Psychology: the practical project

Categories: Emotion Psychology

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The aim of this experiment was to see if Schachter & Singer's two-factor theory of emotion is supported when subjects have been given chocolate. An opportunity sample was used, made up of thirty college students, aged 16-19 years. Participants were randomly assigned into one of the two conditions. Participants in the chocolate condition were given 4 squares of chocolate and then filled in a questionnaire which assessed their happiness. Participants in the no chocolate condition were just given the questionnaire to complete.

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Those in the chocolate condition were expected to rate their happiness higher than those in the no chocolate condition.

The Mann-Whitney U results supported the experimental hypothesis; therefore the study showed evidence to support the two-fact theory of emotion. This study is about the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion, which is part of social psychology. This theory states that in order for an emotion to be felt two factors need to be present: physiological arousal and cognitive label of the physiological arousal.

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According to the theory emotions are always about something either externally stimulus or memory.

This experiment is based on a study by Schacter & Singer (1962), subjects were allocated to one of the four groups: Adrenalin Ignorant Group were given an adrenalin injection and were not told the effects of the drug, Adrenalin Informed Group were warned of the side-effects of the adrenalin injection, Adrenalin Misinformed Group were told inaccurate side-effects of the adrenalin injection and the Control Group were given an injection that would have no effect and were given no instructions of what to expect.

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Participants were then either allocated to the anger condition (Stooge annoyed the participants) or euphoria condition (Stooge entertained the participants).

Schacter & Singer found that in the euphoria condition the misinformed participants were happier than all the others. The ignorant group was the second happiest followed by the control group. These participants were more susceptible to the stooge because they had explanation of their emotion. The informed group had an explanation and therefore felt the least happy. In the anger condition, the ignorant group felt the angriest followed by the control group. The informed group was the least angry. Again, this showed that participants were more susceptible to the stooge because they had no explanation of their feeling.

The aim of this study is to see if giving subjects a reason to be happy by providing them chocolate will result in them scoring their happiness higher than those subjects who are given nothing to make them feel happy. Subjects in the chocolate condition are expected to rate their happiness higher than those in the no chocolate condition. The method used was an experiment, meaning that a cause-and-effect relationship can be established. Experiments also give high control meaning that confounding variables, that would have affected the variable of interest, were discharged.

HA: Subjects in the chocolate condition will significantly score their happiness higher than those in the no chocolate condition. Ho: There will be no significant difference between the happiness scores rated by the subjects in the chocolate condition and the happiness scores rated by the subjects in the no chocolate condition. Design: The experiment used and independent groups design. There were two groups, group one were given chocolate before completing a short questionnaire but group two were immediately given the short questionnaire to complete.