotion)
does not reactivate the original emotion. A retrieval that involves attention to the vivid
emotional aspects of the situation does tend to reactivate the original emotion.
